FIRST FLOWERS OF SPRING!!! Mid Spring Edition

Sally, It didn't come from me but I must have gotten it at the same swap, my tag is missing. I'll check my plant journal see if it is listed there.

Nice flower pics all! I'll have to do a walkabout tonight and update my photos. Our Girard Fuchsia Azalea is on the cusp of blooming as well as our Gibraltar and Mt. St. Helen's Exburys. Also we have some carpet phlox that's looking pretty snazzy about now.

Sally, I have no idea but the leaves looks kind of like a relative of the perennial salvias...

Sequoiadendron, Our Garden Club did a tour of one of the members gardens, It is a beautiful property along a stream with all native plants. Greenthumb would have been in heaven. They have 3 huge Eastern Sequoia, and we learned quite a lot about the trees while we were there. There are only 3 types of Sequoia in the US and the Eastern Sequoia was thought to be extinct at one time.

Sorry Sally, I don't have it. I do have a pic of a primrose but I don't think it is the same plant but the pic is so bad I really can't tell.

Holly, I would like a bit of that Hosta also if you're up for dividing it.

Catmint. the hosta with the thin, twisted green leaves with white edge is probably 'Stiletto'.

Speedie I love Abelia, too, which most years stays 'evergreen' for me here.

My calacanthus has always been in almost complete shade and does fine but is too far from either door or window to enjoy the scented wafts.

Enjoying everyones pics!

Holly, I've never heard of an eastern sequoia but based on what you said, are you referring possibly to metasequoia glyptostroboides? A couple pics below:

We have 2 of the 3. The sequoia sempervirens isn't hardy for my zone :(

Sally---

Your reprinted Article today sure took me back down Memory Lane....2009!..WOW!

My Pregnant Onion still has not been divided--wanted to last year--but never got to it.
I think it is now going on year #4 (?)....It will be a mess...............:o(


Muddy--
This happened to some plants in my YUK bed too--last year, the rabbits chewed
up the stalks, as far as they could reach--and even chewed the stalks off at the bottom
to eat the leaves. They did this on my NE Aster--as well as in the Heliopsis.
Mt VA Bluebells is one of the new plants I planted in my YUK bed.

This year--I have a circle of the green, plastic fencing around all of these plants.
Ugly!--but it will save the plants. When I plant all the flowers in this bed--I will be putting
the fencing all around the bed. That looks better than individual circles all over the bed.

I have seen one, pretty big rabbit, cruising around. May be the male???
I also saw a juvenile black snake several weeks ago. If it sticks around--
many of the baby bunnies will be it's meal.

Last year--there was also only ONE mature rabbit hopping around--and I counted
FIVE different broods of baby rabbits through out the summer...The last brood
was about 6 or 7 babies--as they ALL came scattering out of my raised bed
one day when I was watering it. They were sooo tiny--maybe just a few days old.
So scared--running and jumping and tumbling in different directions--very scared
and confused. I actually felt sorry for them....
Then I found the "nest-hole"--right in that bed under a plant.

Do Mama rabbits even take care of their young after they are born???????
Do they nurse? Or--do they just abandon them to fend on their own?

G.

G: I'm not a rabbit expert but from what I've seen, they leave the nest a few weeks after they're born and then they're on their own. I try to wait just to the point where they're curious and start moving about when I steal them all and relocate them somewhere far away from my house. The first one or two litters will be breeding by the end of summer so it's important to relocate as many as possible, IMO.

Coleup I have some for you too.

Thanks Coleup. I was looking through large listings of hosta cultivars and stiletto also caught my eye as a possible match. Wasn't Greenthumb talking recently about getting some Stiletto from someone at the swap? Holly? Just wondering who the original Stiletto source might be and whether the little unknown one I have is indeed Stiletto! :-)

This message was edited May 9, 2014 5:01 AM

Sally: I think your mystery plant is from AspenHill and is Stachys Hummelo, http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=b326 . AspenHill gave me some and it bloomed and bloomed last year.

