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Hana Earth Gardens, 80 Lillington Avenue, Toronto, ON (2026)

05/22/2026

I also transplanted some Columbine plants from backyard as well.

In my garden, Columbines self-seed well and I see them growing in all sorts of odd places😆

So I usually dig them up and transplant somewhere else.

Columbines are also great groundcovers with nice ornamental foliage!

Although they're not for the ground hugging groundcovers, the height gets 1-1.5ft without the flower stems.

Be careful transplanting Columbines, they don't like their roots disturbed, so when you dig a plant, dig deep to get as much as roots.

In my experiences, they're actually not that fussy and even some roots are cut off by digging, they transplant really well, though.

Keep the roots moist after the transplanting, though.

As I said many times, Columbines are great with Alliums, especially popular 'Purple Sensation'.

You can read more about it here
https://www.instagram.com/p/DQpVWhgEbrv

You can order both Columbine and Allium 'Purple Sensation' seeds from my website
https://www.hanaearthgardens.ca/perennial-seeds

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/20/2026

We needed to fix our front steps this spring so the area next to the steps needed to be replanted.

I'm focusing more drought tolerant and low maintenance plants but still look nice, yes, I know it's a tall order but I've learned what works in my garden over the years.

For a groundcover, I transplanted wild strawberry, which I have several plants from backyard.

I'm not really expecting for fruit harvesting for this area, this is definitely more for ornamental.

But wild strawberry is a great groundcover, hardy and foliage is semi-evergreen with cute little white flowers.

It spreads quickly but not too aggressively (easy to control) and can take some shade.

I'm not sure if mine is Fragaria virginiana (I believe this is commonly called 'Wild Strawberry') or Fragaria vesca (Alpine Strawberry or Woodland Strawberry) but probably F. vesca and both are native to Ontario (I think).

There are some differences between these 2 so research which is better suited to your garden.

I used to offer some seeds but not anymore and hopefully I can offer them again, but I might be able to offer some seedlings for pickup.

If you're interested, please reach out from my website's 'Contact' page, no direct message via Instagram/Facebook please.

Anyway, this is a nice groundcover, usually really not fussy about the soil or growing conditions, just need some sun.

Easy to transplant, too!

I also transplanted some violets which self-seeded well and good groundcover combination with Wild Strawberry.

I know these two grow well in my garden without much maintenance, I don't even need to water when they're established.

And I have lots of them to transplant so I don't need to buy more plants.

These two might not work for your garden but observe your garden (or even your neighbours) and see what are growing well.

Rather than gambling to invest new plants which you don't know if they're going to work, use what you have!

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/19/2026

Hope you had a great long weekend and enjoyed the warm weather!

Did you buy any plants?😉
Or planted anything?

I have enough plants so I don't buy plants much anymore, rather, I transplant self-seeded plants to more appropriate areas.

So that's what I did, plus some summer tubers/corms (like dahlias and gladiolus, etc.) planted.

If you're a dahlia fan, you probably already started the tubers indoors way before now (and know what to do so this is more for a dahlia beginners).

But don't worry, it's not too late, you can plant the tubers outside now (here in Toronto).

What I usually do is pre-sprouting the tubers indoors before planting out in the garden.

Some tubers might be hard to see the 'eyes' where the stems come up, so I want to see if the tuber is actually viable first.

You can plant a tuber in a small pot or I usually just pot several in a small tray (like 8x8in or so).

Ideally, you want to lay a tuber horizontally but I don't have much space so I usually just put them vertically.

You don't even need to bury the whole tuber, half buried is good enough, don't water too much at first.

The tubers are easy to get rotten before growing start, so just moisten the soil at first.

When you start seeing the growth then you can transplant the tuber outside.

You can start this process much earlier like some weeks before the last frost date.

I think larger flower size varieties take more time to bloom, so you might want to start them indoors.

Single flowering varieties or collarette varieties might bloom faster.

If you're trying to take cuttings, you might want to start much earlier.

I already talked about the dahlia cuttings, which you can find it here
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDr79onOSLV/
and
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDuxBARxYaL/

You can also find more tips here
https://www.hanaearthgardens.ca/information

Please note that I DO NOT sell any dahlia tubers.

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/15/2026

Please note there will be NO PLANT SALE this spring.

Several people reached out and asked about it but unfortunately I couldn't get ready for the plant sale this spring due to the family emergency earlier this year.

I might have some Wisteria 'Blue Moon' plants or other perennials to offer (pickup only) but you'll know here if they're on sale.

This is the time of planting and here are some tips:

1. Hydrate the plants well before planting

A good way to do this is bottom water the plant, if you have a flat tray without the holes, fill it up with water and put a tray of seedlings or pots in there and leave for several minutes.

