Sunday, March 20, 2011

Canada Blooms

One of the more interesting displays was the pollinator garden conceived by Clement Kent. Although these pictures do it no justice they illustrate a point. Today is March 20th and only the earliest spring ephemerals are flowering in the garden. Most designers at Canada Blooms make use of plants supplied by nurseries that have been forced (tricked into flowering early). According to Clement, the list of available plants only included one native. Therefore Clement took it upon himself to force his own plants for the pollinator garden display. I was particularly impressed at the variety of plants on display as some have very short flowering times (Mertensia for example is a case in point).
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2 comments:

Clement Kent said...

Thanks for the kind words, Jonas! Of the plants that didn't quite make it in time for the show, bog-bean or Menyanthes trifoliata is just about to bloom now - missed by a few days...check the pictures of the flower at
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Menyanthes+trifoliata

...Clement

ecoman said...

well deserved sir. hopefully you got some people thinking about native plant availability issues at least. my vote for next years theme...corridors. wouldn't it be cool if all the garden displays connected? think of the fun you would have on the transitions!