Welcome to the Beginner Flowers forum!

The temperature was in the 30's and it was breezy and chilly. Why?

Usually plant begin to grow when its time. If by chance is to early (shrub) to leaf out,just realize nature has a way of slowing down things, but if does continue to leaf nothing can do about it, nature is nature. If by chance, if you were to have a late hard frost and leaves got killed, there is an auxillary set of buds waiting to sprout if necessary. Is true of shrubs and trees. Good Luck, Kathy.

Thanks Kathy.

My flowers are growing rather well, except the Rose of Sharon of course and the Cosmos, my Rose bush is already climbing the shed where it is planted. It is going to be in the 30's,40's, and 50's this next week, is it ok to take the leaves I put on them last fall off completely? They are growing quite well!

I think it's time to take the leaves off.

Thank you Cathy, I want to clean up the yard (when I get a chance between the rain and still occasional snow squall). A friend of mine told me to wait until May 15, but I looked at the last frost date and it said it was March 29. I appreciate all your help on this page and will be sure to take pics of the flowers when they bloom, especially the Naked Ladies, last summer was the first time I had ever heard of them, and mine are doing ok. The thing I like the most about them is no muss, no fuss.

We took most of the leaves off this week and filled six huge bags (usually we compost, but it is too much). There are still some more to go. I fully believe they provide lots of protection and maybe some nourishment.

As you can tell, my Irises are getting taller, it is amazing really, I just planted 4 or 5 plants and already there are a dozen or more. The Naked ladies I am not too sure about, one clump looks ok, the other kind of weak looking, I hope they all grow, but if they don't, they don't.

These are the ones I'm not too sure about.

Teddy, it looks like something had lunch in your garaden.

It is amazing, I went out after it finally stopped raining and my Irises look like they are growing taller every day! I swear they are twice as big as they were last week! My Rose of Sharon is looking good too, is it possible that some of the bulbs could have fallen off and are making new plants and are coming up too? There is some new growth near them and it looks like it might be new ROS plants, is that possible?

ANYTHING is possible.

This is the new growth I was talking about, it is right next to the other plant. And there is quite a bit too.

I do believe this is my Cosmos flowers starting to make a appearance, can anyone tell me if I am right? Sometimes its hard when the flowers start growing to be able to tell the flowers from the grass and weeds.

At this time of year, if I don't know exactly what is planted, everything looks alike to me. Invasives are usually the first to show up. If you recognize them, get them out now. There will never be an easier time.

I don't know your weather, but I'd think it would be a bit early for cosmos. Why not check out the forum for annuals, and take a look:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1167269/ and http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2898/

You'll probably get better answers than on this forum.

Looks like some sort of grass to me.

I just worked up the ground around my Irises and Rose of Sharon bushes, and gave them all a little drink of water. Hopefully I did not make a boo-boo.

My Irises are doing quite well, they are getting really tall, not so sure about the Naked Ladies, they don't seem to be getting any taller, and my Rose of Sharon bushes seem to be spreading, because new plants are coming up right beside them.

Just so you're not disappointed, teddy, when I transplant Naked Ladies it takes at least 2, and sometimes 3 years before they bloom...

Lycoris and Crinum can both be cranky and resentful about being moved. They are the garden's cranky old folks...they want to be left alone. GRIN

Oh well, at least my Irises and flowering cabbage and ros are doing ok. It seems like the Irises grow more every day, and I read that the Hummingbirds love the purple ones, so when the little beauties come back, they will have something besides nectar to eat. We might have to get a sign that says Hummingbird crossing, because the feeder is on one side of the boardwalk, and the flowers are on the other side. The Hummingbirds will have plenty of perches this year too, we have a trellis around our front door, so they can eat out of the Iris and perch on the trellis.

I have read that if you want to get rid of the ros flowers all over the place, when the seedlings come up pull them up. With all the trouble I have had trying to get the flower to grow, I sure am not going to deter them from growing now. They are popping up pretty good, and the Irises are too.

Success!!! My Cosmos is finally sprouting! I guess it is my imagination, but it seems like the sunshine made my Irises grow like crazy! Yesterday the temps were in the 80's, with plenty of sun. When I put the Cosmos down, there was a package of some sort of seeds that would help make them grow faster, I think maybe some of them got around my Irises because you can almost sit out there and watch them grow!

