Delightful Delphiniums

Christine Gill (left) and Tweed Hort President Joan Morton

Christine Gill and her husband Peter from Nestleton (near Port Perry) were the guest speakers at the June meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society. Christine is a member of the Ontario Delphinium Club. Using a power point presentation, she shared photos of delphiniums in Canada, England and Iceland...the photos of these magnificent plants were stunning! Some grow as tall as 8 feet and the colours were equally as impressive!

According to Christine, these hardy perennials will grow in any soil with 6-8 hours of sunlight. She suggested planting them where they will NOT get the hot afternoon sun as it is too strong. Always keeping the plants damp not wet was one important piece of advice Christine gave members. She also suggested placing ashes around the base of the plants to enhance the colours. The plants come in a variety of colours….pink, purple, blue, white and lavender-mauve-violet. The plants with purple flowers tend to be stronger. Members asked about red delphiniums….the plants with red flowers do not come back…they are  like an annual! Due to their height delphiniums often need to be staked. The flowers will bloom from June to the end of September.

The plants do not like to have their crowns sitting in water in the spring. After the spring thaw, it is important that the plants do not dry out. It is suggested that the plants are watered deeply every 2-3 days during a hot summer.

To produce stronger plants, Christine recommended leaving 3 spikes at the end of the season and don’t let the plant go to seed during the first year.

Growing from seed requires the use of promix and clean trays with domes. Simply grow the seeds (using seeds from a reliable source like the Ontario Delphinium Club) in the trays rather than using the small peat pots…this encourages a stronger root system. When plants are 2-3 inches tall, transplant to pots and put outdoors to harden…end of April…depending on the weather. Root cuttings can also be done to grow new plants

In the spring, Christine suggested cleaning out the old stalks close to the crown…cut with snips rather than pulling the stalks. 

An invitation to the Ontario Delphinium Club Field Day was extended to all members. The event will take place in Brooklin (just north of Oshawa) on June 27 @11:00. Christine’s husband will be manning the barbeque….and apparently he is a great cook…according to him!!!! There will be plants/seeds for sale, a flower show and an auction….a fun day for all! For more information, check the website…www.ondelphiniums.com

COMING UP….

June 13….Clean-up of flower beds in town.

June 15…Bus Trip to Winery and Gardens…contact Linda @  613-478-6850 for more information.

July 10-12…Tweed Agricultural Fair…The Club will be having a floral display and a collage of club events. Fair entries must be set up by noon on Friday July 10.  Set-up for the club is Saturday July 11@ 8am.

July 7….Strawberry Social and Power Point Presentation with Penny Stewart. Penny will be showing some of the outstanding gardens she has visited.

Plant Sale 2015

Some random shots of a beautiful and successful day.

An Evening of Shopping

The May meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society was a "shopping experience" for both club and community members who attended. David Morgan from Lee Valley Tools in Ottawa was the guest speaker at the meeting. At the conclusion of the meeting, members were invited to place orders for Lee Valley products and, at the same time, get a 5 percent discount and free shipping...what a great idea and members clearly enjoyed the concept as they placed their orders and even orders from friends who could not attend!

Since David is a gardener and a woodworker, the job at Lee Valley was a perfect fit for his skill set. David worked in the Ottawa store for 15 years. Now he does speaking engagements based on the tools and items that Lee Valley sells. He also holds seminars on ergonomics, tool maintenance and ground irrigation.

The first lee Valley garden catalog was printed in 1990 listing 100 items. Today's catalog contains both home and garden tools with approximately 1500 items.

David had a selection of tools on display. There are a variety of prices available for the tools depending on the quality but all products have a life time guarantee.

At David's request, his fee for the evening was donated to the Emily Trudeau Splash Pad.

Coming Up...

June 2...Meeting...Christine Gill from the Ontario Delphinium Club will present a slide show on delphiniums. She will discuss what varieties are best suited for the area. Plants will be available for purchase.

June 13...Clean up of town beds...from 9 a.m. at Moira Gardens.

June 15...Bus trip to Winery and Gardens...GardensPlus in Peterborough, Goldenbrook Hostas in Blackstock, Archibald Orchards and Estate Winery and Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens to see the annual peony display. Cost is $45 per person.

Things We Did...

Some random shots of recent events sponsored by the Tweed and Area Horticultural Society.

Some of the participants in the recent flower painting workshop.
We used Sharpie pens to draw and paint a garden on a canvas tote bag.

It's spring, so let's make flowers. The recent, free, tissue paper flower making
workshop taught by Joan Morton.
All the children's workshops are held on a Saturday morning at
the Municipality of Tweed Public Library. Check the Library for
upcoming events and workshops.

Just a few of those who participated in the recent
bus trip to Canada Blooms.

A Tisket, A Tasket...

Naneen Tyner was the guest speaker at the April meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society. Naneen, who resides south of the community of Marlbank decided 22 years ago that she wanted to learn to make baskets. After taking a course at Loyalist College in Belleville, she was “hooked on baskets”.

Her beautiful baskets are completely hand woven with no glue or nails. She uses a variety of reeds depending on the width needed for a particular style of basket. Although, Naneen uses Rit dye for dying her reeds, tea and sumach leaves are also good dying agents, she says. Oak handles are frequently used in her baskets. Minwax stain is used to protect the baskets.

Using a variety of soaked reeds, Naneen demonstrated making a “blueberry basket” to members at the meeting. She was planning on making a strawberry basket but had no red reeds, so she quickly changed to a blueberry basket when she noticed that the reed bucket was filled with blue-dyed reeds! Her skill set was evident as she assembled the basket and explained the steps involved….reeds need to be wet..but not too wet, always remembering where you started the weaving with each row (although she did admit that using clothes pegs helped her in that area), and the pulling and shaping of the basket is critical throughout the weaving process. Although the techniques of weaving the reeds under and over made the process look simple,  Naneen’s skill was evident as she wrapped the reeds to produce a professionally made basket in an hour’s time!

Naneen offers classes at her home in Marlbank for $60.00 including all supplies and lunch…and no one goes home until the basket in completed! Everyone will work on the same style of basket during the class. For more information, on classes or purchasing one of Naneen’s baskets, please contact Naneen at  naneen.t@gmail.com

NOTE: The Tweed Horticultural is planning on having Naneen conduct a basket making class in the spring and fall. Cost would be $60.00…location of workshop and style of basket to be decided.

Naneen will also be on the Tweed and Area Studio Tour on the last weekend of September.

COMING UP…

April 18…10:30 am @Tweed Library…making tissue flowers with Joan Morton.

May 5..Meeting…Come out and see the latest gardening tools presented by Lee Valley Tools. Place an order and get 5% discount and free shipping on most items. Cheques and credit cards only…no cash. There will be no guest fee for this meeting.

May 9…Meet at the Moira Garden @ 9:00 for spring clean-up of the flower beds.

May 14…Meet at Joan Morton’s house@ 1:30 to prepare for the annual plant sale. Rain date…May 15

May 16…Annual Plant Sale at Tweed Memorial Park. Set-up @ 7am. Please attach a label or photo to plants to assist with identification for shoppers. If you require more information or need plants picked up, please call Joan @613-478-6115 before May 13.

June 15…Bus Trip to Winery and Gardens…Gardens Plus in Peterborough, Goldenbrook Hostas in Blackstock, Archibald Orchards and Estate Winery and Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens to see the annual peony display. Cost is $45.00 per person.

GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

May 2…District 3 AGM in Bath

Celestial Planting

Kathryn Aunger (left) with Tweed and District Horticultural Society President Joan Morton

Members of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society learned about planting using the celestial calendar with guest speaker Kathryn Aunger.

Kathryn, along with Rosemary Tayler and Cesar Gomez produced the first bio-dynamic calendar for our area called the Celestial Planting Calendar 2015. Local artist Sue Vander Wey did the art work for the calendar.

Kathryn in her power point demonstration showed us many examples of calendars and how they changed over the years. The first historical calendar is dated back to 8000BC in Scotland. Many calendars have references to stars and constellations. There were samples of Islamic, Jewish, Myan, Aztec and Greek to name a few.

Some interesting facts she shared with us were:

-In 1792 the first Farmer’s Almanac was produced. It is still published today but a lot of advertising can be found in it which makes it very hard to find the info you are looking for.

-In our calendars today, the sun is the center of the universe and the moon has an important influence on plants. Everything revolves around the sun and it takes 11 years to do a complete cycle. The last time being in 2013.

