I got the shadecloth over my back porch on Friday afternoon and started moving some of my container tropicals there. This early in the season everything of value goes under the cloth until the hail season fades away.

This little Matucana decided to bloom this morning. A dear sweet child that will remain unidentified removed the tag off the pot when it was a seedling. I have a good idea what it is, but not sure. I wish I had more Matucana in bloom. They are beautiful.
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Every weed that can bloom is blooming in the yard.

Looks like another bumper crop of plums for the deer. The rascals eat them off the tree green before we can pick them. The trees are right up against the house, but they dont seem to mind. I guess I donÂt either. Maybe I should pick a few green ones so I can at least say I got to eat some :-).
randy

My roses are leafing out, and there are a few buds, but no blooms yet. I have had to cut back many buds since I am late pruning some of them. I have already sprayed for aphids. The moles, voles, and/or gophers were so bad last year that I am planting new roses in cages. This is supposed to work.

I think at some point today we should be having a storm. I don't need that.

Dawn, I wish you would show some pictures. Your garden sounds magnificent, and Randy, what a flower. I know you have been showing some pictures, but I haven't looked recently.

Sammy

Randy, a gorgeous bloom - is that a cactus? I had a friend long ago who used to belong to the local cactus society and grew lovely cacti - in fact, it is Bob Calvert's dad, Meryl Calvert. That whole family is a gardening family and they put out some show stoppers in their day. Kathlyn, Bob's mother, grew begonias the size of tree peonies and won both local, regional, and national shows. Meryl used to refer to himself as the Begonia Lady's Handyman.

Dawn, my Concord is leaving out quite well now, but maybe yours is just slow getting there. I've had to water quite a bit, but I would imagine that is not possible for the size of your acreage.

Let's see - what is coming up since I last posted?

My pineapple lily is poking up

Oregano 'Kent's Beauty' is sprawling everywhere

cardiocrinum looks like it is going to be much larger this year - I hope, I hope, I hope, it will bloom this year.

The viridiflora tulips are blooming, as are the waterlily tulips - they're so cute!;

I think I may have some fern-leaf dill seedlings that self-sowed;

the pink flowered stachys with the green foliage is up

hedychium (white ginger lily) is up

New planting of Nikko Blue is sending up more leaves now (thought it was dead - it was a layered bit that I dug up and moved to the backyard last year);

That purple basil is everywhere, simple everywhere - if anyone wants some, feel free to come dig a spadeful of the stuff;

I have a volunteer achillea 'Paprika' that just showed up in the back yard;

Porcelain (ampelopsis brevipedunculata) vine is breaking dormancy, and as it is in the vitex family, the bronzy new grape-like leaves are very pretty;

Astilbe chenensis 'Visions' is up a few more inches and will bloom soon;

The glads have reproduced and are all over the front bed;

The borage is starting to leaf out and get bigger;

Solomon's Seal is blooming; and I finally got the 2 additional potted plants that I bought 2 years ago planted out yesterday;

arum italicum is getting new foliage;

Meadow Rue should be blooming soon - can't wait until I get my new plants of 'Illumination' to plant;

My honeysuckle tree is blooming. I really, really need to prune that thing, but it is huge. It looks like the mandrake roots out of Harry Potter and is about 15' tall. The trunk is a good 8", and it is holding up that corner of the house, I think. The birds love it, and love to nest and find shelter in and among the twisted stems which are very dense.

Finally got the C. tangutica planted in the ground yesterday, so it will hopefully bloom with the 'Polish Spirit' clematis. Then the passion flower will come along after that.

Something is eating the leaves on my Hollyhock 'Nigra' and I can't find it. Thought it might be caterpillars, but I don't see any, so am wondering if it could be slugs. Have to get out the DE for my hostas and the hollyhock, too, it looks like.

Went to Wal-mart today, and bought 3 itty bitty clemmies - Carnival, H.G. Young, and a double-flowering pink (don't recall the name. But I made sure I got at least 2 stems on each. This year, I'll probably put them in the ground and layer them, like I did the Dr. Ruppel.

Good growing....

Susan

Oh, everything sounds so gorgeous at everyone's houses!
But now after reading your posts, I have questions/comments.

