With temperatures consistently near freezing or warmer, and the snowpack melting, thoughts are quickly turning to another gardening season. Carla Hrycyna from St. Mary's Nursery and Garden Centre is getting ready for the return of the Lawn and Garden Journal tomorrow morning (March 8th) at 9:15am. The weekly call in show on 920 CFRY gives you the opportunity to speak with Carla directly about any and all questions related to gardening and landscaping.
Ahead of Carla's return to the studio, she reflected on some of the trends expected to be the most popular this gardening season, including the arrival of the colour "Mocha Moose"
"Mocha Moose would be more a rich kind of mellow brown, so I think you might be able to start to see some of those colour tones in your ipomoea (impatients) or in some of the euchre colour tones," she said. "We're so used to the full gambit of colours in our gardens, so maybe it's bringing us back to those neutrals."
Where will you see Mocha Moose?
"Something I'm really excited about this year is, if you're going into some mochas, we were really popular with it here last year, believe it or not, was black petunias," Hrycyna noted. "There is a black angelonia I'm really excited for, it's called an Angel Flare black angelonia. It almost has the same vertical spikiness of a salvia, but the flowers themselves look like little orchids or maybe little Snapdragons. There is a true black one we have on our screens right now to be arriving. It hasn't arrived yet, but we're really excited about it."
Heat and drought tolerant plants remain popular
"People are going for plants that are a little bit more resistant to the heat," she explained. "Some of the ones I actually expanded on a little bit more were the vincas. It's actually vinca the flowers (periwinkles), and they are so resilient. They take the heat, and that kind of pairs with the angelonias I talked about, because angelonia has come in a full array of whites, pinks, lavenders, blues, soft blues and the black. People are looking for flowers that really can take those high temperatures."
And we can't forget about tomatoes
Hrycyna admits there are many, many varieties out there to choose from, but she did have a couple to highlight ahead of this growing season.
"One that's called Cherokee, it's more of an heirloom type, but it's almost playing on that black look again," she said. "When you go into a Cherokee heirloom purple, it almost is like a purple black, but when you cut into it, it has reds, yellows and kind of that green under tone, and almost looks under matured, but it's got that dark tone."
Another one she pointed to was a variety called Thunderbird. And for those gardening in a smaller space, there's a variety called Kitchen Mini.
"If you're on a patio, and you want something that's a little more petite and easy to pick, try the Kitchen Mini," Hrycyna said. "They're like micro tomatoes, a little bit larger than a small cherry, but they're perfect for the patio and perfect for growing indoors, too, if you have a very bright location."
Carla Hrycyna returns Saturday morning (March 8th) for another season of the Lawn and Garden Journal on 920 CFRY Join her with your questions at 9:15am by calling 1-800-374-3315. Listen anytime here or tell your smart device to play 920 CFRY in Portage la Prairie. Learn more about smart device listening here.