On this cold wintery day, we’re looking back to early summer when frequent GPOD contributor Cherry Ong was visiting Toronto and went on some garden tours.

Enjoy this beautiful, inspiring garden!

False indigo (Baptisia australis, Zones 3–9) is showing off its beautiful purple flowers. This native perennial can be slow to establish, but once it settles in it is long-lived, tough, and drought tolerant.

A beautiful planting in a small shaded area includes clouds of hardy geraniums (Geranium hybrid, Zones 4–8) showing off in the foreground.

Peonies (Paeonia hybrid, Zones 3–8) with huge flowers heavy with fragrant petals are carefully staked to keep from flopping.

This looks like it could be the popular variety ‘Festiva Maxima’, which was introduced in 1851 and is still popular and going strong thanks to the beautiful flowers, strong fragrance, and ironclad disposition.

The velvety silver leaves of Senecio ‘Angel Wings’ (Zones 8–10 or as an annual)

A potted succulent makes a living sculpture.

I love this planter, which is overflowing with white lobelia (Lobelia erinus, Zones 10–11 or as an annual) and a romantically soft pink tuberous begonia (Begonia hybrid, Zones 10–11 or as an annual).

A closer look at this container planting

Sometimes simple container plantings are the most effective. This little dianthus (Dianthus hybrid, hardiness varies by variety) with pure white flowers looks incredible filling this pot with bloom.

Shades of green look all the brighter here for the dark backdrop of a painted fence that provides privacy to the patio.

 

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to gpod@taunton.com along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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