Sister's Weekend

Last weekend was a gardening dream! Early Saturday Country Girl picked me up to go plant shopping but before we could leave she had to unload the plants she brought me. She had told me she was bringing me some things but holy cow!

Giant Solomon's Seal, White Phlox and in the back a mystery plant

We headed out in the rain to the Regional Market in Syracuse. The rain stopped before we got there and the place was packed. Prices were not as low as I'd hoped and there weren't many great deals but we did find a few. My greatest find was this Fuchsia. I didn't know there were varieties with flowers this big and just had to have it.
I hadn't been to the Market in years so it was fun even if the prices weren't what I'd hoped for. Our next stop was Seneca Hill Perennials. They are a local grower that I was unaware of until I saw them mentioned by Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening. They do mostly mail order and are only open a few days in May and June. We enjoyed touring the gardens and a couple of the greenhouses.

Giant Solomon's Seal at Seneca Hill.

I picked up a Penstemon Tubaeflorus and this adorable Shooting Star.

Dodecatheon

We had a nice lunch in Oswego and headed over to Ontario Orchards. I had head great things about them but I was less than impressed. They had mostly the same things you find everywhere, their prices were high and one of the cashier's was quite rude. Perhaps we caught them on a bad day but I probably won't go back.

Our final stop was at Hoxie's, a little greenhouse I pass often but had never stopped at. They had just annuals but at a great price so Country Girl was able to pick up some things for her some of her flower boxes. I am trying to get my annuals going from seed but at the rate things are not germinating I will probably head back there to pick up some plants to fill in here and there.

My sister's schedule is such that we don't get to spend much time together so seeing each other two weekends in a row was great. I'm sure we'll do something together before the end of July but we're already making plans for Garden Walk.

Sunday found me out in the garden early digging up plants for a swap that a co-worker hosted in the afternoon. Since the garden club didn't have a swap after all :(!!!!! this year I was really looking forward to this one and I was not disappointed. Not only did we swap plants but we got a tour of her woodland garden and had a chance to socialize outside of work. I got three different hosta including a cute little mini one, rose of sharon, yellow coneflower, woodland hyacinth, bleeding heart and several unnamed plants with just a description of what they will look like.

I got all of the bareroot plants in right away and most of the rest went in over the course of the week. New plants meant moving things around and catching up on some of the weeding that never seems to be done so it's been a great week in the garden!

Little Blooms - GBBD

You have to get up close to see most of the things blooming in my garden right now. I have no idea what this plant is. I don't remember planting it but I left it when I did the early weeding. After last night's rain and with the wind blowing today I wasn't able to get a very good picture. Am I nurturing another weed? If so it's ok, it's a cute little flower.


Trillium is my favorite spring flower. Several of the white one are still blooming but the red seem to be done.


I don't know what these shrubs are. They grow wild at the edge of the property. South of here I've seen the white ones blooming. I have both white and pink budding now. One of these has self seeded in the nightmare bed willow bed and I've decided to leave it for the birds and the butterflies.


The forsythia is almost done. It used to cover most of the western property line but the neighbors wanted it gone because it attracted bees :(


This redbud will be done soon. It isn't actually mine but I get to enjoy it anyway.


Other blooms:

• Lungwort
• Bleedinghearts
  
• Azalea
  
• Violets
• Pansies
• Fushia
• Impatients
• Forget-me-nots
• Periwinkle
• Spurge
• Strawberries
  

Visit May Dreams Gardens to see what's blooming today in gardens around the world!

Heirloom Blooms

We always had peonies in the back yard while we were growing up. After they were done blooming Mom would mow right over them and every year they'd come back. Two years ago she was no longer interested in keeping the one remaining bush and let me dig it out. I divided it into three and last year got just one bloom. I'm thrilled that all three have bloomed this year.

This one is near the back door where I walk by several times daily.

This one is not as happy looking but still blooming.

The third one only has one bloom so far. The foxglove in front just started blooming yesterday. The foxglove I found growing at the edge of the woods and moved to the garden.

BJ and Angie decided they wanted to rip out everything the previous owner had planted along their front porch and start from scratch. So of course I helped myself. I was quite surprised by this bloom yesterday.

The columbine that Country Girl gave me last year is still full of blooms.

I'm loving this little patch of salvia, tickseed and dianthus right now.

Delphinium started from seed last year.

A huge patch of daisies. Another gift from Country Girl.

Blanket flower started from seed last year. I moved this to the new bed at the back of the house and now every bloom is facing towards the house.

St. John's wort shrub. I just bought this last weekend. It's supposed to get 5' tall and wide, covered with this little flowers.

Also blooming:
Iris
Bleeding heart
Pincushion flower
Fushia
Stella D'oro lilies
Lupine
other day lilies
chives

Tanks to Carol for hosting the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Plant Swap

Our garden club had the spring plant exchange Wednesday night. I traded bee balm, blanket flower, foxglove and daylilies for these:
Variegated Miscanthus, Golden glow aka outhouse flower, Forget-me-nots and two that nobody could tell me the names of. I'll plant them and see what happens. I also got some bare root geraniums and some type of oriental lily. The fuchsia was onsale at the local discount grocery store. I love fuchsia but I almost always kill it. After reading this by Kerri I decided to try again this year.

The group also donated these plants for the bus fund-raiser.

The speaker Wednesday talked about Boldt Castle and the landscaping there. He brought a bleeding heart and told a story where he took a flower apart little by little to illustrate the story. My teeny-tiny plants have just started giving me teeny-tiny blooms this week. I haven't taken a Thousand Islands boat tour in years. After his talk I think I may just have to check out all of the improvements that have been made in the last few years.