Randy, Lovely photo. How long do you leave up the shade cloth? And your deer sound like they are very selfish children! At least my deer haven't found our plums yet....but maybe it is because of the abundance of wild plums all around us?

Sammy, It sounds like you have a lot of the same critters we have. In the beginning I contructed raised planting beds with hardware cloth lining them. It took a while, but now my ever expanding group of pets (mostly dogs and cats 'dumped in the country' by previous owners) keep the critters pretty well under control. Are the "cages" you're using to plant roses the underground ones like the bulb baskets some people use, or are they above ground like tomato cages? Or are they above and below ground? Help me...please, I can't picture what they might be.

And, Sammy, I promise to post some pictures as soon as my son comes home from college in mid-May and brings my digital camera with him! I'm telling you, though, it sounds better than it looks, because I have too much acreage and can't keep it as "well-groomed" as I would like. Still, it does have its moments when it seems breathtakingly lovely...and that is usually about 5 minutes before a hail storm or something like it swoops down on us & destroys it! :) Oh, the life of a gardener in Oklahoma where the weather must be our biggest "enemy".

Susan,

Your landscape sounds as though it belongs in the pages of "Fine Gardening" magazine! You have such an amazing collection of plants. You must have wonderful soil in order to be able to grow everything you do....and it is so much work to keep soil that fertile and healthy. IF anyone "should" post pictures for us to drool over, I think it should be you!

Our weather is starting to look ugly here, at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

Dawn

Ah, well. I don't have a digital yet, but hopefully soon. It seems, as many plants as I have, that my yard would be full, but it never seems full to me. After 6 years, though, I look at the pictures of what it looked like when I first moved in, and there is a substantial difference. I amend every time I plant. The only red clay (the rest is black clay) I have is at the very back of the garden. Along that fence line is where I grow Sweet Autumn Clematis, porcelain vine, bittersweet, clematis 'Ville de Lyon', and beautyberry (which is also leafing out). Along the short wood fence line at the back (it fences in my storage shed, and there is a wood post with a bird feeder on it. I grow on this short fence line, Clematis 'Francis Rivas', Clematis 'Dr. Ruppel', itea virginica 'Little Henry', Hosta 'Sun Power, lilies, cardiocrinum, elephant ears, and oakleaf hydrangea.

I have worked very hard to build up my garden and hopefully it is beginning to show. I have two island beds, with the campanula 'Elizabeth, anemone robustissima, adenophora (Lady Bells), heucheras, catnip (for my kitty), tarrogon, lamb's ear, columbine 'Texas Star', and my wonderul contorted mulberry (non-fruiting, with very contorted branches and huge lime green leaves). The ginger mint is a ground cover and is so pretty with it's yellow and green foliage. The other island bed is new and so far is devoted entirely to daffodils, hyacinths, and my new asiatic and oriental lilies.

I love gardening, and despite the health issues I've had over the past 2 years, I still like to do most everything myself. It's a world in which I become enveloped, carried, and sheltered, it soothes my soul, I guess.

Maybe I'll try to pick up one of those new disposable digitals and see if they work.

Thanks for your kind remarks.

Susan

Hi Susan

Yes, it's a Peruvian cactus.

Dawn

The shadecloth comes down after the plants go back to the greenhouse in October. The back porch becomes my work area this time of year. My family likes to have evening meals there when its nice. Ill have to post a photo of it soon.

The plums by the house ripen before the Mexican Plum around the property are ready, so they go fast. We get our fair share of the Mexican Plum.

randy

Kaye in Arkansas showed me how to do the hardward cloth, and it has worked for her. I frankly don't believe that whatever has destroyed my 8 roses will smell castor beans and be repelled by them. I put them down and will again, but needed to do something else. If I kill the grubs, I also kill everything else. So I don't want to spread insecticide. No earthworms!! No, that is not a solution. Nematodes? Invisible bugs? I don't understand them. We live on a green belt, and use that land as ours so we cannot fence it in. Therefore we cannot let an animal run free. The leash laws are quite strict around here, and I wouldn't do that anyway in a city.

Hardware cloth is like a reinforced chicken wire. The spaces are large enough for the roots to go through, but not for the critters to come through. I cut sections that are 12 inches high, and 4 feet around. I dig the hole almost 12 inches - that is really deep for me to dig. I put in the wire leaving it about an inch over the soil level. If you look at something that is 4 feet long in a circle, it is large enough for a rose and a few inches left. That way the critter that comes out of the ground will be discouraged from going in between the rose and the wire. She said that 12 inches is too deep for the critters to go under and up from the bottom.

This system has worked for her for years, so I thought I would try it. It isn't easy to cut the wire, but she still has her hummingbirds, and all of nature.

Originally I tried to enclose a bed with hardware cloth before I understood the process. I have read that a few people who did that have discovered that the critters go over the top and eat all the roots in the bed.

I hope this works because it is hard to cut. I have to plan my work so that I don't have to cut too much at once.

Sammy

OK, I said in my original post on this thread that the blue irises and showy pink evening primroses weren't blooming yet, and they both repaid me by blooming yesterday afternoon! So that's one more thing in bloom.

We don't get many of the ripe wild plums here because most of the trees are along old barbed wire fence lines where no one mows and I'm afraid to go there to harvest plums during snake season! And we don't get many of the wild persimmons, even those on our own property, because the coyotes pick and eat every one of them long before they ripen.

Sammy, Thanks for the explanation. That hardware cloth is SO HARD to cut. No wonder it makes your hands sore. I like the stuff but hate the pain of dealing with it.

Dawn

All my trees are leafing out - pecan, elm, contorted mulberry, chinaberry (I think). The new hydrangea is leafing out nicely. Most - maybe all of the hosta has now come up in the shade bed, and I have a tiny sprout that may be one of the missing columbine. Violets continue to sprout everywhere, and I have decided to let them. Anything that wants to grow in my shady front yard gets to. Better that than ugly bare spots like I had last year.

Two-year-old asparagus has shot up and gone all lacy. Fava beans I had given up on finally came up after it rained last week, as did the Swiss chard. Has anyone tried growing fava beans here? The peas are up about five inches. Spinach looks great, and I will start eating it this week. Last year's parsley is about to bloom. Strawberries don't have blooms yet but they look OK. Potatoes are looking fine. All the onions are up but not huge.

Autumn clematis is everywhere, even after the severe pruning it got last fall. Trumpet vine is also trying to colonize everywhere. I cut it way back last year so I could repair and paint the trellis. Gotta get that done this week. The previous owner planted trumpet vine and honeysuckle both to grow on this poor trellis. I know I won't be able to get rid of either one but am trying to keep it controlled at least.

Blue iris, foolishly planted on the northwest, fairly shaded corner of the house, looks like it might actually bloom this year! I was all set to move it. Peony, planted (not by me) also in this bad location, is leafing out. Gotta remember to move it, but where?

Crepe myrtle is budding. Bright red tulips look great. I'm so glad I planted them around the pecan tree and along the creek bank. Asiatic lilies along the creek bank are up about 3-4 inches and looking vigorous.

Still waiting to see astilbe, cannas, elephant ears and calla lilies I planted.

Lily of the valley is starting to put on buds. This weekend I divided it and put some in a big pot on the deck and some out in a shady bare spot at the far corner of the yard. I still have more. Anyone want any?

We had a nice rain last night and one last week, so I think we're doing OK up here in Stillwater. Probably could use some more, though.

Such changes each week seems to bring for all of us. I do love this time of the year, embracing all that comes up and blooms or shows us its foliage. Much like another poster or two, I find this renews my spirit in life. Moments where I can just stand and look are some of the best times of the day.

The new in my gardens this week are the blooming irises. I have 4 kinds in bloom and they are lovely! Ther rest are filling with bud stalks. I put in this bed in fall 03, so this will be the first year most of these will have bloomed.

The perennials are defintely waking up and many are setting blooms as well. Sure wish I had kept the tags for most of them. But I started planting before I knew how nice it was to look back years later and remember what was what. Being in the military we moved so often that I never needed to try and use my memory years later for what I planted. Then it was bulbs and annuals.

My 3in1 sweet cherry is in full bloom this week. But my happiest discovery is that 2 of my gooseberry plants and 1 of the currants have blooms!

Lily of the valley look gorgeous. And I have some flowers that come up in the yard each year(outside any bed) that I need to post photos of. I love them, but have no idea what they are.

Susan, have you seen a cardicrinum in bloom...up close and personal? I have only seen pictures, but drooled over them. Where did you get your bulb? I have some dragon arums I planted in fall of 03. Last year they each shot up one stalk and bloom. This year one of the plants has 4 stalks and I am hoping for 4 blooms, with the original stalk maybe producing a much bigger bloom. Can you explain the layering you do with the clematis?

Randy...gorgeous picture! Cactus have no chance with me as I think they are begging for a drink of water.

Dawn, I have one grapevine that looks dormant (or dead) still too. :-( It produced nicely for me last year...about 5 or 6 clusters(Its first time having fruit)so I hate the thought it may be dead. I swear I can see some buds on it though. Let's hope ours are merely late sleepers.

~Heidi

I agree, Heidi, that we must hope they are just sleeping in late as it beats believing they are dead!

Today my first red poppy bloomed.

Oh, and my rusty blackhaw viburnums, which grow as understory trees in our woods, have begun blooming.

The only sign of spring I haven't seen is the movement of poisonous snakes. If they are up and about, I haven't seen them. (I'd rather not see them on the one hand, but on the other hand I'd rather see them before I step on one!)

Dawn

I don't want to see those snakes either! My first day at our new home as we walked the yard after the closing, I saw a rattler slither across the yard. And 2 years ago there was one in a pine tree above my head trying to feed out of the bird nests. :-(

~Heidi

Well, thanks to the generosity of someone here, I now have a bunch of rare and unique heirloom tomatoes to set out this week. Hopefully, I can get the Verbena in since hauling off a big pile of cutup pine limbs.

Heidi,

The closest a rattlesnake has ever been to me is about 3" from my hand. That was too close! I was in the woods early in the spring when that happened. I now stay out of the woods, for the most part, from late April until the first freeze, except for walking on a trail we've cleared and try to keep clear.

My son stepped on a copperhead last year, but it didn't bite him; and my neighbor got bit 2 years ago. She was the second person to get bitten by a copperhead on her property in the last 8 or 9 years. And a two-year-old near here who got bit 2 or 3 years ago by a rattlesnake almost died.

I hate the poisonous snakes!

Dawn

I dislike the poisonous ones too..and the good guys scare me just because...well..cuz I don't always know enough about them to figure out in a split second(as I am running away) what they are. :-P There is a big field behind all the houses on our street and I am betting lots of snakes live there among the stones and bushes. DH mows about a 8 foot section outside our fence trying to keep some of the critters away. I was going to take a walk Saturday and check on some irises I had noticed blooming about this time last year. Then it dawned on me that flipflops and shorts probably were not the best attire to do that in. So my flower hunting spree was aborted.

~Heidi

Linda,

I'm glad to hear the Verbena are going into the ground.

As for those tomato plants, well, you'll have to let us know how those rare and unique ones grow and produce for you this year. Oh, and be sure to let us know how many tomato worms they attract!

Heidi, If I have learned anything the hard way, it is that those of us who live in "dangerous places" shouldn't wear shoes that are "open" in any way. If I walk outside in a pair of sandals or open-toes shoes, something like a scorpion or big red ant will find me and sting me pronto. I guess I'm lucky it wasn't a snake that got me on these occasions. Now, if I want to wear "nice" shoes, I leave my house wearing athletic shoes. Once in the car I can put on the shoes I'm going to wear wherever it is we're going.

BTW, we also mow big pathways 8 to 10 feet wide through our pastures so we can walk through them with less fear of suddenly finding a snake squirming underfoot.

Dawn

Heidibird: No, I have not seen one actually in bloom except for pictures. I bought the bulb/plant from Heronswood about 4 years ago. At the time you purchase, though, they advise not to except bloom for anywhere from 3-5 years. Once it blooms, it will die, but produce offsets to continue for generations to come.

I had heard about laying clematis and thought I'd give it a try with my new Dr. Ruppel last year. It had 2 or 3 stalks, so I just took one of them and made about a half inch row to lay the vine in, and held it down with those big U-shaped bobbie pins. I covered it with soil (just about like when you plant seeds) and mulched it with leaves. This year, there are several points of growth from each node that I pinned down. So, instead of having one or two skinny stalks this year, I have several, which makes it look much bushier, much better.

