This time of year brings out my inner gardener. It's like when a baby is coming and there's a phrenetic need to fluff the nursery. Only in the spring...I'm hanging out in plant nurseries, looking to smell dirt and stroll through racks of plants and dream peony colors.
Last week the flower garden got a good weeding and leaf removal. Now, even though it is March, the temp is in the 80's. We're gonna live on the edge and put something in the ground!
Mike left for his annual Texas turkey hunt; he's gone to the same ranch for twelve years. It's his spring thing. As he left the driveway, I was putting on my face to hit the nurseries. And as I drove out, look how glorious the dogwoods are in the "lower forty" (the flatland below our fence). It's God's little acre!
But before putting in newly purchased friends, I want to show you the "repeaters" in the flower garden. It's hard to explain why it's so exciting that they come back. But it has something to do with getting something for nothing.
Here's an overachiever who blooms first. Showy, eh? This is a garden phlox, Phlox paniculata.
Right next door is a friend who is coming to the party, but is in no hurry. This is the orange butterfly weed that is common beside the roadside. It's one of the last perennials to come out of dormancy. This is one of my favorites and it kills me when the monarch caterpillars eat it. Surely it's a delicacy because they swarm the plant, devouring the leaves overnight. But the good news is there will be lots of butterflies!
If you would like to see the orange butterfly weed when it's a grownup...here's a picture from its Facebook page. It's called the Asclepias tuberosa. Pretty for a weed, eh?
This is a picture of an ice plant, which will have purplish-pink blooms. Notice the interloper that came up inside the ice plant?
The pushy interloper jumped over from the nearby Asclepias curassavica, commonly called Mexican Butterfly Weed or Scarlet Milkweed. Sound like the orange butterfly weed? They must be first cousins. When you break off a bloom from the milkweed, the "milk" that runs from the stem can be harmful to the eyes. Both this milkweed and the orange butterfly weed are favorites of the Monarch butterfly. Isn't the combination of colors pretty?
I love the ice plant because my Oasis friend Bobbie shared it (and a lilac bush and several other things). Gardening leads to sharing. When the ice plant blooms, this is what it will look like.
I can't remember what this friend is going to be. He was new last year. He's an evolving mystery.
The purple clematis has tons of buds! That's the upside to a mild winter. The downside has to do with bugs.
May I present the red-twig dogwood bush? I think this shrub is at its best in winter, when the leaves fall off and the branches turn a blood red. It's so pretty when snow is on the ground and everything else is drab.
Mike put an arbor for me in the back corner. It will have a little rock bench under it, and I ordered two big-headed (4 1/2" with 35 petals) red Heirloom climbing roses. Love those old roses that favor peonies!
The Black-Eyed Susan came back. A gardener needs a namesake.
Inside the house when I get to moving things around, sometimes Mike is goofed because it leaves a nail hole and he kinda likes things the way they are. But in the yard, you just move it around wherever you want. A garden is evolving and changing every day. I can't wait to get the new things in the ground. Sure hope "global warming" gets us safely through April.
Please stand by for more garden pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment