One week to opening!

It's the last week of April...next week we officially open for the season.  Despite the past 2 weeks of wet, cold weather, there are a surprising number of flowers in bloom.  Several alpine flowers are open both in the alpine house as well as in the outside rock gardens.  Foremost among these are various primroses.

In the shade garden, it is the hellebores that are stealing the show.  The earliest ones, the "orientalis' types, have now commenced flowering but several other species may not be blooming for a few weeks.

Now that spring is underway, the Garden is thinking about the annuals we will be using in our various containers, window boxes and flower beds.  This week we started the first of these which included impatiens, coleus, lobelia, petunia and pansy.  These particular annuals require about 8-10 weeks from seeding to planting out.

If you recall back to our very first blog, the Garden is involved in a project called 'Plant Watch'.  The purpose of this project is to record blooming date of certain key plants as a way to monitor climate change.   This year the Garden plans on providing three 'Plant Watch' species to various schools as a way to involve them in this worthwhile project.  One of these species is white birch.  In late winter we started trays of birch seed and this week we started moving these seedlings to plug trays.  Below is a picture of our MUCEP student, James Wall, transplanting the little seedlings.

James also transplanted many of the Friends of the Garden heath/heather and dwarf conifer cuttings which were propagated last fall.  Look for these plants in future FOG plant sales!

 This past weekend the Garden had a booth at the Landscape Newfoundland and Labrador Trade Show, held at the Remax Centre (Curling Club) on Bonaventure Avenue.  Friends of the Garden sold tickets on a park bench made by the carpentry group while the Garden sold blooming primroses from our alpine primrose collection.

REMEMBER, WE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC MAY 1...SEE YOU THEN!

First outside blooms of the season

What a difference a week can make.  Remember the rock garden picture last week and all the snow?  Well now there is not a flake of snow to be seen!

It is certainly an early season.  We rarely have much open before the end of April but already there are several plants blooming outdoors.  Last week I showed a few flowers but they had the advantage of an alpine house to boost their early blooms.  These guys are blooming on their own.  Below left is February daphne (Daphne mezereum), a highly fragrant shrub that blooms before it leafs.  Below right is one of our lungworts, Pulmonaria rubra.














The first spring bulbs are blooming in the shade garden.  Here is our winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis).

The first spring heath is blooming.  This is Erica carnea 'Pirbright Rose'.

The first pots of bulbs are blooming in the bulb frame.  Sorry, these current bloomers will be long gone before we open May 1.  Below left is Chionoscilla X allenii, below right is Tulipa pulchella while at the bottom is Narcissus 'Tete-a-tete'.

First official week of spring

On March 25 and 26, MUN Botanical Garden Education staff along with the Provincial PlantWatch Coordinator (our own Madonna Bishop) conducted in-service workshops to teachers and environmental educators in Corner Brook, NL. The workshop was part of two new and exciting initiatives, Our Plants and Climate Change (PlantWatch NL school program funded by Environment Canada’s Ecoaction Community Funding Program) and From Garden to Classroom Outreach program (funded by a Promoscience program grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)). The workshop was well attended and represented various schools of the Western District including Stephenville, Corner Brook, Pasadena, and Roddickton.  During the two day session, teachers were immersed in hands-on activities, nature hikes and presentations on topics including PlantWatch, native plants, vermicomposting, and climate change.

                 Madonna Bishop (centre) gets a lesson in how to use GPS

While we have yet to start any annual seeds for the season, we have begun to take cuttings from our many Geraniums.  When you take the cuttings (about 6" long), leave them on the table for a couple of hours to allow the end to callus; this will help prevent rotting of the cut stems.  We use a mist chamber to help maintain proper humidity levels.  In the house, you can place the pot of cuttings inside a clear plastic bag to 'create' a mini-greenhouse.  Keep the cuttings in bright light but not full sun.











 Our bulb frame is in full swing...much earlier than usual.  Already the first pots of bulbs are blooming.  Enjoy them now as they will be long gone before we open on May 1!  Here is a pot of Scilla miczenkoana.

The rock garden is still in winter mode.  Keep your fingers crossed that we have some mild weather really soon!

But the alpine house looks good enough to open to the public!  Already the pots of primroses are starting to flush new leaves.