I am finding surprises and old friends every day in the garden now: bloodroot, then bluebells, now epimedium and iris. So many of these plants are low-lying, tentative little things. I feel like crawling around the garden on my knees to inspect every blossom!
Mother gave me the bloodroot last year when we met in the Smokies (from her hillside, not the Smokies - although we were worried someone would think our stash was poached) last year, and she's always talking about it. I just didn't know about bloodroot until it came up right beside our back patio. It was the very first thing to show itself this year and is so clean and simple - I love it!
The epimedium is especially delicate and nodding. I wish I had a terrace garden or an elevated place in the garden for these, so we could pass them and see their faces. Mama suggested the front garden along the street, as that bed slopes upwards towards the house. That might make a treat for neighborhood walkers.
That front bed is one of those garden "regrets" from the past year. I have been saying for two years that we will take out the mulberry trees that are there to give the bed a little sun and earth (that area is just laced with shallow roots from the mulberry trees and the nearby maple). Now I'm really do regret ignoring the project as the sod project of last spring failed on that side of the front walk. Ugh.If we do get around to taking those trees out this year, I'll plant something large and evergreen as a perimeter plant to block the view of the Nascar flag and flamingos....
The Caroline jessamine is in full bloom now, and there's another "should have" place in the garden. With its pretty evergreen foliage, it would be perfect against the shed wall, which is visible from our back windows. Right now I've got sweet autumn clematis and red honeysuckle there, but the jessamine is hidden behind the shed, climbing the back fence. My intent was to move some of these vines around, and make sure we had the evergreen jessamine covering our homely little shed. Now I'll have to wait for the clematis to come to life for the shed to be less of an eyesore and the fall to move these around.
These are Cheryl's "Butter and Eggs" jonquils from her mother's garden and look at the surprise next to them! I can't believe it. Last year, as table decorations for a conference luncheon, I bought flats of the only decent-looking annual Home Depot had out at 9:30 the night before the conference: dianthus. I gave away all I could (no one was all that interested) and stuck the rest in the ground, figuring they'd die without lots of water. Of course, they flourished in every garish purple and cerise and magenta imaginable all summer long. AND THEY'RE BACK! Mama said "nobody told them they were annuals." Will I have the heart to rip them out this year?
Two more of my favorite plants make me happy every time I see them. The grape hyacinths out front are that intense indigo color and so pretty right now in an otherwise mess of a bed. The other thing that I just love for no good reason is the sweet woodruff that is spreading like crazy under the holly tree. Just look how fresh and green and whole it emerges!
