In the yard today

Blooming:

• Flowering crabapple "Adirondack"


• Lilac "Nadezhda", planted back in 2005, is blooming more heavily and beautifully than ever before.


• Last late daffodils


• First wave of azaleas

Growing nicely:

• Crape myrtles (front and back) are leafing out


• Peonies are up


• Earliest daylily has buds and later ones are up


• Korean lilac has buds


• Early hostas are coming up


• Siberian iris are up, in spite of needing to be divided


• Echinaceas and rudbeckias planted last year are up


• Clematis (what's the plural?) are up


• Centaurea from Maine, dug up and de-weeded to its bare roots and moved, is budding anyway.


• Buddleias are leafing out after being pruned

Annuals planted:

• 2 packs of State Farm zinnias, labeled "mixed"


• Pansies: Let Freedom Ring mix (front) and Antique Shaded (back)


• Lacinto Kale and green chard

It's Spring out there!

Spring is here, and it's yellow!
The forsythia is just past its peak and the midseason daffodils are coming along nicely. The lilacs will be blooming soon. The harsh winter seems to have agreed with them.

Today we made the season's first garden center visit and got 3 packs of mixed pansies (burgundy, lavender blue, and white) to be planted by the front steps tomorrow. I'm also planning to clean up my leftovers from pruning the buddleias and the unwelcome volunteer barberries. The one by the fence, which was being claimed by a mocking bird this morning, had an old nest in it, so I'm glad to have cut it down before another nest was built.
I found a clump of distinctive leaves in the lawn--very suggestive of a young blackeyed susan--so I dug it up and stuffed it in a pot. I'm always curious to see what turns up. The ones I planted on purpose last year are coming up. I think at least some of the echinaceas are also coming back.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving cactus is blooming right on time:


The lilac in the backyard is hopelessly confused:



And the wreath I got at last week's Garrett Park craft fair is hanging next to the front door: