Collectors and keeners queuing up for Saturday’s RBG Plant Faire
Peonies are pushing their way out of pots in a greenhouse at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Rows of raspberry coloured stems hint at what to expect in June when Julia Rose is in bloom. It’s big, it’s beautiful and as the kids say, it’s the bomb.
And that’s a good thing.
Julia Rose is one of 14 special Royal Select plants that will be for sale at the RBG’s Plant Faire this Saturday.
“It’s a cross between a garden peony and tree peony,” Dave Cummins is saying as light drizzle falls on the plants being assembled for sale. “The flowers are huge and there’s lots of them.”
Julia Rose is an Itoh peony, rare enough that you won’t bump into it at the usual garden centres. By blending the best traits of the garden peony with the tree peony, a remarkable plant is produced. The sensational flowers are held up by study stems that won’t faint in the rain. The abundant flowers should keep opening for at least two weeks, and the colour transitions between orange, apricot, pink and yellow. It’s a standout in the RBG peony collection.
Dave and Cathy Cummins are both volunteers at the RBG. Dave started with the plant sale in 1993 and has potted and labelled thousands of plants over the years, working with other volunteers and formerly the RBG Auxiliary in growing the Royal Select program. On this day they are checking on the perennials, shrubs and trees assembled for the sale. Cummins is pleased that this year’s selection of 14 plants are all grown and evaluated for their performance at the RBG.
The Plant Faire at the RBG Centre on Plains Road in Burlington this Saturday runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you want to get your mitts on Julia Rose, better get there early. There are just 25 for sale, and even at a price of $75 each, I suspect they will sell out.
Another beauty for sale in the Royal Select lineup is a rose called Campfire. It’s part of the Canadian Artist Series, and named after a painting by Tom Thompson. I saw it still blooming in November in the new RBG rose garden last season. At that time the semidouble flowers were all pink, but earlier in the summer they display yellow and red mixed with pink.
Hydrangea lovers should check out a lovely oak leaf hydrangea called Ruby Slippers, a
compact form with big pinky-red flowers, and the sale also includes the indestructible perennial Baptisia australis known as blue false indigo. The lone tree for sale in the Royal Select program will be the columnar sweet gum, a gem of a specimen with grand fall colour and rightsized for a small property. A full list of plants for sale is on the RBG website (www.rbg.ca).
This is just the third year for the Plant Faire, but the offerings are robust. Just a few of the other vendors include Dynamic Daylilies, Lotsa Hostas, Ontario Native Plants, Vineland Nurseries, and Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm.
The speaker series running every half-hour includes talks on pollination, soil, lilies, dahlias, dividing peonies, and climate change. Two walks through Hendrie Park will explore the history of the gardens.
The old plant sale that used to be held at the Arboretum, and now the Plant Faire at RBG Centre always feel like a springboard to spring. The pots are full of promise, gardeners will be gabbing about the weather; it’s five hours of fun on a Saturday.
Just don’t forget that those “bomb” plants are only there while supplies last.