Tra la! It's May!

"Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That darling month when ev'ryone throws
Self-control away."

So sang Julie Andrews in Camelot.

Many of us are receiving deliveries of plants so my question is - where do you see your greatest lack of self-control in the garden?

Whether we have a balcony for a garden, or lovely houseplants that fills the need, or 60 x 100' or 100 acres we all enjoy gardening but somewhere along the way many of us do lose self-control and either indulge in orchids, irises, daylilies, lilies or some other plants. Let's hear your story.

The photo is from Zuzu's 2009 calendar. Thank you, Zuzu.


This message was edited May 1, 2009 7:40 PM

I dont have enoug time to list my weaknesses ,where plants are concerned.
Lilies is top of the list,in spite of the redbeetle and the extra work they cause
then JapIris and Sibs,Pirl and PollyK introduced them to me a month ago,I cant get enough of them so I'll wait for Pollies co-op in 2010 fall.
Then Astilbes of all sizes (colors are carefully chozen)
I have formed an attachment to Agastaches since OneWish put her Apricot Sprite on a post somewhere.
I bought three plants from Forest farm,couldnt wait for the seeds I planted to mature in three years.
Thats all that comes to mind for now.
I'm making new ID tags for things i forgot last fall.

I get into all kinds of trouble every spring. I see lots of beautiful flowers and shrubs, look them up on the internet and, if they are suited to my neck of the woods, I'm out looking for them. On the more economical side, I do trade with friends :-}

I love tropicals, and my favorites are orchids. There is something wonderful about them, and having different plants in bloom all year round makes them a welcome part of my life. I simply cannot pass a display without having to look through to see if there is something I don't have and might be able to grow. They have taught me patience, but not self-control!

My other loves are cacti and succulents, and they are taking a larger portion of my heart these days with their gorgeous blooms (mostly viewed on DG) and unusual forms. This carried over into creating a small cold-hardy C&S garden which made it through our winter.

Bonsai have caught my attention, and they are much more of a challenge than anything else. Right now, I am concentrating on a few indoor subjects, but hope to branch out to creating some for the outdoors, as well.

A partial view of one of my set ups:

Wow! You really are addicted! Love those blooms.

Ironic that pirl would ask such a question...(although obviously not directed specifically at me personally) but she already knows what my answer is: daylilies daylilies daylilies

edited to give credit to pirl...this is a Lexington Ave she sent me...FFO from last year. It's has since tripled in size.

This message was edited May 1, 2009 8:41 AM

"How nice!"

Oh, lovely, I had Lexington Ave. years ago, you make me miss it!
Last year for me I went a little nuts on roses, now lack of room dictates that I had to pull up the reigns on that. Kills me when Zuzu posts her rose parade threads.
Love succulents too so i can barely walk into HD without grabbing a few more, so easy to tuck in here and there.
I still look at mini roses now, thinking, ah heck, they are small, I can tuck a few more into another spot. Well, the blooms may be small but some of the plants get a pretty good size too. I just need to move.

good thing you're not into Redwood trees !

LOL!
I would love to add a lot of large shrubs and trees, love dogwoods, some of the beautiful Australian & So. African shrubs like proteas, man, don't get me depressed, I would love to have a garden large enough to do theme rooms.

Oh Sue, I think that is the dream of every over the top gardener - to have garden rooms. OH YES! Sometimes I fall asleep planning my garden rooms. Sometimes they are done by color, sometimes by what month they bloom, by kind of plant, or by great combos. They always have 1 thing in common, ME in the middle of them sitting in chair with a glass of wine enjoying what I created. My dreams complete my life. LOL

AHHHHmen sister

Garden rooms.....yes, that is a dream worth holding onto. I probably won't see it until I pass and even then I'll be looking "up" at them. I am working on garden nooks for now. My greatest weakness is winter catalogues. "Oooohh, isn't that pretty! I want one. Or two." The buy button is so readily available and I'm not into skiing.

PS....by looking at them I meant 6 feet under, not from ell...although.....

LOL Venu! Looking up at them! I do not believe that. I grew up in Rumson. Where are you on the Jersey shore? YEA to those great Jersey tomatoes and corn.

Ahh, Kell...I live for the tomatoes and silver queen corn. I love the Jersey corn so much that if anyone dares to put butter or salt on it, I will slap their hand silly.
I'm about 15 miles south of Rumson. I bet you had a great childhood. Rumson is beautiful!! Good dirt too. I'm just barely far enough south that I have good, oof, sand.

Silver Queen is the best! It was always late after the Butter And Sugar, and as a child I just couldn't wait. I kept asking dad when the white corn would be ready.

Irises are my greatest lack of self control. Any kind, bearded, beardless, bulbs. I love them all.

venu: glad you clarified the "looking up" thing...I was almost ready to start a prayer thread for you ! LOL

kell, interesting.....I dreamplan like you, but had never cconsidered rooms by bloom month.

DL Lex. ave. is awesome

stop stuttering Nery !

