April 13, 2012: Pansies and not much else

Last weekend Mama helped me plant a flat of pansies to add a little color while the garden filled out. All the perennials had been going like gangbusters, but it has been colder for the last week or so, so they haven't changed at all this week. Still, you can see some change since the last photos. 

A close-up of some pansies. We also moved the hosta Great Expectations a foot or so over so it would be in a less crowded area. 

 The forget-me-nots are in full bloom:

April 2, 2012: First garden pictures of the year

The garden doesn't really look impressive yet, but there is A LOT going on. I cleaned off the leaves and mulch two weeks ago, and things are coming up really quickly. I'm including tons of pictures here. The whole garden:

 Blue angel hosta:

 American sweetheart hosta:

 Sum and substance hosta:

 Regal splendor hosta:

 Kimbotan hosta (hard to tell, but it is tiny):

 Mouse ears hosta:

 Heuchera (don't know the name):

 One of my 5 "mystery" hostas from the grab bag:

 Bitsy gold hosta:

 Guacamole hosta:

 Corner of the garden - shows my climbing hydrangia, several ferns, the goat's beard, and the ginger doing well. You can't really see, but 3 of the 5 "mystery hostas" are also coming up in the center section.

 Ligularia:

 Empress Wu hosta (should be BIG!):

 Paul's Glory hosta - doesn't seem to have minded the move last year:

 Several ferns, irish moss, another heuchera, and the first shoots from Hadspen Blue hosta:

 Forget -me-nots:

 Lady's mantle coming up:

 Heuchera caramel:

 View from the street. You can see the Japanese irises, and some other hostas that I don't have names for.

March 26, 2012: More Hostas...I couldn't resist the sale!

Ok, so I actually ordered more hostas in early October because HostasDirect was having a fall sale.  I got some great mature divisions for $3 and $4, plus a "mystery grab bag." This was my order:

Yes, I realize I probably have a hosta problem.  I actually had to look up this order because I had forgotten what I got when (mixed this up with my earlier order where I got Sum and Substance and a few others). Today I was looking out in my garden and saw a few hostas that I didn't remember planting, so I had to investigate.

First, along the left side of the garden I have 4 big hostas from front to back: Blue Angel, American Sweetheart, Sum and Substance, and Regal Splendor. Should be quite a show (first photo is from my garden, the rest are stock photos).

On the right side of the garden I've already seen Kinbotan, Mouse Ears, and Bitsy Gold coming up. There are also 4 of the 5 from the mystery grab bag. And I'm happy to report Empress Wu is already several inches high.  Paul's Glory, Great Expectations, Guacamole, Hadspen Blue, and two that I don't know the name of are also coming up.

There are two that are not accounted for: Jewel of the Nile and Lakeside Shoremaster.  Jewel of the Nile should be in the corner of the garden and there is no sign of her. I have no idea where I planted Lakeside Shoremaster...I've found the marker but no sign of a hosta yet. So I'll cross my fingers and hope they are just late arrivals.

June 22, 2011: New path and more annuals

When I bought the hanging baskets (last post), I also got another flat of impatiens and a flat of coleus and crammed my front garden full. Here are two views of the garden now.

When Papa visited last week be brought me some more paving stones as well, so I made the path more distinct.

June 20, 2011: Rats and Hanging Baskets

We have a family of rats living in our back yard, so we need to get rid of the bird feeder. I bought two beautiful hanging baskets to hang on the porch instead. One is a double million bells, the other is a bacopa (for only $15!).

The bacopa (still need to find a place for it):

 Close up of the million bells:

 View of the hanging basket from the house:

June 18, 2011: Good and bad news

Well, the good news is that my mail-order hostas finally arrived and I got them in the ground. The bad news is, while I was away in CO, I forgot to tell Dan to water the plants and the rhododendron seems to have completely died. Here is the view of the whole garden:

My biggest hosta is blooming - 4 stalks covered in white, fragrant flowers. It is really pretty. 

Here are the new hostas - almost all are starters or "mature divisions," so they don't have many leaves or look too impressive right now. I plan to buy more annuals to fill in around them so the garden doesn't look so sparse. This is my new hosta for the left front corner of the garden - Jewel of the Nile.

 This is a mature division of Sum and Substance (with the mostly dead rhododendron behind). I was warned that this hosta will get huge - which is exactly what I want for this part of the garden. It should be really impressive next year.

 On the other end of the scale - Blue Mouse Ears. This hosta was free with my order. The leaves are about the size of thumb prints - it is SO cute!

 I thought this was a really unique and interesting looking hosta - Bitsy Gold. It is quite small, quite yellow, and has very narrow leaves.

 Continuing my love of blue hostas, I got this "Hadspen Blue" to go near the foot path.

 I planted "Empress Wu" under the tree. It isn't very big yet, but it will get HUGE.

 And I got a coral bells - Heuchera Caramel. I hope the color will be a nice contrast in the garden.

 Finally, I had TONS of impatiens seed from last year. I'm going to thin/transplant them all around the garden. I also still need to get some coleus for color, height, and to fill in the bare spots.

Finally, I bought a nice large, pretty pot and repotted my elephant ears in it. If they grow big I think they will look fantastic!

May 19, 2011: More growing and a few flowers!

This is the view of the whole garden. As you can see, the large blue hosta (I have to look up the name again) has grown a lot since last year. All the other hostas have come up bigger as well. 

Here is a close up:

Guacamole coming up on the left, great expectations mixed with a friend in the center. You can also see the ferns and astillbe in this shot.

Here are the forget-me-nots and the japanese painted fern - it came up much later than the other ferns so I was worried it had died.

Here is Paul's glory (hosta) in its new location and some of the other ferns, hostas, etc.

The first flower showing on the geranium. Unfortunately this was uprooted and died a few days after this photo was taken.