New in the Garden

We took a walk about tonight and saw so many wonderful things. I spent a week in Boston and when I came home all this had happened. The pear trees and in bloom and the tulips have opened. Just click on the pictures to see a large view.



The north side has moss phlox and the pear tree. The daffodills are fading as are the grape hyacinths (they need to be moved where they can be seen.)

The tulips along the south of the garage have opened, but there are still many more to come.

Forsythia

Sunday the forsythia were starting to bloom. It is so wonderful to see the bit of yellow everywhere. I love this bit of color and cheer after the dead winter.

I'm in Boston and there are forsythia everywhere, plus the buds on the trees are starting to show. They are about a week ahead of us in Michigan. By the time I get back the forsythia should be in full bloom. Spring is finally here.

Camilla's Request

The daffodils have bloomed and provide a welcome spot of yellow in the bare garden. On the north side, the entire group came up again on schedule. However, the south side only about 50% came up this year. I am a bit disappointed and will need to transplant some from the north side to the south. The south side is shaded by the house and probably didn't get the sun it needed for the 2nd year growth.




The buds on the lilac are really swollen and there is a tinge of green. Spring is on its way.



The garden is still very much asleep, but Camilla wanted to see pictures anyway.

Snow

Well it finally hit us--after hitting Wyoming and Kansas. We got 4 inches of snow last night and it is still snowing. The roads aren't bad though. I'm not too concerned about my flowers unless we get freezing rain. We generally get an April snow--sometimes much later in the month. it should clear out in a few days and be warm again.

Moving Plants

It is so good to be working out in the yard again. The sun was really warm and the sky was clear. However, the wind was a bit nippy and made sitting in the shade tough.

Pruning trees: took quite a few branches off the north pear tree and a little off the south tree. We also did some trimming on the tulip tree on the parking strip.

South of garage: We moved two ornamental grass plants, splitting the one so that we had three plants; one each edge of the garage and one in the middle. In between we marked the place for the cat mint with a stake. I still need to purchase that this spring. We planted the new lillium--16 plants in all. The Centerfold went in back with two plants and then one each of the Lollipop and the Algarve in front. I look forward to those blooming this summer.

Our next task was to plant the new peony and move one of the ones purchased last year. This was pretty easy since the beds were ready. We put the dark pink Karl Rosenfeld in line with the old white one toward the east. The pink one that was purchased last year we moved to inside the garden. It will fill in the space between the honeysuckle vine and the burning bush.

We then moved the other honeysuckle vine to the opposite side of the arbor. Wayne had to do quite a bit of digging to prepare the place and then we trimmed the old vine and dug it up. The roots were huge so I hope we got enough of them to get it established in its permanant home. Once the job was complete it looked good. Now just to see if they will take root.

We still have two more peonies to move, but that will have to wait until next week to do that.
I was pleased to find that the burning bush that gave us so much trouble has buds. This means that our uprooting it and replanting it as well as pruning back the dead, has saved it. I just hope we can eventually prune it so that it is a nice shape again. Right now it's a little lopsided.

Now that the vine is out of the planter on the south side we can get the wild grass cleaned out of it and make use of that bed. I need to spend time deciding upon more plants for the south east corner of the lot. When I find them, I can plant them in this area and tend them until they are ready to move. I look forward to doing that.

Fertilizer

Wayne put out the fertilizer on Wednesday. It was rainy and a little cold, but still good weather. The grass is just starting to show a little green so hopefully we got this in time.

Vernal Equinox

Vernal Equinox was on Friday. The weather has been quite cold and so things are still pretty dormant. We had one really warm day. The grass is starting to get a tinge of green. On Saturday we picked up some fertilizer and expect to get it on the grass this coming week.

The great news, though, was that I picked up two dark pink peony roots for very little. I'm very excited about them because I mainly have to get these things through the internet and then the shipping is costly. I also talked Wayne into Asiatic lilies. They will be tall and gorgeous along the edge of the garage during summer. We picked up three varieties with a total of 24 bulbs. I look forward to redoing that area this year.

Wayne needs to do a bit of pruning on the trees in front but they are really in good shape.