Jodi, thanks for sharing your lovely lovely flowers! Your spring came on slower but it now ahead of ours! And your garden beds are so clean, moan! MIne are driving me nuts! It will take jsut short of forever to get mine cleaned up again!

I just love your late tulips, that first picture is wonderful! I have only a few left now too after yesterdays temp of 93. Thank goodness we are back to a marine air flow today.

Thank you, Lizalily! I think this batch of photos turned out especially nice... the weather has been very spring-like, considering global warming and all that... intermittent sun and rain showers, with temperatures that range from t-shirt warm to light jacket cool... perfect weather for dormant plants to come alive and flourish, and perfect for all the beautiful early spring flowers!

Almost every one of my miniature roses has buds, and one of the larger climbing roses that I thought wouldn't survive the winter is budding everywhere, from top to bottom! Unfortunately, I can't remember what color it is! I have several iris and daylily plants with buds, and it seems like the foxglove and gaillardia I grew from seed last year are going to bloom! The young spirea bush is in full swing, and I forgot to take a photo of it! Imagine that!

I'm just thrilled with the way the gardens are progressing this year, and I anticipate many enjoyable hours of walking through them, just breathing in all the beauty and scent! I couldn't be happier! I'm right on schedule with seeding, and I'm fairly on track with getting things planted in the beds... there are still a few orders of plants outstanding, but I should be caught up by the time they arrive. We have more roses ordered, and several more daylily plants and iris coming in... I'm beginning to get my large containers together... everything is going well...

You'll get caught up in no time... once you're able to move around a bit more easily! Weeding is always a chore, but I attribute the clean looking beds to completely removing the sod before digging the beds, and using a good layer of mulch once they're planted. The only bed I have without mulch yet is the large bulb bed... that's on my to-do list, but not highly important right now... it'll get done before fall. I've often thought of layering newspaper on the beds, wetting it down, and then covering it with a thick layer of mulch to control more weed growth... we have an abnormal amount of weedy morning glory seedlings and grass coming up in a few places... the newspaper would just disintegrate over time under the mulch, and control weed growth better.

We haven't had high temperatures like you have... but it's been warm enough some days that I sweat profusely while working out in the sun! One good thing is that there are no massive bug populations yet... knock on wood! It's been a rather wet spring, though, so I think mosquitos will be bad this year! Probably ticks, too! Yuck!

More parrot tulips are on the list for fall ordering... and more species tulips, too! Maybe some different daffodils, as well. Certainly some more of those awesome ornithogalum bulbs! The single one that we have must have been mixed in with the crocus by mistake! We never ordered any!

I got your seeds, thank you so much, and have them planted in a flat... I am so hoping they sprout and do well... green delphiniums would look so nice in the mixed borders! I have your package of seeds sitting here waiting for postage... I feel so bad that I'm behind on sending things out! But as soon as I'm able, out it will go! You'll have plenty of hippi seeds to play with! The delay was not expected, but I had to give up my postal cash stash for Larry's trip up north to be with my daughter... she just had surgery.

I was also wondering if you'd like me to save you some seed from my old fashioned columbine? I will have tons of seed, if I get it before the critters do! You're welcome to lots, if you like!

Anyway... this has turned into a small book, so I'd better get off the keyboard and back out to the gardens! I'm just so happy with the way spring has finally unfolded... my only wish would be for some of my hippis to surprise me and bloom over summer!

Happy Gardening Soon, Lizalily!

Thanks Jodi! your flowers are beautiful....unfortunately, my yard and garden aren't conducive to a walker!! I need my legs back! lol

Jodi, your garden continues to dazzle me.

All the best in life and flowers to Lizalily and Cindee!

Another Noid (Possibly Star of Holland)
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A wonderful red and white, to be sure, Blanca! The red and whites are some of my all time favorites... Minerva being top of the list for sentimental reasons... I still have xJohnsonii and Candy Cane that haven't unveiled themselves yet... but I don't expect them to until much later!

My Dear Cindee... you and I must learn to think before we move! Our poor bodies are not young anymore, and for some unknown reason, don't do exactly what our brains tell them to do! The electrical connections must wear out over time! I'm glad you enjoyed the latest tour of my garden beds!

Jodi, about the Columbines seed...are these long spurred columbines? IF so, I would love them. I HAve a lot of the mauvy double old fashioned kind that pop up everywhere, and we get the wild dark purple ones too...any other color or form would be cherished. It is nice to have them just pop up around the wilder edges of the property! MY wild mauvy ones are blooming now. I did start some McKAna hybrids this year but lost a lot of seedlings that driedup when I could not get to my workroom after surgery. So sad! I did save my milkweed seedlings, and mixed Queeny Hollyhocks, and a few of the Columbines, but lost most of the delphinium varieties.(Speaking of delphs, most sprout better if precooled).

I took a few pics to share last night but had to wait for btteries to recharge to down load them! MY lycoris radiata is finally doing its thing! THis is the pale pink one. Sure would love to establish them in the garden, but no new plans until I get caught up again!

Brought home my new duckies my friend has been raising for me last night! 3 black Cayuga's and a chocolate runner. I Already had 5 ducks but she needed someone to share a minimum order of 15! (I got my blue runner a girlfriend.)

Cindee, you are back on the walker..did you have your hip done? I do not use a walker now but I do hobble! Well, every day brings new stregth and flexability to the knee...will be so glad when this is all healed! I visualize setting off across the garden with no thought of my knees!

Today I must get a hose out to where the amaryllis are resting...they are going dormant and that was not my plan! I think I will buy a soaker hose to lay down the bed when I am in town this morning.

Well, Mr bluejay is asking why both the feeder and suet rack are empty this morning! He is really annoyed, and I miss my gold finches to I think that is where I will hobble to next!

Larry recently re-hung a few of my thistle seed feeders, and the goldfinches are back in droves! I love watching them! We also have orioles and bluebirds... I sure wish we had the little blue and purple finches, but I haven't seen any yet. Hummingbirds are normally plentiful, but I think it's a little early for them... once the honeysuckle comes into bloom, they'll show up, I'm sure!

I have an entire flat of different Hollyhock varieties planted... and the black ones ones I planted from seed last year are growing nicely. I have a few different varieties of columbine, although I'm not sure what they are... one is a pink flowered dwarf, very dainty and pretty... one is a rather large plant with yellow flowers, and the old fashioned ones I brought with me from up north. They're naturalizing beautifully around the various garden beds!

Can you tell by the above photos if the columbine is long-spurred or not?? I'm not sure if these are the ones you would want... if they are, you're more than welcome to as many seeds as I can stuff in a package! The flower colors are sort of mauve with a touch of yellow gold... they're large plants when mature, and bloom rather early... they reseed well, and pop up all over... I love them!

I've got a lot of new perennial seeds started in flats, including burgundy gaillardia, two-tone coreopsis, purple funky looking monarda, red coral bells, Irish Eyes rudbeckia, and so many more that I'm drawing a blank right now! I've also got annuals started for my patio pots, such as lobelia, pansies, and all the usual types... vines for the fences include cup & saucer vine, a couple of morning glory varieties, red cardinal climber, and mina lobata... I try to grow as much as I can from seed because buying annuals and perennials every year can get expensive.

The only perennials I don't mind spending money on are the named varieties of iris, daylilies, roses, etc... or anything I can't grow from seed.

I'm glad you mentioned soaker hoses! I really need to get mine spread out before the plants get too big! We spent the better part of yesterday planting 150 daylilies and about 50 iris roots to grow on in raised beds... all for eventual planting out in the "back 40"!

Well... there's no time like the present, and I have a lot to do today... be careful with those new knees! Don't over-work them! Happy Gardening!

Jodi, Your columbines ARE different from mine...I wil take all the seed you want to throw at me , LOL. I will just scatter it where the others grow so well and let it do its own thing...

Was most dismayed to go check the garden row DH had rototilled for me last night and find he skipped the right row and got the last one , with my carefully watched 2 yr old delphie I had raised from the expensive New Zealand! seed!
IN response to my tearful email he says the root is over against the fence and he will help me plant it tonight after work! FOrtunately that was the only plant of interest there because I intend to convert it to a raised bed shade garden.
I have no place to grow plants that like moisture so I Figure a cinderblock bed with lots of moisture holding crystals will do the trick and give us hostas and such for cutting up out of the reach of slugs and tree roots. It is shaded by our natural woodland road border too much of the summer afternoon for sunny annuals.

