Nobleton & King CityHorticultural Society
Welcome
If you love gardening - or want to learn more about Canada's top hobby - join us at the Nobleton & King City Horticultural Society.
Monthly meetings are held on the fourth Monday of the month at 8 pm. at the Nobleton Community Hall (9 Old King Road, just opposite the Feed Store). They feature informative speakers, beautiful flower shows and plenty of friendly conversation. Guests are always welcome
Annual membership is $15.00, which includes meetings and show book. There is a $3.00 fee for non-members at the monthly meetings.
For information contact Tina Stone or Barb Downey
In The News
"Just in time, I found you just in time. Before you came my time was running low. I was lost . . ."
Because some years ago I couldn't find a suitable, mid-size, easy-care, heat and drought tolerant, annual for the small but difficult gardens at either side of the stairs leading up to the north door of St. Alban's Anglican Church in Nobleton. In less than a month, the church would celebrate its patronal festival, hosting congregation members from the two other churches in the parish and I was still looking for a tough plant. Then my friend Gabe, at Nobleton's Primrose Garden Centre, suggested I try ageratum; not the low growing variety used for edging, but a newer tall variety with all the qualities I needed. Knowing that if Gabe says it's so, it's so, I planted a few of these ageratums by the stairs with wonderful results . . . "Now that they were there, no more doubt or fear I'd found my way. Ageratums came just in time I found them just in time that lovely day" (apologies to Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne).
Ageratum houstonianum, sometimes called flossflower, that we use today were developed from wild ageratums, native to Mexico and Central America. It was their intense blue colour that first brought them to the attention of 19th century horticulturists and later hybridizers, and still attracts us today. Although the dwarf cultivars come in white and a silvery pink, it is the blue ones that are most popular. Tall ageratums come in blue, a purple blue and now white. I haven't any in pink, but if they're not already available I'm sure they soon will be.
Dwarf plants stay under six inches in height and form compact mounds of about the same width, while the tall cultivars grow from 18 to 24 inches high and can bush out one foot. Both types of ageratums can still be purchased and if planted soon will make an good showing. Water them well before and after planting and give them some TLC until they're established. If plants wilt in hot dry weather, they'll revive quickly with a good deep drink. They will adapt to most soils, sandy to clay, but they appreciate compost and/or composted cattle manure dug into the soil where they're going to be planted. Dead head fading blooms, especially the white ones, as they will turn an unsightly brown.
By the by, these annuals get their name from the Greek word "geras," meaning old age, because they bloom for such a long time; from spring until frost.