Saskatoon Garden Interlude

I'm out of my usual northern habitat for a little while, so decided to check out gardens away from home.  The city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is south of La Ronge (just over four hours by road).  The trees here are leafed out and the perennials are definitely a few weeks ahead of those in La Ronge.  Tulips are in full bloom here, while my northern-dwelling tulips have yet to show their buds!  

Googling "botanical gardens" in Saskatoon gave me the idea to visit the Saskatoon Forestry Farm.  Unless I was missing something, I found only two small gardens: the Robin Smith Meditation Garden and the Heritage Rose Garden.  

A patch of Fritillaria meleagris in the Meditation Garden:

Both gardens are apparently maintained by the Saskatchewan Perennial Society, though it appears the volunteers have not been in the gardens as of yet.  Of course, many perennials are just starting to grow and only early-blooming perennials are showing their colors.  

A dwarf iris about 6-8 inches tall, perhaps an Iris pumila:

 

A variegated leaf, pink-flowered Pulmonaria rubra "David Ward".  This is an uncommon perennial and a pleasure to see:

The gardens were followed by a trip to Dutch Growers garden center extra-ordinare (did you know you can buy fancy underwear here too?), where I appreciated this lovely flower, Meconopsis (the Himalayan Blue Poppy).  It is beautiful to behold and lovely in gardens of UK and North American west coast dwellers.  However, has anyone actually made this plant thrive on the prairies?  I think garden centers just offer this flower to tempt us, knowing that the beauty of the plant will exceed our better judgement and ultimately lead to horticultural heartbreak.
 

Garden Magazine Article

Just in case you wanted to read an expanded version of my usual blog postings, you can catch an article on my garden in The Gardener for the Prairies magazine, summer 2009 edition.

I got my copy in our post office box last week (My mother-in-law in southern SK got hers two days earlier; perhaps last week's snow held up the northern mail services?). The article is on page 38, entitled "Gardening where the paved road comes to an end".

If you live in the Canadian prairies, you can pick up this beautiful and informative magazine on magazine stands right now. I really appreciate a magazine that deals with the realities of gardening outside of the mild zones of Ontario and southwestern British Columbia. It specifically targets zones 2 and 3. I was heartened when I first heard there was such a magazine! If you find a copy, let me know what you think.

Blooms to Warm a Gardener's Heart

The alpine garden produced its first blooms yesterday, displaying this tiny Daffodil "Tete-a-Tete". The whole plant is less than 6 inches tall. The early spring color has inspired me to add more bulbs to this bed next fall. In fact, I already took advantage of the Veseys catalog coupon to buy more of these same Daffodils along with some Siberian squill, crocuses, and Allium roseum.

Other yellow blooms were dutifully collected by the 2-year-old, very helpful assistant gardener. I call this chemical-free dandelion control (she calls it her "flower pot"):

Pink and purple Pulsatilla vulgaris and blue Chionodoxa make a splash of color in the sloped rock garden. It's so nice to see these flowers NOT covered in snow, for a change.

Pulsatilla vulgaris takes a few years to develop a good-sized clump. This pale purple one is my biggest plant, at three years old: