Blooms.

My theme today is shades of pink.

Columbine.



Lagerfeld.



Weigela.



Miss Kim lilac.



There are others. Some were blurry. Some were yellow and white. Dutch irises are starting to bud. Dame's Rocket is blooming, but hard to capture. Amur honeysuckle is not as fragrant as I recall.

It's 39 degrees. Yesterday was cool and windy. Today should reach 80. I've got my list of things to accomplish.

- clean the cloner. take cuttings
- toss the wintersown containers with no sprouts
- plant the hostas along the front walk
- mow/edge/blow
- plant beans, squash, and cucumbers
- separate and repot tomatoes

Every blasted year. - The city sends some guy on a tractor with whirling blades to "clean up" the growth along the street next to my property. He just finished his awesome work. Good job, dude.



He made a second pass to make sure he took out this huge mock orange shrub that was starting to bud.



And the sweetshrub that was loaded with blooms.



Thank heavens he left all the privet and honeyscuckle. I'm gonna sow cosmos seeds this afternoon. See how they like that.

9:00 am - The cloner has been cleaned and the beans are soaking.

Round and Round.

I don't remember what prompted me to check on the eight Foster Holly plants I bought this winter for 1 penny each. They were mostly dead from the cold we experienced in January. I didn't expect them to survive. They're putting out new growth. I pruned all the dead stuff away yesterday before work. I really have no idea where to plant eight shrubs that can reach 25' tall and 15' wide.



Only one of the tea olives survived. It's planted in the crook of the driveway under the oak tree.



Wintersown in 2008, sweetshrub has returned. Down the street, the flowers are holding tight, nearly ready to burst into bloom.



May Night salvia is blooming already.



The lilac at the end of the driveway is just starting.



Scattered clumps of pink dianthus from Jim at the Gaudy Garden are tossing up little blooms here and there.



Sunflowers have germinated. These are the mammoth variety. They were over 10' tall last year. I'll plant them behind the potager in the upper meadow.



It's 45 degrees. Sunny and 84 is the forecast.

Forgotten Camellia

Just beyond the top of the dead oak tree, there's a clump of shrubs that used to be part of the gardens here. They were likely planted years ago by Mrs. Russell, before the trees reclaimed the area. There's a stand of quince that bloomed even in heavy shade. I moved some of these to the yard two years ago, although mine haven't bloomed yet and seem unlikely to do so this year.

Surrounded by orange ditch lilies, crocus foliage, and mahonia, there's a single camellia. The blooms are the same as those on the shrub in the yard. I wonder if she took cuttings and propagated this one herself. I wandered out back yesterday to get a closeup. This spring, once there's new growth, I plan to take cuttings from this shrub myself. I'm thinking of planting a few along the back yard. Azaleas, abelia, and other blooming shrubs will be added when the time is right. I've already started propagating the spireas.







It's St. Patrick's Day. Wear something green. It's 36 degrees this morning. No frost. The forecast calls for 65 today.

9:33am - Spent the last hour "propagating" things. I've pruned some hardwood sticks and shoved them in the ground where I want them to grow. If it works, I'll have a backyard full of spring and summer blooms. If not, I've lost only an hour of time, outside, with a cup of coffee. I stuck Sweet Shrub, camellias, mock orange, forsythia, spireas, vitex, Korean lilac, weigela, althea, pussywillow, and crape myrtles. I think that's all.

New growth, new blooms, new foliage:

My fragrant, unknown spirea is starting to bloom.



The Korean lilac is leafing out.



Peonies.



My "dead" loropetalum isn't quite dead yet. Nell Jean was right.



Stuck cuttings of forsythia and mock orange. I may be too late for these to root, but the very wet soil should help.





Peach blossoms will be here by the weekend. The plums are smart, they're waiting.



New growth on the Oakleaf Hydrangea that I've tortured since finding it in the backyard in the summer of 2007.



Red Pussywillow is blooming.



And lookie here, my tulips are going to actually bloom this year. A testament to the cold winter we had. Only two out of the 40 bulbs I planted in the fall of 2007, but hey, that's two more than I had last year.



It's been a good morning already. I'm off to shower and work in a few.

I'm not dead yet.

Two posts in one day. I just wanted to make note of these things in the yard.

Redtwig dogwood.



Nandinas.



Oakleaf hydrangea. This plant is finally shaping up. I hope it really takes off next year. I moved it again this spring.



Cotoneaster in the orchard waiting for spring. It'll be planted on the former snake pit.



Still not ripe.



Gerbera.



White hyacinth bean and moonvine.



Korean lilac and alternanthera.



Crape myrtle.



Burford holly.



Purple queen.



Rudbeckia fulgida and purple lantana.



Nasturtium.

Thanks Trevor and Jackie

For the food, the plants, and the great time as always.

I spent the weekend helping to remodel the front of the garage. Last month, we replaced the old sliding doors with a brand new facade. When I left today, it was mostly finished. There's some more painting to be done, a few details, and light fixtures.

Before.


After.




In exchange for helping, we went plant shopping. At Home Depot, he picked up some things for his yard. But at Lowe's, we racked up. Seems they had the same problem we did, but with a different nursery. So I got four Osmanthus fragrans about 4' tall for $5 each. $94 worth of plants for $21 including tax. I also got two types of grasses, three containers of yarrow (yellow/orange and red), a wine and roses weigela, a Korean lilac that has already bloomed, a $25 container of bamboo for $1.75, and several other things. I spent the 3 hours driving home trying to figure out where I would put it all. With a few plants looking really haggard after the rains, I'm going to yank a few of those and install some of the new ones.

As a special treat, Jackie brought me a shovel just as I was preparing to leave. There was an offshoot of her Goldflame spirea growing just under the mother plant. I dug it up. Tomorrow after work, I will repot it into a large container and allow it some time to recuperate before subjecting it to next week's 90+ temperatures.

Thanks again. Had a great time. See you again soon.