Countdown to spring! One Photo per Day Part 13

I wish poppies lasted longer.

Morning Ge, Allison and Sherrie.
Nice begonias and poppies. :)

nice ones Sherrie!

hope mine look like that

nice poppies - looking forward to them - the foliage is up and looks good here.

Same here for the OP's Plants were from KOI co-op. I'm not expecting many blooms.

sherrie has the NB ever bloomed?

Sorry have not contributed much the last week or so. You all have been doing great though from what I can see in catching up. Got the edging finished just in time for more rain. Hope my poppies return too.
Here is a pic of sunnier drier times.

This will be its 3rd year.
1st year not much
2nd year - big blooms
last year I hacked it down as someone said it does better. With the weather and all it did not do well. It only stands about 2-1/2 feet high. Last year did bloom but not much as you can tell.

thx - was concerned that it would not do well for you because of out zone - i have a couple here when we bought the house and they do not bloom much at all.

btw - you should not trim them, only remove dead branches.

Last year was crappy weather. But they have made it through 2 winters, so lets see what happens. The bloom was a georgous blue.

I agree the older mopheads should not be cut back because they bloom on old wood. The buds can be effected by late freezes and frosts too that will decrease blooms for the same reason. The newer models that bloom on both old and new wood are better at giving up more blooms because even if the blooms from buds set last season get frostbite they will set new ones on current years growth. This is great improvement here for me because we will have nice spring weather and then a late freeze for a day or two almost every year. They are a beautiful blue.

Nice photo of the red lilies, Pat.

thanks Sherrie

mother of pearl balloon

This was my lasagna garden in September.
As you can see the neighbors car is lower than the garden. I want to warn anyone who starts a garden ,make sure its not on a hill.
Allison! the orange bunch of blooms in the background middle is a Apricot Sprite I bought from Forest Farm.It was 40 inches tall. I doubt it was the sprite we know and love.

This message was edited Mar 30, 2010 7:00 AM

Lovely balloon flower!

I've seen some very nice gardens on slopes, but they used netting as they were planting the plants. - Later, everything grows around the netting and it looks very natural!

July 2nd 2009

I have planted sturdy tall easycare plants at the back. I hope not to have to go thee for eons.

the netting is probably a good idea... JoAnn!!

:)

the sedum, creeping phlox, and soapwort are doing well even with the water flow.. and can't go wrong with shasta daisies

forgot to mention your apricot sprite might have been acapulco orange.. they are close in color.. but not height

This message was edited Mar 30, 2010 8:58 AM

Thanks Robin.
Love that pink balloon onewish. Is it a tall one or a dwarf version?
I have a couple slope beds too. They are hard to work on for me too so one is mostly shrubs and the other is sparsely planted with minimum care perennials and shrubs. I found if you can make a planting pocket that slants slightly backwards into the slope to catch the water the plants don't dry out so quickly and it helps with erosion while they get established. Also I try to use plants that have large fibrous root systems that grab hold quickly. I do also use some of the million rocks that I dig up to help hold the soil in place. If you have a really steep large slope terracing or using the netting is a really good idea I think.
Here is a pic of one end of mine. Not such a great pic but it shows the rocks. There is a little trench in back of each plant to start out with anyway and ignore the weeds.

I would say the height is between the tall & dwarf size... they never got real big for me.. maybe 2 foot

The rocks are a good idea....also DLs seem to keep the soil in place very well...hostas, too.

ngam, pretty bed.

U Whooo Pixi the primroses are up.

::::::::clapping::::::::::

Hi Ge, glad to hear it....haven't noticed if mine have poked thru yet.

I have always loved that variety and never had an environment to grow them.
Thanks to you I'll have some.

pink volcano phlox

nice color Allison

oohh is that pretty JoAnn

Last years but comming soon.
Its going to be sunny and warm today so I'll try to take more currant photos.

going to be a muddy mess for a few days here

Nice phlox, I have 3 plants, starting to poke though now, about 2" high, I should get some more, they're very hardy here.
- I have heuchera Caramel as well, this years snow didn't phase it in the least!

Clem 'President'

I am amazed at that heuchera. Its really tuff.

Yes it is, in fact it seems all the heucheras are tough, but the 'Caramel' fared the best. - considering they were under 2 feet of snow six weeks ago!

Followed by (in order of how well they fared): 'Southern Comfort', 'Pewter Veil', 'Citronelle', 'Plum Pudding' and lastly 'Tiramisu'. (though Tiramisu is showing a lot of new leaves emerging.)

H. Caramel taken this morning, (in the rain, lol)

wc my caramel did great as well - i got them at lowes and split them into thirds last year and all are doing great and are already glowing out there - they have more of the lighter color than yours at this point.

I was underwhelmed with Tiramisu It was new last year,Gingerale was another blaaa.

i do find some die for no apparent reason - all the coop ones i got last year made it too - there are a few others "missing" will investigate which ones for my future reference