I know most people don't like snakes, especially the poisonous kind, and neither do I particularly. I have seen garter snakes around my yard, but nothing more vicious than that. I just let them be because they eat the bad bugs, and they aren't really scary. I remember growing up in my small Kansas town. We lived on the edge of Town (if you can call it that - only 2,000 residents), and we saw tons of snakes, including copperheads. I remember the neighbor boy picking one up and tossing it at us; then I remember my dad getting his shotgun and blowing it to pieces. He did, however, leave the big black snake under the porch. It was huge and ran the length of our 6' porch. He at the field mice, though, so my dad wanted him around to protect the veggies. We also had water moccasins, ringnecks (they're cute!), garters, and blue racers. We hunted crawfish, fished for bait for my granddads limb and trot lines. I'll never forget the time we pulled up a gar! Yuck!

We had tons of toads, frogs, and other critters. Even had a hen we called "Henny Penny" that was a pet, among the myriad cats and dogs, and guinea pigs. Gee, I hadn't thought about those halcyon days in forever - thanks, guys, for bringing back the memories.

Susan

Susan,

Aren't childhood memories wonderful?

I think at my place I am trying to re-create my grandparent's farm to a certain extent. You know, they had an old country house and we have a new country house built to look old. They had a barn. Our garage is built to look like a barn. They had a big veggie garden. We have a big veggie garden. They had a screened-in porch on the side of the house. We have a screened-in porch. They had fruit trees. We have fruit trees. They had a windmill and a picket fence. We have both a windmill and a picket fence on our "to do" list.

Of course, they had some things we don't have, and never will have. They had lots of acreage and farmed it but never made much mony, so I don't want to replicate that. Their mailbox was 1/2 mile from the house, and I don't want that either!

Oh, and they raised sheep. When I was little a great big ram with curved horns chased me, and I ran to the only "safe place" my 5-year-old mind could think of...the stock tank. I stood there and screamed until my granddad heard me and came and got me. When he lifted me up out of the water, I had leeches on my legs! That is an experience I never forgot, and don't care to repeat. A bull chased me up into a tree once too. I was such a tomboy and was always having such adventures. If only I would sit inside the house, my mom would say, and play with my female cousins and the baby dolls....then that stuff wouldn't happen to me. Tee hee hee! I wouldn't stay inside and act like a girl though! And to this day, my now grown-up cousins spend their spare time on arts and crafts and other indoor stuff, and I still spend my time out "playing in the dirt"!

I think we must be succeeding in creating our farm-like non-farm, as my hubby's best friend's grandson, who is six-and-a-half likes to come to our "farm", especially in the summer. He likes to watch the frogs in the pond, is fascinated with the snakes, turtles, lizards, newts, etc., and loves to (a) gather eggs from the henhouse, and (b) pick veggies from the garden and fruit from the trees to carry home to his granny's house. We love having him over. It's like having a "part-time" grandchild.

Anyway, it was fun strolling day memory lane, and I love the new memories we're creating on our mini-farm too.

Dawn

What wonderful memories. :-)I hope to have my son and family move to Texas in about 6 months. (crossing fingers, toes, and eyes) Then my grandchildren (have 1 on the way!) will be close enough to build those sorts of memories with. :-))

~Heidi

Heidi!

How wonderful that you son and his family may move to Texas! Do you know which part of Texas? And a granchild on the way....lucky you!

You can still build all kinds of memories even if they live far away, but I think it is so much more fun to have them close. I can't remember how often we visited my grandparents when I was little. Probably not too often, but I always stayed with them on the farm for a week or two in the summer. And even after they sold the farm and moved "to town" they still had a large garden, fruit trees, blackberries and dewberries.

Just imagine grandkids in the garden harvesting tomatoes....picking fruit with you....and sitting in the yard spitting out the seeds from a yummy home-grown watermelon! It's almost enough to make me want grandchildren now (but since son is still in college and unmarried, let's just hope I don't become a granny anytime soon!).

