Magic Molly potatoes become lavender mashed potatoes. A little gritty, I think. Fun to bake though. I have seedling successes. Roses bushes started from seed I harvested from a ripe rose hip. I am shocked that they grew! Tomato, cuke, zuke and several flower seedlings doing well. It is spring time in my mind because there is still snow on he ground.

At our previous home, I planted hydrangeas and they were GORGEOUS!! It took a few years for them to establish. I babied those suckers for the longest time! I was so proud of them.

The people that bought the house ripped them all out after the first year. If I'd have known that, I'd have taken some of them with me. Oh well.

I have planted several here at this house. It's taken about 7 years to get these established and finally producing some good blooms. The last 2 years we've had late freezes so they didn't do so well. I am crossing my fingers that this year they'll show off!! Same with my peonies.

I gave up on planting veges. Right now I don't have the time to devote to a vege garden. I admire those that do! Hope to see pics of your potatoes, Amylou. Let us know how they do & how they taste.

I was worried about a few perennials I put in last year. They struggled all summer and I wasn't sure they would make an appearance this spring. They have ALL reappeared, much healthier than last summer. I live in southern New Mexico and you really have to baby things the first couple of years.

I almost bought a blue hydrangea in Wal-mart today. I didn't, though, because I never have had good luck with them.

I planted purple potatoes too this year and they are all sprouting nicely. They're Purple Viking and Purple Majesty. Most growing in grow bags and a few in other raised beds. This is the first year I've gotten small asparagus from roots I planted a long time ago. I never thought I'd get any. Planted some 3 year old purple asparagus roots this year and have already harvested a few smallish ones. Some are too small to pick this time around. They came up just a few days after planting!

I also bought some Vego-type beds, only mine are Birdies. I still have to put one together. I just transplanted some Kale, spinach and cabbage seedlings into the bigger one this afternoon. The round one I first had them in, soil had sunk quite a bit after a lot of rain so will fill it back up to the top and plant some sweet potato slips in it.

Not sure how the cabbage will do, have only tried to grow them once or twice many years ago without success. Last year, though, I had a volunteer come up from kitchen scraps I tossed under some straw in the garden. Best tasting cabbage I've eaten in a long time. Made me hopeful I could grow more.

Fun2BeHere, I love snapdragons, one of my favorite flowers but I never seem to have any luck with them and I don't know why. I can grow almost any other flower but that one.

What sort of Hydrangea? I have a handful. They grow like weeds. As a rule I can't grow fussy things so it surprises me these are tricky for other people.

I have the reblooming kind. I dont know specifics as far as type.

Funny that you say that. People are often shocked that I have and prefer hybrid tea roses. Everyone says they are fussy and hard to grow but I have never had any trouble......

I tried to grow lovely lacecap type hydrangeas for a couple of years, but finally learned that they may be root hardy here, but will always be killed back to the ground and never be able to produce blooms. So, once I planted Endless Summer, I was able to get blooms! I have another mophead type now (can't recall name) at the front of the house that does well. Last fall I snagged 3 that are supposed to be smaller (Bloomstruck and Tuff Stuff) for $8 each - they survived in their pots with mulch piled around, but a deer broke into the yard and ate all the stems, so I can't say if they will be stem hardy yet. I still don't know where I will plant them.

A big victory - I had two super dwarf apples that rabbits girdled during a deep snow a few years ago, so the upper grafted portion died - but the rootstock survived. I let that grow for a couple of years then tried grafting some scions from my full sized apples onto them. That first attempt failed - but last years attempts succeeded! They are leafing out now! What I would love is to manage to graft several varieties (the rootstock suckers, so I have been able to divide the original two into 5) and keep those instead of the larger ones. I have 14 different apples in my backyard, 4 in ground and all the rest in pots, pruned to stay small.

I have a whole passel of hydrangeas and they apparently love it here. Pain in the hand to cut all the blooms off each year, but the next year they bloom again beautifully. We get almost a truckload of stuff I cut out of them each fall.

Here's my standard in bloom:

And here it is after fall pruning: