What's Happening In My Gardens

I think since I have so many plants coming now I’ll just do half. I don’t want to bore everyone with too many little sprouts and tiny blooms all at once. They’ll get bigger cause we’re getting sun this weekend to make everything grow.

I was very excited to see some new growth on my Hardy Fuchsia Santa Claus. I already had spotted some on Double Otto. Now I have 2 more to check on and hope they come back. They are on the graves of our two little dachshunds Prissy and Schatze. Up there I have Phyllis and Brutus. Phyllis has the slightest bit of growth starting to show so I'm pretty confident that Brutus will too. They are in a lot of shade up there so they take a little longer to bloom. But this was their first year so I was especially anxious to know if they made it through our harsh winter. I've also planted Columbines around our two little friends graves and they are doing well. We lost Schatzee last year and I wanted to make changes to the flowers up there.
Hardy Fuchsia Santa Claus Another plant I was concerned about was not having seen any Hostas yet. Guess I was needlessly anxious about them because they are all peeking through in three different places. One we moved last fall and it wasn't looking good then so I'm happy to see it's back.
The Calla Lilies are finally peeking through and there's a viola that popped up next to them. I eventually plan on having Callas line the whole front of the house to cover the foundation and they will make a nice backdrop for other flowers.
My Japanese Painted Fern is also showing now.
Around the corner from them still in a shaded area I have Brunnera Jack Frost he's getting bigger but his leaves are still a lot smaller than usual when it's blooming. Usually they are around 6" long or more but this year are only half that size. Hopefully he'll be full size soon.
Pulmonaria Smokey Blue
Jacobs Ladder Blue Pearl
Dicentra Spectabilis or Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart

The Columbines in here are looking good and so is my Heuchera Plum Pudding - just a wonderful wine color with silver in the foliage.

Down a little farther where a little more sun comes into the bed is an Armeria loaded with blooms.

Down that side of the house are also some other plants I started and planted last year that are showing green. A Weigela, Abelia, Red Valerian, Sedum Linda Windsor, Sedum Autumn Joy.I was concerned about my Spirea Little Princess because she looked brown and pretty lifeless but she's got new growth on her so I can relax now.
Spirea Little Princess

New Flowers Make It All Better

Well thank goodness I had new flowers to plant and make it all better after the chomping machine went ripping through the property eating everything in sight.

This is my new Deutzia - I don't remember if they told me anything about it at the Farmer's Market except it gets 7 feet tall? Guess I'll run down there today and see if they have a name and double check on the size because I'd like to do it in a grouping with some of my next new pretties. She said this gets pinker as the season goes by and the picture she showed was very pink - so far mine is still white. Maybe because it's young. I have Spanish Lavender in the regular purple but didn't know they had different kinds. This is Boysenberry Ruffels and it is gorgeous with more of a pinkish tint to it. I thought it would look nice planted by the Deutzia.
Hosta Albomarginata. I'm going to replace those big honkers in front of my Callas that I'm unhappy with. Now they will be smaller and the same size and color - I hope!
I wanted some more Lambs ears because mine don't seem to be spreading - at least not that I can see anyway so I thought I'd just get more and put them somewhere else. I did that last year and they ended up being Lychness of some sort marked wrong. When I first got there I asked the lady at the nursery if they had any so I wouldn't forget. She picked one of 2 up and I asked her if they could set it aside for me while I looked around. I mentioned that it looked a little darker than mine and she said probably just where it was sitting in the light. I got home and was reading the tag and it's a dwarf. Hmmm do I want to keep it? I seem to have a hard time bringing Lambs Ears home - just plain old fashioned Lambs Ears. O'well, I didn't double check what she picked up so it's my fault and besides it might be nice to have a little one on a border somewhere. It is kinda cute! It will get 10" tall.
This is a Miss Kim Lilac - a dwarf that only gets about 5 feet tall I believe.
A Japanese Maple they were selling for an amount we couldn't afford to pass up.
I've wanted one of these for the last couple of years - ever since my girlfriend had a fellow employee bring some branches to her job and she said they had fuchsia (some are purple or lavendar) berries on them. After reading and finding out the birds also love them I have had it on my wish list. It will fit right in with the colors around here. It's called Callicarpa Bodinieri 'Profusion' or sometimes it's just called Beauty Berry. This one was in their discount section needing some TLC so I'm going to try and give it that. If the deer don't work against me!
And now for my biggest thrill of this buying spree - or would it be the summer? I saw these last summer when someone got one. I had been at the same little town celebration but didn't see this anywhere so I missed out. I call it my 'bad hair day' plant. It's a Japanese Willow but this one has been grafted on to another trunk (forgot to ask what kind) so it's taller than normal. A friend of mine has that kind and they are really pretty too with their pink foliage coming out on the ends but this little guy standing tall and kind of ruffled up is just so cute!!! I'll let the branches grow and just keep them trimmed above the ground so I guess it won't be a bad hair day tree when it grows up. There are actually 2 of them together in this picture since my girlfriend, and partner in crime, wanted one too and the guy lives out here by me so I just grabbed her one also. What a cutie pie this is - I absolutely love it.
I guess I'm a little late getting my annuals for the deck this year and the place I went to locally was sold out so I had to get something different. This big pink Sugar Daddy Petunia is one I always get but she only had a couple left.
So I had to buy some different ones. This is a Tidal Wave. I don't usually do waves but guess I will this year. The Tidal Wave is even bigger than the waves I guess.
Another Tidal Wave in a different color.
A pretty colorful Verbena. I love Verbenas but they were out of them too. Guess I'll have to pick some up somewhere else.

Clematis Josephine Blooming For Fertilizer Friday

It's Fertilizer Friday and everyone is flaunting their flowers so when ya get
done here be sure to link over to Tootsies place from the bottom of my page and
see what she and everyone else is up to.
Today the star of my show is Clematis Josephine. First, because she is so beautiful with her huge pom pom in the center and second, because last year we thought we lost her after her move
the year before. Now I'm thinking maybe she's going to be happy here after
all.
I showed one of the Peony blooms but now more have opened so I'm showing it
again. The pink ones haven't opened yet.
Red Valerian is getting ready for it's all summer show. It just keeps giving and
giving.

I think my new Lilac, the dwarf Miss Kim is opened completely up now. She looks
pretty with the lavendar Siberian Irises behind her.

Heuchera Snow Angel is getting ready to bloom. I discovered this one in Tina's garden.

The Bleeding Hearts are barely blooming and later than everyone elses as usual, even
my neighbors. It will be moved in the fall to a happier home.

Columbine Cardinal Song.

Not sure who this Columbine is but it's frilly and dainty.

Hardy Geranium

Snow In Summer with some Dianthus behind it.

One of the Verbascums.

A pink Lupine this week is on the way.

My Columbine that blooms 2 different colors.

The clumps of little wild Irises pop up all over my woodland garden and some along
the edges of the yard.

I've seen black Lithodora all over our county. That cold week we had tried to kill it
off for everyone but black or not it still bloomed and is turning green now.