A wind powered garden sculpture named Wind Orchid by kinetic sculpture George Sherwood.

A Wind Orchid dances in the rain

My guy and I just got back from an epic road trip to Maine and I couldn’t wait to show you the mesmerizing moves of this dancing garden sculpture we discovered on a rainy day at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Powered only by the wind, its long, curving stems appear to dip and sway.…

Mirror in arbour

Keppel Croft: A garden with magic rabbit holes

On the eastern shore of the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario, Bill and Dawn Loney’s very personal garden is equal parts labyrinth, zen oasis and trip down a variety of magic rabbit holes. Thank goodness they open it to the public during the summer. Though untrained in any formal sense, both gardeners have created a…

Water fall

The OMG Summer Tour, Part 3: Rocking the countryside

Sorry for the delay. I’d promised you this third and last post in the OMG Summer Tour series sooner but, well, life sort of happened. But I do apologize for any confusion. This post covers the last two gardens we visited during the extraordinary tour presented by the Toronto Botanical Gardens and hosted by the…

Interior, Knot Garden

Of Spock and spiderwort

One day, somewhere in the middle of the 23rd century, Spock boldly goes on a plant hunt (watch the video clip at the bottom of this posting). He discovers a species that, at first, he dismisses as the horticultural version of “a happiness pill”–as if such a thing couldn’t exist. Every gardener knows that they do exist. And…

Blue Rain

Wild at heart: Houseplants unleashed at Wisley

Houseplants can get a bad rep as limp dust-collectors your Grandma lines up along her dining room windowsill. But when you walk into the Wisley Glasshouse, part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley gardens complex in southern England, you get in-your-face proof that these plants can have a much wilder side. In a previous posting,…

Pond and fountain in Wisley

Learning from a winter garden

Even on the wettest and chilliest of grey winter days, Wisley is a wonder. Granted, just about anything green and blossoming in the dead of February would seem like a minor miracle to this Southern Ontarian’s snow-wearied eyes. But this garden isn’t a jewel in the Royal Horticulural Society’s collection just because it so effectively reaps the benefits…

A garden over troubled waters

Genius idea or disaster in the making? Ever since Thomas Heatherwick got the green light to span the River Thames with a pedestrian bridge lined with trees, flowers and meandering walkways, the project has been accumulating naysayers. Called the “most expensive footbridge in the world”, it’s also received plenty of negative feedback for its location and potential policy for limiting the size of…

Salmon garden sculpture

A garden festivus for the rest of us

You’d be forgiven if you read “International Garden Festival” and thought “Hoity Toity Ho Hum”. But the annual showcase of out-of-this-world garden designs at Reford Gardens in Grand Metis, Quebec, is simply amazingly crazy fun for kids, adults, gardeners and non-gardeners. I recently posted about seven reasons for going to this extraordinary place but didn’t…

Flower planting ideas

7 reasons for visiting Reford Gardens

Two weeks ago I drove (and drove and drove) to Reford Gardens, also known as Les Jardins de Metis in Grand-Metis. The historical landmark sits on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River about halfway up the humped back of the Gaspe Peninsula. The journey there took two solid days of driving from my…

Magnolia trees in bloom

Oh, Canada: National Garden Days, 2014

Ignore the calendar. Today’s your lucky day. There’s an Urban Vegetable Patch Garden Tour in Oshawa starting at five this evening. You can ride a bike to each private patch. Kate’s Garden Annual Lavender Vintage Fair in Unionville just kicked off its two-day shindig this morning. And you can do a Honey Tasting featuring honey harvested…