If you have a bareroot plant, cut each tip of the roots, then leave the bareroot in the water for 30 minutes or so.

2. Prepare the planting site

Sounds basic but it's important, dig a hole, then water the hole before you plant, you can do this while you leaving the seedlings/plants hydrating (like I mentioned above).

3. Again, water the newly planted plants well

Even the 'drought tolerant plants' need water when they're first planted, so keep an eye on them after planted.

'Drought tolerant' means when the plant is established, usually after a year (some plants need more time, though), so water well for the first year.

4. Check the forecast

Especially for the frost sensitive annuals.

Usually we can plant most annuls out this time of the year here in Toronto, but we've been having such a cool spring, you might want to wait a bit or you can plant them out but if there's a frost advisory in your area, protect the newly planted plants, especially seedlings.

If you have a frost cover, that's great, use that, if not, you can use any fabrics or even burlap.

Or for a very temporary solution, use a mason jar or a container big enough not to touch the plant to protect a plant.

Remove it as soon as the danger of frost is gone, you don't want to 'cook' the plant with this jar or container on.

The long weekend is coming and it looks like a nice weather for gardening so hope this helps!

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

05/14/2026

I talked about the importance of having 'filler' plants for your cut flower garden some post ago and shrubs are great as fillers especially for making garden arrangements earlier in the season.

But what about other plants like perennials, annuals, or herbs, even some veggies?

Like I said, you can use herbs as fillers (a nice scent is also a bonus!) but you can use some vegetable's foliage, too.

Use asparagus or carrot leaves, too, the delicate ferny foliage is wonderful for arrangements.

Of course these are more for summer and not for May arrangements but having lots of filler plants are great.

This is exactly why I included some plants like Ammi and Ornamental Grass in my 'Annual Cut Flower Mix', so you can have both 'main flowers' like Zinnia and Sunflower and filler plants/flowers.

Nigella and Cosmos leaves are also nice for fillers, too, so you can use them as both 'main flowers' and 'fillers'.

You can order the Annual Cut Flower Seed Mixes here
https://www.hanaearthgardens.ca/s/search?q=cut%20flower%20mix

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/13/2026

Do you know about "Daffodil bud blast"?

When daffodil produces a bud but doesn't bloom, this is "Daffodil bud blast".

And some of my daffodils are like that.

First I thought this is because of overcrowding of the bulbs.

Most of my daffs are planted long time ago so I dug and divided the bulbs and replanted like 2 years ago.

But this still happens.

It looks like I need to plant the bulbs deeper.

"Daffodil bud blast" is caused by other issues as well but for mine, I think the planting depth might be the issue.

Also it happens to my double blooming daffodil, so of course the head is heavy when it's blooming, but this also caused by the shallow planting apparently, so I need to replant the bulbs or maybe add more soil and compost.

If this happens to your daffodils, too, research more about "Daffodil bud blast".

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/12/2026

Continuing about "make your own Mother's Day arrangement", if you use daffodils to your cut flower arrangements, they need a bit of preparation before adding to your bouquet/arrangement.

Daffodils have this toxic sap and this will damage other cut flowers when freshly cut, so put the daffodil stems in a separate vase for several hours (4-6 hours, ideally longer but I tried like 2hrs & usually ok).

After this "conditioning', the sap is drained so it's safe to recut the stems and mix with other flowers.

This sap is toxic to human and pets as well so discard the water safely.

Also yes, I know I let my dog to sniff the daffodils which is ok but don't let your pet to eat the flowers.

Now let's talk about shrubs.

When you start making your 'cut flower garden', you might focus on 'flowers' of course but you also need lots of filler plants (foliage or greens).

You can use lots of plant leaves as fillers, I use perennial plant's leaves like ferns or any decorative foliage will do, or herbs like basil, parsley, oregano, etc.

But for May (for Mother's Day), there still aren't many plants growing tall enough, so the shrubs come in handy.

Any woody stems, add a vertical slit at the end of the stem, this will allow better water intake.

And you can also use lots of spring flowering shrubs as cut flowers even earlier in the season.

I have a big flowering quince shrub and it usually blooms in May but I can cut some branches when I start seeing the buds and bring those branches indoors in vase, then they will bloom earlier.

You can do this with lots of other shrubs and even some trees (like cherry, magnolia, lilac, etc.).

Some branches might need lots of time to bloom for several weeks but most of them will bloom in 2 weeks or so.

Hope this helps!

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/11/2026

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

I made this arrangement for my mother-in-law, everything is from my garden, different varieties of Darwin tulips, daffodil (probably 'Salome') and several shrub branches like dwarf lilac, forsythia, flowering quince and spirea.

It's very nice that people giving flowers for Mother's Day but as I said in my recent post (2 posts back) I hope more people choose seasonal local flowers instead of imported roses or other plants/flowers.

