Wicker, I'm just now getting to see the 2 lilies I stepped on early last spring. Luckily we had a heat wave in early April for about 10 days, and the sprouting lilies just took off and became visible plants. I can't wait to see what I missed last year (they were new then). I keep the bags my plants come in the refresh my memory and identify.
I'm just starting to see buds in the crowns, but those blasted red lily beetles and having dinner on my nickel.
Is it spring anywhere?
Spray! Spray! spray!
Ge, it sure was. I wasn't expecting any so soon, but a red admiral has already been flitting around.
Steve, how beautiful!!! What is that deep red peony??? I've never seen that color before!
Ditto on the spraying Cathy166!! Kill them all before they get in Iowa!
I'm off to weed shortly.
Have a good day everyone!
Spray ! Spray! Spray!
BP, it is called "Hot Chocolate" - got it from Klehm. I like the way it contrasts against the yellow.
Steve, a perfect name. I love it!! I wish I had room to add more peonies. I'm going to have to stick my eggplant and peppers in the flower beds this year since we have to wait till June to do the driveway.
I'm watering for my neighbor this week, so I better hop over there.
Have a great day!!
At least one of the Amethyst Temples is toast for this year - completely mushy top. Jury is out on the others. I suspect that the blooms will just be smaller, so not bad! But when I dug it up the mushy one (and it really did need to be dug up because it was ina bad location) I found it to be a huge, really healthy bulb. I moved it to a better location.
Not the worst thing in the world.
On the other hand, Steve's Rococos, Tracey's Delphinium and Pam's digitalis grandiflora look absolutely superb. Amply balances things out.
Now I KNOW it's spring.
Fothergilla gardenni blooms
And the double tulips pop open
And the perennials pop open with no help from you..
Even the ones in semishade
But the lilacs are still kicking.
I love spring.
meeee toooo
Donna, I love your pictures - your garden looks fantastic, especially uyour lilacs. Great show!
Heres whats happening here
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/GardensMay4SomeFerns
Donna, one reason why I intended to replant all my lilies. I lost Muscadet completely. Well, I found one scale and planted it. I mixed up good dirt to replant all the othersI have, in and it's still in the garage in buckets. But it's mixed and ready. I also want to split them up some so I have spots of scent all over the yard. I almost need to just dig a small lily bed, or three. Yeah. DH thinks I have enough already. If he wasn't retired I'd be able to sneak them in, LOL!
Your fothergilla is beautiful! It's a plant I've considered, but can't remember why I decided against it. I adore the double tulips! I have the Husker Red penstamon and love it! It looks good planted in a row behind something shorter. Even tho rows are a no-no in gardens, it works. Is that bishops cap? It really brightens up the area!
Magnificent lilacs!!! My neighbor's are on the way out and I'm watering for her this week. I smell the blooms that are left.
I love spring when everything is fresh and strong!
You know, I figured there is no good time to die. I don't want to miss spring, so I can't die in the winter. Summer is my biggest bloom period. Fall, I waited all year to see the last flowers pop into bloom and that brings me back to winter. Guess I'm gonna stick around forever!
Ge, I couldn't get picasa to load. I'll try later.
Muscadet, a wonderful Oriental, huge blooms and a great scent.
Yes, GE, spring is becoming my favorite season. Here we have quite warm days (for us!)in the 70’s (which pumps everything up), followed by cool days that “freeze the show” – slowing it down, giving me more time to enjoy it. We have some of the same plants. I have ferns too, and I see you share my fondness for primula japonica. It has to be pampered here, but I happily do it. I really like your plants.
BP – DH just needs to be educated. Too many beds, too many lilies – not possible!
I wish I could take credit for the fothergillas. They were someone else’s suggestion. I have five of them. And they are wonderful. They are actually pn the north side of my house in a spot that gets half a day of sun. I acidify them (they prefer it) and I have to put hardware cloth on them or the rabbits will snack over winter, but if I do I get great blooms. I have actually had them for 11 years. The sucker a bit, but since they are gardenia, they are dwarf, staying at about 3 feet.
Don’t you love Husker Red? I’ve tried other penstemons but they require sharply drain ed soil.
And, good guess, the plant with the yellow flowers is the most vigorous (and cheapest!) o f the epimediums, sulphureum x versicolor. It can take dry shade, but with a little water, a bit of sun, it absolutely rocks.
Is Muscadet an oriental that persists? It’s really beautiful.
Stevie, thank you. One advantage to a smaller yard (OK, the ONLY advantage) is that you can give each plant what it really wants. You know how you read, oh yeah, this can take sun or shade, any kind of soil,,,NO! Donna goes to the library or on line and researches what the plant prefers. Then she serves it up like a banquet. It’s kind of like having a pet that you spoil and indulge because it brings you so much joy.
It’s really nice, though, when I am in the yard and someone is walking by and I say hello and they blurt “your garden is beautiful!!”
Donna, I know! That's half the reason I mow. One, I like to and two, so he doesn't have to go around the beds :o)
I had a feeling they needed acid soil. That's why I don't have them, but I love them! They are nice to look at and a bonus for the north side. Suckering would be another reason.
Husker red can re-seed green and I pull them out. I love the red stems and leaves in the spring.
Another plant I've considered for the maple tree with many shallow roots. We like the same things, only you plant them!!
Muscsadet did fine in the place it was. Then I noticed a stem or two dwindling, but thought the remaining bulbs would grow up and take over. Next thing I know, I was getting no lily nose poking thru the dirt and when I dug down, I only found one scale. It's one I will replace when I take care of the other lilies first.
