It's Alive! It's Alive!

This my first Daffodil ever. It's the Rhine Wine that I bought from the Chicago Botanic Garden sale last year. I love it! All the plants below are ones that I thought were goners. This first one is the Red Twig Dogwood. You may remember it and the others that follow from last year. They were my Charlie Brown Shrubs. I swear I thought all these were dead.

Fragrant Viburnum

Hydrangea Lime Light. I can't wait to see this one in bloom.

Hydrangea Tardiva planted in the rocks. I'm sure I've complained about it before but I think my house was built on some rock quarry or something. After I found the perfect spot for this, I started digging then hit rocks. I was tired and lazy so I just plopped it in the hole with the rocks thinking it was probably dead anyway. What a survivor! This is also planted in the Coneflower cemetery where all the Purple ones that GB gave me were planted and died.

Japanese Kerria. I love the leaves on this one already. I have never seen one of these so this should be exciting.

Lastly, this is the Clematis that I thought I'd ripped out along with the bastard weed that was growing up the string. Thank goodness Jodi told me not to bother it and that it may come back this year. Thanks, Jodi!

I'm still waiting for some sign of life on the Weigela Wine and Roses from the HD sneaky shopping. They both look very dry and brittle, still. Oddly, those looked very healthy when I planted them but they sure don't right now. Rosemarie thinks it's bad karma. I hope she's wrong!

Meeting Stella

Happy Friday Gardeners, Garden Bloggers and Blog Readers!

This is Stella the Dwarf Cherry tree. Yes I know it's not a good picture - I need photography lessons. Stella was ordered and delivered by GB. Thanks, GB! She got them from Miller's Nursery and I was surprised at what good shape it arrived in. For now, Stella gets to live in a pot. I had planned to keep this on the patio but I'm a little concerned that it'll be too big for it. I actually bought the fancy dirt for Stella. When I opened the bag of Scott's Organic Potting Soil I really did say "wow", out loud. The stuff is so dark and fluffy and I sorta wish I'd never tried it because now that's all I want to use. It costs over twice what the plain potting soil does but it is clearly way fancier. And after less than one week Stella is already showing some growth. I soaked her in a bucket of water for a few hours before I planted it. They didn't tell me to do that but it seems like something that's been shipped and dry for days outta be pretty thirsty and I think Stella liked it. See below

Daffs are coming along nicely however the Weigela behind it that I stole from the cart at HD last fall is not even close to coming back to life. It looked really healthy when I bought it so I'm just hoping it's not time yet.

This weekend I promise the following

Wintersowing update

Backyard Ideas Wrap up

ps I've requested lots of vacation time off and on between mid April and the end of May so if my boss doesn't tell me I'm on crack and shred my vacation requests, lots of greatness will be happening at MSG.

Confused Wine and Roses

I noticed one of the new Weigela Wine and Roses has several new blooms on it! Did somebody forget to tell them it's November??? I did not see any buds on these shrubs when I found (stole from the poor unsuspecting buyer at HD) them last weekend at that great HD sale. Fine by me - it's a preview of next spring!

I don't know if I mentioned this before but when I was planting this particular shrub, I dug up the damn tulips I'd planted a couple of weeks ago. I mean I sliced a few of them right in half with the shovel. I knew I should have flagged the spot where I'd planted them!

Another thing about shrubs - I've never been a big fan. When I think shrubs I think poodle shrubs like I have in the front of the house. In fact, had you seasoned gardeners who take the time to give me advice (you know who you are) not told me over and over that I need shrubs against the fence, house and garage, I never would have bought them. But, what I've noticed is that, since I've planted a few shrubs, I suddenly feel way more confident in my ability to place my plants! It's like magic! Before I'd buy these plants, read the tag about how tall they are suppose to get, then stand there agonizing over where they should go. Not only that but I was usually wrong. Almost everything I planted ended up hidden behind Zinnias. So, thank you for goading me into shrubs! I feel like next year I'll be able to handle plant placement way better than this year.

Are You A Sneaky Shopper?

Yesterday when I went to buy my new leaf blower/chopper upper, I was lured over to the shrubs and trees by an evil 75% off sign. 75% OFF! THAT IS PRACTICALLY FREE, PEOPLE! I was immediately drawn to this Weigela Wine & Roses for $6.25. Now, since I've never heard of this shrub let alone read about the growing conditions I decided it would be best to go home, research it and ask an experienced gardener if it's too late to plant it (thanks, Carolyn!). After all, 6 bucks is 6 bucks. After getting the nod of approval from Carolyn I decided to run by HD and pick up a couple after work today. I just love the deep green and burgundy leaves and apparently it has a nice pink flower, too. So I get to HD this afternoon all excited and there were none left!!! I just kept cussing myself for not grabbing them when I had the chance. I'm trying so hard to break this impulse buying habit. Then, off in the distance I saw one little homely plant that looked sorta like the ones I'd seen yesterday but it had no tag with a name, just a number. As I was making my way into the cashier to ask her to look it up for me I see these 2 carts filled with beautiful shrubs over in the corner. 5 beautiful Weigela Wine and Roses along with lots of other beautiful things. I asked the very young cashier if they were sold and she says "Not that I know of. Go ahead and take what you want and I'll just tell them I didn't know they were sold if they ask me." Crap! A moral dilemma over a damn shrub! I'm thinking that whoever stumbled on these was just as happy as I was and probably put them all to the side to go home to get the truck. What do I do??? I saw them first!! I was just trying to be responsible!! So, I took 2. Not only did I take 2, but I pulled the cart out, took every one of the Weigelas off and picked the absolute best looking 2 and put my little raggedy one on the cart. Not only did I take the best 2 but I actually looked at all the other shrubs on the cart - this person had very similar taste as mine. I condsidered buying others but thought better of it. THAT seemed wrong. All is fair in love and end of season plant sales!!

Am I going to hell for this? What is proper etiquette for plant sales? This whole hiding plants on a cart reminds me of when you find a shirt you love and they only have one left in your size so you hide it in some other whole section like men's jeans hoping nobody will buy it till you come back.

What about you guys? Are you sneaky shoppers? What would you have done in my situation?