Intoxicating.

Osmanthus fragrans.





There are 5 in the yard, absolutely loaded with blooms. Incredible.

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.

Late start.

I'm getting a late start this morning, my day off. I spent the night in Charlotte at the home of two friends. As soon as I arrived, I noticed a few things.

There are more blue flower on the Mountain Bluet, wintersown in 2008.



The purple azalea I remember in the backyard next to the a/c unit isn't quite as purple as I recall.



The two year old tea olives are getting big.



Snowball viburnum is about to bloom.



A one year old cutting from Sharon's gardenia bush is growing again. Sharon passed away this past winter from cancer. Her husband still walks her little dog down the street. He says she loved to walk past my house last summer before the disease forced her to stay inside.



I finally have ladybugs. I also have lots of aphids.



And Brown Avenue is gone. At least for a few months.



I'm going to spend a few hours planting some containers out. I'm thinking of mowing the grass again, but it could wait a few more days. I need to transplant my tomato seedlings into individual cups. Their growth stunt may be caused by the nutrient starved seed starting medium. I don't want to lose this second batch. I have very few seeds left. I might even spend a few minutes getting reacquainted with the hammock. It's sunny and 64 degrees. The high today should reach the mid 70s, back to normal.

In other news, Dixie Carter passed away at age 70 last night. The lights have gone out in Georgia.

Bloom Day

I was reminded this morning why I don't drink. The dizziness and headache that got me out of bed at 4:30am was uncomfortable to say the least. After a shower, it's a little better, but I'm still not feeling 100%. I still managed to get outside as soon as it was light enough to gather some blooms for Carol's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Daffodils, wood hyacinths, and crocuses have their usual spot.



Mahonia is in full bloom all through the gully.



Periwinkle in the edges of the woods are showing their namesake color.



A clump of violas are striking. I'm going to leave these in hopes of reseeded plants next year.



The tea olives are just getting started. Over the next few days, all five in the yard should release their fragrance.



One plant I don't have, but considered purchasing when I returned the cherry tree this week is Daphne odora. They're just starting to bloom and the fragrance is outstanding. I've read they can be a bit difficult so I'm not sure I want to invest the money in something so temperamental. Yes, I returned a dead plant. I did pay full price last spring. So there will be no cherries in my yard any time soon. Instead, I picked up the two Arizona Cypress trees in one gallon containers and a couple of Emerald Green Arborvitae. They were planted yesterday in various spots around the back yard.

It's 48 degrees and partly cloudy. The high today should reach 65. Upper 60s will arrive later in the week.

The Shortest Month.

It's February. January passed by pretty quick. Seems it was only yesterday that I was sitting here sowing seeds on New Year's Day. The real test for those seeds comes tomorrow. Did the sprouted seedlings survive? I won't know until the temperatures rise above freezing. Tomorrow, I'll spend some time peeking through the holes in the two-liter containers hoping for the best, not expecting the worst.



It's 19 degrees this morning. The sky is clear. The sun is coming up. In the driveway are purchased plants from the last day of the fiscal year. My boss told me I could have them all for a penny a piece again. The tea olives and Foster hollies are probably dead. That's 15 cents. The nandinas will probably come back from the roots. These were plants damaged by our unusual cold spell in early January. I also got a dwarf Alberta Spruce and a 7gallon Arborvitae in this batch. Both have cold damage, but should survive. I'll look into planting them in the near future.



There are more cold damaged pansies in the basement. I'll be using that soil to sow my annuals later and to amend the two smaller raised beds for veggies. I need more soil for those two beds. I also have to finish hammering the rebar on the bed furthest from the house. If I can talk Carla into culling some more warped landscape timbers this week, I'd like to build a third bed out there before spring.

Today's high should reach 48. The birds are still feeding from the seeds I tossed out in the yard. They're drinking from the stream that's still flowing freely in the gully. I've got three days off when I finish work today. I plan to make the most of them.

1:36pm - Lunch. Busy day at the store putting freight on the shelves. No new plants this week so far. We've got some houseplants coming Wednesday. It's 45 degrees and sunny.

The Robins are here. When I pulled into the driveway, they scattered. I just counted 18 in the backyard through the window. They seem hungry.

After it rained...

Gorgeous day. Simply stunning. It's still windy, but it's 61 degrees and sunny. All this week, we'll be tempting frost with near freezing lows and 50-60 degree highs. More rain at the end of the week. I can live with this.

Sprouts.









The tea olives are blooming again by the front door.



Even the heucheras are putting out new growth.

Potpourri

In the perennial bed, there are two plants blooming that have similar blooms. One's a weed.





Hyacinths. This photo was taken this morning though I noticed them a couple days ago. We haven't even had a frost yet.



I'm still considering potting these begonias to bring in for the winter.



I did pot the last castor bean, the only really dark purple one I got out of the bunch. I also gave the Boston fern a haircut. It'll come into the basement in a couple days.



The castor bean has new growth, so I removed all the large leaves hoping to relieve some of the stress of being yanked from the ground.



Osmanthus fragrans is blooming all over the yard. They really put on quite the olfactory show after it rains.



I have to admit, I told a lie. I thought I had lost all my ginkgo seedlings. Apparently, several seeds germinated over the summer under one of the hostas I planted at the end of the driveway. I've marked them with a stake so I can keep an eye on them next spring.



It's a beautiful day with clear skies and leaves still falling from the oaks in the backyard. It's 55 degrees. The high today should reach the mid 60s.

Sunday

It's Sunday and I have the day off. All week I had planned to work on the kitchen today, hopefully getting the beadboard installed on the wall behind the kitchen sink and around the window. But the sun is peeking out every now and again making it very difficult to think about staying inside. So much to do in the perennial bed. I'm ready to cut back lots of plants and move some things around. The ground is a bit too wet. Maybe tomorrow evening.



It doesn't help that the tea olives are in bloom filling the yard with their fragrance.



Good thing I've already started scraping paint and caulk from where the old cabinets were.



12:00pm - all the large holes are patched with drywall compound. All the caulk has been scraped free. Waiting for this coat to dry. Will being sanding this afternoon. Expecting to take days to get the walls smooth enough to paint. It will not be perfect, but it will be close.

Butterfly bushes, Camellias, and Tea Olives

Another cool night, the temperature when I got out of bed for the third time was about 65 degrees. It's 70 and sunny now. High today should reach 85.

In the yard, I planted two camellias I paid full price for. One is a japonica, the other a sasanqua. Don't ask me which is which, I've already forgotten. The red one had two plants in the same container, so I divided them before planting. It means a thinner shrub, but I can prune it later in life.





Meanwhile, I was enjoying the fragrance of the Osmanthus fragranseseses...however you make that plural. They didn't bloom this spring, but are really making up for it now. The whole house and yard smells delicious. Forgive the blur, my camera was not cooperating. I tried several times.





The wintersown butterfly bushes are blooming. I sowed seeds collected from 'Profusion White', my own no name purple, and Jackie's 'Black Knight'. I planted most of them around the edge of the yard. I'll collect seeds again this year, but will take cuttings of this one in particular. The true color is a deep magenta. It's got a touch of red in the morning sun.



Most range from light purple to lilac to the same purple I already had. A few came out white.









The last ones planted in the shrub island are the largest. The leaves really do hold moisture.





Remember when I said I wouldn't plant anything else in the shrub island until later this fall? Yeah, I knew I was lying when I said it too. It's filling in nicely. I'm hoping a few of the rooted gardenias find a home in this space. Silverberry cuttings are not doing well, but I hope one or two make it. I think I'm going to need a bigger bed.