I have heard about the flowers called Callas Lily? Are they easy to plant in my region? I am in the northern part of Indian Lake so winters are harsh and summers are brutal sometimes, should I not even try to plant any?

Teddy, check out the gardeners notes on this DG link. You can grow them you just have to dig them up and store them over the winter, or grow them in a container you can protect from freezing weather.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/768/

As you can tell from this picture, the Irises are shooting up quite well, I was looking at these and I looked real close and there is another sprout coming up beside this one! They spread like crazy! I only planted like about 3 or 4 plants and I got more than that coming up. I don't mind, I love my flowers.

My Cosmos are sprouting, you were right, that was grass I took a picture of, I see the sprouts better now, they are growing pretty good. Do I need to do anything to them now that they are sprouting? Like water them or anything?

Here is one of the Cosmos sprouts.

There are about 5 of them, I was beginning to think they were never coming up, but I guess the [erson who told me to have patience, knew what they were talking about!

Every year I plant new calla lilies (zantedeschia). They are relatively easy to grow, but I never get around to pulling them for the winter. The bloom is not a true flower but is lovely and lasts for at least 3 weeks. Sometimes the foliage is very pretty.
I meant to add a photo. I'll try to add it after.

I have to stop hitting the "send" key when I mean "choose."

These are callas, and I'll send one that shows some foliage.

These zantedeschia leaves are partially translucent. Some of the leaves have a beautiful red design.

I am very surprised at the growth of the Irises, they are really shooting up, unfortunately I found out one of my Rose of Sharon bushes might be dead, I scraped it with my fingernail and it was brown. The other one is still green and there are seedlings around it, there are some around the dead looking one but I am not going to pull it, I will just leave it where it is. The Cosmos ought to be very pretty when it blooms, if they do this summer. All of a sudden they just popped up and are growing pretty fast. That is why I took the picture, that way when they get 5 or 6 ft. tall, I can show when they were 1 or 2 inches tall. LOL!

I now have 10 sprouts for my Cosmos plants, after all that rain and brief periods of sunshine they are popping up like crazy!

I now have 13 Cosmos sprouts popping up, this sun is really helping with all the flowers. I am anxious to see them when they bloom, I don't know if the Irises are going to bloom or not, I hope so, the hummers will love them when they come back. Have not seen any yet, so I don't know, I am not a professional gardener. One says they will bloom, another says they won't, so I will just wait and see. I think I will go to a web page and see what they say.

I will ask the professionals on this page, I could not get any straight answers on the web pages, I planted the Irises last fall, will they bloom this year, they sure are getting tall. It seems like when you go to the web pages they do not answer you with a plain yes or no, I know the people here will.

If planted at the proper depth they should bloom this spring, (ie , no more than an inch of soil on the rhizome, some people call them knees and leave them exposed, others don't, the roots are actually beneath the rhizome). Good Luck, Kathy. P.S> some won't bloom if too deep.

I guess these are tall bearded irises (with rhizomes). Sometimes if you read the iris forum, you need to read between the lines. Eventually they make a lot of sense. Dutch irises are small bulbs, and the wetlands irises I planted are plain plants with roots (Japanese iris).

Believe me when I tell you that you can ask a good question, and the very best of gardeners will give you conflicting info (LOL). Many times it is because their planting zones and conditions vary greatly. If you've got rhizomes, they want a little warmth, sitting about half way covered. Last year I replanted irises that had been at the side of the house since we bought it six seasons ago. I don't recall seeing them bloom, so a new home might encourage them.

Are these the irises your neighbor gave you? If so, he/she could give you valuable advice.

I have been going to Long's Iris Gardens for years now and every year get some newbies to add to the collection. Seems to me if I didn't divide down too small I always got blooms the following spring. I'm ready for my dwarf to begin blooming in the next few weeks, then will have a month or more of bloom, dwarfs, intermediates, tall (germans), then siberian and japanese. Yummmmmm!! Good Luck, Kathy.

More Cosmos plants, I am so happy that they have finally sprouted, took them long enough!