I got a nice hunk of pulmonaria (lungwort) from my neighbor last year and am amazed to find it’s already blooming, well before the foliage fully transforms into its lovely, speckled self. (My sister and I have joked that we need to have a “wort” garden, just because it’s funny to say.)
And check this out: daffies! Already!
Makes me a little worried — too warm too soon? Will everything get zapped when we get the inevitable April snowstorm? Doesn’t bode well for the magnolia out front.
Just look at the buds on this lilac — a poor little guy we rescued from overgrown viburnum and privet. It hasn’t bloomed since we moved it two years ago, so I hope this will be the year — white blooms.
Sad to see a few things didn’t survive. I can never resist taking a chance on an unfamiliar “find” at the garden center, but they never seem to work for me. This was, of course, lovely when I bought it — blue flowers (another something I can’t resist). No tag, and I can’t remember what it was called. I had such high hopes of it trailing over the new wall.
At least the lemon thyme seems to have survived (though some other varieties haven’t), and the tricolor sedum is pinking up nicely — it’s never this pink in summer.
But, not so fortunate inside. Just like every year, the rosemary I try to overwinter does fine until just before I can put it outside again. Then it channels Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree and it’s all over. I’m always starting from scratch with these.
Oh, I know it’s not good to be wishing life away, but March can’t be over soon enough. There’s so much hope to be found in April, especially because we’ve planted so much. I just went through and did a quick count of my beloved plant tags — 50 shrubs (not counting multiples of the same kind, like boxwood) and 75 perennials. Of course, not all have survived, but even so, spring is pretty exciting.
I look around, though, and see just how much more there is to do and to fill in. Makes me admire “real” gardens and gardeners even more. (You’ll notice all of my garden pictures show a lot of mulch — of course the goal is that you see something growing everywhere, shoulder to shoulder, instead of boring brown bark. Give us 10 years or so for that…)
And yes, last year I was speculating whether April really is the cruellest month…what a difference 12 months make, bringing much perspective and enough progress to make the eternal warm-weather DIY fixer-upper projects a bit less daunting.
It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is.
And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t
quite know what it is you do want, but it just
fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
~ Mark Twain
Writing by Ear 
thesisterproject said,
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Happiness is, indeed, the spots on pulmonaria. Yes, you’re so right. I love that plant, and grow it like mad here, several zones above you. No sign of mine yet, but yours got me hoping. Thanks for that.
WritingbyEar said,
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I checked out Margaret’s (www.awaytogarden.com) helpful link for the “frost date calculator” (http://victoryseeds.com/frost/index.html) and was surprised (and sad) to see that in my area (Pittsburgh-ish), the last frost date is May 26! The rule of thumb around here is “no annuals before Mother’s Day” and Memorial Day weekend is really the safest bet.