Here's what's up and in full bloom for me:
Yarrow- starting to flop already


Lavender- this needed more water than I thought b/c the foliage dried out and died on my hill

Coneflower - I love these things; and they love my hot dry summers.  I planted a orange variety late last fall; i think it was called sundown.  I thought for sure it wouldn't do well b/c it's a new variety so I was suspicious.  But BOY OH BOY it's just beautiful!  especially with my giant mum like daisies. EDIT: they ended up getting what i think is powdery mildew by mid-summer.  I also love my merlot variety.  They are very tall and have strong black stems.  My pink double delight ended up being more hot pink than i expected.  I like them, it's just that they're in front of my hot pink knock-out so it doesn't look as pretty.  I even started some of the prairie splendor and white swan from seed this year.  i've heard that it's hard to get them to start so I crushed the seed hull's as I planted them to mimic going through a bird's digestive tract.  LOL

Sundown- See how the color changes?

 

Merlot - I love the black stems

Guara- of course; this never stops blooming

Angel's Breath - a neater version of baby's breath

Stokes Aster - Color Wheel not a favorite so far.  It's kind of weedy looking in the blooms.

Phlox- the bright eyes are just opening up; the pure hot pink version in more sun is full on and doing great considering how dry and hot it's been.  I've read somewhere that they don't do well in the south, but mine are loving life


Bee Balm - I adore this variety I have.  It's a little over a foot and has perfectly neat foliage that is the deepest green which makes it look very healthy to me.  It blooms hot purple (hot pink w/ a purplish shade) I have it on the hill and it does well but doesn't look great with the pale apricot blossoms of the heaven on earth rose.

Veronica- deep purple spires - I'd have to look up the variety.  The tops are beautiful!  The bottoms dry out and die so it's good I have them hiding behind my mum/aster.  It looks great with my hot pink knockout.

Agastache- my beloved beloved agastache.  I bought blue fortune in my first year in the house and i've been in love ever since.  I split it this year and moved it all over my yard.  It seems happy wherever.  They are really just starting to bud big enough to appreciate the color.  I tried pinching the top buds this year so maybe that's the reason for the delay.  It kills me to pinch a perfectly good bud, but i wanted to see if I could keep it from flopping since I put it on the hill behind my HOA rose.  It's a beautiful combo if it wasn't hidden by my stupid daisies!  I planted some new varieties this year too...purple haze; heat wave and pink panther?

This brings me to the bane of my garden this year.....

Daisies- How could this be a bane!?  Well...I started a bunch of Alaska daisy's from seed last spring.  Because i had them in little seven pots it was easy to scatter them throughout the garden.  Well I should have taken into consideration that they get about 4 feet tall!!!  holy crap they are giant.  They look great along the back of the garden along the fence, but not good for my hill where they wilt in the sun during the day, and perk back up at night.  They look messy where I have them planted now. (see bee balm pic above)  I plan on moving them as soon as they're done blooming.  I just can't bring myself to do it now.

Crazy Daisy Madness

Day Lily- I almost skipped these guys!  My barbara mitchell day lilies I bought from costco and raised from little roots are blooming.  These have been such a disappointment.  THEY ARE ORANGE.  All the pics make them look pink, but don't believe it.  They look just like the old fashioned ditch lilies.  I'll work with the orange.  They aren't ugly, but they aren't like any of the pictures either.  lying s.o.bs   I think they'd look good with my purple homestead.  My ice ones have already bloomed.

Verbena- purple homestead....still going strong.

Roses

The first flush of blooms have passed on my roses after the first week of May.  How did it go?..... well.....AMAZING! 

Eden Rose ....This was the first year my climbing eden rose bloomed.  The three trellises were covered with blooms.  All the pictures you've seen of this rose don't lie; my pictures don't do it justice.  This has to be the best variety of old timey cabbage style English roses for the south.  The color is amazing.  The underside of the petals are creamy white and the tips are this perfect blush, lightening to a paler pink as they open.  And when they do open, they don't show any of the stamens.  They stay in their perfect cabbage form until they brown on the stem.  For weeks they didn't drop ANY PETALS!  You may remember the tornadoes that hit the south this spring.  Well before they hit, I made sure to take some of the blooms indoors as cut flowers, thinking that the wind would surely have to whip every petal to the ground.  The blooms are just so loaded with petals, you think that they would have to be fragile.  But the next morning, I was shocked to see that they didn't even flinch from the wind.  The cut flowers lasted a week in a vase, and probably would have lasted longer if I changed the water regularly.  The ONLY negative thing I could even potentially find in eden is that it isn't fragrant....but seriously with such traits, who cares!?  I'll buy a candle.  This rose is a 10 star for me!

