I Wet My Plants

I took my mom to the Rare and Unusual Plant Sale at the Experimental Farm this past Mother’s Day and despite the chilly morning, the turnout was pretty good.

There were lots of vendors:

Select Plus Nursery
Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital
Solo Vivaces Inc
Whitehouse Perennials
Bonnie & Ann McQuillan
Rockcliffe Landscaping
Centre d’Interpretataion de l’Horticulture de La Monteregie
Ottawa River Iris Society/Ottawa Horticultural Society
Denyse Simpson
Old Field Garden
Eternal Seed
Alpines Mountecho
Rideau Nursery
The Herb Garden
Jardin de la Montagne
Les Jardins d’Emmarocalles
Charing House Gardens
Field Grown Perennials
Rock Wall Gardens
Down the Garden Path
Fieldstone Gardens
Ottawa Valley Rock Garden & Horticultural Society
Gardens North

La Vie En Rose Gardens

I talked to the people at Gardens North and sadly found out that this would be the last year for her sale at the Experimental Farm.  I had been to her farm near my house a few years ago which has since been closed to the public.  Apparently she’s sold her farm, dug up all her plants and packed up all her seeds to move to the Maritimes this year.  She’ll still sell her seeds online however and I hope to make a purchase for some Labrador Tea soon.  I bought a lot of cute little plants from her:

Jovibarba sobolifera

Rosularia rechingerii

Sempervivium ‘Jubilee’

Orostachys spinosa

I saw my friend Bernie from La Vie En Rose Gardens selling her beautiful bearded irises:

I’ve offered to be a host gardener for her extra iris plants.  The ones we dug up from her gardens two years ago have already bloomed this year:

After we bought all our loot, we scoured Loblaws garden centres for free recycled pots and trays for my mom to use for transplanting.  I took her to my favourite garden centre, Make It Green, and she bought lots of seeds and a few herb plants.  We had a nice lunch during which I found out that she had learned how to garden from a neighbour when I was small, as my dad was gone for work during one spring.  She’s quite an accomplished gardener and when she had come over earlier the day before, she had brought with her a car load of seedlings of peas, beans, broccoli, lettuce, mint, turnip, spinach, garlic and cucumbers.  All well-tended and healthy looking.  After lunch, I whisked her off to The Herb Garden outside of Almonte and we got more herbs for her garden.

We tallied it all up and I came home with the following:

Rhododendron fernigineum
Italian parsley
Good King Henry
Raspberry Royale sage
Orostachys spinosa
Bay laurel
Rosularia rechingerri
Sempervivium ‘Jubilee’
Jovibarba sobolifera
Sweet cicely
Marjoram
Paeonia tenuifolia
Arisaeha triphyllum
Purple trillium
Fritillaria meleagris
Canada columbine
Night jessimine
Salvia ‘Cathedral’

My mom picked up:

Lovage
Aztec Sweet Herb
French tarragon
English mint
Lime balm
Lemon balm
Good King Henry
Allium spirale
Ginger mint
Rosemary

It was a pretty fun day spent hanging out with my mom.  Here are some pictures of the things we bought:

Arisaema triphyllum

Purple trillium

Paeonia tenuifolia

Canadian columbine

Fritillaria meleagris

Bloom from a Rhododendron fernigineum