Mary, Mary, quite contrary; How does your garden grow?

Ahhh! Springtime at last and my garden is blooming. Want to take a tour?

Last year, our Japanese cherry tree developed some type of disease and we lost it. It was on the northwest corner, at the front of our house - a very visible spot in the landscape. And it WAS beautiful when it bloomed. Gorgeous, lush, soft pink blooms. However, not knowing what killed it, we were pretty sure we shouldn't put the same plant back there. So, yesterday, I found a Wine and Roses Weigela (wi-jel-ah) (long i sound). It's really pretty, but it's a little limp right now. Hopefully, it will pull through. It has gorgeous wine colored leaves, something I was looking for this corner of the house. The blooms are like hot pink little trumpets. Hopefully, it will make it!

Last fall, Richard dug in some double-bloom jonquil bulbs. I've always been enamoured with jonquils and, although we have tons of daffodils on our back hillside (lakeside), I was on the lookout for jonquils. These bulbs did NOT dissapoint. This spring, Richard made the circles around the trees where he planted the jonquils a little neater and added mulch. The blooms are nearly spent, but you can get the idea here. Delicate little flowers with yellow centers. Really pretty!

There's also a new "man" in the kidney-shaped flower bed. Continuing my love of sun (and moon) faces, I found this cute garden art at Earl May yesterday. He makes a nice addition by adding some height to this bed and goes well with another piece behind the "black cauldron), which also carries the sun face theme!
Finally, still under the "new" heading, I planted the area around the mailbox again with tequila sunrise portulaca. I anticipate a major battle with the local bunnies and these portulacas. Last year, they nipped them off right at the ground two days after I planted them in same spot. However, this year I came armed to do battle with ta-da, Liquid Fence. It smells awful. I just hope it scares them away. (the other plant in the picture is a mystery. I just liked the color!). The portulacas also look a little limp, but should look better in a few days. They were over-watered (they like sunny, dry places so this is a great spot, so far from the water spicket on our lot!) when I got them home from the nursery.

Other blooming activity includes allliums, coral bells, irises and peonies all ready to bloom and my favorite - Dorothy Rose columbine (in my mum's honor), which was planted 5 years ago, died 2 years later, then resurrected itself last spring when we had such a wet spring. I love the delicate pink blossoms on these plants and hope they spread under the sand dollar bush that grows just east of our garage door. This version of columbine is very rare now since columbine strains aren't usually repeated from year to year.

Finally, another plant that reminds me so much of Mom, since this is her favorite scent, is Lily of the Valley. I planted 10 pips years ago. It took them forever to get started, but now they are sprouting up everyone in the front bed, crowding out the hydrangea and coneflowers. It's a constant battle to keep them from overtaking the bed. But, ohhh, when they bloom, they make the walk up the front sidewalk a royal treat for anyone visiting our house. The scent is just luscious. I plan to pick a few and put them in a little vase for the kitchen counter so I can enjoy them.

How's your garden growing? Happy Mother's Day! Happy Spring!