Springtime in Southern Ontario (and a little bit of Quebec)

[johnralphcarpenter]

At the end of April my wife and I travelled to Canada, to visit my wife's parents, family and friends, and to do a little sightseeing. As I had never been to Canada at this time of year, the sightseeing from my point of view was to see spring wildflowers, and especially trilliums, which I have only seen before in gardens.

We arrived at Pearson Airport, Toronto late afternoon on Sunday 28th April, to find dull wet weather - so much, so like home. We were staying with my wife's parents in Waterdown, on the Niagara Escarpment near the City of Hamilton. Monday dawned similarly, and in the morning we visited the small but immaculate Waterdown alpine garden of SRGC Forumist Arie Vanspronsen, shortly before his departure for the Czech Republic. Arie gave us some tips as to where we might find trilliums, but thought it was probably too early - there had been snow only two weeks previously.

Undeterred, in the afternoon we walked the Wetlands Trail, and short trail through some preserved wetland and woodland in the urban area of Waterdown. As soon as we entered the woods we were greeted by carpets of Toad Lilies, Erythronium americanum, in their thousands.....          (more to come)

[johnralphcarpenter]

Further on down the trail we crossed the swamp on a boardwalk. The skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) was just emerging - not really worth a photograph.

Out of the swamp and further into the woods we came across what looked like a pale form of the Carolina spring beauty (Claytonia caroliniana).


We took a side trail, and just over a rise found Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in full bloom, first a solitary plant
     
and then a large clump.


A little further on, our first trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), still in bud.


A good short walk had been amply rewarded; home to the in-laws for tea....

(Much more to follow)


Edit: click on the photos to enlarge them 

[johnralphcarpenter]

This is taking a long time, but there's gardening to do.......


Wednesday 1st May saw a definite improvement in the weather. The day was to see blue skies and temperatures in the high 20s Celsius, and this weather was to last for over a week. We decided to walk a short section of the Bruce Trail in Waterdown; but first a small geography lesson:

"A landform of rich diversity, ecosystems and watersheds, the Niagara Escarpment is home to more than 300 birds species, 55 mammals, 36 reptiles and amphibians, 90 fish and 100 varieties of special interest flora (including 37 types of wild orchids).
Facts at a glance:
•   The Niagara Escarpment is a massive ridge of fossil-rich sedimentary rock which began its formation 450 million years ago as the outer rim of a shallow sea known geologically as the Michigan Basin.
•   The Escarpment soars 510 metres (1675 ft.) at its highest point and stretches 725 km (450 miles) from Niagara to Tobermory.
•   It is a rich mosaic of forests, farms, recreation areas, scenic views, cliffs, streams, wetlands, rolling hills, waterfalls, mineral resources, wildlife habitats, historic sites, villages, towns and cities.
•   The Escarpment is home to almost 40% of Ontario’s rare flora.
•   It includes some of Ontario’s best skiing, camping, swimming, fishing, boating, hiking and scenic viewing.
•   The Escarpment is home to Canada’s longest and oldest footpath, the Bruce Trail, established in 1967.
Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. The Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve is defined by the Niagara Escarpment Plan Area, stretching 725 km from Lake Ontario (near Niagara Falls) to the tip of the Bruce Peninsula (between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron). Much of the Escarpment corridor is forested and crosses two major biomes: boreal needle leaf forests in the north and temperate broadleaf forests in the south. The biosphere reserve also includes wetland complexes, cliff faces, slopes and aquatic ecosystems.

The Bruce Trail, Canada's oldest and longest footpath, provides the only continuous public access to the magnificent Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. It is one of only sixteen such reserves in all of Canada.
Geology

The 725 kilometre long Niagara Escarpment began to take shape over 450 million years ago as the bed of a tropical sea. During the millions of years that followed, the sediments were compressed into rock, mainly magnesium-rich limestone (dolostone) and shale. The progressive action of glaciers, water flows and the elements caused the more resilient dolostone to weather at different rates than the shale, resulting in the very dramatic land forms that we see today: sea stacks, karst formation caves, deep valleys, scenic waterfalls, rugged hills, and perhaps most remarkable, the spectacular cliffs along the Niagara Escarpment itself.
The spectacular Niagara Escarpment encompasses farms, recreation areas, sweeping scenic views, 1675 foot cliffs, clear streams, wetlands, pebbled beaches, rolling hills, pristine waterfalls, wildlife habitats, historic sites, villages, towns and cities.
The Niagara Escarpment is one of the world's natural wonders - a masterpiece of living art that has been recognized as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve because the residents of this region are working to balance conservation and preservation with surrounding development.

