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| Clematis 'Blue Dancer' |
C. 'Blue Dancer' is putting on quite a show. It's nice to have something blue in bloom. This clematis is almost other worldly. It certainly looks foreign to my zone. However, it is decidedly hardy after this past brutally cold and long winter. This clematis alpina blooms on old wood. Don't prune!
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| The blue color is spot on. Amazing, huh? |
Other things in the garden are still struggling. After a rain last week, and the slightly more humid nearly 80 degree (F) temperatures perennials are starting to pop. What looks the worse for the winter are my shrubs, the bones of my garden.
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| Viburnum tomentosum looks good within a foot of the ground and a stray branch here and there. |
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| It even bloomed below that snow line. You see from the beautiful pleated texture of the leaves why I love this shrub. |
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| A species azalea which I was going to hard prune, but after sitting down and taking a good look, I noticed tiny beginnings of leave buds up and down nearly every branch. I will give it some time to do its thing. Its sad shape though a scary. It is a shrub I normally count on as evergreen through the winter. |
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| There was a large dead section through the middle of my dappled willow this spring. It was very brittle and gave me no doubt as to its "deadness". There is new growth from the roots so by mid-summer the middle should catch up/// I can't help but remember this is the area that appeared like it had been stressed after last winter, possible by a idling car in the winter of 2012-2013... |
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| The nearby privet looks very scary also. The upside of waiting on this one is very apparent, but I am nervouse about this once gorgeous hedge. |
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| My front privet hedge has a scary spot, too. |
Still alive, but terribly behind are rose 'Blaze' and 'Eden'. Both of which were cut to the ground today. Both are climber which will need to regrow from the root. Luckily, I plant nothing but own root roses.
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| Rose 'Eden' (or 'Pierre du Ronsard'), notice (finally) the green at the ground! |
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| 'Blaze' is coming front he ground, too, although a bit farther along than 'Eden'. |
Just how long do we wait for Spring to slowly unwind?
So hard to lose our friends. i just took out a beauty bush and now have a HUGE hole in a back bed.
ReplyDeleteHypericums gone, mop head hydrangeas cut down to the ground, even a nandina dead and gone. Ayyiyi. But I just planted a smoke bush and a curly willow I had growing in a pot on my back berm and that satisfies.
Strill I feel your pain.
xo j
Plants are like friends, are they not? Especially when they were given to you by a friend.
ReplyDeleteYou will enjoy the smoke and curly willow. Just be aware, sometimes I have had the smoke leaf out as late as June 10 or instead grow back from the ground. If it hasn't leafed out by the end of May I recommend cutting it to the ground anyway. It improves its shape and the color on the new foliage is magnificient. (You just don't get the smoke that year.) Do not allow it to grow unchecked. I have seen scraggly ones 30' tall, more green than colored. It is not a good look for the smoke.
Also, Jane, do not feel guilty not writing on your blog. During the last winter and the long (ongoing) recovery from my fractured acetabulum, the vicariousness of others' blogs was one of the few bright spots in my day.
Yesterday, I moved a small coneflower. It required a foot on a shovel to dig its hole and dig it out. It was quite a struggle, raising my injured foot that high and applying force, even though I have been peddling every day (for the cardio) and manage stairs without undue difficulty.)
Just keep on!
I should say for clarity, my injured side's foot. My foot is fine! (Nothing new there, just that hip thing, ongoing.)
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