Gardening - March 31, 2006

Now that the weather is wonderful, there will be many more gardening posts.

  Younger son and I spent a good bit of time in the garden today.  He loves gardening - much more than the older two do which I find surprising.  He enjoys it, in some ways, the way I do. 

One thing he likes to do is wander around with me and talk about what is blooming.  He showed me these today.  They're his favorite pansy.  They turned out a bit darker in the picture than they are in real life.

Behind them, you can see the dark green leaves of the rhododendron.  Rhododendrons don't do all that well in our part of NC, and neither do Mountain Laurels.  We have both, or, to put it more correctly, maybe, I have both.  And I baby them as much as possible.  If they bloom well this year, I'll post pictures.

Epimedium.  It looks a little like a small columbine, but they're not related. 

The first time I had one of these, it came along in another plant's pot.  I planted it, and it died after a year or two.  It took me years to find it again.

I eventually found it and planted it about two years ago.  Since it hadn't survived for long, I thought it was a fairly non-agressive plant.  It turns out that it really is a "fast-spreading groundcover," and I've had to ruthlessly trim it back ever since.

I still like it!

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Just a small bit of an azalea that's grown wonderfully over the last seven years.  It's set to bloom in the next week.  I love the color. 

We were worried that it would bloom last weekend when we were in DC, but the cold snap seems to have delayed it.

Veronica.  Very small.  You can tell how small by the relative size of the pink creeping phlox next to it. 

Younger son found these.  Forget me nots that escaped from the flower bed and are growing in the lawn.  You have to bloom at a short height to make it in the lawn!

Younger son also found these yesterday and wanted to show them to me. 

We mow around these.  Bluets or "Quaker Ladies."  Their color varies based on the soil.  Here, they're in the "common area" behind our house (basically a field that the drainage lines run through), and they're almost white.  Sometimes they can be medium purple.

One of the first wildflowers that I learned, and still one of my favorites. 

"Tahiti" double jonquils again.  More of my favorites.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Gorgeous pictures!