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  • From: "Dan Clost" <dan.clost@sympatico.ca>
  • To: "gardenwriters-on-gardening" <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] Could this be? Nah!
  • Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2006 20:01:47 -0400

Hey Jeff,
a Happy Thanksgiving to all,
I know I'm usually more involved on this list but this has been the busiest season for our nursery- ever. We're finished up with the spring rush and just about got the summer bit taken care of. With a little luck, autumn will slip in around January and we'll be able to say we stayed ahead of the work this year.
Global warming. I'll wager when you got to Alaska, the North Pole was still frozen.
At our area of the continent- (north shore of Lake Ontario, Trenton, Ontario)- we have gone up at least 1/2 if not a full winter hardiness zone ( you can measure in USDA or Cdn numbers).
The primary indicator for this assertion is the overwintering of plants that don't usually make it through our winters.
We have had some Carolinian trees and shrubs returning to our area- they left way back in the day of the disappearing Champlain Sea. Certainly tulip trees, Liriodendron tulipfera, and Kentucky coffee trees, Gymnocladus dioecious are quite happy here now. ( I know there are some mature specimens in the Kemptville and Ottawa areas- Cdn zone 4a/b- but they are the definite exceptions to the rule.) We can't seem to overwinter the sweetgums yet, e.g. Liquidambar styracifluous (SP???) although it's not for lack of trying. We've tried both species and a cv called Worpeldson's. Stewartia and Mackia are beginning to make inroads, Japanese maples have moved from disposable income purchases to discretionary selections.
As a retailer, what is holding us back is the customer's lack of familiarity with many of these "new" trees.
Itea and caryopteris are beginning to be used more extensively, and large leaf rhododendrons are creeping into designs. Genista is doing well now.
Last winter was exceptionally mild. We had a good hardening-off fall with rain and temperature differentials ( night and day time temps) all occurring in good order followed by an exceptional spring. In the nursery, I can't recall a single customer complaining that they lost a hybrid tea rose- which is unusual.
10 years ago very few of these plants would be available to the gardener in our area. Is it global warming? Hardier plants due to the efforts of the hort breeding boffins? Probably a combination of both.

The other aspect of this, I suppose, is how some of these plants are perceived. Invasive lists are everywhere and a few of the plants I mentioned are on those lists. But, from our perspective, those lists were generated in faraway places like the Carolinas, Florida and Virginia. Our cold winters turned those pesky things into annuals. Those faraway places are a lot closer now.

Another way to look at is the increased warmth in the summer- I am not familiar with a Canadian based system that measures the top end of zones. I do know that white spruce, Picea glauca, are beginning to brown out. Fraser fir, Abies fraserii, has a tough time with the combination of heat and dryness. I know our personal consumption of water and use of sunscreen at the garden centre was unprecedented this year.
One disturbing trend- sort of a non-sequitor- is that many folks are trying plants they really shouldn't be trying. For example, bent grass. Bent grass does grow nicely here- but as a warm season grass it really messes up our cool-season lawns.

The next part of this is that we are seeing many new insects, other buggie things, bird species, fish etc that we have never seen before here. Folks are bringing in glass jars filled with colourful critters for us to identify and we just sort of goggle at them.

I've written about most of this stuff in my columns and have yet to receive a response that expresses concerns about these issues. (Of course, one might correlate the lack of "fan" mail with popularity of the column.) When I speak at hort societies and other august bodies and mention some of this, I have found that the meetings can quickly degenerate into vociferous and adamant factions supporting/descrying the use/non-use of invasives/native/naturalised/anything that grows.

The trade is a whole different game.

Talk later,
Dan

The Good Earth Columnist
Dan Clost's Greenscapes






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