Thanks, bostedo. After ragna's comment, I started to wonder where this photo limit is stated. And realizing file size might be an issue, I usually grab screenshots of my larger images. I just don't want to annoy everyone with a notification every time I post a separate pic. I'll try again: will limit to four pics and see if that works. Yup, Omar warned me about the P. caerulea. :) Here pictured with a little ol' bat face cuphea I purchased as a 4" plant last year -- I've since taken cuttings and have 8-10 more in the front yard, HOA be darned. I ended up removing the esperanza, which reliably ended up with very bad rust issues over the past few years. I've planted a wafer ash (started from seeds) in its place, and it's doing very well so far. I didn't get too much traffic on the blue porterweed, but the hummingbirds and butterflies went to town on my red porterweed: And my A. elegans (host to pipevine swallowtails) really took off starting last autumn, after spending most of the year as a spindly, 2' long, sparsely-leafed vine.

Mxk3 - What part of the country are you in? What zone? Did you purchase mason bees somewhere? And have you done that before? I’m curious when you release them and do you attempt to provide habitat for them? Sam - Do you get snow and freezes all the way through April? Schoolhouse - I don’t have that particular weed, but I see others here that I seem to be getting more of every year. I love peonies but I don’t grow them. I had one for about 4 years and then I gave it away. It never failed to come into bloom right before a heavy rain and drop all it's petals. I barely had a bloom for 5 days. If you have a whole row of them it must be a sight to see! And you must have blooms to bring in the house. Sounds wonderful! Dee - We’ve had that happen, where a branch breaks but doesn’t fall out of the tree. [g] Glad yours finally came down safely. We have had a lot more wind than usual here. From the sounds of it, you are ahead of me with what is already growing. We had a forsythia that spread out so much we took it out. It ended up in more shade than it needed and didn’t bloom well by that time. Now I enjoy it in my neighbor’s yard. [g] And yes, looking around at everything that needs to be done….overwhelming. I’m trying to put blinders on and focus on the next step and ignore the rest. Deanna - I think there are Crocus varieties that are earlier than others. I’ve stopped adding crocus, because some critter keeps eating them. I went on a buying spree one fall and had many new varieties of crocus, including that ‘King of the Stripes’ that I like so much then after one spring of really enjoying them, they disappeared by the next year. It’s so odd that the area where I have the vinca planted under my front Maple was the only place that I didn’t lose any. And that is the oldest planting I have and it keeps coming back every year. I have to think it’s because of the vinca. Luckily it has ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ which is the very large white that I enjoy and a few others that do spread seed quite a distance, so I get a lot of surprises when they come up in other areas. But I think I’m down to about 4 different varieties and the rest are history. I comforted myself by buying more hyacinths and snowdrops and miniature daffodils that the critters don’t seem to bother. I have basal foliage for Oriental Poppies. They are so fresh so early and are not bothered by a late cold spell or more snow. Functionthenlook - I haven’t started cleaning up yet, but I can see some growth at the base of Chrysanthemums and Daylilies. Yes, the muscles are complaining at me just from a little pruning and I haven’t started doing anything difficult yet. [g]

The 6 week rule is generally the rule I tend to keep in mind in other areas where I am waiting for brownout or at least the minimum time I can cut the foliage out. Granted the crocus bulb is so small....I'm sure it will be fine cutting them, since I have cut other bulbs while in the green. Mine are planted in flower beds so I just leave brown out naturally since they arean't in my way of other plantings. I gave the lawn a wake up cut the other day. Let me see how long it will get if I leave it alone for a month and a half to decide......never have done the crocus field cause I know I am generally out before then cutting the turf. And MyBrownThumb made a good point which I wasn't even looking at - the height of Cut , may not even affect the foliage to some degree

Wow! As usual here in my area we are up and down. Supposed to have a cold few days this weekend, possible frost. I'll be covering up all the blooming plants again. Looking ahead, seems like this might be our last frost. This is our "dogwood winter". My dogwoods are looking so pretty!!