It’s always exciting when we get our delivery of trees and shrubs for the season. But what I love most is the day that our perennials arrive. Under the guidance of Brenna, our super-organized Field Operations Coordinator, a few of our staff members pitch in and help sort the sea of plants into the various Native Garden Kits that we offer for sale.
We pour over the plants with wide eyes, like excited children eyeing colourfully wrapped gifts on Christmas morning. And the perennials themselves are just as unique and appealing as any present to plant nerds like us! We all have our favourites that we look forward to seeing every year, and I thought I’d share just a few of mine with you.
First of all, there’s the gorgeous prairie smoke (Geum triflorum), a standout in our large Songbird Garden Kit. This member of the rose family is easy to spot with its showy, reddish pink-to-purple blooms which appear in May through July, then turn into wispy feathery strands (that are grey – like smoke!) when the plant goes to seed. These wisps extend up to 2 inches long and they actually help disperse seed by acting as a sail. Other common names for this perennial include “lion’s beard” and “old man’s whiskers” – monikers surely assigned based on this interesting reproductive feature.
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I’m also a big fan of the ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris), which appear alongside the zig-zag goldenrod and great blue lobelia in our Shade Garden Kit. The fern’s lush fronds appear along the base of the plant in the spring, looking like cute little fiddleheads. They then unfurl as they grow and can reach a length of up to four feet.
As a foodie, another favourite has to be the wild chives (Allium schoenoprasum) of our Beautiful Border Kit. The tubular stock of this perennial is commonly used as a culinary herb to impart mild onion flavor to many foods, including salads, soups, vegetables and sauce. Throughout my childhood, my mother always had these growing in our backyard garden, and I always loved to pick and eat them straight from the plot – a delicious, peppery snack! The purple globe-like flowers are also beautiful, and again, they’re edible. You can add them as a garnish to soups and salads to impress your dinner guests.
I could go on and on – there are so many interesting and unique native perennials that it’s hard to name just a few! What I love most of all about these plants is not their showy flowers, bright colours or interesting foliage, but the fact that they do such a great job of creating habitat for songbirds, butterflies and other pollinators. In urban areas where little natural green space remains, the flora we plant on our very own properties becomes ever more important to support local fauna.
We’re now taking orders for our Native Garden Kits for spring delivery. The kits are always popular and they’re only available in the spring, so we encourage you to place your order today so you don’t miss out!
And if, like me, you don’t have room for a garden of your own, sign up now to become a LEAF volunteer and join our Garden Steward team this spring. You’ll have the opportunity to help us maintain one (or more) of our Urban Forest Demonstration Gardens (located at 5 different TTC stations across Toronto), or our LEAF Learning Garden (located on-site at the Artscape Wychwood Barns).
Melissa William’s is LEAF’s Residential Planting Programs Manager
The Backyard Tree Planting Program is supported by Ontario Power Generation, York Region, Ontario Trillium Foundation, The City of Markham and Toronto Hydro.