Magical container gardens
Sharlene Nielsen is the owner of Front Door Stories, a container gardening service based in Winnipeg since 2008. She operates a seasonal boutique at 208 Browning Blvd.
Located in a quiet, residential neighbourhood, Nielsen’s botanical boutique is filled with surprises from the moment visitors pass through the gate and into the beautifully designed courtyard.
Let’s peek inside the cozy wood-framed greenhouse, which is filled with fresh greenery, delicious aromas, seasonal flowers, gift ideas, and everything you need to make this holiday season special.
Front Door Stories’ botanical boutique greenhouse (Sharlene Nielsen)
(Sharlene Nielsen)
Front Door Stories will host a winter wonderland open house Dec. 4 to Dec. 7. For details, visit their website.
Time to put Christmas greenery outside?
Fresh greenery such as wreaths and garlands stays greener longer in freezing temperatures. Mild temperatures and direct sunlight cause evergreen needles to dry out rapidly and turn brown. Ugh.
Bring fresh greenery outdoors when temperatures are consistently below freezing. (Sharlene Nielsen)
To keep fresh garlands and wreaths looking their best:
- Wait until temperatures are consistently below zero before placing wreaths and garlands outdoors so that the greenery freezes.
- Placement is important — situate wreaths and garlands in a shaded location. Avoid direct sunlight.
- If temperatures suddenly turn mild, be sure to keep greenery well-hydrated by misting it regularly.
Can this evergreen survive winter?
Hardy trees that have been well-established are well-adapted to survive winter conditions when their root systems are safely below the ground.
It struck me as a curious thing recently when I came across a young evergreen tree which had been planted in a round steel container in front of a south Winnipeg business. The container measured about one metre across.
This evergreen tree has been planted in a steel container. (Colleen Zacharias)
I asked Guy Dowhy, a Red Seal-endorsed landscape horticulturist, for his thoughts on whether the containerized tree I saw could survive the winter outdoors. Dowhy owns Dowhy Design & Landscapes; he has a Bachelor of Science degree in botany and teaches the landscape horticulturist program at RRC Polytech.
“It is essentially a container planting with an uninsulated side wall,” said Dowhy. “It’s highly unlikely any tree could survive that location and container — especially in Manitoba.
“An evergreen that needs available moisture as soon as possible in spring to resume transpiration and reduce winter browning is less likely to survive than something deciduous. Evergreens also have shallow root systems that would not be able to benefit from possibly unfrozen ground beneath the planter at ground level. The roots would most likely suffer critical damage from a colder and prolonged frost period.
“What would be needed to successfully overwinter it? Frost usually penetrates top down and that can be mitigated with organic mulches and good snow cover. But in this situation there is no organic mulch in the planter to insulate the root system, and the granite surface material around the planter would similarly minimize the ability to insulate the subsoil.
“Planters above grade would freeze from all sides, and a steel planter would have no insulating value.
“If you are planting above grade, an insulating layer of polystyrene foam inside the container can help reduce the frost penetration. This is sometimes installed to the inside rectangular concrete planters.
“Based on the scale in the picture and the diameter of the steel container, an insulation layer might protect the roots for a couple of winters but would compromise the plant’s already-confined root system over time.
“Since insulating outside the container is not likely because it would ruin the aesthetic, an effort to pile soil against the steel could help insulate from the outside. Even after all that, the temperature fluctuations of the steel from spring and fall freeze-thaw cycles could also be damaging for the root system and the trees critical spring physiology,” said Dowhy.
Live plants in freezing temperatures
Occasionally I will see someone walking to their car on a bitterly cold day carrying a newly purchased but unwrapped live plant. Ouch!
In winter, even a short trip across a parking lot to a waiting car can severely injure a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers or a potted plant that has not been properly protected.
The damage may not be visible immediately. But within a day or even a few hours of being exposed to cold outdoor temperatures, plants begin to exhibit blackened, mushy leaves and wilted stems.
If you are transporting live plants during the winter, here are some simple tips to keep them cozy and protected:
- Identify the location of a wrapping station if you are purchasing plants at a grocery store
- For cut flower bouquets, use two paper sleeves instead of one.
- Florists often protect cut flowers by wrapping them in brown paper and layers of newspaper.
- Floral arrangements or potted plants should be placed inside a box stuffed with newspaper. Use cellophane wrap to cover the box and plant material and secure with ribbon or twine.
- Minimize exposure time to the cold and move your bouquet or plant to a warm waiting vehicle.
Wrap bouquets and potted plants securely when transporting in winter. (Pixabay)
Natural benefits
Glancing out my kitchen window, I saw a little chickadee perched precariously on the seedhead of an Echinacea coneflower. With the coneflower swaying wildly in the wind, he pecked away at the seeds until he had his fill and flew away.
