April snow storms bring May flowers!

wouldn't that be suckulent wreath?

Here's Epimedium rubrum. If I just didn't have to get down on the ground to take pics of this little beauty. It's planted under a bird nest spruce and has held its own even though its pretty dry.

This is a clump of Filipendula ulmaria 'Aurea'. It's just an inch high this time of year, later will get stalks of the same chartreuse/yellow foliage up to about 18", and some not-too-interesting white flowers. I cut it down if I get around to it just to use the foliage for color. I have been growing this clump for 3 years and its going to edge a walkway in front of hosta now

grammy, I've never tried, but I always admire them. good luck and let us see a pic again when it's done. looks great so far!

edit to add: I'm growing some Hens 'n chicks from seed. they're coming along good, but it would be a tiny wreath. they're all about 1/2" across

This message was edited May 5, 2007 7:52 AM

alyrics - Creeping Jenny (Nummularia aurea) would give the same effect without any need of cutting back. Some people find it invasive but it's been well behaved for me.

Hi Pirl
I look at that Nummularia all the time and wonder what it would do if I let it loose in my moist soil. The place I would use it is a large hosta bed so as long as it stayed in there I know its not going to do anything to the hosta. Does it spread by seed or just by runners?

Nice runners. When I move plants around in my kitchen hosta garden, where I have it, each piece comes up so nicely that it's simple to move or ditch: I move them. It makes such a nice golden carpet and dark plants like Trifolium and Heuchera Trifolium really stand out, as does Red Veined Dock.

Is it ever going to warm up? They're forecasting warm weathjer next week here in Nova Scotia, Canada. Sure hope they're right! Still there are a few things popping through the ground, daylilies, one of my hostas, spring bulbs of course and a few others showing signs of life. Does anyone know just how long it takes lilac bushes to start blooming. I'm sure I've had mine for at least five years and still no signs of flowers. I have a few things planted in pots in the house, calla lily bulb, begonias and caladium, to put in my containers but they really need some heat from the sun. Hurry up, summer!!!

If you cut back your lilacs that might be the reason they're not blooming. They like sunshine, too.

It's getting very nice here, finally.

Loved Truro! We first visited Nova Scotia when a caller on a radio gardening show said she was from Schubenacadie ("where the wild potato grows"). Beautiful towns and villages.

Phoeb, I LOVE your succulent wreath. I've been wanting to make one myself, but haven't yet, so I can't offer any comment on how fast it will fill in. Sure looks great to me, though!! Also, nice walk around the neighborhood. Thanks!

Pirl, I am so envious of your beautiful nursery stash! Everything looks so delicious!

Here's something that's blooming in my yard now.

Harper

Nice Harper.

I'll have nonbulb stuff blooming soon. Until then here are some tulips.

Beautiful tulips, Al.

The deer stopped for breakfast one day and ate 48 of my 50 Pink Impression tulips. The bright side of it? Less deadheading.

True!

Not really missing your deer here in the city. Rabbits do their share of eating here.

My kerria japonica is blooming, so it's not the fanciest plant, but for a full shade shrub it flowers.

The real PIRL grew that on our property line, along with Bridal Wreath and they were lovely.

pirl, who's the real PIRL?

Al, fantastic tulips. Here's mine. Just took this shot this morning.

Something else that's blooming today. The daffodils are going strong for weeks now.

More beauty from this morning. The cherry tree burst open on Sunday.

The crabapple is budding.

The lilacs are budding.

The rhododendrons are packed with buds.

The real PIRL was my sweet neighbor, who taught me how to garden:
Pauline Isabelle Reid Loeffer (from Albemarle, NC) 10/14/1900 - 3/1/02

Oh, nice!!!! How sweet that your group name is after her.

101?

How long did she garden to?

God bless her little heart.

I made an error. She lived to 102, 4 months and 17 days. She died in 2003 and I gave the eulogy as her son (her only child, who lived with her) fell the night before and it ended up being a stroke. He died 25 days later.

She gardened until she was 88 and then simply couldn't get up one day: arthritis. She continued to garden and weeded by bending over! I get dizzy doing that! I can't imagine doing it at 88 and 90 years old. She retained her accent, which my husband called "straight out of Gone with the Wind", regardless of being in New York since 1923.

