I bought some no ID daylilies last spring at a garden club sale and they were tiny. I had them in pots all summer where they struggled. In the fall, I dug out a new bed and planted them. I just saw they are coming up already and I can't wait to see what I have!

All of them! :0)

I'm with GardenH above!

There are a few bare root treasures that I'm hoping survived the winter and a few small plants that I'm hoping beefed up this year for a more impressive display. Other than aaaaallll the bulbs, I'm hoping for a good display from dicentra (pink and white).

I guess anything green coming up in the garden, except for weeds, is a good thing!

I agree - all of them lol. Roses, dahlias, glads, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and all sorts of perennials! But I suppose if i HAD to pick one, I’m very excited as I am getting my first day lilies ever, Labender Stardust, and hopefully they’ll bloom in their first season :)

I plant masses of Salvias in varying colors. Very excited to see them! After that, it's the four Aralia 'Sun King' in the shade. Have high hopes for them!

I've never heard of Aralia. I'll have to look those up. You have to post a pic of your salvia. I'm sure it will be beautiful.

I'm anxious to see if the yellow Gallardia I planted last Fall made it through our cold and now soggy winter.

Sweet Peas. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed them last year. DH got me two new trellises so I'm going to grow more. What a joy.

Skibby, what zone are you? Do sweet peas do well for you? I am especially looking forward to my hellebores and my peonies.

Same as catkin. And with the unusual cold temperatures I am more looking forward to seeing any signs of life with some of them. Lenten roses are flowering their little hearts out now.

so beautiful.

gdinie - I'm in zone 4 in Central Vermont. (thanks for the reminder - I'll need to update my profile). This was only the second year growing sweet peas and they were full and gorgeous. These are perennials so there is no scent. I will be growing annual ones this year which are more likely to be fragrant. They bloomed from mid June up until frost ( October this year) and they respond to cutting by reblooming beautifully. I had vases of them all over the house all summer long. It was a delightful experience. I'm not sure if the success I had is typical since I'm new to growing these.

Ah, the perennial sweet pea! I thought you meant the annual one. I used to grow that with great success in Holland, half a lifetime ago :-). Here they did not do so well in the sticky summer heat. Maybe you will have more success in your zone. The scent is the main attraction for me. Maybe I should try them again this year. I may still have seed of ‘Matucana’, a beautiful and extremely fragrant purple heirloom. It did better than some others here.

I grew some annual sweet peas. Slugs ate several of my seedlings, and then I put them in pots, but only one pot did decently, or maybe barely decently. I think the other pots let the roots get too hot, which they are supposed to dislike. I'll be trying them again and I have a place to plant them where they'll get sun but the roots will stay cooler. I have adored annual sweet peas and I'm desperate to get a good crop. DESPERATE!

To be honest, I think my one decent pot really wasn't that decent. (sigh)

skibby good for you! I have tried to grow sweet peas for the past 2 years and have had critters dig them up, the heat was too strong or the soil was too acidic. I have not given up yet. Going for it again this year! Other an than them, I'm looking forward to my first year of flowering peonies, delphiniums, astrantia and eryngium. I have been losing perennials after planting them the first year, in one particular area of my garden, so I'm truly praying that I see signs of new life after the frost is gone:)!

I would be overjoyed if the banana would flower!

For now the gerbra is happy. This had total die back this year in January.

I obtained some tulips from a guy digging up his deceased mother's perennial garden. I had to take them in June, because he was tilling it up, so I'm crossing my fingers that they made it, and curious to see what color they are. Same goes for some peony bushes I got from a new home owner who was removing the previous home owner's perennial garden. Oh...euphorbia first blush and bonfire. I don't know anyone else in the area who has them.

I especially like to see the small bloomers in the spring: Midland shooting star, prairie pussytoes, Sedum pulchellum, Robin's plantain, bird's foot violet, and later, blue-eyed grass, which is so small I barely notice it.

The thing I am looking forward to most of all is to see the yellowwood (tree) in bloom. It was just planted last year and I probably have a number of years to wait on that.

Crazy weather here. We suddenly have a 24 hour winter...

Yesterday:

Today:

That is crazy weather for you. Isn't this the second time recently? You are probably less enamored with it this go around.

Yes, that's enough now, I have veggies to plant out.

Bella rosa, just saw your post about not being familiar with 'Sun King' aralia. Here's a pic of one of my dozen or so, that I have. (Yep, I'm a fan)

It's hard to pick what I'm most looking forward to, but to me, it's heaven in July when my Oriental lilies are blooming.

Beautiful garden Steve!

Well, Steve, I think anytime in your garden might be heaven. It's truly beautiful. Wow!

Steve, how would you like to come to Minnesota and work on my place for awhile? Because your place is just gorgeous and I want mine to look as beautiful!

Omg! Steve hat garden looks like it’s straight out of a fairytale or painting! I’m very envious, hopefully one day my gardens will look even half as nice

Steve, your garden is beautiful. I agree with Kali, it looks like a fairytale! Thanks so much for the pics.

Lovely pics! My Anna’s Red hellebore is about the only color in the front garden right now aside from the heather. I like this one as the flowers turn some of their heads up.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I was quite surprised to find out that lilies grow just fine in less than full sun, so I just kept planting more. They're growing under a high canopy of black walnut trees, which leaf out kind of late, and drop leaves kind of early, so they seem to get enough light to grow on.

The photo was taken on a very muggy July morning, and since my phone's camera makes pics look so bluish, I bump up the warmth setting in my photos program, and then darkened the border a little.

grabembythegreenthumb, my backyard is about 15 years in the making, and only in the last 2 years have I been fairly satisfied with it. I was hitting the hostas pretty hard for the last 5 years, and now I want to get a good population of companions. Like many here probably feel, I wish I could have the strength and energy I had in my 20's and 30's to do this gardening thing...takes a lot out of ya.

Steve, what variety of lilies are you growing in the 2nd pic?

bella, I don't have names for all the lilies , but some are, Telesto (very large yellow in foreground), Eudoxia (apricot orange, back right), Candy Club and Anastasia are pink and white petaled.

Steve, thanks much. I'll have to look these up. Just curious, are they planted in a North facing area? I'm looking for plants to grow in our semi-shady area.

Steve, there's something about the exposure or the light that is beautifully different in your picture. Did you photograph it using special settings, or enhance any of the light and shadows? It really has such an ethereal quality!

Also, how old are your Aralias and how big are they getting? I planted my Sun King's last year assuming they would get to 5'.

bella, these lilies are just getting dappled shade with a few breaks in the tree canopy, they really don't get a ton of direct sun. I would say to go for it in your semi-shade.

deanna, I gave a description of some alterations I made to the photo a few posts after the pic. I think what contributed most to the ethereal quality, is just how hazy the air was early that morning, which led me to capture that one. The haze just kind of softened everything, I guess like when putting Vaseline on a lens for a photo. The aralia in the first pic is about 5 years old, and the biggest, maybe 4 to 4 1/2 feet tall, but it's in a spot that gets pretty dry in the heat of summer, so they can certainly get larger. I've found that they are sensitive to lack of moisture, and clearly let you know it.

Sorry I didn't see the earlier post on photo effects. Steve, you were fortunate to have the haze, and you get 100% credit for realizing it would make a beautiful picture. Hope I can recognize such opportunities! Thanks for the aralia info.

Ha, Steve, I thought the haze was due to my tired eyes. Glad to know it was the photographer’s intent.

^^ lol!

Tired eyes from staring at garden pics...yeah, I get it.

Sometimes I forget about tapping on the photo to enlarge. Details are easier to see late at night on those rather than peering closely at the smaller photo. Just tapped your photo, Steve, and can better apprecite its beauty.

I laugh that we’re still posting here when it’s been spring for a few days now. Technically, that is.

Last summer I planted tons of flowers that I got at swaps or from the discount bins of garden stores after they were finished blooming, so I’m super excited to see how my garden blooms this year. I’m especially excited to see all of the different irises I put in. Second in line would be the peonies, although I won’t be surprised if they don’t bloom this year. I also planted upwards of 900 flower bulbs last fall (I just kept getting more when I put each batch into the ground) but they are spread out over half an acre, and over an extended bloom time, so they aren’t all that densely packed.

Faith be sure to post pictures when they come up! I went a little bulb crazy too. I think I ended up getting about 500 bulbs, spread between 3 of my gardens. They aren’t big gardens so I can’t wait to see big clumps of blooms! The previous year I didn’t do clumps and they looked horrible and were too far away from each other. I’ve now taken the approach of cramming all bulbs close together and ignoring the spacing suggestion of “4 inches” etc. I usually half whatever it says haha. Who knows if this will backfire.

Yes, Faith - looking forward to seeing pics of what you've done. (and everyone else) We're in our ugly period here - dirty snow banks, brown grass, newly revealed litter (where does this come from?). I'd be happy to see dandelions - anything! Ah, but when it starts it's spectacular! I'm another one who ignores spacing recommendations. Things can be moved....

I just ran across this old thread looking for something else. I was surprised to see Steve's photos of lilies mixed in with Hostas. Who knew they would grow in that much shade. I have mine in full sun and another location that is part sun and I think the full sun stand up straighter, and I thought it was the sun. But Steve's are straight in dappled shade.

Beautiful garden, Steve, and I agree, I really look forward to when the lilies are blooming with their fragrance adding another dimension to the garden. I ordered new lilies bulbs and planted them last fall and I'm excited to see how they will work out.

And that's a gorgeous red Hellebore, Kailleana!