Garden Pictures

Not much text for you guys this week, just a bunch of pictures with my off-the-cuff comments. It’s barely April and the garden is already set to amaze. Enjoy.

I’m back in town after being away for two months.  The garden is a mess, and it badly needs its annual spring cleaning.  But this morning I couldn’t help myself and went out on one of the first morning patrols of the season.  I found plant after plant that shocked me by being alive.   I have no early spring pictures from last year so this is all a surprise.  I wish I was more poetic in describing how I feel this morning.  To see the new growth is so surprising/gratifying/uplifting.  I couldn’t help myself but bring the iPhone with me and take a bunch of photos of new growth to share with you.  The rest of this week is supposed to be cold and very rainy, with 2 – 3 inches of rain in the forecast.  Hopefully these flowers don’t drown by the time I get back out there and survey the growth, or damage, or both.   

I planted 50 daffodils in groups of three in the firepit bed and in the waterfall bed last fall.  They are still coming up, but I probably have about 10 –12 plants that have bloomed so far.  A little disappointing, but they still look great.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

I transplanted so many red and white astilbe last year that I was fearful I would kill plants that had been thriving for years.  This is the astilbe bed, and the plants are coming back just fine.  Most of the transplanted astilbe seem to be doing fine as well.  Note:  As you can see, I haven’t started doing my spring cleaning in the garden…the beds are a mess.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

Do you remember how the birds ate my autumn joy sedum last year?  The plants seem to have survived the winter just fine.  I can’t wait to see how the leaves fill in on the branches.  I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be cutting these back but as usual, I’m not sure.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

You might also remember I bought two more autumn joy sedum on sale at Home Depot.  They seem really robust, maybe because no birds got to them last year.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

I’m not positive, but I think these are my Solomon’s seal coming back this year.  At least, I hope they are.  I have no idea why a green variegated plant would look red in early spring, but that seems to be the case.  These are some of my favorite flowers in the garden.  Photo by: Me  3-31-24 

I showed you a photo of this plant last year in the post, “It will grow back.” There was one tiny live root sticking out of the root ball of an otherwise dead Shasta daisy.  Well, it looks like it IS coming back.  Unbelievable.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

Looks like the iris are doing fine anchoring the bird feeder in the sun bed.  I have no idea what color they will be if they bloom.  If they stay healthy, I might start feeding the birds again.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

Here’s a term for you, “basal growth,” which is the leaves, shoots, and stems that grow out of the base of the plant.  I’m seeing plenty of it in the garden this early in the spring.  Can you see the growth in the base of these allium plants?  This is one of the prettiest parts of the garden, but I would be happier if there was some sign of life from the plumbago plants that share this space.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

My bleeding heart plants are thriving.  Here’s one of the three in the “woodland” garden back behind the arborvitae trees.  The bigger surprise is I planted a bleeding heart in the upper steps bed last fall in hopes of giving it a head start for this year.  It died back so quickly I was sure I had made a mistake.   

This little guy isn’t going to outgrow his space anytime soon, but apparently he made it through the winter!  The other bleeding hearts are three times bigger, but they are three years older.  We will see what happens.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

Nice basal growth on the blue veronica surrounding the firepit bed.  I left the tomato stakes out last winter and want to see if the plants will be guided by the stakes early in the year.  It will be fantastic if I don’t need the stakes at all once the plants mature.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

I can’t leave you without this updated picture of my Lenten rose.  I don’t see myself cutting off the flowers to make a display for the house, although lots of people do.  They add so much color to the garden this time of year.  Photo by: Me 3-31-24 

Here’s a list of plants that are still AWOL this early in the season:  plumbago in the back bed and next to the allium, toad lilies in the back bed and in the steps bed, ostrich ferns in the ostrich fern bed, Rozanne geraniums in the water feature bed, hardy begonia by the steps bed, and coneflowers and black-eyed Susans in the sun bed.  Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I think all of them will show up in the next few weeks.  I’ll be the first to let you know. 

OK…I couldn’t help myself this week. I hope you enjoyed this sneak preview.  Next week we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programing and discuss what you should consider reading if you want to explore perennial gardening. 

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