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Phoenix Perennials E-Newsletter

February 2024

Join our new Pollinator Alert

We're launching a new Alert all about pollinators. The posts in this Alert will focus on supporting the delightful and important pollinators that live amongst us: hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, beetles, and more. This occasional Alert will showcase top pollinator plants and how to encourage pollinators to visit your garden.

To subscribe to this Alert, click the Update Profile link at the bottom of this email.

Open now on February weekends Fri-Sun, 10am-4pm. 

Full re-opening March 1st, 2024, Seven Days, 10am-5pm.

We're Hiring!

Production Manager – Full Time - Do you love growing plants? We grow a lot of them at Phoenix Perennials! We are looking for a fit, fast, passionate, and motivated individual to work on our production side to help us grow a huge range of perennials and other garden plants. For the right candidate who is still developing their experience, we are also willing to hire a production assistant who can grow into the role of production manager.

Production Staff – Full Time and Part Time (with seasonal options) - Do you love growing plants? We are looking for fit, fast and motivated people to work on our production side to help us grow a huge range of perennials and other garden plants. Positions could be seasonal for the February to May production season or ongoing through the year and could also involve cross over to our mail order team helping with packing and shipping. While we use pesticides and fungicides sparingly, a pesticide applicators license would be an asset.

Retail Sales Staff – Full Time or Part Time (with seasonal options) - Do you have good plant knowledge, love to chat about gardening, and are keen to help people create their perfect garden oasis? Are you really organized, enjoy physical work, and would love to keep our retail nursery in order and looking good? We are looking for talented individuals who can help with the organization and maintenance of the retail side of our nursery, keeping plants in their sections and in alphabetical order, designing displays, and helping customers find the plants they're looking for to create their perfect garden oasis. Seasonal positions for just 2-3 months in April, May, and June are also possible.

Please send your resume and a cover letter outlining your experience and professional goals, and your interest in plants and your degree of plant knowledge. Send to Gary at phoenixperennials [at] shaw.ca.

Upcoming Garden and Botanical Tours

Join Gary to explore the horticultural and botanical world up close and personal!

In this Issue

1. Early Opening on February Weekends
2. New Hellebores
3. The Five Types of Rose Fragrance
4. The Succulent Situation Pre-Order
5. The Hydrangea Hysteria Pre-Order
6. The Summer Bulb & Bare Root Pre-Order
7. The Grafted Veggie Pre-Order
8. The Great Citrus Pre-Order
9. The Rare Flowering Tree Pre-Order
10. The Clematis Conundrum Pre-Order
11. The Camellia Caramba Launched!
12. The Great Rose Pre-Order 2024 - First Launch
13. Plants Make People Happy
14. Ground Cover Book Updates

EARLY OPENING ON 

FEBRUARY WEEKENDS!

Our hellebores are in full bloom and telling us it's time to open!

Due to the mild winter weather our hellebores are hitting peak bloom right now, weeks earlier than usual. We don't want you to miss them. They are SPECTACULAR. So we are opening on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through February in the lead up to our official opening on March 1st for the main 2024 season.

Here's what you need to know:

Opening days and times: We will be open all February weekends from Friday to Sunday from 10am-4pm starting Friday February 9th. This includes Feb 9th-11th, Feb 16-18th, and Feb 23rd-25th. We will not be open on the Family Day Monday. We will be open from 10am to 4pm on these days as the sun sets early. Note that we close one hour earlier than during the normal season.

This is what our hellebores look like right now. For more images, check out our Facebook and instagram feeds.

Hellebores available: Not all hellebores will have arrived yet. Some won't arrive until later in the month. We will have our full range of Winter Jewels (pictured below) plus Frostkiss, some Ice 'n Roses, North Star, and some Honeymoon and Wedding Party series available. Our full selection will be available March 1st. However, even leading into our first weekend the colour is amazing.

Pre-Orders: If you have placed a pre-order, we will send you an email when your order is ready to pick up. If we have not yet sent you an email, that's because your order is not yet complete as we're still waiting for some of your plants to arrive. Don't forget to check your spam folder.

You can still place orders for pick-up or shipping in the Hellebore Hurrah! Pre-Order. Details are below. We'll pull the best plants to fill your order and either notify you when your order is ready to pick up or ship to you when it's safe to do so based on your weather.

See you soon!

New Hellebores for 2024

15 Lenten Roses and Snow Roses

We are pleased to bring you a number of new hellebores with new colours, new foliage, and new possibilities for 2024. Get to know the new additions below and, if you are so inclined, you can pre-order them for pick-up as soon as they arrive this month or in early March or for shipping in March/April! You know you need at least a few. You're worth it!

Helleborus Frostkiss 'Illumi Lime' - Hellebore 

Helleborus Frostkiss 'Illumi Lime' offers glowing lime green, outward-facing flowers over incredibly mottled and veined foliage.

Helleborus x glandorfensis Ice n' Roses Barolo - Snow Rose 



The big, bold and impressive Helleborus Ice n' Roses Red offers large, outward-facing flowers in a rich, velvety, deep red.

Helleborus x glandorfensis Ice n' Roses Brunello - Snow Rose



The big, bold and impressive Helleborus Ice n' Roses Brunnello offers large, outward-facing flowers in velvety dark red.

Helleborus x glandorfensis Ice n' Roses Dark Picotee - Snow Rose 



The big, bold and impressive Helleborus Ice n' Roses Dark Picotee offers large, outward-facing flowers in white to pink with dark pink picotee edges.

Helleborus x glandorfensis Ice n' Roses Frosted Rose - Snow Rose 



The big, bold and impressive Helleborus Ice n' Roses FrostedRose offers large, outward-facing flowers in shades white, yellow and pink.

Helleborus x glandorfensis Ice n' Roses Mindy Marble - Snow Rose



The big, bold and impressive Helleborus Ice n' Roses FrostedRose offers large, outward-facing flowers in shades white, yellow and pink.

Helleborus x glandorfensis Ice n' Roses Merlot - Snow Rose 



The big, bold and impressive Helleborus Ice n' Roses Merlot offers large, outward-facing flowers in a rich, velvety, dark red.

Helleborus x hybridus Honeymoon Romantic Getaway - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus Honeymoon Romantic Getaway has white flowers with dramatic burgundy red thumbprints on each petal.

Helleborus x hybridus North Star 'Garnet Frills' - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus x hybridus North Star 'Garnet Frills' is a Lenten rose that has white, nodding, double flowers edged and veined in red around yellow centres.

Helleborus x hybridus North Star 'Plum' - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus x hybridus North Star 'Plum' is a Lenten rose with nodding, purple, double flowers with fuchsia picotee edges.

Helleborus x hybridus North Star 'Ruby Heart' - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus x hybridus North Star 'Ruby Heart' is a Lenten rose with nodding double flowers of cream with heavy red speckling around yellow centres.

Helleborus x hybridus WP Black Tie Affair - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus Wedding Party Black Tie Affair has sultry black flowers with lighter centres to each petal.

Helleborus x hybridus WP Mother of the Bride - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus Wedding Party Mother of the Bride has double apricot flowers with pink edges and yellow highlights.

Helleborus x hybridus WP Shotgun Wedding - Lenten Rose 



Helleborus Wedding Party Shotgun Wedding has pure white double flowers that are heavily speckled with burgundy red dots.

Helleborus x lemperi HGC Winter Ballet 'Lisann' - Hellebore 



Helleborus 'Lisann' has icy white, outward-facing flowers that can bloom from November until April!

The Five Different Types of Rose Fragrance

by Rebecca, Phoenician and our Rose Expert

When we plant roses, we think first with our eyes when we consider the colour and form of the bloom. Certainly choosing one’s favourite colour or the perfect hue for a that magical colour combination is extremely important. Next, since we’re talking roses, we should think with our noses. Roses are famous for their visual beauty but also their fragrance. Roses can have strong, medium strong, light, or no fragrance, depending on the cultivar. But beyond the intensity of the fragrance roses also offer different types of fragrances to choose from. Let’s explore the different types of scents offered by the world of roses.

There are five distinct fragrances used to describe roses:

Old Rose is the classic scent that comes to mind when we picture a bouquet of red roses. This is the romantic scent that is beloved in perfumes, baking, and even skincare. The traditional old rose fragrance is warm with a hint of sweetness and is a special scent all on its own. This fragrance can typically be found in red or pink roses. It is the fragrance used in making rose water for which only the most strongly scented of roses are used.