OOOhhhh...that's gorgeous! If for some crazy reason you don't want it, dibbs! :)

I can give you a small start at the swap if you like; it spreads fairly quickly (I'd give you more but I'm trying to spread it!).

thanks, I will look at that suggestion happy!!!

Mine Hummelo? has hardly grown in two or three years of part shade, but it has suffered some attacks by thuggish neighbors.

Yeah that'd be great Hap! Thank you :)

Sally and Holly - Happy is right - that is Stachys 'Hummelo' and it came from me. I have more for sharing at the spring swap, so let me know if you want any. Sequoia - I will gladly set some aside for you. My experience is that it spreads nicely but not invasively.

Stachys... Salvia. I was sorta close. They are in the same family: lamaiceae.

OK not really close at all.

It is very pretty and I would like a bit too, aspen. Thank you!

Typ, I've got you down for the Hummelo.

I've been tired this week after work and haven't been able to do much weeding, planting, or mulching. The one thing that is easy and relaxing though is an evening walk about to see what is happening out there.

Two deciduous azaleas and a Rose of Sharon are finally showing signs of life - I'm learning to not give up on things that look dead - patience, patience, patience.

The bare root astilbes that I planted on the new fern bank are coming to life in under a week!!! I've never much cared for bare root - never know which end is up, how deep to plant, or even where they were planted because there is no immediate visual for them. I've bought them several times in the past, but never seemed to get them planted because of not quite knowing what to do with them. I told myself I'd give it one more shot with the ADR stuff, and just dove in with planting them last weekend. Boy oh boy am I thrilled that they are growing so fast and easily!

It was getting too dark to take pictures, but will get some tomorrow.

Hey Happy, I've got about 7 of that 'Hummelo' that I potted up last weekend, so you don't need to worry about digging and dividing yours up for Sequoia unless you want to :)

Mine hasn't spread much either but like Sally's it is holding it's own in tight quarters.

Took a walk around--camera in hand....a few nice things to show you....

--Candytuft in my small, front bed..
--Cabndytuft and Brunnera blooming--side by side on the front corner bed.
--My dwarf (name??) Irises are finally blooming.
--Paul's Orange Azalea--finally ALL orange...
--One of the all white clusters of Wood Hyacinths. Hope the blue ones are elsewhere...

More---

--The big Hosta Sally and i divided--my section is growing nicely.
How are yours doing, sally?

--The two Hostas under my Lilac Bush--which only has a few blooms up high.
Bummer! Must be getting too old...needs more sun too....
--Divided my pot (bowl) of the small, round-leafed Hosta and got 3 pots out of it.
These WILL bloom--with pretty blue flowers.
--The 4 "Green Fountain Hostas from last year....all are available.
--My neighbor, Olga's BIG Fig tree--dead after the winter...sad!

Oh Gita, That was a beautiful Fig Tree.

Olga is not too upset about it--she almost hated it...
Too big--too tall--too messy---too hard to pick any, etc....

I sometimes think that she still hates her DH for dying--and is transferring her anger
to inanimate things like this Fig Tree.
She just has never grieved properly--as she has always been the matriarch of the
Clan--and sees openly grieving as a weakness....Everyone walks on egg shells re this topic--
no one talks about it and no one openly weeps in front of anyone else...
Stuck in grief--that is what they are.....
It was her DH's tree and he took care of it. he has now been gone 4 years....

I LOVED to pick and eat those figs. They were so sweet and special.

The smaller Fig tree against her house is dead as well.
This one had very large, purplish, sweet figs...

They just cannot take winters like we just had..... G,

Gita, maybe now your neighbor will be able to get rid of the trees without feeling bad about it.

This baby dogwood is the first thing I've actually bought to grow in this area, which is my shrub graveyard. That's a wimpy-looking leatherleaf viburnum blooming in the background.

The next two are of the one shooting star that's blooming now. I have one more plant; I used to have three but I might have dug one up by mistake.

The rabbits finished off my bluebell last night; I left a little hole in the netting.

