Hello Crown Point Gardeners and Garden Fans,

Road Trip to Norfolk Fair (Simcoe)

Next Friday October 9. Meet in the Perkins Center parking lot at 9 am for carpooling. Sean Hurley has rented a seven passenger van for the day– more fun and less parking woes when we get there. To get the van back in time we need to leave Simcoe at 3:30, which will give us at least four hours to see the fair. Here’s the Friday Schedule: http://www.norfolkcountyfair.com/View-Page/Our-Schedule?showForDate=2015-10-09

Best Flowers Foward

The free-bulbs-for-front-yards idea is going ahead– the grant application is in and so is the bulb order. No promo yet– not until the the funds are approved. All residents of Crown Point can request bulbs. If you live outside of Crown Point and you volunteer as a planter, you can also access the bulbs. Here is the very tempting species list:

Tulips: T. pulchella and T. turkestanica. Species tulips because they naturalize and won’t fizzle out after a few years like the big hybrids. The single flowers are attractive to pollinators. They are very robust in wind and rain. Still attractive to squirrels but easier to “disguise” since there is less disturbed soil. The two varieties listed look good together– purple, white, and yellow. We will be using acti-sol to deter the squirrells
Alliums: very attractive to bees. Can be interplanted with the tulips to deter squirrels. The cowanii is an unimproved heirloom (since 1832) with single flowers, pure white, very easy to fit into a colour scheme. Early flowering type, makes a very long-lasting cut flower. Also called Naples garlic. Rare.
The Miami allium is a nice summer blooming variety, half-round, purple (darker than most). Good value for a new introduction. You won’t find this at the garden centers.
Narcissus hawera Heirloom variety (pre-1950) is a miniature triandrus-type daffodil with many elfin, pale-yellow nodding bells per stem, each with a demitasse-shaped cup surrounded by swept-back petals. This adaptable daffodil can grow in dry areas, in pots, in full sun, and in partial shade. Nice scent. No squirrell action on these.
Mixed crocus. Good value. Super early bloom. Can’t go wrong with a mixed bag. Can plant these in a lawn.
Hyacinthoides / Spanish Bluebell. Aka wood hyancinth. Pink variety. Naturalizes. Prefers half shade but requires adequate moisture. Tolerates Black Walnut. To 18”.
Iris reticulata “Joyce” a cute mid-blue rock-garden Iris, half shade ok, very early, no squrls, will naturalize.

(links open in new tab)
Allium Miami dark purple 100 Allium Miami
Allium cowanii species white 250 allium cowanii
Tulipa pulchella Persian Pearl purple 100 Tulipa pulchella “Persian Pearl”
Tulipa turkestanica species tulip white/yellow 100 Tulipa turkestanica
Narcissus hawera Triandrus-type daffodils yellow 100 Narcissus hawera
Crocus mixed colours 250
Hyacinthoides spanish bluebell pink 250 Hyancinthoides / Spanish Bluebell — pink
Iris reticulata “Joyce” blue 250 Iris reticulata “Joyce”
total number of bulbs 1400

at 50 bulbs per yard we can do 28 front yards
at 30 bulbs per yard we can do 46 front yards

Next Meeting

Monthly meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of every month. The October meeting is on Wednesday October 28 in the ARCH room at 1429 Main Street East, just east of Kenilworth. Note that this is a storefront– don’t use the Perkins Centre entrance. ARCH info here:
http://graduate.mcmaster.ca/graduate-students/graduate-student-life/academic/the-arch/331-graduate-student-life/academic/1214-action-research-commons-hamilton.html
We will likely be planting bulbs by this time, so we can use the meeting to fine-tune the process and share experiences. Also, the Hamilton Naturalists Club has expressed an interest in doing a Bee Box workshop at one of our winter meetings. As well, there are still opportunities ($) remaining from the Pipeline Trail planting. So please do come out for this meeting. Martinis at Black Sheep to follow.

All for now,

Bev