The good news is, my dahlias are coming up. The bad news is that the work crew I hired removed all the posts with the name tags when they topped the bed with compost! And I intended to replace quite a few of them with the 45 new ones that need to go out of the gallon pots they are growing in!

What Amaryllis are to me in winter, dahlias are in summer and fall!(after the lilies and roses of course!) I do not have to dig dahlias here, so they are a wonderful plant for me! I just got tired of some of them and wanted a change...sure wish I could hand the older ones on to someone else who would love them! If I Had energy I would pot them for sale but Energy is the one thing I do not have (Besides money, LOL).

You know, Lizalily... you could always put your older Dahlia corms up for auction at Ebay, make a little money, and spend it on new Dahlias! In spring, Ebay is loaded with corms and bulbs and roots for sale! And the only energy required would be a little typing, and then bagging up the corms for shipping! Plus, you'd be surprised at how many people would want the older varieties!

When it comes to most of the garden chores and projects, I don't trust anyone to do it, but me! Not everyone is familiar with what weeds vs. perennial seedlings look like, or knows that the sod must be taken off first if you want a decent bed, etc... I'd just as soon do most of it myself so I know it's all done right!

In response to your idea for adding moisture holding crystals to the raised shade bed, I wouldn't if it were my project... I'd use a bit heavier of a soil mix, and use a good layer of mulch to help hold in the moisture, instead. I despise the new-fangled moisture retaining chemicals and gels! They don't keep the moisture even within the soil mix, and are a waste of time, I feel. I think that a mix with a bit more compost and actual soil, or a mix with some clay type soil, in addition to using layers of old carpeting or newspaper between the plants, with wood mulch over that would be a better choice. That's what I'd go with, anyway. When choosing bagged soils, I always steer clear of the moisture control products, and go for the regular high quality soils, such as MiracleGro or Schultz's. If you plan to add some bagged soil to the bed, Hyponex brand is a heavier, wetter soil mix. By the same token, I wouldn't use Hyponex for any of my containers or anywhere I want to keep really good drainage, either! Hyponex tends to be a damp, muddier type of bagged soil, not good for bulbs! Another item that may help the raised bed with moisture content is an irrigation system... I saw some small, inexpensive systems at Miejer's yesterday that just lay on top of the bed and attach to the garden hose... they have tubing and sprinklers at intervals... the system actually looked kind of cool!

The columbine is in full bloom right now, but as soon as it fades and the seed heads ripen, I'll ship you lots and lots of fresh full seed pods!

I'm just about ready to give up entirely on keeping permanent markers with their respective plants in the gardens! Every single tag I placed with bulbs or plants last fall either faded to un-readable, or they were pushed out of the ground by weather, critters, and who knows what else! I don't have time now, but when I get some time this coming fall or winter, I want to begin making aluminum tags from cut soda cans... I can then scribe the names of the plants on them with an engraver or just press sort of hard with a pen to "engrave" the writing. I want to hang those from loops on thick wire pieces that can be stuck quite deeply into the soil! It's the only way I can think of to keep name tags with the plants, besides buying the really expensive tags, which is out of the question for so many plants!

Dahlias are not my favorite plant, and even though I like a few of the newer ones, I'd have to dig them all up and store them every year... something I'm not willing to do as there is already too much prep work for winter! I have Cannas and Glads to dig, not to mention Oxalis and Hippeastrums! Those are enough!

We got another inch or two of rain yesterday... not that we needed it, really... the ground is already saturated! What we really need are several days in a row of sunshine and warmer weather! On a positive note, we picked up a couple of foam garden kneeling pads yesterday, which will really help save my back from bending over so much, and my knees from all the kneeling to plant things!

Another box of named Daylilies arrived yesterday, so you know what I'll be doing today!

Liza-I fell on my )%@*&%@ ASS!! It was stoopid, I was on on the pool deck and leaned over one of the stools, took the side rail in one hand, reached with the other to pet Smudge...then all HELL broke loose. The stool slid on the pool deck, I was twisting in all directions backwards to land on my OLD hip. And here I am, back in the walker again. I go Wed for X-Rays to make sure I didn't damage too much! Oh ()&%)$@%
Getting old SUKS!!! I need to live in a padded bubble or something. I am more damage to myself than the world around me!!!

Well, at least you did not damage the new one!

I can feel your fear as you went down though! eeeyyyiiiii!