Exercising Restraint?

Friday afternoon I made a trip to a local garden center.  I had an expiring Groupon to use, and I planned to spend it on some seeds and bulbs.

I found some "usual" seeds, one I'd been looking for for a while (Malabar spinach), and some other new things to try:  coleus (pretty plants for cheap), celery (you can grow that?), cumin (why not?), and a seed potato.  I've toyed with the idea of potatoes for a while, now I'm finally giving it a try.

"new to me" seeds - and a potato

I also bought some bulbs/roots:  elephant ear, bleeding heart, rain lilies, and funky gladioli. 

I'm so excited about the elephant ear.  I've planted it in a big green pot (probably not big enough, but its the largest I have), and plan to use it to help "tropicalize" my back patio.  The bleeding hearts will go under the cherry/crape myrtle.  I've no plans yet for the other bulbs - they were true impulse purchases.

After picking out all my seeds and bulbs, I took a tour of the outdoor part of the garden center.  Not to buy, just to look.  I'm expecting another Groupon for this place to come out soon, and I figure if I identify what I need/want now, I'll know how many Groupons to buy.  I looked at blueberries to replace one that died a few years ago, dwarf cherries, because I really want one and I think I've even IDed where I can put it, and camellias. 

I need to pull out my one remaining nandina that grows by the front door, and want something all-season-pretty to replace it.  I've been a little obsessed with the idea that a camellia would look great in that spot, but I don't think it will thrive in my SE-facing front border.  So I just walk through the camellias and dream.

On the way out, I browsed the clearance shrubs.  Yep, there were a half dozen camellias there, for a bargain.  Also some cute mini-rhododendrons.  I have probably the only house in Virginia without azaleas (or azalea relatives).  Not for lack of trying, they just really don't like my yard.  But this one was $10.

"No!" I told myself.  "You do not have time to dig up a nandina and plant a camellia.  You also don't have any space for a rhododendron, no matter how small."  I have no free Saturdays until mid-May, so my limited garden time is already entirely spoken for with spring cleanup and garden-planting tasks.  Anything extra will languish in its cramped pot until summer, when it the weather will be too hot for transplanting.  I'll forget to water it, and it will die.

So I walked away.  I exercised amazing willpower an restraint, and went home with just my seeds and bulbs. 

I was regretting my decision even as I drove out of the parking lot.  So the next day I went back.

So much for restraint.

May 2012 Blooms

It rained on Bloom Day (two days ago).  It rained the day and night before that, too.  But everything's green now!

For this Bloom Day post, I'll focus on the side garden.  It has a lot going on right now.

At the driveway entrance to the garden, the geraniums are blooming.  Lambs ear provides a nice contrast.

A week or two ago, this garden was full of various irises, mostly along the house side of the path.  Most are finished, but there are a few that are later than the others.

Yellow bearded irises with white rose campion

purple bearded irises with rose campion

 Think I have a lot of rose campion? I sure do. Its shocking-pink blooms are about all you can see at the front end of the garden.

a sea of rose campion

Taking a closer look, it is hiding one of the first daylilies of the year.

Also along the house side, I have a few patches of mazus reptans.  It has been blooming for about two months, though it is finishing up now and the blooms are more sparse.  I bought two little pots of this groundcover last year, to see if it would spread well enough that I can redo the path with it between stepping stones.  I planted them along the edge of the existing path, and it has spread very nicely.  It should be easy to divide so I can put some along the whole path.  I love it when a plan comes together!

Mazus reptans

At the front end of this side of the garden (ok, actually in the front yard, but humor me...) is my rather prolifically flowering white rose.  I have no idea what it is, but the one-inch flowers are covering the shrub right now.

Along the fence-side of the garden, Centaurea have been blooming their funky flowers for a while.

Centaurea with lamb's ear

 The heuchera I planted for foliage accents actually have nice pink flower sprays.

Heuchera flowers

 The doublefile viburnum I planted last fall (to replace a nandina) is still very small, but growing and flowering happily.

Viburnum

 And at the front end of this side of the garden, peonies and salvia.  Why does it always happen that as soon as the peonies bloom, we get a big rainstorm?  I think I could predict rain better than a meteorologist, just by looking at the peony blooms. As a result, they don't last very long.

And that's the tour of the side garden.  Here's what it looks like from the front:

 Thanks to May Dreams Gardens for hosting another Bloom Day!

The Proof is in the Box

In front of my house, I have two English boxwoods.  These came from my grandfather's "box-farm".  Not really a farm, just a 4x10 plot where he grew box from cuttings to fill in or replace the shrubs that lined and surrounded his yard..  Some were huge:  they'd been growing there for decades.  Before my grandparents' house was sold, I moved a few that were about a foot tall to my new yard.

There are several types of boxwood, and they grow at different rates.  Mine are the super slow-growing type.  I've had them for nearly seven years, but they are still really small.  When my front-bed perennials get going in the summer, the box seem to disappear. 

Boxwood in March - only as tall as the daffodil leaves

Box hidden in September

Are they actually growing?  Well, they are slightly bigger than when I planted them in 2005 (I think!), so they must be.  Here's the proof:  growth buds!

Box in March - it is growing!

Another Nandina Says Goodbye

Earlier this year, I replaced one of the nandina in the side yard with a hydrangea.  Now, I've acquired a doublefile viburnum to replace the second nandina.

Doublefile Viburnum

 Before I could plant it, I had to remove the offending shrub:

Overgrown Nandina

 First I whacked it back, then dug out the stump.

The viburnum in its new home:

I've long admired my neighbor's viburnum, and now I have my own.  I hope it grows as big and beautiful as Elizabeth's!