Fruity fragrance is a broad term used to describe various different fruit-like rose perfumes. Fruit fragrance can include fresh apples, different sweet berries, and zesty citrus. Overall, this scent is light and can occur as a single fruity scent or be a combination of different fruits. Roses with fruity fragrance are an ideal choice for someone who does not like the traditional old rose fragrance.

Myrrh fragrance is quite unique. It is typically described as a sweet anise or black licorice scent which is warm and spicy. This fragrance is divisive in the rose community as people either love it or hate it. Myrrh is mostly found in English roses. Though some people might not love this fragrance, that aspect is often overlooked because the shapes and forms of English style roses can be so spectacular.

Tea fragrance is a mixture of fresh tea leaves with warm notes of nutmeg and violet. Apricot and yellow roses typically present tea-like fragrance. This fragrance is complex in that it can sometimes be a little fruity.

Musk fragrance is unique in that the scent does not come from the rose petals but rather from the stamens. One would have to smell the rose up close to smell its warm, sweet and spicy notes. This fragrance is typically used in perfumes because it has long, lingering notes that can remain present longer than other types of scents.

The experience of rose fragrances can be complex. Some roses might offer a combination of these five main types of perfumes. Also, what one person smells and experiences when they put their nose deep into the petals of a beautiful rose might not be the same as the next person. We also all have different olfactory capabilities in terms of the sensitivity of our noses to detect fragrance in general and then to appreciate the different nuances within them. Though experiencing fragrance can also be learned. You need to keep smelling the roses!

People who are sensitive to fragrance can choose to plant roses with strengths from light to strong while people who have a weaker sense of smell should choose roses listed as having a medium to strong fragrance. After that, decide which are your favourite types of fragrances and how you want to enjoy them. Do you want to smell your roses as you walk about the garden or sit on your patio? Do you want to use your roses for baking or to scent your bath water? Or do you want to cut your roses to enjoy in a vase indoors?

Tranquility has a strong and romantic old rose fragrance.

The beautiful, deep crimson rosettes of Darcey Bussell have a delightful fruity fragrance.

The beautiful, pure pink blooms of Gentle Hermione have a strong fragrance which is a mix of myrrh and old rose.

The glowing magenta-pink flowers of Princess Anne fade to rich pink and lavender pink and exude a lovely perfume of tea.

The beautiful, pure pink blooms of Gentle Hermione have a strong fragrance which is a mix of myrrh and old rose.

Golden Celebration is another example of a rose that mixes different fragrance types. Its glowing golden flowers offer a lovely tea fragrance mixed with the fruity notes of citrus, lychee, and strawberries!

Here is a list of the five different types of rose fragrance and the different cultivars currently available in our Great Rose Pre-Order that offer these heavenly perfumes. Use this list to to help select roses with your favourite fragrance.

The Succulent Situation Pre-Order

230 Rare and Choice Succulents for Pick-Up or Shipping in May 2024

Here it is, succulent fans! It's the 2024 Succulent Situation, your chance to add some cool, unusual, and rare plants to your succulent collection. We are pleased to offer one of the largest and most diverse selections in Canada of plants we have sourced from around the world. There are a number of exciting new succulents available. For now we'll let you explore the new additions but we'll feature them in a future alert. Have fun!

Hydrangea Hysteria 

Pre-Order 

You'll Go Crazy for these 115 Top Cultivars

Hysteria (noun): 1. A wild uncontrollable emotion or excitement exhibited in gardeners when a state of plant lust becomes uncontrollable. 2. a functional disturbance of the nervous system, of psychoneurotic origin, caused by the presentation of too many amazingly beautiful things, for example the Hydrangea Hysteria Pre-Order at Phoenix Perennials.

This year we've really gone crazier than ever with 115 different cultivars. We hope you are excited by these Hydrangea. There are so many great old favourites and so much amazing breeding work pumping out new cultivars all the time. The past 10-15 years have seen an incredible number of distinctive and unusual Hydrangea introductions with innovations like the ability to bloom/rebloom on new wood, dwarf habits, and new flower forms & colours. In this pre-order we assemble a specially curated selection of the best that the Hydrangea world has to offer including many hot new introductions as well as some tried and true classic performers.

