in the 80s for the last few days. Snow is in the forecast for Monday.

Welcome to spring in the Midwest...

Planting crew is coming Thursday so I spent the day driving around picking up plants and supplies. In the snow, of all things.

Scored some great deals from odd little local growers. Home Depot and Lowe’s are way too high on their plants. Picked up 100 Acidanthera (Gladiola) corms for $10 at Costco and at that price they can be annuals.

Forecast is for 77 degrees on Thursday.

Big fun!

The planting crew was delayed and they ended up installing everything yesterday, mostly in the rain. Didn't seem to bother them any and in fact they said the rain made the ground easier to dig. I was cold just watching them from the garage.

Here's the before picture. Not bad, but not very exciting and done in "Meatball Style" like every other house in the development.I was never a fan of the yellowish "False Cypress" - winter and summer they always looked like they needed iron or something. The planting around the utility island seemed to highlight it more than screen it from view.



Here are the after pictures:





There are three white "Cascade" azaleas in front of the electric transformer now. They're small (I'm cheap), and they're just getting ready to bloom but they should grow to some 4 ft. tall and shield the view of the utilities nicely. The short brown grass clumps will turn in to tall green grass clumps in about a month and should frame the arrangement nicely.

There are three blue hydrangeas under the window ("HI Mountain") that should bloom all summer, fill in, and grow to about 4' tall.

Relocating the weeping cherry was a risk as we weren't able to get as much of the root ball as I'd like but we'll see. If it dies I'll replace it with another one. I really like it there - creates a sort of "courtyard" feel as you walk up to the door and it looks nice through the window next to the door. It's done blooming now, but it was covered in white flowers two weeks ago.

There are a few more thing left to do. The nice plant nursery is having their 30% off summer kick-off sale on Friday and I'll pich up a yellow flowering Magnolia ("Sunsation") to plant to the left of the window where the little cherry was. It should grow to about 15 ft. and can be trained to stay narrow.



The flowers are really pretty up close and it's a good looking tree when it leafs out:



I'll also pick up a "Frostproof" gardenia to put under the cherry tree. I wasn't able to grow them in California (soil and water both too alkaline) and I'm looking forward to seeing how they do as we're right on the edge of the coldest zone where they'll survive. Should be nicely fragrant when you're coming up the walk.

It wasn't until we were done that I realized my yard is done in the colors of the Ukranian flag!

Looks good. Will be better when the plants grow.
19F here this morning around 7:30. 44F today, snow tomorrow and Wednesday.

That looks nice. I can't wait to see it when the azaleas are blooming and the grass is up and green. Relocating the tree was a brilliant idea.

Very nice, Steve! You guys have such a great eye for design. That part of gardening is such a struggle for me.

I used to have a yellow magnolia in my yard, 'Elizabeth'. The blossoms in the spring were abundant and beautiful, and the tree had a beautiful upright structure. Its growth rate was much faster than I expected, and it got much larger than anticipated. I ended up having to take it out because even with aggressive pruning there was no way I could keep it at a reasonable size. Broke my heart.

I've been away from new plant introductions so I'm not familiar with Sunsation . It looks like a lovely magnolia. Turns out it's a hybrid of 'Elizabeth' and 'Woodsman'. I think I'd be careful where I put it. That 8 to 10 foot width sounds a bit off to me despite the fact that's what the nurseries are all saying. The specs on the tags usually reflect the size at 10 years, not a maximum size. Growth rates are 1 to 2 feet a year, which means it could get big quickly once it gets established.

The Morton Arboretum in my area had this to say about it:

quote:

Sunsation magnolia (Magnolia ‘Sunsation’):
Large (6 to 7 inches wide) creamy-yellow flowers accented with a blush of pink bloom on this cultivar. It grows 20 to 30 feet high and 20 to 25 feet wide. Zone 4.

https://mortonarb.org/plant-an...a-hybrids/#cultivars

That sounds an awful lot like my 'Elizabeth'. And I looked up 'Woodsman', which has similar size characteristics.

Here's info from the Holden Arboretum on the grandparent of these yellow magnolias, the cucumbertree. Note the sizes some of these puppies.

quote:

Given that cucumbertrees can live 100-150 years, they all have the potential to become giants. Even their hybrids such as ‘Elizabeth’ do too, as their height is a dominant trait.

https://holdenfg.org/nature-profiles/cucumbertree/

One other thing about Magnolias is that the flowers often end up getting hit by frost. The yellow magnolias tend to bloom later than some of the others, so that helps. Plus you're a zone or two warmer than me. Fall color is not a feature.

Anyway, don't want to rain on your parade but just wanted to give you some info to consider.

My desk is in the living room, facing our driveway and a Swiss Stone Pine that is in my top five list of favorite plants.

It seems that every time I look out the window, there's a robin perched on the edge of a planter that has a hosta in it, and that is adjacent to a ground level bird bath. Most of the time the robin just sits there. Occasionally it pops down for sip of water or a very chilly bath in the water.



I'm guessing there's a nest being built nearby....

quote:

I'm guessing there's a nest being built nearby....

Nice!

I know there was a problem with putting in bird baths last year because of bird flu. Is this still an issue?

Today I learned that although there are herbs that will tolerate frost and can be planted early, jalapeños and basil are not among them.

They’re toast. .

To be honest, I had forgotten about the avian flu. The ban was lifted later in 2022, after the spring migration. Here's an update:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...-your-bird-feeders/#

The nurseries often sell plants well before they can be safely planted outside. Can't tell you how many dead impatiens I've seen the week after Mother's Day. People get enthused by all the beautiful planters and put plants in that get leveled by the cold a week later.

Sorry to hear about the peppers and basil, but I'm not surprised by either. Tomatoes and other nightshades are really touchy, too. Things like thyme, chives, and sage can probably take some cold.


Here's the chart for various temperature milestones in your area:

https://garden.org/apps/frost-...+Ridgeville%2C+Ohio/

It's been so cold here and will be into next week, I'm not even thinking about buying my plants because it will probably be three weeks before I can plant anything.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
To be honest, I had forgotten about the avian flu. The ban was lifted later in 2022, after the spring migration. Here's an update:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...-your-bird-feeders/#

The nurseries often sell plants well before they can be safely planted outside. Can't tell you how many dead impatiens I've seen the week after Mother's Day. People get enthused by all the beautiful planters and put plants in that get leveled by the cold a week later.

Sorry to hear about the peppers and basil, but I'm not surprised by either. Tomatoes and other nightshades are really touchy, too. Things like thyme, chives, and sage can probably take some cold.


Here's the chart for various temperature milestones in your area:

https://garden.org/apps/frost-...+Ridgeville%2C+Ohio/

It's been so cold here and will be into next week, I'm not even thinking about buying my plants because it will probably be three weeks before I can plant anything.

Chives will survive just about anything. We had some in a pot years ago and they just kept coming back year after year even though we just left the pot on the deck through the winter and didn’t bother to cover it during frosts after they had come up in the spring. Eventually we repotted it into a large decorative pot because it looks so lovely and green so early in the season. It’s been up for about 3 weeks or so and despite the frost over the past several days it’s as happy as ever.

We don’t plant anything here until mid May. The rule around here is that you need to plant your tomatoes by Victoria Day weekend (around May 24) to give them an adequate growing season. But you can’t go too much earlier or you’ll risk frost.

I did learn that sage, rosemary and thyme will all survive the winter here, as will chives. I cook with those nearly every day.

I think I’ll try to work them in with the landscape plants.

Sage and thyme survive here, but rosemary does not. I looked up its zone, and in theory it's only good in zone 8 and above. I've tried bringing it in for the winter and put it under grow lights but it doesn't do well. I just treat it as an annual.

dol, I have chive plants that my Dad dug up from his garden in the early 1980s and that I planted in the garden of our (then) new home. They're still going strong. Chopped chives in scrambled eggs FTW!

Been out in the yard planting. Looks like we're likely past our last frost, so I've been putting in some of the more tender stuff. Tomato and pepper plants are in, as is my one experimental Japanese eggplant (I've never grown eggplant before).

A little late for some of these seeds, but I've sown some butterhead lettuce, mesclun mix, and spinach in the elevated beds. Also radishes and beets, in the lower white raised beds.









Potatoes could have gone in a little while ago; I'll finally put them in later today or tomorrow. I grow those in containers.



Beans (both bush and pole) will have to wait a little for the soil to warm up. And, good news...I managed to find some Roma bush beans. I grew them years ago in my garden in Evanston. Haven't planted them in this house because I only started veggie gardening a few years ago here. Decided to put some in because I love 'em. Not many garden shops carried them, and the ones that did sold out really quickly. Some friends were up in Wisconsin at a huge garden center, and picked them up for me. They literally got the last packet.



Last year I planted black currants, red gooseberries, and a hybrid called a jostaberry. Wasn't expecting much if any fruit this year, but there are a few berries on the currants and the jostaberry,; I was surprised to see quite a few berries forming on the red gooseberries. Have to figure out how to protect them before they ripen. It's me against the squirrels.



Oh, and the Swiss stone pine is doing its spring growth spurt. The pollen cones are purple, which is kind of cool.

Wildflower hike in the Columbia River Gorge, other side of the Cascades (drier over on that side)

Balsamroot in bloom by pianomom2001, on Flickr

Hiking Mosier Plateau by pianomom2001, on Flickr

Out with the kids for the day; it was gorgeous. Pun intended!