What better reason to leave perennials standing for the winter? Their dried stalks protect hibernating insects and the seedheads supply much-needed nutrition for overwintering birds.
Dennis Fast, a renowned wildlife photographer who makes his home in Steinbach, keeps his camera at the ready so that he can capture the fascinating acrobatics of different bird species and many other fleeting moments of nature.
An American goldfinch on a seedhead. (Dennis Fast)
Coming soon to the Coffee Culture Café and Eatery at 327 Main Street in Steinbach will be a self-running show of nature-themed images by Fast and two other photographers, Kevin Friesen and Dan Hewson, whom he teamed up with this past summer.
“I love it if I can bring some joy to people’s faces,” says Fast.
Your unique flower display
Did you ever shop at Birks in downtown Winnipeg during the holiday season?
The jewelly retailer had a location on Portage Avenue for decades, followed by 15 years in the Union Tower Building on Lombard before closing up shop in Winnipeg in 2023, after 120 years.
At the Lombard location, I saw an unforgettable floral design created by Bonny Fraser.
Using a pair of neatly polished black shoes as a creative container for fresh cut flowers, Fraser combined more than a dozen short-stemmed pink and red roses with green Hypericum berries. Textural accents included celosia and Dianthus barbatus Green Ball.
This holiday season, think outside the (shoe) box. Let the beauty of flowers, nature, and a recycled treasure inspire you.
Bonny Fraser’s floral design (Becky Slater)
If you are using a non-traditional container for a fresh flower display, foam-free options are the way to go.
A great choice would be the Egg and Pillow vessels created by Holly Heider Chapple, a well-known flower designer who collaborated with 20 Winnipeg florists in 2017 to create an extravagant floral art installation at the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Art in Bloom. Alas, the vessels are not available locally.
I reached out to Floral Fixx Design Studio, where a spokesperson said they often receive requests for flower arrangements in non-traditional containers such as boots and recommended using a plastic cup with chicken wire, like so:
- Select a cup that is an appropriate size for the container you are using.
- Wearing gloves, use wire snips to cut a piece of chicken wire that is at least 1½ times bigger than the opening of the cup.
- Crumple the chicken wire with your hands and insert it securely into the cup.
- Add fresh water to the cup and insert cut flower stems into the openings in the mesh wire.
Alternatively, a waterproof stem holder like a spiral Ikebana stem holder, which holds both water and flowers and can be reused for your creative arrangements.
Check with your local florist for personal recommendations on alternatives to floral foam.
New botany blog
For the first time, all of Manitoba Museum’s blog posts are available for reading on their new website.
Since 2010, Diana Bizecki Robson, author and curator of botany at Manitoba Museum, has written 135 posts on a range of fascinating topics from flowers to fungus, soil, edibles, trees, bogs and dunes, sex and plants, and so much more.
To read Robson’s posts, click on the “filter posts by category” button at the top right hand of the page, then click on “Botany.”
And the winners are…
In November, All-America Selections announced eight new AAS winners for 2026. You can see them all here.
But will we actually see each of these new varieties at local garden centres in 2026? Unfortunately, no. It can take a few years, due to strong demand and limited supply.
In addition, not all varieties are suitable for northern locations.
The Zinnia Profusion Double White Improved (All America Selections)
But an AAS winner that we are sure to see is Zinnia Profusion Double White Improved, a Gold Medal Winner.
Zinnias are hugely popular. The Zinnia Profusion series was first launched in North America in 1999 by Sakata Seed, which is headquartered in Japan. That same year, Profusion Cherry and Profusion Orange were awarded All-America Selections Gold Medals.
Zinnia Profusion Double White Improved features double flowers that are noticeably larger than the original Profusion Double White. Mature height is just 36 cm. All varieties in the Profusion series boast sturdy stems and excellent disease resistance.
One to watch
Daylily is a new documentary film about the intriguing world of Hemerocallis and the people obsessed with this popular flowering perennial, which has been cultivated for thousands of years.
Check out my upcoming column for my interview with Maria Morris, the director of Daylily, for the full story. (PlantPop)
Daylily will be exclusively offered to theatres and organizations in the U.S. for in-person screenings until January 2027.
But I want to see it, too, don’t you? Fortunately, the film studio is interested to screen the film in Canada.
Be sure to check out my Dec. 6 Free Press column for an interview with Maria Morris, the director of Daylily.
Watch the official trailer here.
To learn more, visit PlantPop’s website.
Slow down to see the flowers
Did you happen to see the beautiful flower display City of Winnipeg gardeners created for the St. Norbert bridge this past summer?
Due to ongoing construction, drivers were restricted to one lane in both directions. The reduced speed limit, however, afforded drivers a chance to admire the incredible display of flowers that lined both sides of the bridge.
What really stood out for me was the dynamic use of repetition and colour with an emphasis on shades of purple, orange, red, and yellow.
While I did not have an opportunity to take a photo of the bridge display, here is the recipe, courtesy of the City of Winnipeg:
What’s especially noteworthy about each of these plant ingredients is their ability to withstand tough conditions such as heat, drought, and wind. And all of these colourful annuals are attractive to pollinators (and people, too).
The French Marigold Durango Red (Ball Horticultural)
Verbena Buenos Aires, with its tall, square-shaped stems and clusters of lavender purple flowers, played a dominant role in the colourful arrangement along with Benary Giant Zinnia Salmon Rose.
Verbena bonariensis (All America Selection)
Liberty Classic Rose Pink Snapdragons and Durango Red Marigolds offered eye-catching contrast. Gomphrena Ping Pong with its globe-shaped flowers danced along the edge of this memorable display.
The Liberty Classic Rose Pink Snapdragon (Ball Horticultural)
What beautiful combinations could you create in your imagination with these sun-loving ingredients?
The Zinnia Benary Giant Salmon Rose (Ball Horticultural)
Interchange of confusion
Speaking of bridge construction: just when you thought you had mastered the new interchange at St. Mary’s Road and the Perimeter Highway, confusion reigns once again for customers travelling to St. Mary’s Garden Centre and Sage Garden Greenhouses, both located on St. Mary’s Road south of the exchange.
“It is so frustrating,” says Dave Hanson, owner of Sage Garden. “People are kind of used to the new situation but now there are new detour signs because of construction on the St. Adolphe bridge. It has really impacted our customer traffic, which is unfortunate.”
For visitors travelling from north of the Perimeter, the best-kept secret to the fastest, easiest route, says Hanson, is to head south on Pembina Highway through St. Norbert, turn left on Turnbull Drive, then turn left on Courchaine Road (the floodway bridge) and then left on St. Mary’s Road.
“There are no construction or traffic restrictions anywhere on this route,” says Hanson.
Voilà, that will take you directly to Sage Garden Greenhouses, St. Mary’s Garden Centre and Mom’s Pantry without encountering any construction or traffic restrictions.
Dave Hanson suggests taking the pink-arrow route down Pembina Highway for the fastest, easiest route to Sage Garden. Download Sage Garden’s map in printable PDF format. (Sage Gardens)
Carla Hrycyna, owner of St. Mary’s Garden Centre, is shaking her head, as well, over confusing signage for customers who are travelling from the west.
“There are two signs close together — one which directs drivers who are travelling to St. Adolphe, and the other which directs drivers to stay straight if they are going to the businesses on the south of St. Mary’s Road,” says Hrycyna.
“Unfortunately, our customers are telling us that they are misinterpreting the signage and ending up at St. Anne’s Road.”
If you are coming from the west: As you approach the new overpass, veer right, says Hrycyna, to take the Route 200 South. This will take you to Viking Road and St. Mary’s Garden Centre.
Continue along Route 200 to go to Sage Garden Greenhouses.
Don’t believe everything you read
Should we always take plant tags at their word?
A plant’s listed hardiness is one area that may not always be accurate. The information can be misleading or incomplete when the plant has been tested only in a few regional trial gardens.
A classic example is Karl Foerster feather reed grass, which was listed as hardy to Zone 5 until Manitoba gardeners proved otherwise. Now it is routinely listed as Zone 3 hardy by local nurseries.
Deep snow cover and microclimate effects, too, make it possible for many plants that are listed by plant tags as Zone 4 to be reliably grown in our Zone 3b climate.
But if hardiness information veers completely off course, it can be disappointing when gardeners realize in spring that the plant did not survive a cold-climate winter.
This year, on a visit to a big-box store, I saw an assortment of ornamental grass varieties including sedge grasses that are rarely offered for sale in Winnipeg. The plant tag for each of the grasses in the selection showed the cold hardiness as -40C.
The selection included Imperata cylindrical Red Baron Japanese Blood Grass, which is sometimes sold here as an annual grass for container gardens. But winter survival is a long shot.
Red Baron Japanese blood grass (Colleen Zacharias)
Red Baron is normally listed as hardy to Zone 5 (-28.9C to -23.3C) so is unlikely to survive our Zone 3b winter without extraordinary protection measures.