O.....O.....O.....OK

I believe in sensory overload Nery. LOL. And if you had a big enough property, you just move on when the blooms are spent to the next visual thrill. I dream big. And in color. LOL

Yes, Rumson is just a beautiful town. I appreciated it so much more when I came back so much older. As a child I did not have a clue. I thought everyone lived like that. I came back to take care of my Mom for a month at a time every couple of months for 2 years till she went to heaven. I would go to Sickles Farm as I had as a child for the corn and tomatoes. But so many years later it was now no longer an outdoor stand in the middle of the fields but a big fancy business.

So did you live in Long Branch, Venu? I am trying to figure 15 miles south. LOL. We went to Monmouth Beach Club, I wonder how many miles south is that. LOL

You all got real plants. I"m still at the shoeboxes full of seeds I haven't planted stage.

Ahem! Lots of seeds here as well.

I would love a garden room, too. Right now I have my stuff spread out all over the house. Very distracting and disorganized.

But what do I indulge in? Well, right now it's truckloads of Leaf Mould and other soil amendments! I'm lusting after that stuff since I'm trying to make some new gardens and I always seem to need more.

And I'm obsessing over the little volunteer seedlings coming back in the garden, wondering what it is and if it's a weed or something precious. You know, I'm apprehensive that the seedlings are something that I will yank now and then 6 weeks later will find myself buying once again in the garden center.

I find if I can bear to let the seedlings grow to 2" tall I can generally I.D. them. Knowing I had cleome in one area made it easy to identify the seedlings but there are always strangers that I don't know and that's where the doubt comes in - to pull or not to pull.

I have a garden room and still have plants in other rooms. Once the bug bites it's hard to waste a good window.

Improving the soil is always worth the time, energy and money. It's the best investment you can make.

I get obsessive, totally obsessive.

First it was daylilies, I couldn't get enough, then I added iris to that. Then I was on a columbine kick. Then vines. Roses came along, and all the time, I would add more daylilies.

Now that I have lost some trees/limbs, I am into flowering trees or shrubs. Witch hazel, redbud, and with them, more daylilies.

The trees became naked, limbless, and what did I do, I planted roses to climb up the bare naked limbs. And cardinal vine. And moonflower.

And more seeds.

It isn't lack of control, it's obsession.

The gas guy can't read the meter because it is covered with cardinal vine .

The old climbing rose grew into the phone box thing on the outside of the house and ate the wires. I had them move the box, replace the wires.

The daylilies are taller now than the electric meter.

I don't think the meters will be moved, but I am still negotiating.

Obsession, I tell you. And it doesn't stop.

Pirl, my wonderful new daylilies have buds...I made charts, but the ice storm damaged all the name tags. And moved them, took them away. I hope I can find my chart soon.

Sharran: Congratulations ! Having completed the last phase of self control loss, you are now a registered, life-time member of the OGS: Obsessed Gardeners Society.

We welcome you with open arms and will do everything in our collective power to make certain that your obsession continues to grow and thrive (pun intended).

In the unfortunate event that you find yourself practicing any restraint of the slightest nature, a huge network of enablers is just a computer click away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

We sincerely hope you will find the encouragement, assistance, and fellowship you are looking for in this most philanthropic brotherhood.

Welcome aboard !

Ahhhhh goodness, JD...I have been welcomed by the highest order of the enabler's priesthood.
I am so honored.

I forgot to mention all my perennials, dahlias, hibiscus, ornamental trees (JM and river birch...although the RB is not considered ornamental) and caladium. And the decorative sweet potato vine, coneflowers, japonica, butterfly bushes and wisteria.

I think that's all that I have more than 4 of.

I am not including those under 4.

And now I am lusting over the roses Zuzu is continuing to post.
I think I must have Brownie for sure.

Thank you JD, my dear dear friend.

As some of you know I just like plants, any kind. I move much slower now and have been trying to curtail my buying, doesn't seem to work, still too many plants, either ones I bought or grew. Spring has been so slow, I haven't planted many things out in the open. It is now at allmost 7:30 am still just at 40 degrees. Not quite frost at night. but the soil is so cold. The fellow who has worked for me for 20 years when he has the time and I have the money, has only worked 3 or 4 hours a week for most of April and so far in May. He is with his older children, doing apple tree graftting. So I have had to do all the gardening this spring.

Following are three photos of plants waiting to go out in the garden or in pots.

Donna

Plants in same area, waiting

No room left under cover in my passage way, so these are out in the open, sorry for all the clutter ]
Donna

Actually the first photo is the one in the open and the last is still in the passageway. Hope you aren't too confused. Anyway you can see there is plenty for me to do as soon as it is a couple degrees warmer.

Donna

May's almost finished and I've been so busy posting rose pictures in the rose forum that I've neglected taking photos of other plants.

Here are two of my favorite potted plants, Desiree and Mambo.

This may not look like much, but I'm delighted with it. It's a tiny Ramonda, which is almost impossible to grow in California. It's a temperamental alpine plant that doesn't like heat in summer and rain in winter, so getting it to bloom here was a major feat. I've been growing it for four years.

Here's a Primula that doesn't bloom until May. The blooms are nothing spectacular, but the plant's mainly grown for its leaves.

A few rhododendrons I managed to photograph between roses. This is a nice pink one, almost shocking pink.

Another rhodie:

And another:

Lots of tall bearded irises in May, of course.