Marilyn Cornwell's Blog

Winter's Garden Blooms

2012-02-10T06:50:00.000-05:00

Witch Hazel is a shrub that will bloom on warm days in the winter. It unfurls its small ribbon flowers in the warmth, and curls them back up when it's cold.

The large witch hazel around the corner from me in Grimsby has been blooming during February, and here are some images from this past week.

Winter's Garden is Subtle

2012-02-04T07:50:00.001-05:00

If we look closely, winter's garden is full of delights. Here are 2 that you can easily experience - the moving grasses as the winter wind blows them, and then fruits and berries on trees and shrubs -bright colours against the darkness of winter.

Flowerography - The Rhythm of Leaves

2012-01-18T07:43:00.001-05:00

These blood grass leaves were in downtown Toronto last October. They were set against a metal panel, creating reflections.

Marvelling the Mushroom - Into the Heart

2012-01-04T16:47:00.001-05:00

This is an oyster mushroom from the Etobicoke Market in the fall in Toronto Ontario Canada. I've moved to Grimsby since then and have not found a local source for these varieties.

How will I continue this series and eat well?

Christmas Season

2011-12-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

It's time for beautiful poinsettias and wintery images. Here are a few for the holiday season.

Autumn in Niagara

2011-11-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

The escarpment forests were beautiful over the last few weeks. Here's what was found below Brock University on the Niagara Escarpment.

Niagara's Beauty

2011-07-11T08:15:00.000-04:00

One of the prettiest places in the Niagara Region is Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Shaw Festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the town is the prettiest it has ever been.

Lily Season and the Martagons are Blooming

2011-06-28T06:14:00.000-04:00

It's the start of Lily season - with flowers blooming from June through to the end of August, and that's just Liliums. If you also grow Day Lilies, you can have bloom through September.

Here are two Martagons from my garden this week.

Oh Mirror, Mirror

Lily My Love

Open Gardens Toronto Tour

2011-05-16T08:03:00.001-04:00

I saw some lovely gardens last week - here are 3 of them in the Scarlett Road/Humber River area.

Gardening and Gardeners - Barry Parker

2011-04-25T06:37:00.000-04:00

Sunday was Barry's first open garden day for Open Gardens Toronto. His city garden is laid out in a gracious classical design. He collects rare and unusual plants, and many are displayed in tufa and stone containers. This past Sunday, his Hellebore collection was on display.

Tufa Containers

2011-04-12T05:53:00.000-04:00

This beautiful tufa container is in Frank Kershaw’s front garden. It’s made by Tunde Fehervari, horticulturalist, garden designer and artist. She’s making two of these for my front garden. They will be installed for the garden tours May 11 and 18. Frank’s garden is on the May 11 tour date so you will be able to see this one.

I hope you have a chance to come and see our gardens with Tunde’s work, and consider her work for your own garden.

Canada Blooms as Great as Ever!

2011-03-21T07:19:00.000-04:00

Debbe Shannon was there with her collective and interactive art, and I participated in the mural, contributing the landscape curl.

And lots of fun and creative garden and floral displays.

Pansy Hill at Ott's Greenhouse

2011-03-14T06:26:00.000-04:00

I saw a little pot of pansies for sale at my local vegetable and fruit store, and was reminded of Ott's Greenhouse, which I visited last year. It's in Reading Pennsylvania and has a large man-made hill planted in pansies. There's a stairway and walkway to the top. It's a great adventure for us pansy-lovers.

Delicate Balance

2011-02-28T06:27:00.000-05:00

There are so many flowers with lily in the common name. I realized this when I started hosting a group on redbubble. The group is All Glorious Lilies. It was intended to feature Lilium lilies only. Since the end of January the group expanded to include everything in the Liliaceae family as well as flowers with lily in the common name.

Doing some research, I found out that plant families are in the process of being organized. The defining factor is whether the genus plants are actually related. So many genera were removed from the Liliaceae family were removed and located elsewhere. There are now only a few genera in the Lily family - of which Lilium and Tulips are the best known.