-The moon acts as a big mirror which affects tides, water and cycles in people and animals.

-The moon travels in an oval shape. Perigee is when the moon is close. Apogee is when the moon is far away. This cycle takes approx. 28 days.

-When the moon is high above the equator, this forces water and energy up. It is time to prune and pick. When the plant energy is downward, its time to plant root crops.

-The phases of the moon cause increasing and decreasing light conditions. During a full moon we should cut grass. During an eclipse we should do nothing. Root crops should be planted before the 3^rd quarter.

-The 12 constellations also play an important role.

-Maria Tunn from United States did a lot of research of plant and harvest trials over the years when she produced her calendars. Slides of plants seeded at different times showed remarkable difference if they were planted when suggested by the calendar. Also crops harvest lasted much longer when harvested with the calendar.

Kathryn showed us some samples of other calendars produced and how they compare to her calendar. This new calendar is colour coded so it makes it easy for a beginner to use but it also has very detailed information which is great for those with a lot of background in biodynamic or very helpful for naturopaths. Kathryn answered questions from the floor and had reference material on display and calendars for sale for $18. – submitted by Linda Holmes

COMING UP….

March 21….10:30 am….Using sharpie pens, children will design a garden scene on a canvas tote with local artist, Bob Pennycook.

Please pre-register at the Library.

April 7….Meeting….Naneen Tyner, a local basket weaver, will talk about the ancient art of basket weaving. Naneen has been a participant on the Tweed and Area Studio tour for the past few years.

April 18…10:30 am….Children’s workshop with Joan Morton….creating spring flowers using coloured tissue paper.

Please pre-register at the Library.

 GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

April 2-4…Peterborough Garden Show at the Evinrude Centre, 911 Monaghan Road, Peterborough. Admission $7.00.

April/May…Stonepath Greenhouses, Tweed (613-478-1675) and Farmgate Gardens, Foxboro (613-967-1581) offer spring planter workshops in April and May. Please contact for dates and time.

Super Fruit...

Do you know that the superfruit for 2015 is the haskap berry? Members of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society welcomed James and Audrey Potts of Palliser Downs in Foxboro who discussed this superfruit at the February meeting.

The fruit is well known in Japan as the “Fruit of Life, Longevity and Fruit of Vision”.

Through a power point presentation, James highlighted this new fruit which looks like an elongated blueberry. The berry is blue all the way through, unlike the blueberry which is blue on the outside only. It tastes like a tangy blend of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and has 3 times the antioxidants of blueberries…talk about a healthy fruit!

As James said, “If you can kill this bush, you have a gift!” Haskaps are very easy to grow and maintain. This plant flourishes in any soil, needs little pruning, doesn’t sucker, bears fruit when very young, needs no fertilizer, blooms can handle a late frost (-8 C), grows on own root stock and 5-6 ft shrubs are hardy to -40 C…the perfect plant for the Quinte/Hastings area. The life span of the shrub is 30-40 years! The berries are ready for picking in late June. The berries stay on the bushes for about 3 weeks so there it a long picking season! It works well in a small garden with just 2 plants or on a larger scale. You will need to purchase two plants for cross pollination.

According to James, haskap shrubs will be available at local nurseries this spring. Listening to the many questions and interest throughout the meeting, these plants will sellout quickly when spring arrives!

For more information on this amazing fruit, check out haskap.ca.

COMING UP…. 

March 3 Meeting….Kathryn Aunger and Rosemary Tayler will talk about planting using the celestial calendar. The workshop will explore ancient teachings and how to use this calendar to enhance planting and harvesting practices. The calendar will be available for sale for $18.00.

March 21…10:30 am… Children’s Workshop with artist Bob Pennycook at Tweed Library. Children will create a garden scene on a canvas tote bag using sharpie pens! Maximum 16 children.

Please pre-register at the Library for this event.

March 13… Bus Trip to National Home Show and Canada Blooms at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto

Cost…$58.00 before February 12/$65.00 after that date.

Price includes admission to both shows and motor coach. Bus leaves Tweed at 7 am from the parking lot behind Quinn’s of Tweed. For more information, contact Linda @613-478-6850

GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

March 5-8…International Home and Garden Show at Metro Convention Centre in Toronto

March 13-22…National Home Show and Canada Blooms at Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto