Saskatoon grower shares her love of flowers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/10/2023 (707 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I don’t know how she does it,” says Lyndon Penner about his friend, Leslie Halsall. Penner, head gardener at Riding Mountain National Park, frequently trades flower seeds with Halsall, a flower farmer in Saskatoon with whom he has been friends for nearly 20 years. They met at Floral Acres Greenhouse in Saskatoon in 2001 where they both worked at the time. “We are always asking each other about what we are planting,” says Penner. And so it goes among many gardening friends who know that sharing their ideas and swapping seeds is one of the secrets to growing a more beautiful garden.

Halsall works full-time for BASF Canada in the greenhouse canola breeding program. She has degrees in archaeology and science. “But because that industry is so unpredictable, I also studied horticulture,” says Halsall, who is a graduate of the Prairie Horticulture Certificate program. During COVID, Halsall, who has a 10.5-acre (4.25 hectare) property and is raising two small children, decided to expand her flower garden significantly and sell flower bouquets. This year she grew an abundance of lisianthus, snapdragons, scabiosa, sweet peas, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, carnations, calendula, bells-of-Ireland, Chinese forget-me-not, and Nicandra apple-of-Peru. Halsall starts all her flowers from seed which is extremely cost-effective but also provides more possibilities for cutting gardens. Her success, though, did not come without challenges.

Saskatoon experienced warmer than average temperatures this summer and it was also drier than normal. Improving water retention was Halsall’s greatest challenge. “I have very sandy soil,” says Halsall. Her flowers grow in an open field that currently has no shelterbelt although she is planning one for the future. She uses a drip irrigation system and hauls water in a tank on the back of her truck. Desperate to conserve moisture after consecutive hot summers with scorching, dry weather, Halsall resorted to using heavy duty landscape fabric for the first time. “It worked,” says Halsall. “I torched holes for all the planting spots and the fabric kept the soil from drying out too quickly and also suppressed weed growth.” Halsall placed irrigation hoses on top of the landscape fabric but next year she will place them beneath the fabric and will add a layer of mulch to help conserve moisture. This fall Halsall pulled up the landscape fabric to spread a layer of manure consisting of waste from cattle, horses, and alpaca. She is thinking about covering the layer of manure with a tarp to minimize weed seeds from surrounding areas.

When Halsall cuts down the above-ground portions of her flowers, she leaves the dried stems and flowers to compost in-place on the soil surface but leaves the root balls undisturbed so that they can break down and feed soil microbes with nutrients. This helps to maintain pore space, holds moisture, and allows for improved aeration. It’s also less work! “I use chemical fertilizer currently, but I’m hoping next year to build a better compost system and make compost tea and use fish fertilizers and more naturally derived nutrients,” says Halsall.

As focused as Halsall is on adapting her flower acreage to a hotter, drier climate, she is also excited about next year’s growing season and all the flowers she intends to grow. “The beauty of a garden in full bloom never gets old to me,” she says. “I love bringing that joy to others with my cutting garden.” she says.

Halsall’s enthusiasm is contagious. Her success this year with lisianthus was so phenomenal, says Penner, that he is also planning to grow it next spring and has ordered half a dozen flats. Lisianthus has a reputation for being difficult to start from seed because it is sensitive to temperatures that are too warm. It’s not hard, says Halsall, just very time-consuming. She starts her lisianthus in mid-December. Her favourite variety of lisianthus is Arena Apricot which has fully double flowers. She also grows Arena Gold, Arena Champagne, and Corelli Lavender.

Sweet peas, of course, are a must-have in every flower farmer’s garden. The word has spread that there is a limited global supply of sweet pea seeds. A combination of factors such as successive droughts which have affected seed production as well as a shortage of labour to harvest seed, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic, has made it difficult to source favourite varieties. Growing and saving sweet pea seed is important to preserving sweet peas for future generations.

One of Halsall’s favourite sweet pea varieties is Miss Willmott, an eye-catching variety which has bicoloured orange and pink flowers. An heirloom variety, it was first introduced in 1901. Jill Walton sweet pea which has ivory-coloured flowers with a blush picotee is another favourite variety. The colour is deeper in cool weather and more muted in hot weather, says Halsall. Next year she plans to grow Marjorie Carrier sweet pea which has salmon-pink ruffled flowers. “I’ll be growing about 30 varieties of sweet peas along two 50-foot trellises with a foot path in between.”

Both sunflowers and snapdragons proved their worth this year. Halsall grew Black Beauty and Buttercream, both pollenless sunflowers that are day-neutral which means they grow in early spring or late fall. Halsall was also delighted with the vigorous growth of the snapdragons she grew. “When the seedlings had a few sets of true leaves, I pinched them way back and they had beautiful new growth from the very bottom which is ideal when you want lots of stems and great vigour. Snapdragons are extremely tolerant of heat and cold once they are established.” Halsall grew Chantilly Light Salmon and Chantilly Light Pink and absolutely loved them. “These are shorter varieties but super vigorous and one of the first flowers to bloom. I started them indoors from seed and as soon as I put them outside, they shot up.” Halsall says that Potomac Early Sunrise snapdragon mix with deep oranges, pinks, and yellows were also stunning and these will be a staple in her garden.

Halsall prefers to grow the taller varieties of cosmos. “I tried a few of the shorter varieties but wasn’t enamored. I like the ones that are so tall they almost look like a hedge. Apricotta is my favourite variety of cosmos. It flowers profusely and the large flowers are a light terracotta colour with pink accents.” She insisted that Penner grow Candy Stripe cosmos in the gardens at Riding Mountain National Park. She also grew Double Click cosmos, a Fleuroselect Winner with white, pink, and carmine flowers. Penner says that now he must have it, too. Halsall grew Oklahoma Salmon zinnia after seeing it in the gardens at Riding Mountain National Park. She and Penner had several conversations about the fabulous results they were both having.

But Penner grew something else this year that Halsall says she must have for her garden next year: Amazing Grey poppy, an annual with breathtaking double flowers in the palest lilac. The seeds are in the mail, says Penner.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com