Corylus avenllana is the proper name of the tree I am following, corkscrew hazel is its common name, and Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick is its nickname. This nickname was what attracted me to the plant many years ago. That and a photo of a full-grown plant. This photo of a full grown contorted hazel is…
I have no desire to create an Italianate garden in rural Quebec. Yet many things in the Renaissance and Renaissance-revival gardens I visited this spring are inspiring me to re-examine aspects of the garden at Glen Villa. High on the list is ensuring I have the right balance. Balance between simplicity and decoration. Between open and closed…
This post is the first of several I plan to write, describing how different sections of the gardens at Glen Villa have changed over the years. Let me know what you think. Are you interested in more posts like this one? Some people plan a garden before they begin to make it, with sketches or architectural…
Edward Lutyens once said that a garden “should have a backbone — a central idea beautifully phrased.” The central and beautifully phrased idea of the International Garden Festival at the Reford Gardens in Métis, Québec is to offer garden installations that challenge conventional ideas of what a garden is — or can be. For the…
The Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic’ has grown in the last month — not much but enough that its head now rises above the wooden rail that marks the back edge of the border. The colour of the leaves reminds me of Heuchera ‘Palace Purple.’ I chose this tree because of the colour of the leaves,…