I have two rows of plant books because Sally researches too. I can't afford to spend money on the wrong plant. I've passed up many plants because I didn't have time to pamper them. I need to work on small shrubs for songbirds to nest in. For years I turned up my nose at annuals, but now I've learned they are a bridge to the next month.
When someone walks by and says that, it's all worth it. I try to look at my yard thru a stranger's eye.
BP, your Muscadets looks wondeful; do you think it might have been a drainage issue that got them or was it some sort of animal? I grew some of that variety a few years ago but unfortunately the Orientals just don't cope well with our heat so I tend to avoid them for other lily types.
Here are some LA's blooming.....sorry for the scrubby weeds nearby :-) I have to mow this weekend!
This message was edited May 6, 2010 6:41 AM
Do you know the name of that lily Steve?
ge, not sure if it is "Orange Tycoon" or "Bestseller" - got a bunch (those being among them) from Brent and Becky at an end-of-season sale in late spring of 2009; I had them in pots at that time and then transplanted to that bed this past fall.
Steve, that's it exactly! It was on the east, the roof drains there, it was mulched and the dirt had turned to wet clay.
Oohhh, gorgeous!!
Thanks Steve.I'll keep my eye out for both.
Steve, that lily is gorgeous. Just curious - where do you keep the lilies in pots that you keep over the winter? A very nice person sent me three lilies in bulb form last November that I put in my minifridge. They came through fine and are in the ground. Your Rococo in the pot is safely in one of my favorite garden spots, next to some of my other gifts. Look at the back of this pic and you will see three stems. To the left is Tracey's dephinium (NO ONE grows them here) and to the right a digitalis grandiflora that I was given in trade. I just went out into the rain to photograph them - it's POURING here.
Donna, I buried my pot in the garden. So far all are emerging just fine. I've often wondered about mixing up a good lily planting soil mix and planting each in it's own pot to be buried. It sure would make digging them up easier for moving. That would only work if you had a few, but I usually only get a package of three, a year. Yeah I know. How come so few? Money.
It poured here earlier and has been done for a while. I love delphiniums! They don't do the best, but I have had the same plants for years!
And, dear BP, don't let the fothergilla soil/size thing deter you. The suckering is very modest - enough to make up for rabbit browsw, for example - but they are very contained. And my soil is quite alkaline, but I keep them happy with a little Ironite spring and fall, compost and pine bark mulch. They take almost no care. I've had them since 1998. This pic has THREE! And they are on the north side of my house, a notoriously bad location in northern Illinois.
This message was edited May 7, 2010 9:42 AM
And try arabis caucasica at its feet. The arabis has been blooming for weeks now - talk about a plant that accepts neglect!
This message was edited May 9, 2010 8:37 PM
Donna, love the arabis! Is it perennial? The suckering is modest. I may rethink that someday. They sure look nice.
BP - not only is it a perennial, but you can grow it from seed. I do. It is actually evergreen in my garden, and then in nApril, it starts to bloom. It's one of those plants that turns up in rock garden catalogs. Just put it in and neglect it, and it slowly spreads.
Here it is on April 11.
Same batch, five days later.
When it gets scraggly, you deadhead it. At the worst, it's simply evergreen. It is the first perennial to bloom for me in spring. The pink kind, rosea, is lovely but it dies out quickly. It's also smaller and blooms later.
Donna, I really really like it! The pink is nice too! It's so nice to know what grows in each others gardens!
The sun has popped out, but it's so windy! We have a freeze warning tonight, so I've counted out hotcaps, buckets and pots to put over all my newly planted. who knew May was going to be so cold? Dang it anyway!
Last year's picture of Cherry Glen. It's almost the first to open.
We've had a couple of forecasts that made me think it would go below freezing, but then they were changed. Our low is 38 tonight.
I was good this year. The annuals I grew from seed are in pots in the yard being hardened off, but I did not put them in the ground - I've done that and been burned (well, maybe toasted) more than once!
Its certainly spring here. My clematis on the tower in the front yard are all in bloom.
And the tall bearded iris are starting to bloom.
Rita, your clematis is gorgeous! And that iris is such a lovely blue. You truly have a green thumb!
Thanks :-))
Donna, I wish they would cancel ours. I still need to find 4 more covers. I forgot I put 4 cabbage on the other side.
Rita, gorgeous clematis and iris! I love the combined colors! My Claire de Lune just opened. It's in shade and isn't a large full vine yet. I've had it 4 years and it's the most shade tolerent, but I think it needs a tad more sun. My iris are starting to open and I love them!
This is las year's picture when it's at it's fullest. I only had 2 blooms yesterday.
Claire de Lune
I love everything busy. Instead of planting one on a tower, I figgured a better use of space would be all of them. So I planted four clematis. In fact I just bought four new clematis in bloom yesterday and I plan to do another tower similiar to the first one, only different colors (different clematis). But the structure I am going to use is exactly like the first one.
Your Claire de Lune is very pretty.
Thanks Rita, it's the only one I have and it breaks easily. Vines, like shrubs have to be thought out here. I'm making a sweet pea trellis area by the front porch, but it's on hold till I move the crocus, and we get the patio poured with the new driveway, in June. I would love to put your idea together somewhere. They say when there's no room, go up! First I have to get a tower. I see so many clamatis that I like. It sure solves some that problem :o)
DH got the jeep out so we went for a ride to shake off the cabin fever. It stayed sharply cold all day. We came home and covered the garden plants, so that is done.