Dawn

Thanks Dawn! I am excited. He is in the Air Force right now and getting out in October. He has applications in effect in Dallas and Austin (also Phoenix and Las Vegas-but I won't think about those as they are still too far away.) He and his family live in New Hampshire right now...waaaaaay far from here. I am so hoping he moves to Texas. I am from Kentucky myself and when my mom asks why we stayed in Oklahoma, I tell her "because some day my son will move to Texas and we will be close to him."

I think it would be so awesome to do all those things you wrote. :-)
~Heidi (wishing, hoping, praying)

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Magnifica rugosa rose. EP

Hurrah!
The iris are all blooming at once! They must know it's going to get dry and hot. Normally they pace themselves better.

I'm hoping this will be the year all the grass dies and I can plant other stuff. DH is out pulling up water grass again this year. he just doesn't trust that it will go away on its own.
Haven't seen many bugs this year yet, which is very nice.
Ornamental peach has had some weird leaf mutations, though, that look suspiciously like a fungus. Have removed them all and thrown them away, but will have to watch it closely.
I hate when the elm seeds blow about like snow, but the cardinals seem to like them! They were taking baths and eating at the same time today. Probalby eat crackers in bed, too. Goofy birds.

We have a couple of pairs of robins nesting under the carport, two sets of cardinals, one in the front nesting in the pyracantha, and one in the back under the Carolina Jessamine, and the usual pair of Blue Jays in the magnolia.
Gets a little noisy at times, but they are such fun to watch and have ceased to be afraid of us.

Moved all the pots out of the shed and scrubbed them down with bleachy soapy water. Rinsed them well, let them dry in the sun, and repotted a Chinese evergreen and two geraniums that overwintered in the garage. Started a pot of purple heart and transplanted some houseplants into their summer pots. They seem happy to be out in the sun.

Fertilized the brug in the bed with rose food, which the one in the pot seems to like, so I hope the one in the bed does too. The stem on the bedded brug, when I cut it last fall, was a good two inches or more around, so it must have a fairly massive root system.

Also transplanted some datura self seedlings from the patio bed, where the momma plant is coming up just fine from the roots, to another bed across the yard. Hope they take. I've tried putting down some seeds I saved from last year but they didn't sprout, so we'll see if this works.

Composted and watered the canna. Put in some nice gift plants from a friend (Hi, Bertie!)including some chrysanthemum, strawberry geranium/begonia and lemon balm, as well as part of a hosta and some monkey grass from across the yard.

The hydrangea Nikko, peony, wisteria, clematis and roses are covered with buds, so I hope they bloom well this year.
Nelly Moser is blooming nicely as is the Ramona that's intertwined with the New Dawn on the trellis over the side fence. They should look great together.

The Weigela Florida is having its best year yet. It's just magnificent. So pretty, all that varigated leaf foliage and light pink blooms against the purple leaved Chinese Fringe flower that BYW, is STILL blooming.

But everything is being hand watered. It's been really dry at my place here in the city. The brief rains have all passed us by. I was pinning my hopes on a 40% chance of rain tomorrow, but it's shrunk to 30%, so we'll see. Think this may well be a drought year for most of the state.

EP: Gorgeous Photo!

OKC1: It's looking droughty in southern Oklahoma too!

I have been hand-watering parts of my landscape, esp. the veggie garden and anything else that is showing signs of being dry, like yellowing leaves, etc.

Not a whole lot new this week here, except:

Larkspur (pink, blue and white) began blooming

Climbing roses blooming and David Austin English Roses just starting to bloom

Oh, and we have been having a black panther roaming our yard at night, so if I forget and leave the garden gate open, for example, I can't just run out and close it after dark because I'm too afraid of that big cat. Sometimes I think we moved to an area with a little too much wildlife!

Maybe the panther will scare off the armadillos who are plowing up our yard every night.

Dawn

Black panther? Where the heck did that come from?

Well, we often have the cougar (the tawny-golden colored mountain lion) and I've had one close call with one of them, but am happy to report I got into the house before it got me.

Folks who live across the Red River from us (down in Gainesville, Texas) tell me they never see the mountain lions, but sometimes see the black panthers, usually crossing the road at night. A gentleman who lives about 2 miles from me looked out his dining room window one night while eating dinner and saw a black panther staring back at him, but that was at least a decade ago.