Or you can also try planting more bulbs and shrubs so you can make your own Mother's Day arrangement like I did!

I highly recommend the Darwin Tulips, they have large flowers and stem lengths like regular single tulips, but they actually come back and bloom every year (not guaranteed but most of them do).

Lots of Daffodils also bloom this time of the year, too.

You might want to check each bulb's blooming time though, some varieties bloom early or late, so they might not coincide with Mother's Day.

Make sure leave most of the leaves of bulb flowers when you use them for cut flowers, they need the leaves have the photosynthesis process so they'll have good energy for next year's blooms (and don't braid the leaves).

And like I said in my last post, you don't want any leaves under the water line for vases so you don't want lots of leaves of tulips or daffodils anyway.

Also, shrubs are great not only for your garden but for your cut flowers, too, you can use both flowers and foliage, I use the foliage as fillers often.

I'll talk more about these in my next post!

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/08/2026

I talked about prolonging cut flowers vase life in my last Sweet Pea post (4 posts back), there are basic rules that I didn't mention, so let's talk about them!

You probably already knew most of them but if you're new to cut flowers, read along!

1. Use the clean vase!
Sounds very basic but very important.

2. Remove leaves under the water line.
This will prevent producing bacteria from the rotten leaves.

3. Change the water every day.
If possible! If not, every other day.
And clean the vase when you do it, also rinse the flower stems, too, to remove the stickiness.
Also recut the end of the stems.

4. Keep the vase away from the direct light.
You might be tempted to position it in the spotlight, but it's better keeping the vase in a cool place.

I usually don't use any cut flower food, but if you do, share your favourite one!

There are more things you can do like 'conditioning' or angle of the stem cut, etc. but if you're just a hobby gardener, you don't need to worry too much about more professional ways, just doing these simple things will help!

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

05/01/2026

Sunday May 10 is this year's Mother's Day.

Hana Earth Gardens' Seed Mixes make wonderful Mother's Day gifts, starting at just $6!

You can also have a custom seed packet/wrapper/gift sticker design for Mother's Day like this pictured sample! (Additional fees apply)

If you're outside of Ontario, the time is a bit tight (with processing order & shipping time) but it your order doesn't require any custom designs or seed selection, you can add $5 express order fee so your order will be ready in 1-2 business days (depending on the volume of the order, though. Also the express order fee does not include the express nor tracked shipping).

If you're thinking of picking up the seed order next weekend, please place your order by next Tuesday, May 5, otherwise your order might not be ready for pickup by May 9 or 10.

Contact me through my website for more details if you're interested in custom order.
https://www.hanaearthgardens.ca/contact
No order related inquires via Instagram & Facebook please.

And if you're thinking of giving flowers to your mom, choose something more seasonal and preferably local, there are lots of local flower farmers offering tulips and other spring arrangements using the locally sourced flowers, rather than imported roses.

Or give your mom a flower subscription for a year, instead of one time Mother's Day bouquet!
Be a bit more conscious and choose sustainable option for this Mother's Day!

Anyway, it's still a bit chilly today and it looks like this weekend, too here in Toronto but enjoy your weekend, whenever you are!

***
Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

04/29/2026

I have to confess, I do have lots of Scilla siberica (the common name is 'Siberian squill', sometimes it's also called 'wood squill') in my garden.

I know this sounds like an excuse but when I started making my garden, I didn't know this plant is invasive, there were no warning.

But now I see how it spreads rapidly, so I'm trying to control.

I just hope the bulb providers/nurseries stop offering the plant since it's invasive.

So do your own research before getting a plant.

If you're thinking of planting scilla siberica, consider choosing something else, preferably natives like the ones I mentioned on my previous post, or Virginia Bluebells, Yellow Trout Lily, Prairie Smoke (pictured), Dutchman's Breeches, and some native violets, etc.

These are usually bloom around the same time with Scilla siberica.

Also not native but there are easy to find bulbs like crocuses or early blooming species tulips or daffodils are good, too.

Or non bulbous plants like Hellebores (pictured) bloom around this time of the season (in Southern Ontario), even the foliage is nice.

Gardening is full of lessons and we're always learning something new.

Something or some plants that were popular or mainstream a decade ago might be out of date, or found out that invasive.

No points blaming past ourselves for that so we just keep learning and try to be a better gardener, especially for environmentally.

*Please note I can't give you advice individually here, if you need more help, please consider purchasing my garden coaching service.

Also I DO NOT offer any bulbs/plants (or seeds) that I mentioned in this post or my last post at the moment.

***

Please if you can, shop local and support small businesses!

HOPE IS IN A SEED
-HANA EARTH GARDENS-

Hana Earth Gardens

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