 

Dream Weaver is the climber I have in the front of my house.  I had to figure out how I was going to train it around a plastic column.  I found some garden velcro tape that worked well.  I like this rose's frilly petals.

I also have several Heaven on Earth Roses.  These guys change from a salmon color to more peachy pink in the heat.  They repeat all summer and have big cabbage shaped blooms.  I love their repeating power, but they drop their petals too with a light breeze and make the garden look messy due to the good petals on the ground.

Above: Heave on Earth w/ double pink knockout rose in back

 Baby Blanket is great for my steep slope.  Its supposed to be a ground cover rose and worked great for that purpose.  This is a very pretty rose and was actually a baby blanket for a rabbit's den this spring until the cat made quick work of getting those rascals out of my garden.  ;)

 I have a mystery rose that I bought in a duo box from costco.  One survived, I wish I knew what it was.  It's really small and the petals don't drop.  Very neat color the lightest peachy blush.  Can you name it?

Finally, I have to say I don't give the knockout enough credit.  The color of this guy is so vibrant it creates a reflection on your skin and you can't help but smile.  It's a great rose, but ya'll all know what it looks like.

I did have a bit of a pest issue this year with the bud worms again eating half of my buds.   This time I knew what they were immediately.  The Bayer 3 in 1 rose product doesn't protect you from these suckers.  If you find holes in your buds, and sometimes fresh stems, and don't see the pest that's causing it, go out at night with a flashlight around 4am and you'll see them munching on your buds.  You'll know where they are by the juices glistening in the light.  I fixed this problem quick with Sevn (early season before all the butterflies and bees were out) and then dropped this below ground granular pest killer.  I think that stuff killed my earth worms though.  :(

First Experience with Bluestone

Saturday morning sitting sipping coffee and there's the doorbell.  "crap!  who's selling something now?"  I look at John, he looks at me...."your turn".  double crap!  When I open the door there's no one there; my eyes drift down.  There it is, the biggest cardboard box you can imagine.  I squeal, jump and clap getting a chuckle from a neighbor out having a smoke.

It's finally arrived.  Perfect timing!  It's supposed to be beautiful all weekend (and it was).  It was the first time I'd ordered perennials online.  I'd read and heard good things about bluestone so i used them.  They didn't disappoint.  All of my flowers came healthy and happy.  Now if I can just keep them that way.

Golf + Gardening = Broke

Weekends in the spring mean two things.... John gets the golf bug and I get the garden bug.  Between the two hobbies, we blow our retirement before we even have one.  Today I'm off to all the big garden centers and nurseries.  I figure some girls spend a fortune on clothes and shoes, I buy perennials.  As long as I have that one sexy cotton gardening dress, John doesn't care.  :)  

Spring Fever!

I'm not just suffering from March Madness, but a full blown case of Spring Fever!!!!  Last week I had a speedy delivery of the 8 David Austin Roses ordered as a result of this fever.  I had no idea where I was going to place them when they arrived.  Of course it was all planned when ordered them; but as I always do, I second guessed my original decision and changed it all up.  I'm pretty happy with the placement, but a bit nervous about the decision to place one of them under my window in the back of my house.  I have about 2 feet between the wall and my window, and don't want to block the view.  I'll let you know how it turns out by fall.

Here's what's blooming in my garden in the end of March:

• Creeping Phlox - bright florescent lavender pink color
• Creeping Jenny - ok, not really blooming but it's so bright green it looks like a bloom
• Dianthus - the perennial kind (blue foliage) and the so called "annual" kind 
• Christy Speedwell - veronica- Pale blueish/purple (6-10 in tall, spikes - fungus or mold issues)
• "Waterperry Blue" - veronica - groundcover (4-6 in tall no blue spikes)
• Forget-me-not - annual that i grew from seed last year 2010, and didn't bloom until this yr
• Crocus