Im very excited...I just got my lavendar weeping redbud and planted it yesterday.
As far as whats blooming...daffodils and hyacinth are finishing up. Tulips are still looking good. Muscari are still up. Flowering quince looks awesome in this dewy weather. Vinca is a purple spoted green rug. Lilacs are starting to pop. Bleeding hearts are just starting.
As far as whats eating...about a bunch of asparagus daily, horseradish, rhubarb, and an abundance of dandelions in my pesticide-free yard.
As far as whats happening, dividing plants, putting down compost and mulch, composting all of my neighbors leaves this year, enjoying the firepit, planning the veggie garden.
As far as a sad violin sound in the background, Im losing my red maple that is the first thing I see every time I exit my back door. It appears to have root rot and this year only 1/4 of the tree leafed out. I will be getting out a chainsaw to say goodbye to this old friend. An opportunity to plant something new.

Here on the slow-to-wake-up SE coast, it's still mostly daffodil season. Many of them haven't even shown up yet - just leaves. Muscari are finally starting; blue and white scillas are still around. Forsythia is blooming, and a few early rhododendrons (PJM in full bloom next door, and Mary Fleming just opening here).

Hellebore Sunshine Selection continues to bloom, and Blackthorn Strain is opening. Various dicentras are beginning, as are the epimediums. Pieris still in bloom, and hostas are peeking out.

The one budded peony is getting taller and taller, without opening the buds.

I had to have a big old dead pitch pine removed, so I insisted the arborist save the trunk. He cut it in sections and I'm using them to delineate/protect an extended flower bed by the parking area. No one's going to inadvertently drive over these plants! The arborist thinks I'm mad, but he's used to me now.

I messed with the compost piles a bit - one that's half finished, and one that's still raw. I've already started using the half-finished compost (I've never gotten to the completely finished stage).

When it dries out a bit I'll consider mowing the so-called lawn .....

Claire

Thanks for starting it this week, Mayalena! It's great to have a "conversational" thread about what everyone has been up to, and what's coming up in their gardens.

Not much is flowering for me right now. Let's see - - dicentra, flowering quince, weeping cherry is ending, weeping redbud is still drop-dead gorgeous going on it's third, I think, week of bloom.

The weigela and hydrangea are starting to look like more than dead twigs, but my franklinia, just planted, sadly only has leaves on some of its branches. We'll see how that turns out. The conifers are putting on their new, bright green growth. The clematis buds look almost ready to pop, but it's still way too early. I can see buds on two of my three peonies, all of which were moved last fall, so that's exciting. The third is too short yet. Ornamental grasses are sprouting, and the newly seeded patch of lawn is coming along so-so. The lamb's ear looks fabulous in the gray, misty weather we are having, with it's new leaves on display.

I'm worried that the three veronicastrum virginicum I got from the conservation district might have been killed on an almost-frost night. There were little green shoots, but it has died back. It's still in pots awaiting it's new bed.

I have been busy making a new bed between my walkway and driveway and moving 4 (looks more like 5) yards of mulch, and also preparing for the CT swap tomorrow. I hurt my wrist using the pitchfork on the mulch, which made potting plants for the swap a bit harder. The mulch was smoking (composting?) and I was worried it would catch the house, 5 feet away, on fire, so I moved it way too fast for my own good. I will have to pace myself for the next couple of weeks!

Like Claire, dandelions reign on the lawn. I just can't bring myself to care too much about that patch of plain old green.

Thanks for continuing this series - these are always interesting threads.

I'm spending my time potting up perennial divisions and some shrub & tree volunteers for swaps and for a local benefit sale. Lots of weeding to do this year - the mild winter down here led to some population explosions. Rampant poppies, bittercress & garlic mustard are my main targets. Luckily it's too wet to mow so I can leave the grass alone for awhile longer. It looks like a meadow in need of some livestock now. I'm carting trays of tender seedlings in and out every day.

In bloom: forsythia, daffs (including my favorite, a small white one), some really lurid azaleas, bleeding heart, Nepeta 'blue wonder', grape hyacinths, a few of the viburnums, alyssum basket of gold, hellebores, bergenia, checkered lily, wild strawberry, tulips, heath, winterhazel ...

Rhody mucronulatum is already gone by, along with cornus mas, bloodroot and most of the spring ephemerals ... although it still feels like winter out there to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: recent garden photos

I live on a hill facing the west winds, so it seems like my micro-climate is a tad out of sync with others in my zone.

Bleeding heart is up but no blooms yet, azalea has blooms, new leaves on spirea and blueberry bushes, shasta daisies are just waking up. Hostas are coming up, lilac is ready to bloom, and liatris are just now poking up through the mulch.

As for edibles, asparagus has been up for a few weeks now, new dill seeds just sprouted, peas are coming along but I think I planted them too late. Chive is growing like a weed!

I too appear to be in a a bit of a micro-climate on my hilly site on the eastern border of MA and NH. Not much is happening. 2 azaleas have buds but still haven't bloomed. One dead Redbud. Couple deer munched Arbs. Also think I lost all 3 buddlea. 4 viburnums are budding and have shown nice growth. Ornamental grasses are popping a bit as are the hydrangeas. No signs of my daffs yet but the deer may have gotten to them already. I'm learning that I need to focus on early spring color plantings this year. My small/sparse gardens seem to look great in mid-late summer and early fall but look horrible now.

I'm so happy that I planted some tulips last fall! Every spring I look around and kick myself, so last spring I made a big note on my calendar for October! I have a nice group of yellow and yellow edged red tulips near my mailbox and I just love them!
My star magnolia has one or two blooms left, My other magnolia, cherry tree and pink dogwood look good, and my ancient lavender azalea has a side that died, but the other half is budding out.
I loved my pulmonaria last week, but its waning now.
I missed most of the bloom on my epimediums, the flowers are so tiny. Mine are yellow and look like mini daffs. You have to get close up to really appreciate them.I was busy and didn't take the time to just walk around the garden that week!

Hey mayalena, sounds like you've been busy in the garden! Isn't it fun!

Claire, my arborist (who is a friend) thinks I'm crazy too. Apparently I'm the only customer who has asked him to cut down the live trees (Norway maples) and leave up the dead ones! I just love to save pieces of wood from tree cutting - a couple big logs for benches, nice cut pieces of trunk for stools to sit on, lots of pieces of brush for trellises, and also used an interesting piece of log as a base for a small concrete bird bath Greening gave me at the fall swap.

Paige and other CTers, hope y'all have fun at the CT swap today, even if the weather is not great. Digging, I enjoyed browsing through your photos...the purple flowers you labelled Muscari look like Scilla to me?

Anyway...with that warm, dry stretch of weather we had, lots of sprouting was happening in my winter-sowing containers! Very little sprouting this past week though :(...but all the sprouts look good, and made it through the hard frost we had the other night.

I received 50 more native tree/shrub seedlings from the NH Nursery last week, including 10 Amelanchier, 10 Bayberry, 10 Ilex verticillata, 10 Sambucus canadensis, and 10 Corylus americana (American hazelnut). Finally got them all in the ground!

Still doing a little transplanting, planting, etc. and finally, on the last day allowed for open burning (May 1st), got some brush burned. It was piled right in the middle of a patch of Oriental Bittersweet. The idea was to kill 2 birds with one stone - get rid of some of the brush hanging around (there is still much more cuz the birdies love brush and brush piles) and to get rid of some Bittersweet by burning it out.

What's blooming - Amelanchier, Dicentra, lotsa Daffodils, Muscari, Dandelions, Violet, Vinca (could do without the last 3 - invasive). Lots of things popping up and budding away.

I would post some pics but the FTP server I use is down!

Daffodils are still going strong, bleeding heart are up and blooming, muscari/grape hyacinth is in bloom, the tulips would be at their peak if they had not been ravaged by deer (in some cases, they bit off just the flower, and then dropped the flower on the ground without touching the rest of the plant!) The hyacinth flowers are starting to turn brown and die back, but the lamium and pulmonaria are still in full flower. The ferns are just starting to push up their fiddleheads.

The weeping cherry hit its peak bloom about a week ago and is now starting to lose numerous petals, and the honeysuckle have already dropped most of their blooms. The saucer magnolia in the front yard is in full bloom and the Siebold's viburnum still has a little while before it blooms and is fully leafed out. The red maples have finished flowering and are growing their seeds but the leaves have barely started to come out. The sugar and Norway maples are both further along with their leaves. Most of the evergreens (yet, mugo pines, Canadian hemlock) are just starting to show the light green new growth buds.

Well, as of yesterday...

the new growth on my shasta daisies, rudbeckia & echinacea looks GREAT. Comin' in nice and healthy.

My Pope John Paul II rosebush that I just planted @ the beginning of April is coming along well.

Noticed new shoots of growth on my hardy hibiscus.

Hydrangea growth is goin' strong, as well as my bleeding hearts.

Daffodils are almost done. Tulips getting ready to bloom.

My daylilies and hostas are growing like gangbusters.

Rose season has started, finally! Those buds have been just sitting there showing color, just about ready to open for a couple of days now. They just needed some heat.
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The picture is from last year, but you get the idea.

Some cute little species tulips are up also. The ones by the mailbox didn't come back this year, so we'll see about these.

I'm also seeing some flower buds on the lilac and on the wisteria pseudo-standard.

I got photos of some of the epimediums:

E. Warlayense, with geranium leaves in the background

E. Sulphureum in full bloom with some E. rubrum opening behind it.

I mostly finished my new planting bed with the pine tree logs as a border.

View from the driveway.

And looking the other way.

Formal, it's not, but the bonus is you can sit on them. And it was a lot cheaper than a stone wall since the tree had to come down anyway.

Claire

My bleeding hearts are officially in bloom. As is our two Japanese Andromedas.

Tulips finally bloomed. Daffodils are almost done. I planted some dahlias (the bishop ones) last year as annuals. Cut 'em back to the ground this spring and guess what! One of them has sprouts coming up! I never thought they'd make it thru a New England winter!

I think next week my dinner plate dahlia tubers are going in the ground. I'm really trying to hold off until I know the soil is nice and warmed up. But I'm soooo anxious to plant 'em already.

My hollyhock sprouts (winter sown) look FANTASTIC!

I've barely had a minute to spend in the garden this week, but this morning took a quick stroll and was horrified to see three of my allium buds eaten! I planted these in the fall of 2006, and got three spectacular blooms of Globemaster last year. This year I was very excited to see 7 buds!!! And this morning, only four left. @#%$!! varmints! Why don't they eat weeds?!

So I rigged up a cage out of some plant supports, and I really hope this protects the remaining buds.

The other exciting development was brought to my attention last evening. The original owners did a horrible job with foundation plantings here. I have, on either side of my front door along the front of the house, a rhodie, a pieris andromeda, and a yew, and they are way too big for foundation plantings. The poor pieris in particular have to be hacked back every year because they are smack in front of the windows. I want to move them but haven't gotten around to it.

Anyway, last night my teenaged son called me over to the picture window in the living room. Look, he says. Not two feet from the window was a robin sitting in a nest in the pieris. We could literally reach out and touch the nest, it's so close. Just since yesterday we have gotten such a kick out of watching her. She left the nest for a few seconds this morning and we saw the eggs in there, which was fun too. Can't wait for the babies!

:)
Dee

Those epimediums are beautiful, Claire! I like the re-use of the tree trunk, too, it will soon look like it's always been there, I bet. So appropriate to a woodland garden.

Digger, I love the story about the robin. I keep a pair of wildly overgrown rhodies in front of my house for the same reason. There's just nothing like an 'insiders view' of a shrub.

Here's mama

{{gwi:1073347}}

Dee: That robin looks so content on her nest! I'm looking forward to lots of photos of the babies.

My mayflowers, the state flower of Massachusetts (Epigaea repens), are blooming. they're in the shady woodsy strip near the epimediums.

Claire

Dee,

We have a robin's nest, too! And guess where it is.... it is in our very large bird's nest spruce! The other day the mama left and I saw the blue eggs. That night, I brought my husband to see, and before we realized she was in there, she flew away. He peeked at the nest and he didn't really see the eggs--but saw the babies! I was a little horrified at her lack of maternal instincts; we were careful and quiet and pretty far away and she just quickly abandoned those newborns, but of course she's back and we are staying clear away. So exciting. Plus, I'm amazed at how perfectly symmetrical her nest is. Incredible.

Blooming now: bleeding hearts, tulips, some daffs, grape hyacinths, flowering quince (cameo), moss phlox, vinca, a low pink geranium, first allium opening, forget-me-nots, jacob's ladder, hellebores, viburnum, lilacs maybe tomorrow, pulmonaria, solomon's seal. Love it!

Dee, what a thrill to have a Robin's nest right outside your window! Would love to see pictures of the babies too.

Spring is busting out all over, it's so lovely! There are a lot of Crabapples in a kind of wild area in the back of my lot. They grow in a thickets mostly, but some of them have grown into good sized trees, with lots of flowers! I never really paid attention before to how nice the blooms are on these trees.

Some of the trees were at peak bloom yesterday. I sat underneath a thicket of Crabapples enjoying the canopy of blooms and listening to the buzz of many different kinds of bees collecting pollen. The fragrance was intoxicating, like some kind of sweet ripe tropical fruit. Ahhhhh, heaven!!

Took some pictures -

{{gwi:1073350}}

{{gwi:1073351}}

One of the crabs must have a genetic variation for dark pink flowers and a crimson tinge to the foliage -
{{gwi:1073352}}

A honeybee collecting pollen - look at the pollen sticking to her legs! She was getting so weighed down with pollen that it was getting hard to fly!
{{gwi:1073353}}

This was a good morning to plant (Sat. May 10th); the ground is damp but not soaking wet, the air is a bit cool but clearly a gorgeous sunny day is in the making. I planted things from the regional market in Hartford (my second visit this year!) I was there at 5:00 a.m....got a few rather ordinary things but they were needed for spots in my garden. The one I'm most excited about is the Franz Shubert phlox...a light lilac color, I've never had terribly good luck with tall garden phlox. Got some Silver Princess shasta daisies, a good sized sandcherry, and some ice plants. Still need some asters, geraniums, and some veronica to fill in spots, so perhaps yet ANOTHER trip to the regional market next week!

In my garden beds, the bleeding heart is going berserk! Bearded irises about to pop, The kwanzaa cherry is gorgeous and making pink snow all over the back yard. The old crapapple in the front yard is unbelievably stunning this year. And my newest tree, a forest pansy redbud, two years in the ground here, is looking just adorable with its tiny pink, purple buds. The old rhodies are popping too. Forget-me-nots are blanketing a rocky corner of the back yard with their cheery little blue faces. The lily of the valley are coming forth and things are looking generally healthy and ready to go. (Except for the white azaleas...they look a little ragged...we'll have to see what they do.)

Dirt under my fingernails before breakfast...ah, spring!

Barefoot...dirt under my fingernails almost ALL the time....ahhh, spring! :)

What happening, what happening?
Woodchucks invasion happening :-(((
Mourning list is too long.

Oh no, George! Sounds like a catastrophe given the extent of your garden.

My condolences,
Claire

Dee, wow, that is a very cool photo of the robin in her nest! Lucky you!

Claire, I always wanted to try a Mayflower. I heard they are finicky, how are yours doing?

Terrene, we had crabapples at an old house that we used to live in a long time ago and I really miss them! Thanks for letting me enjoy yours. :-)

George...Have you been able to rid yourself of the darn woodchucks yet? I am very sorry that your lovely garden has taken a set back. Wish there were something more I could think of to suggest but having read your woodchuck thread, everything I had thought of had already been mentioned. Have you asked over in the Organic Gardening forum? Hope you can come up with something before any more damage is done.

pm2

Dee, great photo!

I'm exhausted. Not as exhausted as poor George, probably, but I was in the garden all weekend and every night this week after work. We finally have the front beds pretty well planted and mulched (just a few things left to be moved when I have more time). There is a still a pile of mulch in the driveway waiting to be spread out back and lots of weeds to be tackled back there. I also remembered to sow my cosmo, foxglove and cerinthe seeds.

The great development for me this week was that my son has taken an interest in the yard. He has always hated the time I spend in the garden (not that he wants my attention when I'm in the house, lol). This year I bought him a reel lawn mower, which he seems to love, and an electric weedwhacker, which he loves more. Tonight he helped me by loading the wheelbarrow and delivering the mulch, and was actually asking about some of the plants and voicing his preferences (so far, alliums are a big hit, mainly because not much else is flowering).

Dirty fingernails here as well - - and telltale dirt on my heels when I get in to work in the morning!

Moving on, here's what is flowering this week:

Allium purple sensation - - full bloom
Fothergilla Mt. Airy - - beginning to fade
Cercis canadensis 'Covey' - - really fading
creeping phloxes - - full bloom
conifers are shooting new growth
Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate' - - blooming on a very short stalk
bleeding heart - - full bloom
Salvia 'May Night' - - beginning to bloom
Roseshell azalea 'Marie Hoffman' - - just starting to open

Showing buds:
dianthus
peonies (lots - - and they were moved last year!)
lady's mantle
celadine poppy

Still in process of leafing out:
Hydrangeas
weigela
clethra
cercis canadensis 'covey'
fothergilla

There are many very fragrant plants flowering right now, everywhere I walk in the yard there is a wonderful perfume. Lilacs, Narcissus, Crabapples, Honeysuckle, Lily of the Valley, and the sweetest fragrance of all on the Purple Sand Cherry, which has fairly small sparse blooms, but boy are they fragrant!

Cut a couple bouquets and brought them in the house, so it smells nice too. :)

pm2: I've read that the mayflower absolutely requires the mycorhizzae found in pine-oak soils. Which happens to be my neighborhood, so I planted them in a spot under a white pine where the soil hadn't been disturbed for years. They seem happy there.

terrene: It amazes me that you have full bloom on your crabapples in zone 5b. Here in zone 6b, the big old crabapple is just starting to open. This tree usually starts bloom in the first week in May.

We're still in daffodil season, and the muscari are not finished opening. The leucojum has been open for about a week - like a very big snowdrop.

I'm not all that fond of tulips, but I love this one: Elegant Lady lily-flowered tulip.

Bleeding Hearts are opening. This corner by the house is becoming a hellebore/bleeding heart bed (with an Itea Henry's Garnet in the middle).

The hellebore continues to bloom.

This is probably a blueberry that self-seeded beside a hosta. Multiple tiny bell-shaped flowers.

And a furry bronze fennel is rising out of a bed of phlox. Pollinators love this.

Claire

Thanks Claire for the info on the Mayflower. I guess I can cross that plant off my list, since I don't have pines or oaks. Hope it does well for you.

:-)

Claire, beautiful photos! Thank you.

My snowflakes are done. My lilacs (all 10 blooms, lol) are in bloom, as is my lily-of-the-valley. After 13 years of trying to get this established, and wondering why everyone warned me off it, it seems to suddenly have decided it likes my yard, and is now officially established. I will be keeping an eye on it.

However, in the meantime, I go out in the evenings and just breathe. Deeply. My neighbor has much better (and more!) lilacs than I do, and the scent drifts over, and I love it!

In addition to those, I have bleeding hearts, tiarella, fothergilla, columbines, azalea, violets, primroses, creeping phlox, ajuga, dwarf bearded iris, rockcress, a few daffs and tulips, and euphorbia in all their glory. Oh, and annual alyssum.

Claire, I once had Elegant Lady and loved them! I ordered them again the next year (I treat my tulips as annuals) but they sent me the wrong thing - some other kind of Lady, lol. I'll have to get them again, as they are indeed lovely.

:)
Dee

Claire, lovely pictures! What is the Phlox that is growing with your Bronze fennel? Also, the Crabs that were in full bloom when I took those pictures were the earliest ones out there in the "hybrid swarm". Most are in full bloom or a little past right now, and there is at least one good sized tree that was only about 1/3 in bloom yesterday.

Boy do the birds love those Crabapples! I have watched the birds flit amongst the blooms, picking off caterpillars and eating them. Go birdies!

terrene: The phlox is an unknown standard garden phlox (pink) left over from my mother's days. It's steadily taking over the garden - I leave (or move) most of it because it goes with everything, requires no maintenance, and the hummingbirds love it. I found this photo from last summer showing a daylily surrounded by the phlox. The phlox also makes a nice succession for siberian irises. But it's everywhere.

My big old crabapple is taller than a telephone pole, and there are seedlings that are taller than me and also bloom.

Claire