The flower below is a calla lily, one of the flowers with lily in its common name.

Snow Cliffs of Toronto

2011-02-08T06:28:00.000-05:00

St. Thomas street is home to the WIndsor Arms Hotel and to outstanding condominiums of great expense. This abstract is created from the marble wall along the side of one of the condos. Each panel is carved by a separate artisan, and the wall assembled in a long row. This is winter's view.

Snow Days in the City

2011-01-17T07:13:00.000-05:00

It's been snowing regularly in Toronto, causing some snow-clearing and fun on the snow hills.

Happy New Year Calendar

2011-01-01T07:56:00.000-05:00

Welcome 2011! May you have an adventurous and abundant year!

Loving those Christmas Poinsettias at Centennial Park Conservatory

2010-12-14T12:41:00.000-05:00

Centennial Park Conservatory in the west end of Toronto (Renforth and Rathburn area) seems to always have the best display of the most unusual Poinsettias. This year too! The new hybrid is a luscious two toned red and pink version.

This year's new flower:

Tropical mist and poinsettias seem to go splendidly together on a snowy day.

December Celebrations Start with the December Calendar

2010-12-06T08:49:00.000-05:00

December is such a celebration time full of visual delights. Here is the start with the December Calendar.

November is Chrysanthemum Month

2010-11-12T06:45:00.000-05:00

Many people think of November as a sad time because the flowers are gone from the garden. It's true that the gardens are losing their charm, the trees their leaves, and the cold winds are starting to blow. I go indoors in November to the Conservatories and Greenhouses to find the Chrysanthemum Celebrations. Today's images are from the Centennial Greenhouse in west-end Toronto, where there's a beautiful Chrysanthemum Festival on during November.

On Grenadier Pond

2010-11-05T08:36:00.000-04:00

Looking south at Grenadier Pond, High Park, Toronto, Ontario Canada, this high rise is quite an urban mountain. This makes me think of the 'City in a Park' slogan on the city park signs. Look down at the water and there are mallard ducks, swans and a migrating heron. Look up at the sky and there are condo high rises.

Do you have a favourite view that fits Toronto's slogan 'City in a Park'? Let me know about it.

A City in a Park

2010-11-03T13:14:00.000-04:00

A City in a Park. That's the slogan that's on many of Toronto's park signs. If you turn your head to the right as you drive over the Mimico Creek Bridge on Bloor Street in Toronto Ontario Canada, this is what you'll see. It looks like a pastoral rural scene, not a busy city centre. Yet Toronto is a city of ravines with parks and also the largest city in Canada. And this combination makes it a comfortable and pleasant place to live.

Of course I had to pay to park to take this photo, as this is Toronto with its forest of parking meters, but I'd stopped in at Vince's, the little grocery shop, to buy a few things and took advantage of the benefit of all of these worlds at once.

Where are your favourite parks and scenic landscapes in and about Toronto? I would love to hear about them...

Traversing the Garden...continues

2010-11-02T09:14:00.000-04:00

With so many varieties of hosta in the garden, it is wonderful to see the variations in fall colours. Here's a golden hillside.

Traversing the Garden

2010-11-02T07:42:00.000-04:00

This is the month when the transition from Autumn to Winter occurs in my garden. The hosta leaves have collapsed with the frost and their delicate and intricate veins make beautiful abstract landscapes. Here's an example:

November's Calendar - A Lavendar View

2010-11-01T16:06:00.000-04:00

November is a great flower month. We don't usually think of it that way. We think of November as when things really die in the garden, when the leaves are completely gone, and the weather gets cold. It's November 1st today and it sure met these criteria. There was hard frost over night, and every annual is done and gone.

We have to go to where the flowers are in November - that's mostly public greenhouses and conservatories where there is a chrysanthemum festival this time of year. Last year, I found out the Longwood Gardens has a spectacular display. So this month's Calendar image is a scene from Longwood Gardens last year.