Biosphere Reserves like the Niagara Escarpment provide excellent examples of sustainable development, and are valuable reference sites for environmental research, monitoring and educational activities.

It is said that there has been more change to the Niagara Escarpment during the past 100 years than in the previous 9,000 years. As a result of the tremendous urban and recreational development of natural lands, people became motivated to ensure access to green space where they could walk and reflect. People came together and built the Bruce Trail."

So, a 725km long "rock garden" in a world biosphere! Are you booking your tickets already?

Our hike started at Grand Falls on Waterdown Road, and followed Grindstone Creek as it descends the escarpment, before veering off along the escarpment to The Snake Road.


Grand Falls (1) is the biggest waterfall on Grindstone Creek but one of many in greater Hamilton, dubbed the "City of Waterfalls".


Plants were enjoying the spray from the falls (2), and we soon encountered a patch of Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, (3).


 As we descended to the creek bank we entered deciduous woodland carpeted with Erythronium americanum, interspersed with Trillium grandiflorum, now fully open. (4)(5)



 
 

[Maggi Young]

Ralph,  we understand- while there is good weather we need to get work done in the garden!
We are just happy to share your trip.

[johnralphcarpenter]

The trilliums were scattered thinly on the forest floor, all Trillium grandiflorum (1), which is the Provincial flower of Ontario, and also in a stylized form the Provincial logo. Soon we came across what looked like Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Anemone acutiloba (2), but we only saw the one clump. The trees were not yet in leaf so the light was bright; "This is exciting!" said my wife. She grew up in Waterdown, but had never seen so many spring wildflowers, and, having lived in England for over 30 years, is much more familiar with English woodlands.

I was busy photographing Pulmonaria officianalis (3), not an Ontario endemic, when my wife said, "Come here, this is more interesting". It was the emerging new growth and flowers of Blue Cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides (4), (5). Not easy to see or photograph against the forest floor.

The day was hotting up, and I will continue soon, but right now I have to go to the dump with some garden waste for recycling.....

[brianw]

I explored the other end of the Bruce trail a few years ago (and worked in Quebec on and off). The experience of a lifetime seeing all those orchids by the side of the road. Ontario and Quebec take some beating for a spring trip. My Montreal friend called the Cohosh, Purple Asparagus when I pointed it out to her. If you have not seen Cyps or Trilliums in their 100's and 1000's you can't imagine what it is like. Greentours do a good trip too.

[Alan_b]

Unfortunately deer are partial to trilliums and Ontario has plenty of those (White-Tailed Deer, I think).  So you are very unlikely to see a carpet of trilliums unless it is at a locale where deer have been excluded.

[Lori S.]

Unfortunately deer are partila to trilliums and Ontario has plenty of those (White-Tailed Deer, I think).  So you are very unlikely to see a carpet of trilliums unless it is at a locale where deer have been excluded.

Considering that Ontario is an awfully big place that still has actual wild lands and predators, the above statement may be overly sweeping... 

[Alan_b]

Yes, I think White-Tailed Dear are confined to the southern parts of Ontario  whilst further north you find Moose instead.  It is thought that White-Tailed Dear are carriers of a disease that is fatal to Moose.  But given that the southern part of Ontario holds the vast majority of the human population and as a consequence has much less in the way of predators, if you find yourself in Ontario you are likely to find yourself in the south and therefore likely to find your trilliums in small groups rather than vast arrays. 

[David Nicholson]

Yes, I think White-Tailed Dear are confined to the southern parts of Ontario..................

Oh deer

[johnralphcarpenter]

The day was hotting up, and I will continue soon, but right now I have to go to the dump with some garden waste for recycling.....

