Spring Came While I was Busy Working

In the past ten days things have changed in the garden. I hardly know the place.

Planted these anemones - Anemene ciribarua 'Lord Lieutenant' last year and only two or fifteen came up, but they are both back this year and much bigger. There is hope.

A native honeysuckle. I love the color! it grows over a piece of lattice and used to hide the trash cans. It's big enough and thick enough that some years we have a bird's nest in it. Nothing so far this year, but there's still time.



An early azalea that is nearly open (left) and a lungwort (right) - Pulmonaria cevennensis . The latter came from Andre Viette two years ago. It struggled last year and has never bloomed before, but this year popped up early and has been in bloom for two weeks. Don't know if it's because of all the rain, or if it just finally got old enough but either way, it's lovely.




Not actually mine. This lovely lilac is my neighbor's and lives on the lot line. It smells heavenly and is just gorgeous! I look forward to it's blooming every spring.




Fothergilla gardenii 'Mt. Airy'. A lovely foundation shrub. It was scraggly last year, but came back full and pretty this year, like just about everything else in the yard. I hate to think that it was all the extra rain that resulted in the beautiful flowers we are having this year.






And Carolina jasmine. This is one of Mitchell's favorites. We have it growing on a big trellis supported by the house, so it looks like a shrub, when it is actually a vine. Unfortunately, he decided that it needed to be cut back - he was right - so he did it in February when we trimmed some of the shrubs - that was wrong. He cut off more than half of the buds, but it is still blooming and pretty - and much smaller than last year.

A gorgeous spring day in central Virginia. Wish you were here, too.

Spring To Do List

There's always so much to do in the spring that it's easy to just move along doing "stuff" without setting any real goals. Two years ago when I was laid off, I learned that I needed to set real goals to keep moving forward and so that I could accomplish something - even if I did not have a real job. I found that I liked having the list and taking the opportunity each day to look at the list and decide what to work on next. At the end of the day it was lovely to cross something off the list. So here is the spring list for 2010:

1. Renovate the bed around the oak tree. Actually, there is no oak tree. It died last year and we cut it down. Sadly, we killed the oak when we moved into this house. They put the driveway right over half of its root area and therefore deprived it of water. It was fine for a couple of years, but over the past five years struggled and finally we had to have it taken down. Now, what used to be a shady area is a sunny area. It needs additional shrubs and a general re-working of the plants.

2. Remove the sweetspire and renovate that part of the back garden. Sweetspire is a lovely three season shrub that we had in a very shady spot at our "old" house. When we moved here I knew it needed more light, so put it in full sun where it went wild. It became aggressive and was taking over the hibiscus bed. Last fall we decided it had to go, so I used a generous amount of Round-up to start killing it. Now I need to clear out the space and find something to put there.

3. Fix up the entry to the garden shed. It's difficult to get the mover and other big tools out of the shed. I need to take out the grass and put in some kind of pavers to make it easier.

4. Revitalize the veggie garden. Mitchell built a wonderful pair of boxes for square-foot gardening two years ago. He really enjoyed them the first year, but lost interest last year. I really enjoyed the fresh food, so want to grow some more things this year, but it needs more soil and a plan.

In addition to the cleaning that still needs to be done, this list should keep me busy for a good while.

Phirst the Phlox!

Mother Nature has started her daily distribution new wonders - and how wonderful it is! In the past couple of days the creeping phlox [Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue'] has started to bloom. At one time I had much more of it and in several colors, but this lovely purple has been the survivor. It probably needs more water over the summer - but, in my climate, what doesn't? It still makes a pretty bed, especially with the mini-daffodils peeking thru and around it. I'm going to add to the little bulbs as I can, probably with some wood hyacinths [Hyacinthoises hispanica], also known as English bells or Spanish hyacinths. I have lots - all over the yard - and they bloom much later than the daffodils, so I can extend the bloom in this bed with them.

The other big bloomer I have this week is Harry Lauder's Walking stick [Corylus avellana 'Contorta')]. It's a deciduous member of the hazelnut family and considered a dwarf tree. Mostly, it's an interesting addition to the garden in all seasons. Its blooms - called catkins [really!] - are just a cascade of little yellow flowers. They're called "insignificant" in the trade. En masse, however, it's quite pretty. It will be a full of lush green leaves all summer, but then it will leave me the most interesting architecture to observe all winter. Truly a year-round plant!

Tomorrow - forsythia and hyacinths!

It's Here - It's Finally Here!

Today I believe that Mother Nature is finally stirring! Last Thursday I saw the first tiny yellow daffodils starting to bloom, but it has rained four of the last five days and I could not get out to see them up close [and personal] until this afternoon. Even with the bright and rather warm sun, tho, it was difficult. With nearly three more inches of rain in those four days, the ground is saturated again and one has to pick carefully from high spot to high spot to walk into the yard. Fortunately these pretty little ones were in a bed next to the driveway, so I had asphalt for support.

You can't tell without something for perspective, but they are only five inches tall and the flowers are less that an inch in diameter. The original bulbs were a gift from Mitchell nearly fifteen years ago. When the local botanical garden opened, he bought me a membership for my birthday and it came with a bag of ten [I think] little mini-daffodil bulbs. I have moved these with us from the "old house" and as they multiply have started moving them around the yard. Someday they will be everywhere!

If you look carefully, tho, there are two more important things to see in that photo. The bit of lavender is creeping phlox that will be glorious in another week or so, and the yucca at the top is one of the red yuccas that bloomed for the first time last year. This is the smaller one that did not bloom, but I am hopeful. Will show you those in a few days.

I did a bit of weeding in this bed while I was there. Spring weeds are looking good and healthy, but they have not yet set any seeds so it's a great time to pull them out and avoid this year's growth and next year's new ones. Since they are small and the ground is - did I already mention this? - wet, they were easy to pull and the work went quickly. It is so much easier to do now. If one waits, then the ground will dry out and get hard, so that the roots break off more and leave little ones to come back next year. If one waits way too long, then they will set seeds and when you pull each one out the seeds will fly. It's a funny experience at the time, but disastrous for flower beds! [Can you tell that I have experience with that!]

The helebores are lovely. About ten days ago I waded in and cut back all the big, old leaf clusters around the plants, and got all the vegetation that had been crushed by the snow in January and February. With a few days of sun they have perked up and opened prolifically. If you look carefully in the photo above you will see a red flower peeking thru - right in the center. That is the camellia!

Normally it blooms in late November and on thru December. I have used blossoms on the Christmas table several years, but this year the cold hit us hard and early and I figured I wouldn't get anything. It has been covered with buds for months, but suddenly last week it, too, began to look promising. This is still a small shrub - only about three feet tall and less than three feet in diameter. It's nearly nine years old, but we started with a tiny little one.

Now you can see how lovely it is. This is the first year that we have had more than 10 - 12 blooms, and they are not as cold-damaged as I had feared. They are a truly double flower and dark red. So pretty that I cut some for the house. I guess they will be just as nice for St. Pat's Day as for Christmas!

Yes, indeed. Spring is finally coming to zone 7! Join me next week to see what else is waking up.