There Are No Old Gardeners

"There are many tired gardeners but I've seldom met old gardeners. I know many elderly gardeners but the majority are young at heart. Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized. The one absolute of gardeners is faith. Regardless of how bad past gardens have been, every gardener believes that next year's will be better. It is easy to age when there is nothing to believe in, nothing to hope for; gardeners, however, simply refuse to grow up."~~Allan Armitage

 I love this quote because I find I think about getting older all the time with my garden. I think a lot about planting a more 'maintenance free' garden, because, you know, I'm getting older.  I feel this way mostly in the fall, at the end of the season, when I'm tired and ready to stop thinking about the garden. But it always amazes me how in the spring, it all comes back and you're refreshed and ready to go, already thinking about what new plantings you can make. I hope I'll always be a 'young gardener.' I hope I'll always think next year's garden will be even better. 

I had to work this weekend, but yesterday was  beautiful and I did get outside for a few hours. I have an akebia vine on my fence that would take over the world if I let it, so I spent a good amount of time cutting that back out of trees and plants. It's nice to plant vines when you have a fence, but they have a way of getting into everything.  I've been digging up a few clumps of purple coneflower and phlox, and transplanting them around the garden. I've made the first spray of the peonies with a fungicide, and need to do another spray in 2 weeks. I don't usually like to spray things, but my peonies are pretty important to me, and they seem vulnerable to fungal problems.  And there's always weeding, of course... 

Eileen and Prudy, Plant Weekend 2014

I leave on Thursday for Pennsylvania for our annual plant buying weekend, so I'm getting  excited for that.  Starting to think about pots and plant combinations!  And to make our spring even more exciting, we've started taking down the wallpaper in our kitchen...major kitchen renewal begun!

Slowly, Spring

Daffodils

Slowly, slowly, spring is coming. I love winter, but I am officially over it and ready for spring. We've had a few teasers of warm days but then the next day it's 20 degrees.  Or it snows. So crazy.  Often March is a busy garden month, but not this year.  I've pruned my roses and cut back the ratty hellebore foliage but that's about it. It has been so long since I've taken any photos outside because it just seems like it's been gray and dreary for so long and there has been nothing worth taking a picture of.  I spent a few hours on Sunday and Monday outside, doing more cleanup and cutting back of perennials. It's always so rewarding to clear out the garden debris and see all the bulbs and perennials  starting to poke through. I've made my list of things to do in the garden, and now have officially begun the spring garden tasks.

Sedum

Iris pallida

Daffodils and Galanthus

Hellebores

Perennial garden, cleaned up

Last week Eileen and Prudy and I took a quick day trip to Pennsylvania, a pre-plant shopping trip. We stopped by a few of our favorite greenhouses to check out their inventory and it was kind fun to see all the flats of seedlings.  We just bought some pansies and primroses, and a few bags of the PA potting mix we like,  but we'll be back at the beginning of May for the big plant shopping.

Pretty hyacinths in PA

Spring fleurs in PA

Newswanger's Greenhouse, March 26

Hello Peonies

Herbaceous peonies

One of the chores I accomplished in le jardin this weekend was staking my peonies. A few years ago I bought these peony supports that let the herbaceous peonies grow through them and then support the stems.  They have been a great success, no more droopy blooms on the ground.  I have a lot of peonies but I only support the ones in the front garden. The only problem is you have to set the supports before the growing stems get too tall, and they grow so fast in the spring.  I have another row of peonies on the side of my garage and they seem to stand up straighter there--maybe it's because they are in direct sun all day. Anyway, I don't bother with those. My tree peony is another story, it is so big now that I construct an elaborate system of stakes and twine trying to keep it more upright. I want those gorgeous blooms to show at their best!  Doesn't look great right now but once the foliage comes in you don't see any of the supports.

Herbaceous peonies

 My tree peony always blooms around May 1-- a week or so before the herbaceous peonies. I think it may bloom a little later this year, though, we'll see. Everything is a little delayed this spring. But things are looking good!

Tree peony staked

Tree peony

Tree peony in bud

Front perennial garden, April 22

Emerging

Perennial Garden

I love these early days of spring.  I find the garden so beautiful when the ground is still bare but you can see shoots and leaves and florets--and all that lovely green-- emerging.  I like to walk around my garden and greet all the plants (oh yea,  you're back!)  that are waking up from the winter. I like to see the garden in its bare bones, assess the placement of plants and what I might change or what I can add.  I love to clean out the leaves and winter debris to find a clump of hellebore babies coming up. Larkspur seedlings are popping up all over.   I love to see all the shades of green, so fresh. The greens seems to brighten overnight. It's such a miracle, truly.

Cherry

Tall Snowdrops

Lilac

Hellebores

Hosta

Golden oregano

Peony

Bleeding Heart

Viburnum carleisi

Rhodo

Peony

Phlox

Early Bluebells at Riverbend

Got lots done in the garden on Sunday~~more weeding, fed my roses and hydrangeas,  spread bone meal on all the perennials. Walt edged the garden beds, cut back the crazy autumn clematis, and cleaned out the garage. I brought out the last of the succulents,  planted more pansies~~it was a good day.

In between garden chores, we went to Riverbend Park in Great Falls because I wanted to see if the bluebells were blooming yet. They had just started, so while it wasn't quite the sea of blue yet that I like,  it was still nice to see the blues beginning,  as well as several other varieties of wildflowers. Another week and it will be a stunning walk along the Potomac, with acres and acres of bluebells. Bluebells and other early wildflowers are 'spring ephemerals,' or flowers that take advantage of the sunlight hitting the forest floor before the trees leaf out and close off the sun. By May all traces of them will be gone. Bluebells ('Mertensia virginica') are native to Virginia. My fav Virginia gardener Thomas Jefferson grew bluebells at Monticello.

One interesting fact I learned is that the bluebells at Riverbend were not planted by anyone. The river, wildlife, and climate all have pitched in to create this native garden. Pretty amazing.

I loved these trees that were blooming yellow. Such a great pop of color. Not sure what they are, looking them up they may be cornelian cherry dogwoods (cornelius mas)? So cheery.

Patiently Waiting for Spring

I love this painting. I don't know who the artist is,  I have searched and searched with no success. (UPDATE: It's Childe Hassam, thanks Liz!)  I must have torn it out of a magazine or book years ago, and I have had it in my sewing room for years. But for me it expresses the waiting we all experience with gardening. Patiently waiting for blooms, patiently waiting for spring.  Last weekend we were working in the garden, pruning and cleaning out the beds, and this past Sunday it snowed. Big, wet snowflakes all afternoon.  But yesterday the sun was out and it finally felt like spring was in the air. The neighborhood kids were all outside playing, riding bikes and playing ball. I weeded the front garden for about an hour, that sun just felt so good even though the garden is really too wet to do much. I took inventory of my pots and tools, my seeds, checked my succulents that have been wintering in the garage.  It looks like most have survived, although a few look pretty bedraggled. I walked around the yard looking for signs of life (buds on the tree peony!) The birds are chirping a little more. No daffodils yet, but they are taller,  there's hope at least.

More Signs of Spring

One of my favorite times of year is when the crocus start to bloom in the yard of a neighbor up the street. I've posted pictures before of his yard, but it's always a thrill to see these cheerful blooms begin. I'm so appreciative of someone who takes the care to naturalize these colorful beauties in his front yard, for all to enjoy in the spring. I hope others appreciate them as much as I do. ( I'm the stalker in front of his house with a camera...)

Saturday was a beautiful day, maybe 70 degrees, so Walt and I both worked outside most of the day in the gardens, cleaning up, mostly raking leaves out of the beds. It felt so good to be outside and to feel the sun. I pruned my Limelight hydrangea hard--I didn't realize I should be pruning it hard every spring, no wonder if was so big and awkward. I pruned all my roses, knockouts and regular (I prune them by half), I cut down the remaining perennials, the baptisia, the sedums, old asters. It looks like my big rosemary bush is dead, victim of our cold, cold winter. And this is the first time I can remember that none of my pansies planted in the fall survived.  But there are signs of life, the hellebores are starting to bloom,  snowdrops are up, and I see a few green buds. Spring has begun.