Friday Fleurs

My cherry tree in bloom

The past few days have been cool, but sunny, and most important of all, there is color! I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see some color emerge in the garden. I guess a long winter does that to you, but everything just seems so vibrant and so welcome this spring. We have had a couple of freezes this week, but so far I haven't noticed any damage. The only thing I really worry about is my big tree peony. It has lots of buds, and I'm hoping they are okay.

I spent the afternoon outside yesterday, spraying my peonies and roses with a fungicide, trying to ward off disease. I did it last year and it seemed to help.  I also pruned back all my lavenders--I have a lot of really old lavender plants that I prune back every spring and fall. I'm a little worried about a few of the younger plants, they may have fallen victim to the arctic cold winter,  but we'll see. I'm hoping they will rebound. My rosemary plant is dead. I have talked to several other people who have lost rosemary plants this year as well.  I also shellac-ed my gourd birdhouses and finished spreading bone meal around my emerging perennials. Checking more garden chores off the list...

Viburnum carlesii

Redbud

Dogwood

Viburnum carlesii

Tall snowdrops

Cherry

Hosta

Tall snowdrops