Summer Update

No more meetings or newsletters until September - see "Summertime" below.

Kathy's Garden Committee

Dear Hort members,
We’ve formed a committee of folks working on the maintenance of Kathy’s Garden at Stanley Park. It’s Judy Whalen, Helen Vorster, Bill Cheng, Clement Kent and Emieke Geldof. If you’d like to join we’d love to have you! The garden right now needs a lot of patient weeding -and more plants are going in on Tuesday, next week (July 6th 2021, 10am, Stanley Park north end - corner Stanley Terrace and Adelaide Street West).

Bill has been going over on Sunday mornings, Judy and Helen on Tuesday mornings. There are many options and ways you could help. Have other ideas? Let us know. We’ve set up an email: Kathysgarden@parkdaletorontohort.com so that we can keep in touch with each other. If you want to join, send us an email. We're particularly interested in getting people from the Stanley Parl/Trinity Bellwoods area on board!

Helen Vorster

p.s. a lot of the new plants have been grown by Project Swallowtail Seed Sitters, especially the indefatigable Pete Ewins, shown here in his Roncesvalles-High Park home nursery. See more at this BlogTO post!

Plant Share 2021

- We made $1671.00 total.
- People picked up more plants than they ordered.
- Good feedback from members. Many were happy to see and visit with other Hort folks
again. Felt it was safely done.
- There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work! Thank you everyone!

Judy Whalen unloads a carful of donated transplants

Donations fill Clement Kent's driveway - thanks!!!

Articles

A beautiful Hummingbird plant for partial shade!

Spigelia marilandica "Little Redhead" - part shade to full sun

I've been hunting for Spigelia marilandica for years. It has many common names - I'll use "Maryland Pink". It's native to the U.S. up to Illinois and Indiana, but is hardy here in southern Ontario. I've seen it growing in a partly shaded border in Creemore, and I know a gardener in Waterloo grows it.

I saw it for a few years in my own neighbourhood, growing on the north side of a maple where it got afternoon sun. Unfortunately that owner wasn't aware of what a treasure they had and nuked it. Lost Horizon's used to carry it, but very few Ontario nurseries have it. This spring I located a wholesale supplier near Beamsville and got two dozen good size plants from it for the Hort. Unfortunately they are a vegetatively propagated cultivar called "Little Redhead", so I'm not sure if they'll set seed. They will however gradually grow into a nice clump.

Maryland Pink grows natively in partly shaded forests in rich soil. It can't stand bogs but seems happy in a range of soil moistures and light conditions, from full sun to almost full shade. You'll get more bloom with more sun. It blooms in June to early July.

These choice perennials are available only to paid-up Hort members, for $15/pot. Some pots have finished blooming, a few still have blooms. First come, first served, by email to newsletter@parkdaletorontohort.com. You must pick up the pot(s) and pay by cash. The roots are sensitive to disturbance so plant very soon and water once a week until the end of August to establish them.

Summer time, and the livin' is easy...

Traditionally we take July and August off to enjoy the flowers and vegetables. The next newsletter will be in September, when we'll inform you about the September meeting and the fall schedule of speakers.

Speaking of speakers, Board member Annelies Groen attended the OHA District 15 Annual Meeting by Zoom. She notes that many groups had difficulties during Covid keeping their membership. Some groups did not charge for the year. Some increased because of Zoom. Some groups are in decline.

We are fortunate that our membership increased, we think due to excellent Zoom speakers and to the Plant Share. We don't know yet whether we can meet in person in September. We know we'd like to keep on livecasting the meeting via Zoom, but our old meeting place, the church on Dunn Avenue, doesn't have good enough wifi to allow this. We're actively looking for a way to meet in person when possible but keep our online attendance. Contact board@parkdaletorontohort.com if you have ideas to share.

Contact Information

Contact Information for the Hort

The 2021 Board members are:

President - Ron Charlemagne, president@parkdaletorontohort.com
Past President - Barbara Japp
Vice President - Clement Kent, newsletter@parkdaletorontohort.com
Treasurer - Emieke Geldof, treasurer@parkdaletorontohort.com
Secretary - Helen Vorster, secretary@parkdaletorontohort.com
Projects - Judy Whelan, projects@parkdaletorontohort.com
Member at Large - Annelies Groen

Other email:

Maria Nunes - Volunteer Coordinator, volunteers@parkdaletorontohort.com
Membership, membership@parkdaletorontohort.com
Dues payments and membership information, www.parkdaletorontohort.com/join-us/
Clement Kent, Bulletin/Newsletter editor - newsletter@parkdaletorontohort.com
Plant Fair Team, plantfair@parkdaletorontohort.com
Education & Outreach, educationandoutreach@parkdaletorontohort.com
General information, info@parkdaletorontohort.com

Email sent to board@parkdaletorontohort.com reaches all board members.
Website: www.parkdaletorontohort.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/parkdaletorontohort
Post: The Horticultural Societies of Parkdale & Toronto
P.O. Box 30023, 1938 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6P 4J2

Copyright © Horticultural Societies of Parkdale & Toronto. All rights reserved.

The Horticultural Societies of Parkdale & Toronto is a member of the Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA) and its sub-group OHA District 15.

You are receiving this email because you are a member of the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto, or you requested to be added to our mailing list.

Our mailing address is:
newsletter@parkdaletorontohort.com

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
Horticultural Societies of Parkdale & Toronto · 1938 Bloor St West, PO Box 30023 · Toronto, On M6P 4J2 · Canada