The final event of the 2015 Garden Bloggers Fling in Toronto, Canada, was held at the Toronto Botanical Garden. Word is that this tiny gem (it's almost 4 acres) might be North America's smallest Botanical Garden, but it was just the perfect location for our group to spend one last evening together.
Our buses unloaded near this wall...
Parts seemed empty, but others were overflowing with happy Sempervium, bricks, rocks and bottles.
The wall divides the garden proper from the parking lot and forms one side of the Terrace Garden.
This is the back-side.
Curving back around to the front, parking lot side...
A glimpse of the garden beyond.
It is tiny, but the garden packs lot into it's space.
Larix kaempferi, known as Japanese larch.
The cones are just gorgeous.
Along the other side of the parking lot is the Entry Garden Walk.
From the TBG website: "designed by Dutch garden designer and plantsman, Piet Oudolf. His first Canadian project, this garden is inspired by his New Wave Planting style using bold drifts of perennials and grasses, punctuated with shrubs and trees. These plants are carefully selected for their architectural form and texture, as well as autumn colour and winter silhouette, thus taking precedence over flower colour.
Planted in naturalistic waves, plants were not dead-headed for three years to allow for self-seeding and the formation of the “sophisticated meadow”. Plants are dead-headed selectively, otherwise are left standing through winter."
Amorpha canescens, or Lead Plant.
Penstemon 'Dark Towers'
Allium, "the" plant of the 2015 Fling...
This pathway led along the parking lot beyond the Oudolf garden.
Their pot ghetto...
I would think not!
This elevated succulent planting is along the main pathway as you enter the garden.
Lots to look at!
There is an excellent diagram with plant names here (while the link lasts).
The Knot Garden...
And the Herb Garden.
Janet Davis, the lady in yellow on the left, climbs the Spiral Mound while my camera is focused down on Westview Terrace.
Looking from the mound out across the Knot Garden.
And back down on the ground, next to the water channel in the Westview Terrace.
While I began this post out in the garden our actual visit to the TBG started off sitting under these lights...
Listening to a container planting presentation by Paul Zammit, the Director of Horticulture. Yes the photo is blurry but if you've ever met this man you know why. He doesn't stop moving, ever. I am thrilled to have captured this good of a photo!
This is his work on display out in the courtyard, where we enjoyed drinks and tasty hors d'oeuvres (yes even Poutine - which I hated when Andrew and I tried it in Montreal but this version was actually good. Or maybe I was just so hungry I didn't care?).
Paul's specialty seems to be cramming at least 12 more plants into a container than you would have thought possible. He definitely has a great eye for design!
Notice the brown sticks over on the left hand side of this planting, it's actually a plant - and it's alive! Euphorbia platyclada, which Paul claims as a favorite.
I lifted the photo below (which is credited to Paul Zammit) from the TBG website. Paul writes this about the Euphorbia: "Yes, brown is a colour, a beautiful colour both inside the home and out in the garden. This plant may not be for everyone (although it has long been a favourite of mine). It’s a unique, unusual, slow-growing tropical. Although it is not new and has long been in cultivation, it’s available only occasionally, and I am thrilled to have a few specimens as part of this year’s plant sale. Euphorbia platyclada is endemic to Madagascar where so many distinct plants and animals have evolved in isolation over time. (Sadly the wild native populations are threatened as a result of habitat loss.) I invite you to at least have a look at this unique plant. From personal experience, I can say that it will grow on you!" It's certainly growing on me, I need to track one down. Tomorrow we'll return to the TBG - kinda, sorta but not really...
All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.