December, 1915. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



iS75 



Experiences With a Northern Ontario Garden 



Mrs. John Lome McDougal, Haileybury, Ontario 



OUR Northern climate is a fascinat- 

 ing one. A fine day comes and 

 it is so exhilarating that all 

 memory of other less pleasant weather 

 is obliterated. Fortunately there are 

 many fine, sunny days. It is a change- 

 able climate. I have lived seven years 

 in Haileybury and cannot recall two 

 seasons alike. But the "gardens" 

 grow in every kind of season. 



We have no genuine spring. Severe 

 nights continue through the greater 

 part of April. Spring may show her- 

 self for a while in May, but summer 

 (with an occasional disconcerting, 

 sometirhes disastrous reversion to win- 

 ter), is upon us with the coming of 

 June. If the nights are still wintry 

 when April comes, the mornings are 

 already long. The sun rises in early 

 summer shortly after three o'clock, and 

 in June and July the daylight lingers 

 until ten o'clock. 



Horticulture in northern Ontario 

 owes a great deal to the British gar- 

 deners who have settled there, for the 

 methods that suit the home climate 

 seem to be what is needed for success 

 with us. But operations must be con- 

 ducted literally "on the run." Natur- 

 ally, this rush and hurry tends to make 

 gardening expensive. 



For these reasons fall digging is ad- 

 visable. In fact, it is better to do all 

 , possible work in the autumn. All pei- 

 ennials, biennials, and shrubs shoiild 

 be planted or moved into position then. 



Fall seeding might be practicable. 1 

 notice that nicotine, candytuft, pansies, 

 sehizanthus, produce fine plants from 

 self-sown seeds. 



Generally speaking, the hotbeds 

 should be started by the middle or' 

 April. Then follows quickly the prick- 

 ing out and the hardening off in the 

 cold frames. It is very important thai 

 the little plants should be well hard- 

 ened off. My experience is, that this 

 early start in hotbed, or window gar- 

 den, or small greenhouse, or for some 

 plants (such as asters), simply in the 

 cold frame, is the essential thing in all 

 gardening of flowers and of many of 

 the finer vegetables. 



Along Lake Timiskaming we suffer 

 less from unseasonable frosts than far- 

 ther north, and a well protected gar- 

 den suffers little. A high fence to- 

 wards the north and west, or a wall of 

 fir trees, are valuable possessions. A 

 prospective gardener is recommended 

 to make a study of protections against 

 frost and cold winds suitable to his plot 

 of ground. They might, too, add much 



• Extract from a paper read at the recent an- 

 nual convention, held In Toronto, of the On- 

 tario Horticultural A.s.soclatlon. 



to its beaut}^ With intelligent plant- 

 ing and a proper use of protections a 

 garden can be enjoyed from the mid- 

 dle of May until the end of October. 



As in other parts of the province, 

 the cut worm has been a very serious 

 enemy this past season. He spared 

 nothing in June that he could reach, 

 large tomato plants, beets, carrots, 

 strong, vigorous growths in no danger 

 formerly, all were felled. 



Annuals Thrive. 



I doubt if there is any other corner 

 of our Dominion where annuals 

 thrive better. I have one border one 

 hundred and twenty-five long and ten 

 feet wide devoted entirely to hardy 

 annuals. Nothing is planted there that 

 the first early autumn frost will injure. 

 At the back grow miniature sun- 

 flowers, nicotine, and early cosmos- 

 then come tall antirrhinums, and 

 stretches of rosy salpiglossis with an 

 occasional amaranthus, — in front of 

 them clumps of sehizanthus changing 

 with antirrhinums of shorter growth, 

 an odd gladiolus here and there, play- 

 ing sentinel, — no abrupt transitions 

 anywhere, — and salmon and buff 

 l)hloxes and yellow pansies, and blue 

 ageratum, and nemesias, pink and yel- 

 low, and dimerphotheticas, and mig- 

 nonette, all crowding against a line of 

 sweet alyssum. 



Nowhere do the antirrhinums grow 

 taller or heavier of bloom ; nowhere are 

 the salpiglossis more velvety, nor 



brighter of hue; nowhere are the 

 sehizanthus more literally buried in 

 fairy blossoms, — and the heights of the 

 plants, as given in the catalogues, are 

 all understated. The stocks, too, will 

 stand quite severe frost and grow 

 taller and sturdier and sweeter with us 

 than elsewhere. They and the asters 

 are the last flowers in bloom in the fall. 

 ■ We get wonderful results in size and 

 height with asters. It is an easy 

 thing to grow an aster bloom seven 

 inches across and it needs no particular 

 care. But with fertilizers and judici- 

 ous pruning and constant cultivation 

 certain varieties of asters will rival the 

 chrysanthemums. Asters are, perhaps, 

 more exacting to grow than other an- 

 nuals. They are oftener attacked by 

 insects and generally lose some of their 

 number through stem rot. 



I never put zinnias in my more ex- 

 posed borders, for they are easily in- 

 jured by frost. But grown in sunny, 

 protected situations there is no flower 

 that blooms more profusely, truer to 

 form and color, absolutely Robust a 

 Grandiflora Plenissima Maxima. Nor 

 do I care for marigolds in prominent 

 places. Provided they get an early 

 start they certainly grow and bloom 

 riotously. 



This past summer produced some ex- 

 traordinary dahlias. We grew decora- 

 tive dahlias as large as a dessert plate, 

 and very lovely. The paeony and cactus 

 dahlias, the former almost as large of 

 bloom, were really the queens of the 



This Persian lilac adorn.s the garden of Mr. J. H. Bennett, of Barrie, Ont. The Persian lilac 

 Is a distinct species that rarely prows over six feet in height. It is more graceful In effect 



than most varieties of llla<:a. 