Gita, I'm dismayed to hear they like NE Aster too! They've already eaten 3 Chelone glabra. I cut the bottoms out of pots and put them around the rest until they get bigger.

OK, here's the surprise I found yesterday morning... now I'm REALLY gonna have to get those hoop stakes, they are all falling over left and right. < =/
Yes Gita, I forgot the stakes yesterday, was busier n' a one-armed wall-paper hanger!!

Aspenhill, so glad to hear your bare root astilbes are coming to life! I just love the relaxing moments with the new growth, too--*especially* after a long hard day at work! Still working on that patience thing, though... ;-)

Gita, the orange azalea looks great, and I love the hyacinths! So sorry to hear about the neighbor's fig tree--I know you loved it.

Muddy, did you mean to attach some photos?? Would love to see the new dogwood. So sorry to hear about the bluebells and the C glabra. Maybe plant some monarda around them? I've read that deer are 'repulsed' by the smell of monarda...

ooh, Speedie, what a beautiful iris! I love the shading of blue and white. Still waiting for all of my iris to bloom--hopefully later this month...

Holly, just wondering if you recall the cultivar name of your two-tone green hosta? Thanks so much!

That stinks Muddy, I didn't know the rabbits like to eat chelone. I have the pink one and fingers crossed, no problems yet. Sorry to hear about your blue bell :(

Aspen, If you were willing, I'd take a hummelo from you rather than have to get Hap to dig hers up.

I have a few pics below:

A bunch of carpet phlox
Nice grouping of Thalia Daffs
Volunteer Pink FMNs
First Tiarella Susquehanna bloom
Capistrano Rhodie

reminds me I have three small pots of blue carpet phlox, well rooted- anybody?

I'm going to need annual color out front- but WHICH color....

ALL of them Sally!! :)

I like the wood hyacinths G.! so sad about your neighbors fig... I'm still not able to accept that our little fig tree is gone too. I go out every day and examine it with hope that it will show some sign of life ... nothing again today.

Besides several dead butterfly bushes, we have a few hydrangeas that look dead too, but one of them today actually looks like it does have a few green nibs showing!! yay! so that one may be alive. It is our bright cobalt blue pom pom huge hydrangea bush that I've often posted photos of.

horseradish and strawberries are blooming! sage has huge buds on it

Beautiful, Seq--I love the splash of color from the carpet phlox, and the color on your rhodie is so delicate and pretty.

Thank you :) We have two of them. Unfortunately we will not have a good bloom year for our rhodies in general because a lot of the buds got burnt out from the cold.

Wind -- I can bring you cuttings of butterfly bushes if you like -- Buddleia davidii Nanho Blue -- they root easily. Ditto for hydrangeas, though I don't know if I have names on mine.

I can root some of my hydrangeas as well, only a few are named.

Winter 2013-2014 Survivors:
1--Endless Summer Hydrangea after being prunes way down
2--My only Butterfly Bush
3--Koromo Shukibu Azalea--out front in the open
4--The beautiful Red Phlox that was part of my big "grab" last summer.
I was sure they all died....:o)
5--And--My "Bob Hope" Camellia just had 2 blooms opening. A real miracle!
ALL the buds it had were dead--this one was hidden on the back side...

More survivors....

1--One of my two large Azaleas--one on each corner of the front of my house--
soon to pop open. These are VERY old--and bloom amazingly every year.
2--Hostas under the Lilac Bush
3--N.E, Aster growing like gang-busters right now. have to remember to
pinch it back soon so it won't grow so tall and straggly. I dug away a lot of
the outside sections for the Swap.

4--and 5--This makes me the happiest! Last summer I forgot to water these
2 J.P.Ferns and they totally dried up. I still planted them on each side of this rock
(in front of the Koromo Azalea) but never saw any growth. Now--my goodness,
they both are growing!!!! I suppose roots do not always die--even if the tops do.

So sorry not to see anything on my B&B Salvias...............:o(
Will have to keep an eye out at HD. I think last year they had them for sale...
G.