Warm Wonderful Weather!

What a glorious few days we have had! Temperatures were in the mid-60's, the sun was out, and the breezes were warm! I worked outside two days with no jacket! I got the rest of the flower beds cleaned and the ones I cleaned earlier, finished. I fluffed mulch, I cut back Engish Ivy, and I got our not-working-now-but-hubby-promises-to-fix-it water feature cleared of leaves. Of course it is supposed to start raining tomorrow and be cooler, but I can take that after having experienced at least the beginnings of Spring!


Rose of Prairie Rose's Garden and I went to the 2nd open house and seminars at our garden center this past Saturday. We had a session on 'Hot New Perennials" most of which were new sports of existing varieties. All, though, improved in some characteristic, a new color, more disease resistant, or longer bloom time. I did enjoy seeing these and took some notes on ones I might want to try. A couple really grabbed my attention. The first being columbines that now come in red-one called spit fire, and in yellow-called Denver gold. I am definitely going to plant one each of these. There are new colors, also, in Echinacea which now come in a pale green, yellow and orange. I may buy one plant this year,and save the seeds to have more next year! We also heard about new types of phlox. David White, Tenor, and Starfire are shorter and less affected by powdery mildew. Ever since seeing the tall one's growing in a cousin's garden at a family reunion last year, I have planned on incorporating them into my some of my beds. I think the shorter ones will work better where I am planning on planting them.

As you can see, I did get some pansies. They are one flower that always says spring to me. Something I can plant when I can't plant anything else. When we walked in that morning the shelves were full. And by the time we left, there were hardly any left. So we were not the only ones captivated by their beauty.

When I went to plant them, after cleaning out my pot and adding new soil(this is supposed to be law according to the container police), I found the plants were extremely root bound.

When plants are like that, I either rough them up some or do like below and make a criss-cross cut in the bottom of the plug. It may set them back a little, but in the long run they do better as the roots will grow out into the new soil.

Speaking of soil...I did, finally, get my seeds planted April 4th. Today, when, I went to spritz them, I had plants! Statice, Zinnias, Tomatoes, and Dwarf Sunflowers called Teddy Bears. Those are the ones Cheryl from My Wildlife Sanctuary sent me.

Instead of putting them under grow lights, I put both flats on the top shelf of my garden window.I don't know why I haven't thought to do this before...Duh! So we will see how this works.

I hope spring has come to you, and if not yet keep the faith..it will soon!