Consider, too, that the information on plant tags about average mature size of a plant is based on ideal growing conditions. Environmental factors such as light, water, temperature, nutrition as well as recommended placement in the garden all combine to influence the size that a plant ultimately achieves.
But the average flowering time is one bit of information that is usually spot-on.
So this fall, when I picked up a Philadelphus Snowbelle Mockorange shrub, a Canadian introduction, for my garden, it was surprising to read on the plant tag that the flowering time was listed as “July to September.”
That would be exciting if it were true, but the deeply fragrant flowers of Philadelphus mockorange bloom like clockwork in late spring.
The plant tag for Snow Belle Mockorange with an incorrect bloom time. (Colleen Zacharias)
Bottom line: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Pull out your phone and crosscheck the accuracy of the information on plant tags with Jeffries Nurseries, Aubin Nurseries, Proven Winners, Walters Gardens, or your favourite trusted, reliable source.
Flame claims
There are many examples of hyperbole in the advertising world. The plant industry is not exempt.
When a new plant or product is being marketed, consumers expect to hear claims of outstanding performance or guaranteed success, exceptional taste, big yields, etc.
But when a recent article about best-performing plant varieties in trial gardens for 2025 included a selection of plants that had been awarded “Flame Proof” status, it caught my attention.
Each year, the Dallas Arboretum awards Flame Proof status to plant varieties that demonstrate exceptional heat tolerance. But to say a plant is tough enough to stand up to brutal summer heat is not the same as flame proof.
There are indeed plants that are recommended for fire-smart landscapes. FireSmart Canada provides an extensive list.
Fire resistance is one thing. But when it comes to plants, there is no such thing as flame proof.
Who cares about the colour of 2026?
Plants of the year announcements capture the attention of gardeners and the horticulture industry alike.
Garden centres endeavour to add new plants to their plant orders and display them prominently in spring. Customers are eager to incorporate new plants into their container garden designs or flowerbeds.
But does the horticulture industry pay attention to the colour of the year?
Every December, Pantone announces the Colour of the Year. Launched in 1999, Pantone’s Colour of the Year program is designed to engage the design community, in particular, as well as colour enthusiasts around the world.
The 2025 colour of the year was Mocha Mousse, an earthy or mousy brown, depending on your perspective. While Mocha Mousse leant itself to wardrobe choices and interior design, it presented scant inspiration for gardeners, unlike Viva Magenta, the colour of the year for 2023.
That was a colour choice that intrigued me because I love the bold impact of magenta-hued plants such as Echinacea SunSeekers Magenta.
Echinacea Sunseekers in magenta, 2023’s colour of the year. (Growing Colours)
I reached out to Deanne Walstrom, General Manager of Operations at Shelmerdine Garden Centre, and asked whether the annual colour announcement typically impacts Shelmerdine’s marketing decisions.
“No, due to the later announcement of it (in December), we have already placed our orders for 2026,” said Walstrom.
“For plants, we will always try to have some feature plants that will coincide or be able to create a theme in some of our annual containers — depending on the color of what is chosen and if we can make it work in the plant world.
“This is also the same for fashion, gift, and home décor — all details are finished already! (Pantone’s colour announcement) is not a big draw for us, but Proven Winners tends to be the best marketers out there and whatever they feature is the biggest demand. The colours and what they match together is the big draw!”
Pantone’s Colour of the Year announcement could come as early as the first week of December. Predictions abound.
Selection aside, a gardener’s choice of colour is influenced by many factors. We’ll talk about that more in upcoming issues of Winnipeg Gardener.
A new Canadian rose
The Never Alone Rose, which made its debut in 2015, is a Canadian success story that began in Manitoba.
The efforts to bring to life this beautiful, hardy rose — with its glowing centre — involved many people, including plantsmen and nurseries together with Lyle Bauer, the CFL Alumni Association and the Canadian National Landscaping Association. They were united in their goal to raise funds for the Never Alone Cancer Foundation.
The Always Together Rose is debuting next year. (Jeffries Nurseries)
Now, after discovering a new sport of Never Alone at Jeffries Nurseries in Portage la Prairie, and seven years of trials and evaluation, the Always Together Rose is being introduced in 2026.
Here are some of the attributes of this lovely newcomer:
- Fragrant, red-orange blooms with a creamy-white centre
- Saw-toothed foliage emerges slightly red before maturing to deep green
- Mature height and spread are 60 cm
The royalties from the sale of Always Together Rose will be equally split between Never Alone Cancer Foundation, Communities in Bloom and the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association.
Always Together Rose will be available in spring at select garden centres in Manitoba, most likely in time for Mother’s Day sales.
Get in line for this one — demand is expected to be huge wherever it is sold across Canada!
More information is available here.
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