Spring Days

Spring is here and I've been outside in the garden cleaning out flower beds and planting cold hardy perennials and a few spring annuals.

My daffodils and tulips are blooming and they give me such joy.  My hubbie and I planted over 200 tulips last fall and don't know if they are going to finish coming up as we had a very bad arctic blast just as they were emerging.   The tulips I planted two falls ago are blooming but they aren't as prolific as the first year blooms.  Thankfully daffodils multiply and reward me with more each year. 

Avanti Daffodils

My azaleas took a hit and are brown but the leaf tips are budding out with fresh new growth.  I will have to have patience as some of my plants have been here for years and I don't want to prematurely rip them out.  Fingers crossed they will come back with fresh new leaves.

We completed our first spring chore of resealing our stamped concrete patio.  I choose a higher gloss this time and I love how it turned out.  

I put a fresh coat of paint on my butterfly bench and found the accent pillow on Amazon.

Spearmint heuchera with red blooms

If you have never grown heuchera or coral bells I highly recommend you try them.  Last year I purchased three watermelon, three spearmint and two citornelle varieties.  All of them made it through our -14 degree cold blast and handled our 95 plus summer last year and look amazing already this spring.    I'm so impressed with how well they have done in my garden I went out and purchased 6 more varieties.  They are my new favorite perennials.

Citronelle Heuchera is a lime green that looks amazing in the shade garden and paired with pinks and purples.

Above is the Watermelon heuchera.  I love the variation in the color of the leaves and the sweet pale pink blooms are so pretty.  

Watermelon Heuchera (last summer)

I went plant shopping and was able to find most of the plants on my wish list.  I will have to wait for the warm season bedding plants to arrive at my nursery and I'll make another plant haul or two.   

Happy Spring!  

 

First Blooms

King Alfred

Spring has finally arrived and

 the first bloomers are my sweet daffodils.  

The yellow colors 

just brighten my mood and end the winter gloom. 

I've always said yellow was my "happy" color!

Tete-a-tete

The first wave of daffys have already bloomed.  The above tete-a tete minature variety is a favorite and blooms early.  They are small but have multiple blooms which makes me wish I had planted more.   We used an auger attachment on my hubbie's drill that I purchased at Lowe's in the garden department and it made fast work of planting over 120 bulbs. 

Avanti

I really love these bicolor daffodils with dark centers.  This one is Avanti and I just planted these this fall in several areas of my garden.  They have a sweet fragrance too!

I had a few pots of daffodils and tulips in the greenhouse.   I bring them in the house or put them on the patio to enjoy.  Our tulips are just starting to bloom and I hope they open tomorrow.

Sweet little violas brighten up my

 centerpiece for the patio. 

I overwintered my geraniums in the 

greenhouse and they add a pop of color

 to this corner.   

I purchased a few cold hardy plants to put

 in pots on the patio. This red ranuculus makes 

a great companion with purple violas. 

  

I couldn't resist this Spanish lavender at Lowe's last weekend and I can't wait to purchase more varieties when we are past our last frost date.

Yellow buttercup ranuculus is so pretty and I've potted this one with purple violas and

 a lime colored hellebore.  

Near the back of my garden is a beautiful saucer tulip magnolia coming into full bloom.  It's so striking when no other trees are in bud or leaf. 

I hope you are enjoying the first signs of spring with sweet blossoms.  I'm sore today from yardwork but was so glad to be in my favorite place pruning and cleaning up leaves to get ready for planting.  I'll wait until next week to start on planting annuals as the weatherman says one more 

frost night 

is coming our way this weekend. 

.   

Happy Spring!