Dedicated gardener Adrienne Clarkson shares tales of how Rideau Hall inspired the transformation of her compact garden.
Adrienne Clarkson is no wallflower. Maybe a dark purple hellebore or a highly coveted handkerchief tree, but the dedicated gardener is certainly not an orange or golden wallflower.
To make the colour point, Clarkson tells how a prankster neighbour, aware of her anti-orange rule, surreptitiously planted a tiger lily in the woodland garden in front of her Toronto home. It goes without saying that upon blooming, Clarkson pulled the offending bulb out of the ground.
Since the end of her term in 2005 as the 26th governor general of Canada, Clarkson is being lured back to the capital by the the Ottawa Botanical Garden Society. On April 26, she will describe her private gardening challenges, which in scope (but not in affection) are a far cry from the redevelopment of the public gardens at Rideau Hall.
Clarkson will chronicle the origins of her Toronto backyard that began as a parking lot for a Victorian rooming house and this year will enter its fourth growing season as a sunny, perennial sanctuary.
We spoke on the telephone in anticipation of her talk, but this day, the former representative of the Queen is excited about the summer flowering bulbs she ordered from Gardeimport.com (a Canadian mail-order plant and bulb company; www.gardenimport.com), especially Acidanthera and Eucomis. The former (now known as Gladiolus callianthus or the peacock orchid), can be easily incorporated into a perennial garden because of its elegant presence and graceful white blooms, says Clarkson. Or it can be planted in a pot for a drop-dead gorgeous (and fragrant) late summer display.
Ever since childhood when her mother (a keen and talented gardener) used her and her brother as "slaves," doing everything from slug picking to weeding, Clarkson has been entranced by growing things. The long-time friend of Marjorie Harris (her previous Toronto garden appeared in Harris' 1993 book The Canadian Gardener's Guide to Foliage and Garden Design) and admirer of gardener Frank Cabot, is an unstoppable creative spirit and multitasker. It's not surprising that she was thoroughly involved in the revamping of the gardens at Rideau Hall.
"They were a mass of red and white geraniums, with a sprinkling of white impatiens and red salvia," she says incredulously, describing the patriotic, yet uninspired gardens she found when she and her husband, John Ralston Saul, arrived at Rideau Hall in the autumn of 1999.
With the help of a legion of talented gardeners and arborists, the grounds were transformed back to a more natural style that had been evident under the direction of Lady Evelyn Byng in the 1920s and with Norah Michener in the late 1960s.
Clarkson is proud of the woodland garden at Rideau Hall, the walkways where she developed a love affair with Tricyrtis, otherwise known as toad lily. (As we talk, the correct Latin names for perennials and shrubs easily roll off her tongue, making it sometimes hard to keep up). This shady garden was the inspiration for her front garden in Toronto, which boasts a prized variegated pagoda dogwood tree, and numerous woodland perennial jewels, including Asarum, (both the European and Canadian species of ginger), Actinidia (kiwi vine), Arisaema (jack-in-the-pulpit), Epimedium (barrenwort), Veratrum (European white hellebore), and Helleborus (both Christmas and Lenten Rose), among others.
But it is in the rear garden that Clarkson and Ralston Saul have found solitude and privacy. After the parking area was reclaimed, the couple must have thought that the hardest work was over. But it was not to be. Clarkson remembers digging down four feet to correct the hard-pan soil, and being shocked to find the remains of a large swimming pool. Surprised, but undaunted, they had heard stories of the previous owners filling in the pool with junkyard waste, from prams to tricycles. After the debris was taken away, jackhammers were brought into break up the concrete.
The area was finally ready for design and planting after truckloads of compost was mixed with soil. John Thompson laid out the garden's plan and constructed yellow cedar fencing (charred to provide interest), as well as the gravel pathways and seating areas. Then Clarkson and Ralston Saul began the fun of planting. Her favourite nursery northwest of Toronto, Lost Horizons (www.losthorizons.ca) got the lion's share of her plant buying business and a regular give-and-take with Marjorie Harris helped to provide inspiration. The two women sometimes disagreed, once on the benefits of Midwinter Fire dogwood. Clarkson is a fan, but Harris encouraged her to "pull it out."
Don't miss what may be your only chance to see this veteran plant lover's private outdoor refuge and hear the story of its development. Asked if there was a book or garden tour in the works, Clarkson said: "No, neither. I leave the garden books to the professionals."
SEEING ADRIENNE CLARKSON
What: From Parking Lot to Paradise: The Making of an Urban Garden
When: April 26, 7 p.m.
Where: The Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St. (Parking is available in the large lot east of the Archives)
Cost: $20 Ottawa Botanical Garden Society individual members; $23 OBGS group members; $25 general public
Tickets: Send a cheque with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: The Ottawa Botanical Garden Society, P.O. Box 74009, 5 Beechwood Ave., Ottawa, K1M 2H9
Online: www.ottawagarden.ca
Information: Call 613-747-0600 or e-mail eventcoordinator@ottawagarden.ca
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