Today Cherry Ong is once again taking us along on a garden tour from her recent trip to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This time, visiting The Gardens of Spadina Museum. According to Cherry, how you pronounce the name “Spadina” depends on where in Toronto you are from, either Spa-dye-na or Spa-Dee-nah.

This historic mansion tells the story of 1930s Toronto on the inside, and has beautiful gardens on the outside.

View of the mansion itself, looming large over the garden beds.

A beautiful antique greenhouse in the gardens, built in 1903.

Cold frames next to the greenhouse, a traditional and low-tech way to extended growing seasons. Strips of shade cloth laid over the greenhouse glass help keep the temperatures cooler in the summer.

A lush, flowery corner of the gardens.

This stone wall makes a beautiful backdrop to flowers in shades of pink and lavender, including the huge flower heads of Allium christophii (Zone 4 – 8)

The fragrant white flowers of a mock orange (Philadelphus sp., Zone 4 – 8) hanging over a clump of hosta (Zone 3 – 8)

A pink oriental poppy (Papaver orientale, Zone 3 – 7). Oriental poppies have huge, beautiful flowers are and very durable, long-lived perennials, but remember that they go completely dormant in the summer after flowering, so plant them where other plants can cover up the bare spot they leave behind.

A lovely allium relative, Nectaroscordum siculum (Zone 4 – 10), which is just as deer resistant as alliums.

Allium christophii blooms line a narrow path through the garden.

Cheerful color from a stone urn filled with violas (Viola x wittrockiana) Though generally grown as a cool-season annual, some varieties will bloom all summer long in cooler summer climates.

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