Morden Roses

Morden Blush ~ Parkland Rose

The Parkland series roses were developed to survive harsh Canadian winters by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at Morden Research Station in Manitoba. Exceptional for their hardiness (to -35C), they require minimal care and pruning, and are reliably disease resistant. Profuse and repeat bloomers, I haven't met one I haven't loved.

A Rose By Any Other Name

A walk through the Morden Research Station (PDF)

In the news recently....

"The decision to discontinue the program under the auspices of Agriculture Canada came in 2008 as part of a departmental review of federal research priorities.

It placed work such as the development of the Parkland series of roses long associated with Morden near the bottom of the list compared to other agri-food research. As a result, the decision was made to phase out the ornamentals program and turn over the remaining materials to private industry or other groups."
excerpt from:
Famed rose program leaving Morden
Local bid not awarded program in privatization by federal government
By Lorne Stelmach
The Morden Times

The story continues:

"Following a departmental review two years ago, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada decided to discontinue its involvement in the rose breeding and research program. The program was opened up to applications and has now been awarded to the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association.
CNLA Rose Program Research Coordinator Rick Durand says the program will continue in southern Manitoba. He explains all the roses that were growing in containers at the AAFC Morden Research Station have been brought to Morden Nurseries, Aubin Nurseries at Carman and Jeffries Nurseries at Portage."
Nurseries Take Over Rose Program
by Kelvin Heppner    

steinbachonline.com/agriculture_news
18 August 2010

"....rose expert and author Bob Osborne of Corn Hill Nurseries, N.B, "The past several decades have been a tremendously exciting time for the northern rose grower. No longer do we need to look with envy at pictures of English gardens draped with colourful and climbing roses. Thanks to Agriculture and AgriFood Canada breeding programs, we now have at our disposal a veritable cornucopia of roses that are hardy, easy to grow, beautifully formed and disease resistant to boot."
Canadian genetics live on!
From setback to opportunity: Canada's grower industry embarks on a new era with the takeover of AAFC's ornamental breeding program

By Rita Weerdenburg

LandscapeTrades.com

May 2011 

Morden Blush ~ Parkland Rose

Morden Arboretum Research Station

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Station

Garden Spaces Big and Small

our garden, June 2011

For a small yard we manage to pack in a lot of plants, trees, and edible things. I've always felt somewhat loose with some of the rules of planting; wanting to utilize as much of the space that I have, not wasting any.


This morning I was lucky - exceptionally lucky to be able to visit a beautiful, mature garden in a yard on Farrand Street backing on to McVicar Creek. A huge, huge space with a rolling hill down toward the creek surrounded in tall city trees.
I was there to photograph the garden for the Walleye. As I entered the garden through the gate on the south side of the house I was greeted with pots and containers of nursery plants, some perennials and some annuals - all just waiting to be added somewhere to this oasis. Obviously a never ending work in progress. I was excited, and had to take a deep breath before continuing along the bricked path. There was a succulent garden near the patio, and three different ponds: two developed in barrels and one built of rocks under a mass of ferns, and other big leafed perennials I can't even name. The Solomon's Seal is the most mature plant I've ever seen outside books.
A brick and flagstone path along the south side of the garden lead me past clematis after clematis climbing trellises and trees, with a spread of blue, white, and pink forget-me-nots beneath. Garden beds on either side of the path were willed with cultivars of columbine and hardy geraniums, Lady's Mantle grew everywhere, spreading out between other plants: peonies, allium (in both deep and pale shades of purple), bleeding hearts, and even more clematis.
As I came near the end of the path I though the garden would be coming to an end, but as the hill rolled down toward the creek the garden beds continued, on either side of aged concrete steps built into the ground.
I could hear both the sound of the creek, and the subtle sound of traffic behind the trees; but with the wind this morning and the June leaves it sounded more like the middle of nowhere as I stood there somewhere so special. At the top of the steps, a landing and an old garden bench looking on to the garden beds to the east, and the hill to the creek to the southwest. Beside it was a Japanese Lilac bursting with budding blooms - only one or two looked like they were ready to open today, ...I'm sure by tomorrow or the day after the whole shrub will be a mass of pale purple flowers.
The brick path continued curving through garden beds and along the north side of the yard, surrounded with plants draping their foliage across it. More alliums, foam flowers, geraniums, and bleeding hearts bubbled over one another through a pergola into a grass lawn, within which was more rounded garden beds bursting with colour.
So much of the garden was naturalized, with wild Lady's Mantle and forget-me-nots every where. It was so beautiful, and such a treat to photograph. Red leafed shrubs broke up the shades of green and lime, with tall trees towering over garden specimens and cedars lining the yard.  

I met the master gardener behind the creation while I was halfway down the steps to the creek, photographing upward through a fern. She wore a t-shirt that said "PERENNIAL OPTIMIST" and was about my mother's age. We talked for a while about her journey to this space, and about it's development over the years, then I got back to my camera while she pulled out her wheel barrow and continued her work. It was an absolute pleasure to meet her, see what she's done, and learn.

I won't post the photographs here - not of the garden, though I may use some of the closer photos of plants for descriptive purposes from time to time. I'll save the photos of the garden for the gardener herself (and of course for the Walleye). It's just nice to know there are hidden special spaces like this in our own downtown backyards.

