How does her garden grow? Spectacularly!

When Elizabeth Ochnio decided to become a member of the East Kildonan Garden Club in January, she couldn’t have imagined the new connections she would make.

Nor could she have foreseen the attention that her small urban garden would attract from individuals and other garden clubs.

“I feel amazing,” says Ochnio. “I’ve always gardened for myself, but now people come nearly every second day, and I love showing my garden.”

July is a popular month for garden tours in Manitoba because flowering plants are in their prime. But in Ochnio’s backyard, the flower show starts in spring with an abundance of allium, builds in intensity throughout the summer and reaches a crescendo of beauty in September. If mild conditions continue, Ochnio’s remarkable garden will continue to bloom well into October.

Members of the Brandon Garden Club were the first group to visit this summer when they travelled by chartered bus to a select number of Winnipeg gardens. On July 24, for the first time, Ochnio entered her garden in the East Kildonan Garden Club’s annual garden competition which has been organized for the past 15 years by EKGC member Teresa Lopata. Then, Renata Cook, president of EKGC, who knew of Ochnio’s skill in overwintering exotic tropical plants and growing plants from seed, invited Ochnio to participate in a pop-up garden tour hosted by EKGC on Aug. 15.

“It was a paradise in mid-August,” says Cook, “but now in September it is even more amazing.”

As word spread about Ochnio’s garden, the West Kildonan Garden Club hosted a pop-up garden tour there on Sept. 13. Ed Amman, one of the many visitors to Ochnio’s garden in recent weeks, was blown away.

“She is so entertaining to listen to,” says Amman.

What is it that has visitors so enthralled when they step through the gate into Ochnio’s backyard?

If you are surmising that Ochnio’s garden must be planted with hydrangeas — which produce some of the longest-lasting flowers of any shrub as well as transitional colour that extends the garden’s beauty well into the fall — you’d be partly right. Thirty mature hydrangea shrubs form a lovely backdrop to her garden, with varieties including Zinfin Doll, Fire Light, Vanilla Strawberry and Limelight.

But the hydrangeas are only one of the main attractions.

Let’s start with the hibiscus and its spectacular dinner plate blooms, so startling in their beauty and vivid colour that they succeed in upending the notion that late September marks the end of our short growing season.

Ochnio grows the Summerific series of hardy hibiscus from Proven Winners. Varieties like Summerific Berry Awesome grow up to 1.2 metres tall with a spread of 1.4 to 1.5 metres, for a sizable presence. On my visit last week, numerous hibiscus plants were covered in voluptuous 17 to 21 cm ruffled flowers, with countless plump buds preparing to open. The dark green foliage was pristine.

Ochnio also grows Watermelon Ruffles hibiscus which has heavily ruffled magenta flowers. It is hardy to Zone 4a. “One year my hibiscus plants bloomed until one week before Halloween,” says Ochnio.

Just before the first frost, or when temperatures consistently drop to about 5 degrees Celsius, Ochnio will cut back the herbaceous stems of the hibiscus plants to about 7.5 cm above the soil. She applies a thick layer of shredded black bark around the base. Once the ground starts to freeze, she covers the plants with a rose cone.

“You can also put an upside-down planter on top — just make sure it has drainage holes,” says Ochnio.

In early May, Ochnio uncovers the hibiscus, pulls the mulch to the side so the sun can warm the soil and waters the plants deeply.

“They are very late in sprouting, but once they start, they grow very fast. Some bloom early and some wait until mid-August.”

A sunny location is essential.

Ochnio also grows Brugmansia Angel’s Trumpet, an exotic woody plant that grows as a small tree. The pendulous or nodding blooms range in size, but many are more than 25 cm long.

Ochnio grows 18 brugmansia plants, including several varieties that have single, double, or triple trumpet-shaped flowers in pastel shades of peach, yellow, salmon-pink and creamy white. Varieties include Louka, Zumba, Charles Grimaldi, Island Reflection, Triple A, Supernova and a treasured cultivar, Pumpkin Latte, which was given to her by Greg Boguski, a Brandon gardener.

“I saw Pumpkin Latte online for the first time and I thought, oh my, I would give two days of my life to have that plant, and Greg gave it to me this year from his collection,” says Ochnio.

Brugmansia are very heavy feeders. “I feed them twice a week during the growing season,” she says. Brugmansia must be overwintered indoors.

“Once temperatures are consistently 4 or 5 degrees, I cut back the flowering stems to about 5 cm above the trunk.”

She reduces the amount of soil around the root ball by removing at least 5 cm of soil from all sides, including the bottom of the plant. She places each one of the plants into a large bag, leaving the top of the bag open, and stores the bags in an inflatable kiddie pool inside her house. “Once a month I give the plants a half-cup (118 ml) of water because they will die if they dry out completely,” she explains.

The container display in Ochnio’s garden is outstanding. Geraniums, petunias and canna lilies were in full bloom on my recent visit. Statuesque cleomes that stand 1.8 metres tall punctuate the garden. There is an amazing Supertunia Vista Bubblegum petunia “tree” which Ochnio created by suspending just two 21 cm pots from hooks on either side of a lamp post. Densely packed pink flowers encircle the entire lamp post for a shocking pink flowering display. She feeds the plants once a week.

“I water the pots twice a day during summer and give each one a gallon of water, but I only give small sips at a time until the water is absorbed. “It’s like cognac — you have to sip it.”

In addition to bringing indoors a shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) trained into a topiary form which Ochnio will grow as a houseplant for the winter, she will also be storing canna lily rhizomes in a cool, dry area of her basement. Cleome seeds which she has collected will go into labelled containers and stored in her fridge.

Ochnio generously offers her much-requested recipe for homemade fertilizer which she has been using for 50 years, from the time she lived in Poland and since she emigrated to Canada 33 years ago.

“I add one cup of sugar and five or six packets of yeast to two gallons of warm water,” says Ochnio. “Mix and cover. Let it sit. Then in another pail, add one part of the mixture to 10 parts of water.”

colleenizacharias@gmail.com