I had been hearing the sounds a black panther makes in our woods for some time, but we hadn't seen one until this weekend. It stood in the yard, turned and stared, and then walked through the strands of barbed wire fence and headed for the woods on our neighbor's property.

My guess is that the wild game is becoming scarce along the Red River and the wild predators are prowling our yards looking for a meal. This time of year there are lots of young calves and colts, and lots of dogs and cats year round. I do, in fact, have a missing cat that I haven't seen in a couple of days, and am hoping the panther didn't find him. And, we did have lots of rabbits and deer, but lately I haven't seen any. Now I think I know why.

When I first moved here and the locals warned me about the cougars and panthers, I thought it was a form of neighborhood "hazing"! I now know they were just preparing me for what I would see one of these days. These large critters make me nervous!

Dawn

OHmygosh! And here I am whining about the squirrels - already chewing on one of the houseplants I set out on the deck and trying to get into the attic. We do have an owl that I hope is getting some of the squirrels - and I thought that was pretty wild, too. Of course I live in the middle of town, so I still think the owl and raccoons and everything else that shows up in my yard is pretty unusual.

I had one lovely iris bloom greeting me when I walked out the side door to take out the trash this morning. They have spread and have buds all over them, unlike last year, when I got only one bloom. I was all set to move them because I thought they weren't getting enough sun, but I guess they like it there after all.

My cannas have not come up yet, and I'm afraid I may have planted them too early. Reassurances, anyone, or do I need to replant?

I spent the weekend rebuilding and painting a rotting trellis that was about to crumble under the honeysuckle and trumpet vine previous owners planted together there. Much more work than I expected, but my sweet son came home yesterday afternoon and said "Wow, That looks really good!" I don't know about that, but at least I've stopped the rotting for the moment, I hope.

Correopsis finally showed its shy self. Gaillardia is getting TALL. And I think the caladium that was growing in the shade bed last year is coming back. Not positive yet, because it looks a little like the hosta that is also planted there, but just a little different. It was pretty well protected, and the winter wasn't real cold, so I thought it might try to come back. Boy, nothing grows better in that spot than caladium - so far, anyway.

OKprairie,

Go ahead and whine about the squirrels. They will probably cause you more yard & garden trouble than the panther will cause me. lol

My cannas have been slower to come up in areas where there is clay soil, and quicker to come up in sandier soil, which warms up first. I did finally get out the hose and water them, since it has been so very, very dry here, and they have responded well to the moisture. So, maybe your cannas are a little dry?

BTW, when we first moved here I was happy and excited about every bit of wildlife I saw, as I'd never seen so much when I lived in a civilized town. lol Now, I see so much wildlife on a daily basis that I fear I am spoiled. I do still get real excited when I see an eagle flying overhead. Last year a pair nested near us and one or the other would fly over our yard every now and then. I loved that.

As for the panthers and cougars, I only see them a couple of times a year, so I don't worry too much. I'm still missing
one cat though.

Dawn

I love pictures. Keep them coming. :-)

OKC1 and okprairie....dont you just love it when the irises decide to bloom in mass. This is the first year for mine to start doing that and I absolutely love it. I even have enough right now that I sacrificed some to cut and bring to work in a vase to enjoy here.

Dawn, I would love to see a panther the way you have. They are such gorgeous creatures. Please note I did not say I want one living close to me..just want to see it. :-)

Heidi,

No, you do not want to see one. After you see one "real" one, then you are scared to death and keep seeing imaginary ones (at least I hope they are imaginary) everywhere you look, especially if you are looking into the woods at twilight. LOL

There's not much that will get me out of the garden before dark, but seeing one of these kitties ensures I come in by about 4 o'clock, "just in case" it is out roaming early.

Dawn

I really do wanna come play at your house. Of course, I shall let you lead the way anywhere we go....peeking out securely behind you.

~Heidi

Iris, roses & several clematis are blooming.

Well, what I thought might be caladium was hosta after all, but one I don't remember from last year. So I guess caladium really really don't come back. That's OK. I would rather have hosta there, anyway. Today I have two irises where there was one yesterday - and the ferns have showed their fiddleheads. My first ferns. Cool.