{"id":3596,"date":"2014-05-13T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vivanext.com\/blog\/?p=3596"},"modified":"2014-05-13T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T20:06:07","slug":"choosing-plants-for-colour-form-and-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/2014\/05\/13\/choosing-plants-for-colour-form-and-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"choosing plants for colour, form and structure"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you\u2019ve ever tried to fit a load of plants from a garden centre trolley into the back of your car, you\u2019ll know that 292 trees and 4,910 perennials and grasses is a lot of plant material.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the number of individual plants that we\u2019ll be installing in the planters in medians and boulevards along our Highway 7 rapidways between East Beaver Creek and South Town Centre Boulevard, from now until the end of June.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve described in earlier postings<\/a>, the plant selections were made carefully, and reflect expertise from our Landscape Architects and York Region\u2019s own Forestry Department.\u00a0 Plants in the planters need to be hardy and strong to be able to withstand the tough conditions imposed by their surroundings.\u00a0 Not only do they need to be generally low maintenance, but being so near traffic means they have to survive wind, drought and salt-spray in the winter.<\/p>\n

Another key requirement is that trees under hydro lines need to be naturally compact so that they don\u2019t conflict with the lines overhead and can grow to their full potential without needing to be pruned.<\/p>\n

So the final list was carefully developed with all these requirements in mind, and includes a wide range of trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses.\u00a0 Trees include Kentucky Coffee tree, Ivory Silk Tree Lilac, and Ohio Buckeye, all of which are well regarded as decorative, long-lived trees.<\/p>\n

Tree plantings will also include Skyline Honey Locust and Accolade Elm, both of which are prized as street trees for their vigorous growth and adaptability to tough growing conditions (and in the case of the latter, resistance to Elm disease). \u00a0Rounding out the tree selections, the Autumn Blaze Maple and Bradford Pear will provide colour interest and welcome shade.<\/p>\n

Along the medians and in the boulevard planters, there is a wide range of grasses, shrubs and perennials which will provide form and colour throughout the year.\u00a0 Most are familiar to home gardeners, such as varieties of red twig dogwood, shrub roses and Euonymus. \u00a0Mugho Pines and various forms of juniper will offer structure to our planters in the winter.\u00a0 And grasses, daylilies and coneflowers will provide flower interest in the summer.<\/p>\n

With all these plants the boulevards and vivastation platforms will be more appealing to pedestrians and transit riders, who will appreciate the shade and colour up close.\u00a0 But even from a distance, the addition of new landscaping will make Highway 7 much more attractive and pleasant for everyone passing through, and will add to the feeling that this increasingly urbanized corridor welcomes all users.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever tried to fit a load of plants from a garden centre trolley into the back of your car, you\u2019ll know that 292 trees and 4,910 perennials and grasses is a lot of plant material. That\u2019s the number of individual plants that we\u2019ll be installing in the planters in medians and boulevards along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,53,25,19],"tags":[943,27,350,114,47,14,34,61,7,9],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction","category-general","category-going-green","category-urban-planning","tag-construction","tag-environmentally-friendly","tag-growth","tag-highway-7","tag-markham","tag-rapid-transit","tag-rapidway","tag-richmond-hill","tag-vivanext","tag-york-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3599,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}