Garden siteseeing in Canada

Visits to some of Canada's best garden blogs.

Are you ready to visit Canadian gardens today? Each Thursday we temporarily exchange a trowel for a mouse, seeing what’s happening in gardens across the US and around the world. Today we’re headed northward.

First stop, Canning, Nova Scotia, to drop in on bloomingwriter Jodi DeLong, author of “The Atlantic Gardener’s Greenbook.” She’s also a photographer and the owner of three cats.

It’s fun – and instructive – seeing what’s blooming in her garden or in a nearby nursery at any particular time. I enjoyed the discussion earlier this week on the newish coneflowers – different colors and different looks. I’ve been successful with some and less so with others, so it was interesting to hear someone else’s take on them.

Then we’ll journey a bit westward to Toronto to look in on Orwin and Irena, who announce themselves as parents, filmmakers, and gardeners, in that order, in My Roots Run Deep.

Irena writes with joy and enthusiasm – about everything from a new clematis vine flowering to carrots growing well when they weren’t expected to.

Scroll down to June 1 and look at the new type of street planter in her area. She’s right – it’s a mess. Can’t wait to see what she thinks in August, although it's hard to imagine it will have improved a lot, or even saved the city much money.

Even farther west in Regina, Saskatchewan, Kate smudges in earth, paint and life. Whether the discussion is about unusual pinks, luscious tuberous begonias, or geraniums, she might share some lines of poetry or song lyrics as a delightedly unexpected accompaniment.

Now, to complete our journey, we head all way back to Nova Scotia – Pictou County, this time – where Chey is a maritime gardener. She hybridizes daylilies, my favorite flower of all time. Gotta say I really drool over the ones she grows.

Often Chey's photographs of perennial flowers make me think about them differently – the "hairy bloomers in the garden," for instance. I may never look at bee balm or a geranium bud in the same way again.

And that’s what travel is all about – broadening our horizons. Even if it is virtual travel. Come back next Thursday for another jaunt around the gardening blogosphere.