The week beginning
August 6

This Week
'Discover gardening spinoffs from the Canadian Crop Diversification Centre North.'

Perennials... Coneflower: Echinacea purpurea is often said to have herbal properties but even if it doesn't, it's gorgeous and smells great!

Bean Poles Vegetable trials are ongoing, and these pole beans are certainly one of this years contenders.

More Trials... I've always been amazed at the production of the Tumbler tomato, but this trial variety (enigmatically called LLDI) produces literally hundreds of small pear-shaped yellow tomatoes.
Au Natural... These tile and wood pieces of furniture are funky and practical all at the same time.
Let the Games Begin Thousands of plants made their way to the World Championships in Amateur Athletics, and the growing staff are breathing a sigh of relief. But now the floral design people are hard a work making fresh bouquets everyday for the winning athletes. And the maintenance crews are going in every night to water the plants and make sure everything looks good for the millions of viewers worldwide.
Poinsettias Poinsettias are a fussy crop and take a lot of hand work. After each plant is individually pinched they are drenched to help prevent whitefly, aphids and fungus gnats.
Maintenance Hole's has over 20 coldframes and the plastics don't last forever. Each fall several cold frames are re-covered in rotation. The plastics we now use will last about 7 years before they will have to be replaced.
Helen's Flower Also known as Sneezeweed, this Helenium hybrid 'Waltraut' certainly deserves the prettier name.

Blue berries... ...but not blueberries! The berries on this Creeping Mahonia are bright blue but definitely not tasty like their near-twins.
Fall Mums The cold frames are full of fall mums, just about bursting into fall colour which will last past the first few frosts.