The Summer Bulb & Bare Root Pre-Order

For Pick-Up or Shipping in March and April 2024

Welcome to the Summer Bulb and Bare Root Pre-Order featuring 562 different bulbs, corms, rhizomes, bare root plants, and some potted plants that will bloom in late spring, summer, and fall. This pre-order includes categories for ornamentals, edibles, plants well-suited as houseplants, super hardy plants for zones 1-4, and rare South African bulbs along with some of their more familiar South African friends. More additions to this category are forthcoming including Boophone, Crossyne, and more rare South African treasures we have never offered before!

This is our most diverse pre-order with plants flying in from around the world including India, South Africa, Japan, Canada, and various sources in the US and Europe.

In order to keep bringing you such a diverse and unreasonably large selection of plants, we need to keep reaching new gardeners. Please let your gardening friends and family know about us! Thank you!

LAUNCHED!

The Grafted Veggie

Pre-Order

Choose from 20 different Mighty Matos and 5 different Mighty Veggie Peppers

Welcome to our Grafted Veggie Pre-Order offering hand-grafted edible plants that will produce at least 2-3 times more fruit than own-root veggies with more disease resistance, cold tolerance, and longer seasons of production. With good fertilizing, many customers get 50-100 pounds from a single plant! These plants are revolutionary and worth it, especially for small spaces. Grow them in the ground or in large pots (10 gallon and up).

This year we are pleased to offer Mighty Matos and Mighty Veggie peppers including many new, exciting, and tasty varieties.

We have many new varieties in store including everything you see above!

We harvested a basket like this once or twice a week through the summer!

A regular fertilizer regimen is also essential for a big harvest. We put slow release in the pots when planting and then give them liquid tomato fertilizer once a week. We will also give our plants a shot of liquid kelp about once a week when the fruit is ripening to improve flavour.

LAUNCHED!

The Great Citrus and Rare Fruit Pre-Order

300+ Amazing Edible Plants including 97 Different Citrus!

We are excited to offer by far our largest Citrus selection ever - 97 different varieties - one of the largest in Canada. Citrus are a relatively easy-to-grow and rewarding group of plants that can be grown by all Canadians as long as you have a a sunny outdoor spot for summer and a good, bright place indoors for the winter. Beyond classic favourites like Meyer lemons, navel oranges, blood oranges, key limes, and Thai limes, we also have a number of cultivars of mandarins, kumquats, yuzu, and sudachi that are hardy in zones 7 or 8. They can be grown outdoors year round in coastal BC in protected microclimates.

These Citrus are joined by a few hundred other rare and choice fruits including avocados, paw paws, persimmons, passionfruit, figs, olives, mulberries, pineapple guavas, guavas, kiwi, tea, papaya, dragon fruit, jujubes, honey berries, medlars, goji berries, bananas, pomegranates, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, currants, elderberries, and more.

More Pre-Orders

The Rare Flowering Tree Pre-Order

56 Rare and Choice Trees for Small and Medium Sized Gardens

The Great Citrus & Rare Fruit Pre-Order

300+ Amazing Edible Plants including 97 Different Citrus!

The Camellia Caramba Pre-Order

33 exquisite cultivars for pick-up or shipping in spring 2024

The Hellebore Hurrah! Pre-Order

48 different hellebores for pick-up or shipping in spring 2024

The Great Rose 

Pre-Order 2024

205 Beautiful Roses including 60 New Cultivars!

We are excited to offer our largest selection ever of roses for the 2024 season! Roses will be available in various launches as we receive confirmations from our growers:

1st Launch: Launched in August - 113 different cultivars including David Austin, Brad Jalbert, Meilland, Kordes and other roses. In all there are 59 new roses to discover!

2nd Launch: Launched in October - Patio Tree and Standard Tree Roses

3rd Launch: Launched in November - More David Austin, Kordes, Meilland, Jalbert and other top roses

4th Launch: Launch coming up in mid January - More David Austin roses including some brandnew cultivars! 

To be the first to know when a launch occurs, sign up for the Rose Alert.

New Rose 'Our Hammond Boy' from Brad Jalbert

Be the first to grow this new 2024 introduction!

