Peony collection will impress every gardener
Are you partial to peonies? Probably. Indeed, I have never met any gardener who is indifferent to them.
Flashy . . . flamboyant . . . flirty . . . flouncy . . . so many gushy adjectives beginning with an F come to mind about these sensual flowers, which are amazingly easy to grow in our difficult climate.
And right now, the best place to get an eyeful of their glorious, voluptuous blooms is amid the corn and soybean fields of Norfolk County, Ont.
I’m not kidding, folks. Jump in the car and head off to rural Wilsonville, outside Brantford. There, tucked away on quiet Concession Road 3, surrounded by red brick farmhouses and orderly carpets of green, you’ll come across Whistling Gardens — the remarkable project of a determined visionary named Darren Heimbecker.
In only four years, Heimbecker, a 49-year-old former garden centre employee and part-time musician, has almost single-handedly created his personal dream: a botanical garden that boasts the largest collection of peonies in North America.
“Word got around that I wanted peonies,” he said with a wry chuckle during my visit last week, “and so people keep giving me more. We have over 1,000 cultivars now — and they’re still coming.”
They look fantastic, too. Besides cheerfully undertaking the backbreaking task of digging holes for peonies’ massive, daunting roots (he has only one summer-long staffer, plus occasional student help), Heimbecker reveals his artistic side in their display. He gives them huge curving flower beds on their own, to spectacular effect.
Where else can you wander around a 20-acre spread savouring hundreds of these enormous flowers all blooming at once? Heimbecker’s come in delicious ice-cream colours: creamy vanilla, rose pink, apricot, raspberry, a surprising hot yellow and a deep, dark blackberry that shimmers like silk in the sun. Yum. They look almost good enough to eat.
Another plus: very few flop. Although Whistling Gardens is prone to strong winds, his peonies stay impressively upright, with no hidden supports. That’s because, he explains, most are fairly modern cultivars, with single flowers instead of the heirloom double kinds, which I once nicknamed “the Dolly Partons of the garden” (because of their ridiculously large, busty blooms, perched atop chicken-leg stems).
The mix includes herbaceous peonies ( Paeonia lactiflora), tree peonies ( P. suffruticosa) plus lots of Itohs, which are a cross between the two, developed in Japan.
“I like the Itohs best,” he says. “They stay rigid and strong in storms and bloom for a full three weeks.”
He credits several people for help in amassing this marvellous showcase. They include David Maltby, president of the Canadian Peony Society, and Joe and Hazel Cook, who operate a perennials nursery in Peterborough, Ont.
So go see them before the end of June, when blooming ends. Some cultivars are for sale. After that, Heimbecker’s growing collection of martagon (or turks cap) lilies takes over. He also has innumerable irises, the largest collection of conifers in the world (over 2,000, some rare) and a rock garden full of offbeat Opuntia cacti.
Yet to me, the crowning glory of this venture is his copycat version of the gardens at Versailles. Heimbecker built the whole thing himself, labouring for months over stone walls, terraces, classical urns and dozens of fountains. It’s quite amazing. The water jets get turned on twice a day, with a musical accompaniment that’s — of course — by him, too.
The site is now in demand for weddings and on June 24, singersongwriter Ron Sexsmith performs there.
All that’s missing from Whistling Gardens is a café to relax in. But Heimbecker hopes to change that soon, once he and his wife, Wanda, have finishing negotiating Norfolk County’s endless bureaucratic red tape.
Using GPS to get there is best, but directions are also available at whistlinggardens.ca.
Note: loads of garden-related stuff is coming up next week during the Canada-wide celebration known as Garden Days. One good bet is Oshawa’s own Peony Festival. See details at gardendays.ca. soniaday.com
Very few of the flowers flop over at Whistling Gardens, staying upright despite the strong winds that whip through Norfolk County