That is quite a story new Pirl, quite an inspiration to all of us gardeners.

Harper - I like your tulips. You are right at about where we are with things blooming.

I took a few new ones today. This is Chocolate Soldier columbine. I'm not sure if I am totally in love with the columbine that bloom facing downwards.

Here is one of the hybrid tulips growing in my strawberry bed. I am switching cameras I use this year to help with closeups.

Beautiful tulip, Al.

Mrs. Loeffler's son was an Al, too. She was a great inspiration and a very funny person without meaning to be.

She never was sickly as is our Dave/Doug/Atticus/Dombledore.

I have got to take better care of my health! Gardening today was such a chore. Mrs. Loeffler's life will be my new goal. My mother just wrote a book called "The Secret Method For Growing Younger". As my mother's daughter, you'd think I'd be as youthful as a 20 year old! Why am I up so late? I gotta get my beauty rest.

Oh, Al, beautiful tulip. I've got to show you a pic of my favorite columbine. I have to get it out of my old computer.

G'night all!

Harper

Harper - you are the very LAST one to need your beauty rest. You've got it all and it shows ... and so well!

Species tulips from my yard. I like these little guys - they are quite cheerful and bloom along with the daffodils. Two years ago I planted a dozen Westpoint Tulips in my tulip bed and next to my neighbor's shed. Now he has 20+ and I have 2. Why is life so unfair?

Thanks Pirl. Such sweet compliments from a wonderful woman. Um... have you seen a picture of me?

Yankee, what's your neighbor's trick? That is unfair! Do you whisper love stories to them at night? Maybe that'll help.

My neighbor does nothing to them. I fertilize them when I do my own and he doesn't even have full sun in that spot! But he gets such a kick out of seeing them come up each spring! Then next year I added tiger lillies to his yard and now he waits for those, too. This year I added some little blue bell flower bulbs (rescued from the construction site) and lots of hostas that needed a new home. Oh - and a couple of Stella d'Oro day lillies. And *looking sheepish* some other little shade plant that I bought from WFF and don't know what they are that needed to go to make room for the gas line.

What is sooooo sad is that the man next to my lets-me-garden neighbor, has a poorly kept, totally shade lot and I can't do anything for him because his son won't let me. The son has a huge anger issue and goes absolutely crazy if there are any changes in the yard. Now he doesn't own the house or live there, is one of 3 children and I've never seen him lift a finger around the yard when he stays there to visit! (He is a priest in a local parish and vists for a couple days at a time quite frequently.) When Don's basement flooded, I was over there setting up another neighbor's sump pump for him - not the son who wants to control. He never did even come over to check on his Dad and the water heater had to be replaced because I didn't get to the flooding fast enough and the pilot light went out. I had lots of beautiful shade hostas to relocate and they would have been perfect for his yard and I could have bought him lots of bulbs from the construction site this spring that he would have for years to come. It is so frustrating!

This message was edited May 9, 2007 10:33 AM

That's terrible!! What a generous, kind spirit you have. The priest should take lessons in life from you.

I hate attitudes like that son's. How can they stand to look at themselves in the mirror?

That is so sad AYankeeCat. One wonders what inticed him into the priesthood - doesn't sound like compassion.

What do you think of this rose? It's not mine though :-( wish I could grow them like that. While in Washington DC visiting friends I always have to go to the botanical gardens. Two years ago when I went they didn't have the outside gardens finished but this time they were. This was one of the roses.

This is a photo of half eaten bamboo and of course a baby panda and if I look his name up on-line I'll loose this message and have to start all over again so I won't. It's the baby panda at the national zoo in Washington DC.

Great photos!

I finally emerged from the butterfly room after many attempts to photograph a butterfly. Butterflies were flying all over and I would wait for one to settle and then focus, click, and it would fly away at that moment - I was just too slow. But I finally got several and this was my best. When I came out my companions were sitting on a bench waiting impatiently!!
p.s. This was at the zoo also!

This message was edited May 9, 2007 8:56 PM