GET GROWING!

A PLAY OF LIGHT AND SHADE

By LADYBUG

Have you ever seen single poppy plants in a row or a circle? I hadn’t. Never, ever. And yet, there it was, a circle of the prettiest pink poppies – single plants, spaced well apart – in a suburban garden.

Okay, so not your average garden, but for that, a little back-story first.

An article in Newmarket Today introduced me to the glory of the Gardens of Madeline Heights.

It described themed gardens – alpine, woodland, evergreen, and perennial – all, in a suburban space.

I was fascinated, and eager to visit. However, as the article appeared in September 2020, at the peak of COVID-related fears and restrictions, I held back.

Much of 2021 was also a washout, but this summer brought hope. Restrictions were lifted, people were gathering, perhaps this was the perfect time to visit the garden?

I reached out to the address provided in the article, requesting information about location, timings, entry fees, etc., or to be directed to a website with the information

“Thank you for remembering to save a visit to our garden this year!” wrote back Sylvia, who created the garden with her husband. “Yes, that article came out a while back. We are a private garden. There are no fees. We are having a Garden Open House on Sunday, July 10. You are welcome to attend then, or if you would like a private viewing, let me know when you’d like to come and we’ll work something out.”

I made a note of the date and was there bright and early on a beautiful summer morning. And saw the poppies, reminding me of the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockleshells. And pretty maids all in a row.

How does one do that, I wondered. For you may start out with a single poppy plant, but the prolific self-seeders result in  thick clump by year two.

I put the question to Sylvia who had greeted me warmly and was talking to visitors about her garden.

“Simple! When all the seedlings come up in spring, I take my little hoe and pull all but one out.”

She made it sound so simple. But her garden must take hours and hours of work, I said, looking around me at the astoundingly neat space. No weeds, no wild seedlings, no unruly plants needing to be divided or staked. Just a stretch of serene beauty.

Again, she demurred. The work is mainly in spring and fall, when everything is coming up and when you have to put the garden to bed, she said. Summer required minimal maintenance.

The themed gardens were much in evidence. Alpine plants and winter-hardy cacti in the Rock Garden. Her husband said not many people realize that many cacti are native to Canada and do just fine in the garden in our infamous winters. 

There were the unusual evergreens described in the article. As well as rare perennials such as Spider Daylilies and Itoh Peonies.

A clematis draped the Victorian gazebo with its gorgeous blooms.

Her husband heard me oohing and aahing over the classical statuary as well as the more whimsical touches and said, “You should see the garden at night! We have installed lights to add drama to the space.”

He also confessed to not knowing the names of many of the plants. “That’s my wife’s department,” he said, with a disarming smile. “I do the digging and the grass!”

Less a riot of colour, and more a planned landscape painted with varying shades of green, it is a serene space of immense beauty.

A mature garden takes a lot of patience and this one was created over 20 years, starting with just the side beds spanning the length of the property.

When they first moved there, the yard was bare, said Sylvia. Over the years, after visiting other gardens, reading, watching programs, listening to other gardeners, and then becoming inspired, more and more beds and hardscape features were added.

Today, the gardens boast more than 700 different varieties of plants.

The master gardener’s description of the seasons in her garden reads like a poem.

“The gardens start their show very early in the spring when the snow clears with the earliest snowdrop and snowflake bulbs, followed by various tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and flowering trees, such as the exquisite Japanese Fuji Cherry.

“From there, it is a slow crescendo to the floriferous peak of summer followed by the expected diminuendo of blooms by the end of September progressing toward the inevitable and exciting beauty of the fall colours featured by the Paper Bark Maple, and brilliant Japanese Maples such as Ukiguma and Shigitatsu Sawa. Finally, the weary garden settles in with its blanket of snow to rest.”

For more information, or if you would like to visit the gardens as an individual or with a group, contact gardensofmadelineheights@bell.net.