I see flowers!!!!

Wha, your maples and everything else looks stellar this spring. Long way from the broken mess from this past winter. I am amazed at how much you have gotten done since my last brief visit. I think I am needing to visit and check out your collection of conifers gems. Love that view almost the most. Voles are such a pain and if you had dogs like us, you have a grand canyon running through your yard whenever they show up, but DH has a pretty good handle on them now. I certainly appreciate all the cheers for our garden and if any of you find your way to Nantucket, please know that you are welcome. But if we don't get rain it will be all burned up soon. Patti

Oh - I hope you get rain soon!

It's raining right now!

All my plants doing a happy dance!

I'm sure all of our gardens are quite livened up after last night's rain! I still think of the quantities of compost that Bill hauls down to the garden. The results show why the effort!

thanks all - yes that is a tri-colored beech - as long time NE gardeners know I take care of this myself - just let me know when Patti, we missed each other the last time. still have not planted the bunch of conifers from this spring - actually have not gotten to plant really anything i've ordered this spring. small nursery under my deck at present.

I keep hearing about tri-color beech but I don't see it that way in Plant files. Please say more about it, Bill.

which geranium the darker one or the hot pink one?
The hot pink was a NOID from a rounup and the dark one is Samobor


Looking good as always Bill!!!

thank you Jen.

Rosemary - http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/2567/tricolor-european-beech/

mine is in full sun so we only get the color in the spring then it gets kinda brownish - not very attractive. Wife wanted outside our bedroom window so that is where it went. better if in partial shade.

WHA....does it have any babies???? I really want this tree in my yard! I saw a beautiful one in part shade....full of amazing color....it was stunning! I have tree envy!

The beech is very attractive......I'm still trying to think of something that will replace the maple in back of the porch, but I need something that's good in a hot, dry area of the yard.....

I've saved an area for a tree also. Sunny with an hour of noonday shade. Near the house, so the soil needs a ton of amendments to the builder's sand. I'm thinking it should be a very decorative conifer of intermediate size, but it doesn't have to be. My seven son flower tree in a pot didn't survive with tons of protection. Too sunny and dry for umbrella pine.

many nurseries carry this tree - found mine at HD of all places. have not seen one there since.

Lot's of conifers would fit that bill rosemary.

I'm looking for deciduous.....need the sun in winter, shade in summer.....also has to be a fast grower!

Daisies just make me smile
Black Eyed Stella the first daylily to open this year

Weigela 'Ghost'

Robin, I find that a lot of the fast growers aren't long lived or they are invasive.
I too was looking for fast growers but narrow for screen not shade, I planted Hybrid Poplars about 10 years ago, out of the 6, 2 died last year now I have to figure what to put in the 1 spot...I think I can get away with not replacing the one on the end, but am wondering how long the others are going to last

Dawn redwood is probably reasonably fast and it sheds its leaves. Or some wonderful hawthorns or crab apples depending upon the spot. Or Acer griseum....

I want a conifer for wind break for the house in winter and it can grow fairly tall and straight and doesn't have to be too thin. Today a golden dawn redwood seems special but doesn't give the winter protection. The true cedars that I started in pots didn't survive April so they're out. I suppose I could support Skylands there but a smaller cultivar with the same foliage is elsewhere. Seems such a waste to use a fairly protected area for a hardy tree.

I was thinking Skylands however for a winter break it may not be full enough - maybe one of the many yellow new growth evergreens that revert back to green after spring.

Marilyn I would plant another maple there - they are pretty fast growing.

Thanks, all....I guess I was thinking maple as well......Jen, my DLs are just starting to get a few buds.....

Another maple, Marilyn! Can you grow a griseum where you live?

Thanks for the thoughts, Bill. I have a picea orientalis Spring Frost that may claim the choice spot--it is a more dwarf skylands and perhaps too thin as you say. The pinus pinsapo aurea, though a wee three inches tall reminds me of Spain and needs a protected spot like this. Cryptomeria can grow in other places. An emerald green-blue cultivar would be nice too, if Arizona cork bark fir actually would grow here... The soil is much improved after five years of work.

Last fall Arft sent me a Karl Rosenfield Peony and to my great surprise it bloomed ,and my red rose bush produced a lot of roses.

Hurray for KR, roses too. My peony blooms were pretty battered last week in the rain. I hope to have many in the next flush.

My peonies have begun to bloom....Coral Charm is my favorite right now......

We have one (1) peony, but it is going to explode any day now!

Here's Coral Charm.....

G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S !!!!!

Is it fragrant???

This message was edited Jun 7, 2015 9:33 AM

Beautiful!. Much brighter than mine.

My peonies are almost ready.....so close to opening up!
My firewitch pinks are putting on a great show! I love how they smell!

Coral Charm is lightly fragrant.......My Krinkled White seems the most fragrant....I also have Kansas & Top Brass blooming now roses are also beginning......I love the pinks, Ali, they are wonderfully scented....

Robin....are those plants that are fragrant in the pink family? If not - what are they....I feel I need more fragrant flowers - I do have alot of flowers but most of them don't smell....or at least I can't smell them! I love that the pinks smell like nutmeg....so deliciously wonderful...I have to stop each time I go by and sniff them....it's almost an addiction!

Pinks are very scented, but not all of them! Sweet William always has a nice scent.....the Oriental lilies smell like cloves & vanilla, but I don't grow many because the Red Lily beetle destroys them...David Austen roses are all scented, I have Strawberry Hill & Heathcliff.....some of my iris smell like grape kool-ade, some don't have any smell....guess you have to find the flowers blooming & give them a sniff!

Well - they do say stop and smell the flowers....I try to sniff as many as I can! I do love my grape smelling bearded iris....I only have a few! I have a beach rose bush....amazing smell!

I've not sniffed the oriental lilies....I'll have to make sure to do that this year! My mission to kill all those beetles and their babies has been getting easier and easier each year - I've successfully killed most of them in beetle form this year and now hunt the slugs every day! :) My next victim -- japanase beetles....they'll be showing up soon I'm sure! I don't like to be mean.....but those bugs can't stay!

Here is my newest rose, Distant Drums....has a light scent, but a color very hard to capture with a camera!

John F Kennedy Rose bloom so nice for me despite the cool weather we are experiencing .Rose champion flower is showing herself too.

The Kennedy rose is very pretty....is it fragrant?

Thank you , but it is not fragrant.I think I will try to get a Distant Drums it is very pretty and I will like some fragrant too.

Robin, my anonymous peony is blooming now too. It's a mostly white one, which I thought were more fragrant than the pink ones. I think I picked it for its fragrance, or at least for having a fragrance. That was a while ago, one of those names I thought I would never forget, except I forget.

Your Coral Charm is gorgeous, though! Maybe I can find room for it.

No roses or rose campion here yet.....can't wait...
I've got yarrow blooming, siberian iris, bearded iris, and bachelor buttons.....others close....but no peonies yet....the buds are so large....maybe just a few more days. I'll have to sniff all of them again to see which are most fragrant....I have light pink and dark pink and white.....oh and I have a tree peony too....it's deep pink.

Love the tree peonies....the blossoms look like tissue paper.....have a famous Chinese peony farm here in town....Cricket Hill.....have visited once, & was blown away by the beauty of them....