My Garden Centres - Sunshine Express

I remember when Sunshine Express started about 20 + years ago.  There was an rv trailer in the lot for the summer.  You can see from these photos that it has progressed over the years to include these impressive and expansive pergola structures.  


Sunshine is located on Carlton Street, St. Catharines.  It's formally in Niagara-On-The-Lake (N-O-T-L) as it's on the other side of the Welland Canal.  Sunshine's plant stock is larger, lusher, and more robust than any other nursery I go to.  Most of all, I love their Christmas display of poinsettias that they grow themselves.  It's a sea of red, pink, white and green.  

Favourite Leaves

Trio
Hosta Tsunami
Frosty

Leaves are a great subject for garden photographers. Here are a few of my favourites from the last few months.

Trio: I would love to know what this first plant is called. I took photos of it in Florida and Australia, so it's a tropical.

Hosta Tsunami: This was taken as the plants were just maturing in the spring so everything was perfect then - no slug holes anywhere! I think this might have been Hosta Krossa Regal.

Brunnera: This looks like Siberian Brunnera - very delicate silver leaves with the green edges and veins. I know someone will send me a comment if this isn't the correct name, and would appreciate it very much! It's a spring bloomer with small light blue flowers and then has leaves that are pretty much perfect through the summer.

Hope you are enjoying all the beautiful leaves in your garden and neighbourhood!

Marilyn

Longwood Gardens Visit

I went to Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, PA on the weekend.  We stayed with friends in Reading, PA about an hour away.  With the head, there was a mist each morning, so I had a chance to take some photos of the lovely picket fences and house lines in Roger and Irene's neighbourhood.   

At the Longwood entrance are some beautiful flower gardens - this year there was a bed of verbena bonariensis.  The butterflies were constant on the bed, so gave me the opportunity to get a few butterfly shots as well.

The big attraction this time of year is the water lily courtyard.  There are hundreds of flowers and likely a hundred varieties of water lily, plus all kinds of water garden plants.  I'm posting a sampling of the water lilies on display.

More to come...