Waving the flag with tulips, or begonias
Canadians aren’t generally comfortable with flag-waving and showing off. Yet we’re still nationalists at heart.
I realized this after missing out on the red and white. Tulips, that is. Red and white varieties of tulips have disappeared faster this fall than bargain wool sweaters at Hudson’s Bay. The reason? Canada’s 150th birthday, coming up in 2017.
Gardeners across the country were encouraged by the Canadian Garden Council (CGC) to plant spring bulbs to celebrate this historic milestone and we’ve clearly taken up the challenge — in spades.
First off, Home Hardware announced a special deal in September on a striking tulip variety resembling the Canadian flag. They promptly sold out in less than two weeks.
Then the trend continued at garden centres. Pastel hues in pinks, yellows and violets — plus the perennially popular deep indigo Queen of Night — are the traditional top sellers. But this year, thousands opted instead for the unmistakable symbolism of the maple leaf.
How nice. How appropriate. How very Canadian, somehow. What better way to demonstrate our collective pride in this nation than with an eye-popping burst of colour in gardens — both public and private — from coast to coast, once our long cold winter ends?
Kudos to the CGC for initiating this idea. It’s surely a better way to draw attention to the Sesquicentennial than some boring, televised musical extravaganza staged by the feds in Ottawa, which will undoubtedly cost millions and be ignored by most of us.
But yikes, those red and whites! What’s a poor procrastinator to do now that they’re sold out everywhere? I always procrastinate about tulips, ever since learning that (unlike daffodils) you can put tulip bulbs into the ground right before the freeze up. In fact, it’s become my last chore in the garden every year.
Why? At heart, I confess to being the kind of person the garden industry hates: a cheapskate. So I start many plants from seed and I habitually wait until the last stocks of tulips get sold off at bargain prices in December.
One year, I even shovelled off wet snow on Christmas Day and dug holes while the turkey was roasting in the oven. It worked, too. Some splendid Golden Apeldoorns came up the following spring and, even better, every bulb survived because the rats in fur coats didn’t get to wreak havoc. (They were already hibernating by the time I got busy with my trowel.)
Yet this year, am I doomed not to show evidence of my patriotism like proud Canadian gardeners everywhere? Let’s hope not. And hallelujah, I think I’ve found a saviour. In begonias.
“If you want flowers for your 150th birthday that will really pop, trust me, go for red and white begonias,” counselled Michigan-based plant guru, John Gaydos during a recent Proven Winners road show I attended in Guelph.
Gaydos was responding to a query from a horticulturist who works for the City of Windsor (which, incidentally, won an award this year for its superb public gardens.) This gent sought practical suggestions for annual flowers that could pick up on the red-and-white theme.
And good for Gaydos. He’s right. Begonia colours are indeed eyepopping. I actually like his idea better than tulips — because begonias will bloom all summer, in sun and part shade, and would thus provide perfect long-term reminders of our historic birthday.
So I’m going to toot the horn for Canada after all next year. My garden will boast a bevy of begonias.
Whew. It’s quite a relief. soniaday.com