Planting

The weather has turned cool and it was a little chilly last night when we did some planting. Wayne got the water out of the hole and we transplanted the renassaince spirea. Then we dug out the old one that is not thriving and put in the two new snowbound spireas on the north side by the fence. They look good and hopefully will do well. It is a good season to do this now. Hopefully they will have enough water and such to make it.

The QE rose was a little limp, but after watering it looked better. We pruned dead off the moon dance and hopefully it will do better. It is still alive, but just growing slowly.

The back yard looks wonderful and it's time to put down some walk way stones going to the arbor. We also finished fixing all the lights.

Tasks in the Garden

We planted the two new burning bushes and Wayne dug the hole for the transplant of the spirea.

I trimmed some of the vines and roses and weeded the perennial garden area. We put out a new little character in the garden.

We planted the QE rose bush. It looks great and hopefully will be healthy. The Moon Dance is not doing well, but I hope some pruning and extra care will help it grow.

We moved some Lamium to the south side of the stairs. Hopefully it will grow. Wayne did a good job and it might do really well.

We did some trimming on the dogwood tree to keep the interior open to the sun. Hopefully this will encourage it to grow.

New Plants

At Plymouth Nursery:
2 burning bushes--moses dwarf. They are in the ground today

2 snow spirea. they didn't have the renasisance that we purchased the year before. However, I think they will look nice. We are moving the two by the fence on the north side and planting them there. One we will transplant to the east side to match the other side of the arbor. I hope it works out.

At Colemans on Carpenter:
2 campanulas to replace the three that died. These are large and should be easy to split

2 small mother of thyme. Still looking for a ground cover out front and hope this will work


One great idea: for the area by the water fall with chairs and hopefully a fireplace wolley thyme. It is low, small and silver. Can be walked on and has a fragrance.

Shade Garden Blooming

The bleeding heart is in full bloom and looks wonderful. The candy tuft are starting to bloom and the columbines have large buds on them. Only 2 pips of the lilies of the valley came up. I purchased more of them today.

Moss Phlox Blooming

The moss phlox are now in full bloom. We still have another week in April and we have had lots of flowers bloom and many are expended. The daffodils are gone and the pear trees are now starting to drop their flowers. We still have tulips in bloom. Most everything is leafing out as well. I have seen signs of growth from everything including the balloon flowers which are now up as well.

Queen Elizabeth Roses

Last night we picked up a rose bush at Turners Nursery. I am very disappointed in their operations--no warranty what so every. Hopefully the bush will live past the week. It was $25, which isn't much, but still they should have warrantied it for at least 90 days. I trimmed off three buds and will keep it trimmed while the roots are forming.

It is a grandiflora, pink lightly scented. It was an AARS winner in 1955--long time. Hopefully it will thrive and grow and become a wonderful part of our landscape.

We will not plant it until Saturday to give it some time to adjust being out of the hot house.

Red Bud Tree in Bloom

All the red bud trees around town are in bloom including our little red bud tree in back. It still has not grown very much but it looks beautiful in full bloom. Sooner or later it and the dogwood will grow up.

The daffodils are gone now and need to be trimmed. The moss phlox are loaded with buds and should be in full bloom soon.

The forsythia are still wonderful yellow. They might last three weeks before they fade. It has been wonderful.

Tulips In Bloom

One variety of tulips on the south side of the garage are bloom--namely the orange ones. They look so beautiful against the brick and they run the full length of the garage. I'm really pleased with them. The other variety should be blooming in a week or so, which will extend the bloom time for those flowers.

There is some signs of the trumpet vines waking up. Still no sign of the balloon flowers yet, but I still have hope. The bleeding heart is budding as is the candy tuft. No sign of the lilies of the valley--they might not have survived.

Trees in Bloom

The Cleveland pear trees are in bloom all over town and that goes for our yard too. They look beautiful with the daffodils still yellow. I do love this time of year.

The tulips are starting to bud and should be in bloom any day as well.

Saturday Clean UP

I spent quite a bit of time weeding and cleaning up around the deck in the back yard. We cut the butterfly bush down to about 18". It looks like it has a lot of green on it and is growing well. We did some trimming on the red bud tree and I weeded out the scab columbine. No sign yet of the lilies of the valley. I also did weeding around the garden area and in the flower garden. The lavender is growing well and there are signs of all the flowers --including the oriental poppy, except the balloon flower, but they are often slow to start in the spring.

We have new growth on the honey suckle vine and all 4 rose bushes are greening up although we are still going to replace the one grandiflora that doesn't seem to be doing too well. We also might have to replace the moondust as it is also not really doing well. There are buds already on the bleeding heart. I think we need to split that for next year.

Wayne did the first mowing on the lawn. We purchased a brand new battery powered weed wacker and hope it will work for many years. The old one finally bit the dust as we have used it for about 15 years. He also did some brick border work. It's looking good.

Transplaning Peonies

We put three peony plants on the south side until we could get an area prepped for moving them. Last summer Wayne finally got it done so this week was the ideal time to get them moved, which was from the south side to east of the arbor. I hope they get enough sun although they are on the south east. I also hope I remember which one is which. I don't think the "red" one is really as red as I thought it would be, but I think they will do well. We moved a white, red and pink one. They flank the walkway to the arbor and should look great once they are fully grown and mature.

Forsythia and Daffodils In Bloom

The forsythia is in bloom. It's so wonderful that spring is finally here. I walked the yard and found the bleeding heart up futher, uncovered the roses. It was 80 degrees and really wonderful to be out in the yard.

The daffodils in front are also in bloom.

Yard News

At the first of the week Wayne trimmed the trees in front so they are looking good.

This morning daffodils were blooming!! It's been 80 degrees although it's suppose to be colder and we sat out on the deck for the first time.