A promise yet to be fulfilled [01/26]

I’m Nathan Langley and this is ‘A promise yet to be fulfilled’, a seasonal weekly newsletter on my trial garden developments at home in Sudbury, Ontario!

Let’s pick up where we left off last year — how are the new gardens doing? Were there any failures over the crazy, brutal winter?

The last garden I installed in 2025 was the first to wake up this year. Which makes sense, since it has a number of spring flowering perennials in it compared to what I am now calling my ‘library garden’ (main trial garden) and the garden I installed in the summer along the driveway. Those are well on their way, but nothing is flowering in them quite yet.

In terms of failures, the majority were the woody trees I installed. The Acer griseum (paperbark maple) didn’t make it, and the jury is still out on the Cornus kousa ‘Galzam’ (Galilean dogwood). I really want the dogwood to make it and am still hopeful since the Cornus kousa in Guelph leafed out a few weeks ago.

The only perennial failures so far were (x1) Thelypteris decursive-pinnata (Japanese beech fern) and (x1) Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Blue Jean Baby’ (‘Blue Jean Baby’ Russian sage). I was afraid that the Andropogon gerardii ‘Blackhawks’ (‘Blackhawks’ big blue stem) wasn’t going to make it since they looked so horrible last year, but they pulled through and are starting to fill in already (which is wonderful for a warm season grass in Sudbury!).

In terms of new additions so far this year, I have added (x2) Papaver orientale ‘Princess Victoria Louise’ (‘Princess Victoria Louise’ poppy) to the Library garden, and I have replaced the Perovskia that died with another ‘Blue Jean Baby’. We will see how they develop this year, but I have brought in some Perovskia atriplicifolia and will plant at least one in the Library garden at some point to compare.

I also planted a row of Deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair grass) along the drainage swale, further separating the driveway garden from the Library garden. Once again, I wanted to create a point of reference with the species vs. the two cultivars I planted last year (‘Gold Dew’ and ‘Gold Veil’).

Otherwise, I am part way through preparing a new area at the front of the house for planting. I am also trying to clear the remaining section of the Library garden that needs to be turned over to remove the infiltrating perennial grass and horsetail. Hopefully, there will be some dry spells this weekend and I can make some more progress with those two areas.