"Sometimes plants don't survive - which I see only as another opportunity." 

~ S. Master Gardener.

2010 Symposium on Sustainable Horticulture

Canadian Institute for Sustainable Biodiversity

February 16th through 19th, 2010

2010 Symposium on Sustainable Horticulture

Join experts and specialists from all over Ontario and further abroad for our three-day symposium on sustainable horticulture.

What part does horticulture play in making urban Canada a healthy, productive place to live?

How does our urban landscape - gardens, parks, lawns, ecologically designed hardscapes, green roofs and other innovations - ensure that well-being and biodiversity are supported and enhanced?

What steps can all practitioners of horticulture - from the trades to home gardeners and plant breeders - take to issues like invasive species, pest management and urban biodiversity?

The symposium will explore these and many other questions, Wednesday February 17th through Friday February 19th, 2010 (with a day of workshops on Tuesday February 16th).

• Hands-on workshops one day only, Tuesday, February 16: plant identification, seed saving, cooking with local produce
• Multidisciplinary panels, keynotes, presentations and poster sessions
• Sessions: Sustainable Sites Initiative, water features, climate change, urban agriculture, native plants, green roof technologies and more
• Keynote presentations: Dr. Jennifer Sumner, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Dr. David Galbraith, Royal Botanical Gardens, and Dr. Steve Windhager, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas

Register on-line

Information on volunteering

Download a flyer for the 2010 Patrick Colgan Lecture, “Climate Change and Horticulture through Mid-Century” by Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon, on Wednesday 17 February 2010 at 7:00 PM

Resources - Horticulture Certificate Program (University of Guelph)

American Nursery & Landscape Association
ANLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. This support enables them to operate more effectively and to provide the public with quality plants, landscape design and installations, and related products and services. www.anla.org/about/index.htm

Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
CNLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. www.canadanursery.com

Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone
The Plant Hardiness Zones map outlines the different zones in Canada where various types of trees, shrubs and flowers will most likely survive. It is based on the average climatic conditions of each area. sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System
The CANADIAN POISONOUS PLANTS INFORMATION SYSTEM presents data on plants that cause poisoning in livestock, pets, and humans. The plants include native, introduced, and cultivated outdoor plants as well as indoor plants that are found in Canada. Some food and herbal plants are also included that may cause potential poison problems. www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/pp/poison?p_x=px

Canadian Rose Society
A Non-Profit Organization dedicated to furthering the study of Roses and to promoting their cultivation throughout Canada. http://www.canadianrosesociety.org/
American Rose Society - http://www.ars.org/

Canadian Soil Information System
The Canadian Soil Information System (CanSIS) has supported the research activities of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada by building the National Soil DataBase (NSDB). The NSDB is the set of computer readable files that contain soil, landscape, and climatic data for all of Canada. It serves as the national archive for land resources information that was collected by federal and provincial field surveys, or created by land data analysis projects. http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/intro.html

Composting Council of Canada
The Composting Council of Canada is a national non-profit, member-driven organization with a charter to advocate and advance composting and compost usage. It serves as the central resource and network for the composting industry in Canada and, through its members, contributes to the environmental sustainability of the communities in which they operate. http://www.compost.org/

Hedge Plants for New Brunswick Gardens
The choice of hedge plants should be determined by the location, soil conditions, size of garden and the effect to be created by the hedge.
http://www.gnb.ca/0171/30/0171300011-e.asp

International Society of Arboriculture
Arborists around the world share their experience and knowledge for the benefit of society through the ISA. The ISA works to foster a better understanding of trees and tree care through research and the education of professionals as well as global efforts to inform tree care consumers. http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/

Ontario Noxious Weeds
http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/noxious_weeds.htm

Ontario Pesticide Education Program
The Ontario Pesticide Education Program has been providing pesticide safety and application training to Ontario farmers and pesticide vendors. http://www.ridgetownc.on.ca/opep/
Ontario Pollutants

Ontario ’s Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has been protecting Ontario’s air quality for over 30 years. Using stringent regulations, targeted enforcement and a variety of innovative air quality initiatives, the ministry continues to address air pollution that has local, regional and/or global effects. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/air.htm

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Weed Science Society of America, Plant Photo Library
The photo herbarium contains pictures of many plants that are common to North America. Some of the plant species listed are not generally considered weeds but may have toxic or poisonous properties, or are otherwise of general interest as wildflowers or herbs. http://www.wssa.net/photo&info/weedframe3.htm

University of Guelph stuff (and some books)

http://www.horticulturecertificates.com/

University of Guelph Library resources:
www.lib.uoguelph.ca/facilities/offcampus.cfmwww

http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/help/guides/index.cfm?code=hort

some books I want:

The Meaning of Gardens (Francis & Hester)
The MIT Press; New Ed edition (8 April 1992)
978-0262560610

The Oxford Companion to Gardens (Goode & Lancaster)
Oxford University Press; New Ed edition (30 Sep 2001)
978-0198604402

Recommended by and loaned to me from Cindy (thank you) - I really love this book!
The Language of Flowers (ed. Sheila Pickles)
Harmony Books, Crown Punlishers, Inc.
0-517-57460-8

Science and the Garden: The Scientific Basis of Horticultural Practice (David Ingram)
Blackwell Science Ltd (30 Jul 2002)
978-0632053087