Trillium Virus

My earliest Trilliums are blooming in the garden - the white and dark red ones.  When I visited Marion Jarvie's garden last week, she said she has a success of Trilliums blooming between the end of April and the middle of June.  The last to bloom are the Luteums - spotted leaves and upright yellow flowers. These Trilliums are very pretty, but the stripes of green mean that they are virused.  If these plants aren't removed, the entire forest of Trilliums will eventually die of the virus.  So make sure you don't buy one of these thinking that it is an interesting variety.  It will kill the other trilliums in your garden.

Spring Lake Effects

Lake Ontario was a dreamy scene on the weekend.  We could not differentiate between the water and the sky, with clouds blurring the horizon.  The boats all seemed the same size whether far or close - there was no depth of field.  I think of this moisture in the air as a Spring Lake Effect.  What happens is that there is constant circulation of off-shore breezes between Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment.  They moderate seasonal temperatures.  In spring this means they slow down spring warming, holding back the development of fruit buds until the danger of late spring frosts has passed. The VQA site says "these lake effects vary considerably with distance from the lakeshore and topography, giving rise to remarkable flavour distinctions between grapes of lakeshore sub-appellations nd those from further inland."