Grow Standard and Patio Tree Roses

Great for gardens and containers

FLOWERS MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY

There are virtually unlimited palettes of colours and colour combinations in the kinds of flowers you can grow in your garden and on your patio. Bloom shapes and forms range from simple to complex, symmetrical to radial and can include spikes, umbels, spheres, sprays, and more. An individual bloom can be viewed up close or experienced as an element of a beautiful planting in the border or in a container, or as a bouquet brought indoors to enjoy as part of your home’s decor. Flowers can also offer a dimension of fragrance from gentle scents to bold and evocative aromas.

There is an innate positive reaction that humans have to flowers. Gardeners know this. That’s why we garden. Because it makes us happy. But even non-gardeners will delight at a beautiful display indoors or out or the wafting fragrance of ‘Stargazer’ lilies, Daphne, or chocolate cosmos. Flowers are naturally beautiful and, for most people, their presence improves the aesthetics and enjoyment of a space.      

Behavioural researchers explored the link between flowers and emotion and concluded that flowers are a natural and healthy moderator of moods, having an immediate impact on happiness. Study participants of all ages smiled with delight and expressed gratitude upon receiving flowers in a bouquet.

Flowers have a long-term positive effect on moods by lowering levels of stress and anxiety. People who kept flowers in their homes or grew flowers on their patio or in their garden felt more relaxed, happier, and expressed more satisfaction with life. The presence of flowers also led to increased contact with family and friends. 

How can you improve your own mood by including more flowers in your life? And who in your life - from your friends, family and within your community - could you help experience the happiness that flowers bring?

The Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA) has developed a series of short informational articles about the benefits of plants for their "Plants Love You" campaign. We'll share some of those articles over the next number of e-newsletters.

The Complete Book of Ground Covers

Do you have your copy yet?

After nine years of research, photography, and writing The Complete Book of Ground Covers by Phoenix Perennials owner Gary Lewis was published by Timber Press in Fall 2022, It is available at the nursery for pick-up or shipping and across North America, Europe, and around the world from your local bookstore or the big online retailers.

It is an encyclopedia of more than 4000 different species and cultivars that is a textbook of ground covers for the temperate gardening world. It also includes sections on the practical, aesthetic, and environmental benefits of ground covers that discuss how to save time and money in the garden, how to make gardens more sustainable, and how to make gardens more creative and beautiful all by using ground covers.

Illustrated with 650 stunning photos taken by Gary on his travels around the world, this is a scrumptious and inspiring volume perfect for beginner, intermediate, and expert gardeners alike including garden and landscape professionals.

Order Your Copy of

The Complete Book of Ground Covers

You can order signed copies for pick-up or shipping within Canada from Phoenix Perennials. You can order from your favourite neighbourhood bookseller. Or you can order online around the world from your favourite online sources.

Coming Soon in Japanese!

The Japanese language translation will be available in April 2024! It can be ordered from Japanese online sources for shipping to Canada.

Please Review the Book

Whether it's social media or online sales, everything is about clicks and engagement. When it comes to online sales of books, the algorithms of online retailers will prioritize selling titles that receive more reviews - especially positive ones! If you have an account with any online book sellers - especially Amazon - you can go online and leave a review.

Thank you so much for your help!

Please Ask Your Local Library to Offer the Book

Ground covers offer many benefits to make our communities more sustainable and more beautiful. The more people who can access the book, the better.

Please bring The Complete Book of Ground Covers to the attention of your local librarian and ask them to add it to their collection.

Help Us Spread the Word

Please tell your friends and family about Phoenix Perennials. Share this email with them, tell them about your mail order plants, or bring them with you to visit the nursery.

Thanks so much!

Check us out on Social Media!

請加入我們新的微信和小紅書社交媒體賬戶，獲取有關玫瑰、牡丹、亞洲食用植物等的信息!



For our Chinese customers, please join our new WeChat and Red Book social media channels for information on roses, peonies, succulents, Asian food plants, and much more!

Update Your E-Newsletter & Alert Subscriptions

You can manage your subscriptions to our E-Newsletter and occasional subject-based Alerts at any time by clicking on the "Update Profile" link at the bottom of every E-News or Alert. The E-Newsletter comes out twice a month. The 18 different Alerts come out occasionally when we have something exciting to tell you:

Happy Gardening!