Reviewing 2015 Projects and Plants, Challenges and Results

Same here.

Great! We don't happen to have one.

Very pretty...lots of bright color for this time of year......are they natives?

The Cherry Dogwood species are not natives, but long cultivated as ornamentals.

Cornus officinalis hails from Japan and Korea. Cornus mas has been cultivated since ancient times from central and southern Europe and western Asia.

What's their hardiness zone? The only dogwoods I see here are the pink & white, but most of them have gone to a virus.....

Cornus mas goes to a bone-chilling Zone 4.

Cornus officinalis is rated slightly warmer at Zone 5-8.

Thanks...usually zone 5 here, but warmer this winter.....except for the 2 nights last month that went to minus 15 & minus 10.....peach farmers may have lost their crops....

My goal is to retire so I have time to garden!

Crop loss is tough to take. In process of ordering irises for July shipment.

It sounds like you have loads of time in retirement....truly, I have no time....not sure how I ever worked & took care of this place.....guess when you're younger, you can do more every day....now I get tired after an hour outside working....Lucy, what iris are you ordering?

I ordered SDBs from Winterberry, about 4 iris from Keppel & a few from Superstition in CA. We tend to grow more medians. DH has dropped his judgeship but I am still a judge so get some of the smaller new ones each year.

Would love to see photos when the bloom.....I think the only one I grow is Harlow Gold.....

You said that you ordered 2 MTBs & 2 TBs this year? I can show plants which are in the computer, mainly DH & my introductions.. I don't use a computer very well & mainly thought it as a guide to our own plants as hybridizers.

Here is my border bearded iris Margaret Beaufort.

I only lost one rose that won't be replaced - one of my two 'The Dark' Lady from two years ago. It was the less substantial of the two, and I was not surprised, because a TON of ice slipped off the roof and crushed it. But I still have the other one, which was much larger and more substantial.

And then , I have a theory that a loss is sometimes a gain. That rose was really fuchsia, not red, and I had had my eye on 'Navy Lady' a fairly new Canadian rose that High Country Roses seems to be the only supplier of in thie country.

Now this is RED:

http://www.highcountryroses.com/ac-navy-lady

As opposed to TDL, lovely as it is (see pic)

And High Country Roses is a family company. They are the only company that can send me roses in September that survive the winter (ah, altitude in Colorado - not for sissies!)

I bought a rose Gruss an Achen for my daughter from that company & found them very easy to deal with.

I LOVE Gruss an Aachen. Someone once, on a thread, asked if you could have only one rose what would it be and that was it! I had three in pots at my former home, and I have two in the ground here.

I bought two from them as well. I put them in year before last and they matured very quickly and bloomed all season.

So you have great taste in roses AND in rose providers! Except for one rose that he did not have, I placed all my spring orders through Matt at HCR. A couple of the roses (one is a white sport of Morden Blush), as well as Navy Lady, do not appear to be available domestically.

Lucy, thanks for the photo.....your iris is a beauty......I didn't order any SDBs, but I did order MTB, & TBs this year......My iris look good right now, can't wait to see if the rebloomers actually do this year! Donna, I love Navy Lady....no roses were lost this winter which was sooo mild here......

Remembered rebloomers like extra water during the summer. It may take a year or so before they settle in.

Oh....last summer was sooo dry,,,,,& I have no idea where I planted the rebloomers....just stuck them into bare spaces.....guess I'll just have to wait & see.....

Don't worry--they will show themselves.

Hard to wait to see them....also have my first case of PI.....I didn't know if the vine was Virginia Creeper or not....guess it wasn't.....I did scrub like crazy when I went into the house, but the rash is on one arm.....

Oh no!!

yes, PI has leaves of 3. Hope that it is a light case.

PI showed up next on my face near my eye....thankfully, had prednisone left from my last p. arthritis attack, & I think I stopped it in time....will know by tomorrow....if not, I'll have to get a shot....

Please take your PI to a doctor.....you don't want to mess around with your eye. I also get a lot of bad side effects with prednisone, but it sounds like you know how to take it.

This message was edited Apr 3, 2016 11:45 AM

Agree

PI is not spreading...the prednisone is working, plus I put Tecnu spray on it....I thought I had the scrub, but I guess I used it up....need to find more as this is just my first bout with it....No blisters have formed...if they do, I'll have the doc check it out.....

yippee!

I had 2 orders of plants come yesterday....on the worst wintry day....most were bulbs, but I had penstemon & pineapple sage plants in the order....they look OK now, hope they weren't frost-bitten!

I am sure that they will recover. 4 inches of snow here.

melting fast after a cold night.

Lots of snow still covering plants, but the leaves sticking up look frozen......not a happy time.....

Roses have all broken dormancy - out of about 40, only one did not return. My Mt. Hood daffodils are blooming. My PJM rhodie is budding up. Lots of lilies are sticking up out of the ground. Lots of perennials are budding up. My fruit trees are flowering.

Gotta get out there. But it's pouring rain!!!

Snow is off the daffodils in front of the wall. They look smoshed. The melting pattern over the iris beds is taking place.

Spring was definitely pushed back for sure.....my daffs were only out a few days before they were ruined by the snow....bleeding hearts look OK this morning.....

53° overcast & rain is coming. just tiny patches of snow are left.

Marilyn looks like you could have some more snow on Saturday - The rain today will be good and get rid of the snow that has not melted,

snow gone here as well. Higher winds which I don't like.

Yep...snow is all gone....next round coming in for tomorrow....would like to rake & plant pansies....maybe next week...sigh!

who knows when?