Chilly.

No wonder the dogwoods on Pee Dee Ave are turning red. The berries are ripe on a few. I see a maple in the backyard is beginning to turn yellow too. It's early.

9:55am - In the basement, 10 items were ready for potting up.





I have three rooted white hibiscus.



Five Turn of the Century Hibiscus, a snowball viburnum, and one giant white pussywillow completed the tray.



Jim's alstroemeria is growing in one pot.



And on the chimney, a new morning glory has bloomed. Don't know where it came from. Don't care. I like it.



Five shasta daisies were transplanted from the no longer white bed to the crape myrtle bed. I also scattered more seeds of verbena bonariensis and Echinacea tennesseensis.

It's 61 degrees. I didn't get bitten by a single mosquito.

Propagation results.

On June 14, I stuck gardenia and rose cuttings from Jim @ The Gaudy Garden. Unfortunately, I lost all 6 of the rose cuttings to fungus. I also lost a couple of the gardenias, which is surprising since they normally root incredibly easy. These are the old gardenias. The mother plant was over 6' tall and wide. Shortly after, I also stuck cuttings of eleangus and several other plants including my snowball viburnum.

This is what they looked like this morning. I've been ignoring them. As Nell says, labeling them ensures failure.



Pyracantha - I lost several, but two rooted.



A gardenia cutting.



Snowball viburnum - all three rooted.



I potted them into gallon sized pots using a fast draining cow manure compost. Broken bags, half price.



On July 2, I potted up the hydrangeas that I rooted in my homemade cloning machine. They're ready to be potted up again and should be planted out in early September. I'll move them to 1 gallon nursery pots this afternoon. They'll get the same cow manure compost as the others. It'll give me nice growth, without the likelihood of burning the tender roots using chemical fertilizers.



Here's the variegated hydrangea I rooted without really trying. I wish all plants were this easy.



And a variegated sedum I got from a customer at the store. I took another clump of her sedum in exchange for some low growing bamboo.



Then I spent an hour cutting up more of the fallen oak tree. Most of the branches you see are more than 16" in diameter. My dad will be coming up in a few weeks with a larger chainsaw. He's considering bringing the small tractor to pull the limbs out of the woods and into the yard. If he does, I'll get him to till the gully area where I want to plant a garden next year.





I promised Cat I would show her how to take cuttings of passionvine. I haven't forgotten. I've got a list of things I plan to make more of. I'll do that this afternoon. There will be pictures.

Welcome Home, Mister Lincoln

I did it again. I bought another hybrid tea rose. I know. They're terribly difficult to grow here in NC with the heat and humidity. But you didn't see or smell the bloom on this thing sitting there on the table. With space at a premium in the perennial bed, something had to go. Sorry barberry. I'm not sure what size you will mature to anyway since I've lost your tag, but your time was up. The barberry was replanted near the birdfeeder in front of the leyland cypress. Mister Lincoln should reach a height of 4-6' and spread 2-4' wide filling in the corner where my red spider zinnias are putting on the most pitiful display I have ever witnessed.





The new rose is planted across the path from the orange on I bought last week. At $4.98 a piece, who can blame me? I've paid more for annuals.

I also paid full price for a Snowball Viburnum, Viburnum opulus 'Sterile'. For $16.98, I got a three foot tall shrub in a 5 gallon pot. I remember seeing this shrub when I was a kid. In Virginia, there's one in Jackie's yard. I consider it an old fashioned plant, but my house is nearly 64 years old.



Then I bought a red Forever & Ever Hydrangea. It was $12.98. I know it will never be truly red in our climate and soil, but there should be lots of dark pink and purple blooms once it settles in. I placed it next to the front steps to the right of the dining room window.



I also bought a $6 clearance rack hydrangea from the Gardeners Confidence Collection. I don't know much about this company, but the plant was in a 3 gallon pot and has lots of new growth on it. It should bloom white with a tinge of blue. I put it opposite the red hydrangea between a gardenia cutting and a tea olive cutting. In the center of the window is a camellia that was cut down right after I moved in. I don't know what color it blooms.



Another full price plant followed me home. For $6.97, I got a climbing hydrangea. See a pattern here? I've seen pictures of this vine online. The picture attached the plant told me where to plant it in my yard.



It's at the base of the chimney now. It should receive about 4 hours of sunlight in the summer. It's evergreen and will give the Confederate Jasmine something to grow into. I didn't take the advice of others telling me to plant it far away from the house. It could reach 80' tall without pruning. I can live with that.



I picked up two clearance rack heucheras too. Both purple, I planted these on the north side of the house in the hosta bed. The elephant ears from Trevor are just starting to leaf out.



It's 75 degrees and muggy. It rained at some point during the day while I was at work 2 miles away. It must have come a nice shower. When I got home with my groceries, the street was still wet and steaming.

With the spring season coming to a close on Tuesday in the garden center, I don't plan to spend any more money on plants. Instead, I will start turning my attention to cuttings and propagation of things in my yard and around the neighborhood. I know I spent too much. I always do. It makes me happy. I can live with that.

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The blue house 3 doors up was just put on the market yesterday. It was a rental when I moved into my house. The kids there had lots of parties and neighbors tell me it was a drug den for a while before that. About a year ago, the tenants moved out and it was abandoned. Windows got broken and the house fell into even worse disrepair. Today, the realtor was showing the house to a couple. They were there for more than an hour. I would like to see someone purchase it and fix it up. It's a bungalow style home. The lot is narrow and tight. There's really no yard to speak of. There is a gorgeous yellow broom plant in the front yard. The seed pods will be ripe in another month. ;)