By: Ava Green
As temperatures begin to cool down, autumn colours set in and surround us with the beauty that is fall in southern Ontario. Suddenly summer is gone and it’s time to think about creating a cozy atmosphere inside and outside that is inspired by the world around us.
Autumn Outside
Whether you gather items from the garden or from the garden centre for a display, there are lots of natural materials all around us to draw from. Take some plumes from ornamental grasses and put them in decorative buckets. Add branches with colourful leaves or dried seed pods, and pumpkins or mums for a pop of colour. A bland background becomes the perfect backdrop.
Looking for something to grow? Create fall planters with sunflowers, ornamental kale, ornamental peppers, live grasses, and, of course, fall mums.
We offer beautifully festive arrangements with a variety of ornamental fall plants, as well as individual plants to decorate an outdoor table, or as a planter creating a warm welcome on your front porch (watch here: Jeanine create a fall planter on our IG).
Eising’s popular Porch Packages make it easy to decorate the entryway to your home. But don’t wait, they sell out quickly!
Autumn Inside
When there are fall colours outside, autumn displays inside create continuity that will carry your indoor decorating right into the holiday season in December.
Displays that are vibrant, warm, rustic or whimsical are fun and easy to make. Here are some basic design principles that will help you get started, along with examples we’ve created using items in the Eisng shop.
The Rule of Odds
Using an odd number of items (3, 5 or 7) is always more appealing. Why? For some reason, odd numbers are just more harmonious for us to take in. Designers and photographers call it the rule of odds.
Pick a Theme
Pick a theme like a common colour, a shape, a design or motif. Look for containers or items you can include that fit in with your theme.
Like the arrangements we offer at Eising Garden Centre, include the following in your designs:
- a thriller like a beautiful vase or container, a tropical plant, or fresh or dried flowers
- a spiller like a plant, dried or silk leaves or moss around the base of containers
- and a filler like foliage plants, fruit, candy, mini pumpkins and gourds, or moss
Size and Scale
Scale is important! Keep the display short if it’s for the centre of a dining table so that guests can see each other across the table! Create taller displays if you’re decorating a corner table or a mantlepiece.
Light it Up
Adding light, including flameless candles or fairy lights, instantly brings warmth to any display.
Aromatics
Include scent: using plants like eucalyptus, or fruit like apples or oranges, and spices like whole cloves and cinnamon sticks all add a homey touch.
We would love to see what you create and hope this has sparked your creativity. Don’t forget to tag @Eising Greenhouses & Garden Centre on your Instagram and Facebook posts when you share your decorations online - we would love to see them!
By: Dave Zeldon and Ely Schweyer
Most experts agree that we shouldn't bother bringing in our favourite summer potted plants for the winter and that we should buy new again the next season. But this seems to go against our sensibilities after paying good money earlier in the season. Why not try to save that bay tree, those Rosemary, and French Tarragon containers, as well as expensive Phormium, Mandeville, Passionflower, and Jasmine plants?
The secret to indoor survival for summer plants is to slow down their growth during the winter, so they’re ready to be put outside again once all the danger of frost has passed. How? A few weeks before fall frosts are expected, gradually introduce plants to life indoors by moving them inside (to a quarantined spot*) for half a day, working up to a full day over a week or so. Don't wait until nighttime temperatures are only slightly above freezing as the plants may go into shock and drop leaves!
How to Keep These Guys Comfy During the Winter Months?
- It is suggested that you should prune back excessive growth and re-pot with new lighter growing media.
- Place them in the sunniest location you have and then water sparingly but regularly over the Winter.
- Raising humidity by using a humidifier helps too.
- Resist the urge to fertilize these plants until just before you reintroduce them to outdoor living.
- Perhaps just for fun, you could repot them into the appropriate seasonal pots and planters!
It Seems They Brought Others in With Them - And They're Not Nice House Guests
*Before long, you may notice some unwanted guests, such as thrips and spider mites, on and around your precious plants as their natural predators are no longer present to keep their populations at bay. In many cases, it may be too late, and your plants may have to be discarded before the Holidays, but that’s not always the case!
Common problems that make themselves apparent indoors would be the brown soft scale insect, whiteflies, mealybugs, aphids, spider mites and most often, fungus gnats (those pesky little black flies).
Fungus gnats are considered to be the most common nuisance in houseplants. Sometimes their sheer numbers just hovering around an attractive plant take away from its appeal.
Basic Fungus Gnat Control Measures:
The fastest and easiest method of control is to catch the flying adults with yellow sticky cards. The large cards can be cut into little strips and mounted onto little wooden splints (popsicle sticks) then placed around the base of the plant out of the line of sight.
The chances are that the adults have already deposited eggs in the growing media (soil) of the plant as it is rich in organic matter, so we can disrupt its life cycle by:
- Subirrigation - water your potted plant from the bottom by adding water to the saucer it is sitting in. This will dry out the soil surface making it uninhabitable for the hatching larvae.
- Trapping larvae - If the surface soil it already very wet, try placing a few potato discs or slices on the surface of the soil. This will attract the larvae as they migrate to the potato to feed. Simply replace the discs every five days or so with fresh slices to eliminate the next generation of adults.
- Inoculating the soil with beneficial nematodes. Most garden centres will carry the Guardian line of beneficial nematode products.
We hope this helps your plants enjoy your winter abode as much as you do this season, for more information - and plants – visit Eising Greenhouse and Garden Centre!