The trail left Grindstone Creek and climbed over the ridge to the next valley. Plenty of Erythroniums and Trilliums, and the May-apple was just coming into leaf (1), (2). We saw what looked like a different form of Bloodroot (3) and some Woolly Blue Violets (4), as well as a couple of small snakes, before we reached The Snake Road, where my dear Mother-in-Law picked us up and took us home for some vanilla ice cream with local maple syrup. Life is good.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Saturday, at the end of our first week, saw us take a trip into Toronto to catch an afternoon ball game. We saw the Blue Jays lose (again) and then checked into a rather nice downtown hotel (Le Germain Maple Leaf Square, if you are interested). We soon realised the Toronto was in the grip of Hockey fever (that's Ice Hockey to non-Canadians). The season was running late due to industrial action and the play-offs for the Stanley Cup were in full swing. Toronto Maple Leafs were still in the running and had a game that Saturday night against Boston, in Boston. A giant TV screen had been set up in the square outside our hotel. We went out for dinner and drinks along Front Street, eventually settling on C'est What! Excellent local beers and food, and of course TV screens everywhere. We arrived back at the hotel just as Toronto scored the winning goal; rejoicing in the streets, very exciting! I'm already a baseball fan, and I could get into hockey too.

Sunday in Downtown Toronto. Hot, sunny, not many people about. We took the subway north and then a bus to visit the Toronto Botanical Garden. We arrived to find a local plant sale in full swing. Many desirable plants including all kinds of Trilliums; I now know what it feels like to be the only kid in the sweetshop who is not allowed to buy. Had to console myself with a few seeds from the TBG shop.

Lunch in a local brewpub (Granite Brewery) was excellent, as was our afternoon visit to the Bata Shoe Museum. Yes, really! If you are ever in Toronto be sure to pay a visit. In the evening we took a walk out to the old Distillery District for dinner and drinks at the Mill Street Brewpub. Nice food, indifferent beer. And of course hockey on TV wherever you looked.

Monday, and we boarded the train for the five hour journey to Ottawa (this is a big country). We were due to spend three nights there visiting with a couple who were at university with my wife and are now both Professors at Ottawa University. We arrived early afternoon and were whisked off the see the Ottawa Tulip Festival. The Canadian Tulip Festival is a tulip festival, held annually in May in Ottawa, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, with attendance of over 500,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, and the largest display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone.

In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, in the Second World War. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her Dutch citizenship from her mother. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.

While the Netherlands continues to send 20,000 bulbs to Canada each year (10,000 from the Royal Family and 10,000 from the Dutch Bulb Growers Association), by 1963 the festival featured more than 2 million, and today sees nearly 3 million tulips purchased from Dutch and Canadian distributors. (1), (2), (3).

The festival stretches along the Rideau Canal and at Dow's Lake we spotted some Trilliums growing in a small strip of wasteland between the edge of the park and some back gardens. They appeared to be growing through a double form of Greater Celandine (4), (5). Dinner in Byward Market and so to bed.

That's all for now, next episode, The Gatineau Hills....

[johnralphcarpenter]

I will get on with this soon......

[Alan_b]

I'm looking forward to it.  I have been to the tulip festival in Ottawa and found it a somewhat surreal event because it takes place in late May and potentially in summer temperatures.  In fact the whole of spring passes in just a few short weeks in that part of Canada.

[johnralphcarpenter]

May 7th, our first full day in Ottawa. It soon became clear that Ottawa too was in the grip of hockey fever, with the Ottawa Senators still in the race. Our friends Richard and Louise are fans and Richard has a ticket for tonight's game. But first we are off for a hike in the Gatineau Hills, just over the river in Quebec.

Gatineau Park, the National Capital Region's conservation park, has many unique and diversified ecosystems and heritage features. It covers 36,131 hectares (361 square kilometres) of land and is located where the Canadian Shield meets the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the Ottawa River meets the Gatineau River. Still hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 20s C. Everywhere bone dry and the flies are beginning to be a nuisance, but as we enter the woods we soon spot our first trillium, Trillium erectum (1,2). This was a regular along the trail but not in large numbers. A little further on we spotted some Blue Cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides, in flower (3). Trillium grandiflorum was also dotted about (4,5)