Posy Gang Grower's Diary III: Oh my it's May

Life change, transitions, can be so difficult. But the garden makes change seem effortless. Or inexorable. For all that I love order and executing carefully laid plans, growing flowers will always be just beyond my control - a good reminder that most things can never really be, nor should be, perfect. Wabi sabi, right?​

​Let's see what's been happening in the Posy Gang garden the last few weeks...

I try my best to take my camera out with me when I remember, and definitely when the light is especially lovely. I made it out early one recent morning and found spiderwebs still caught on tulip tips.

Look at that beautiful bare dirt beside the tulip bed. The big new bed has been prepped! Many podcasts were devoured in the breaking up of sod.

Being my first spring in this space, the forsythia grove was an amazing surprise. I get breathless stepping in among its branches.

Saucer magnolia. Their blooms don't last long as cuts, but their beauty is incomparable and their perfume unforgettable.

Big sky.

And now for things still to come: roses, lilacs, sweetpeas:

Okay let's keep it moving! Come on inside again:

The seeding hasn't stopped. That's bells of Ireland under the dome, and cosmos coming up nicely.

Dahlia tubers! I let them get away from me a bit - they were waiting for me to take cuttings from them. Plants from plants!

And because I promised you more colour this blog, let's take a peek at what I've been harvesting.

Remember those narcissus buds from last time? How time flies!

A closer look at narcissus Barrett Browning in the dim cold-room light. I was going to quote from an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem about flowers, but then I got shy. But, if you like, search A Flower in a Letter. It was the sixth stanza.

The tulip harvest has begun! Here's a bunch waiting to be processed the way my flower mentor Sas (at Floralora Flowers) taught me. Most of these early tulips are being saved for the first Toronto Flower Market of the season (Saturday, May 13!!), but there will be many more stems to come!

A final burst of colour to cap off this blog.

Till next time, dears. I hope to be back before long to show you behind-the-scenes preparation for the Toronto Flower Market...