The Southside Rose garden. It has never been as thick and full before as it is this year.

very nice !!

I'll have to take pix tomorrow, but today, while I was weeding.. and weeding.. and weeding.. and weeding.. holy crap was I weeding and I gotta weed some more! I saw some buds on my Charles de Mills! My first rose of the season! Finally, a bloom!! Yay!! They're not open, not for at least another.. 5-7 days, but I will *finally* have a rose blooming! My two old lilacs have a grand total of approx. 20 spikes of blooms between the two. Now one lilac is approx. 12ft tall and about 6-7 ft wide, the other is probably 8' around and about 5ft tall. You'd think they'd be covered. Mount Baker has 3 stalks of blooms, only 1 Charles Joly has 1 stalk of blooms, Primrose has 2, Wonderblue has 1 stalk... bleh. So few blooms on the lilacs this year. However, I *may* have a bumper crop of irises! I have lots & lots of stalks with them.. can't wait to see them start to open. The phlox is going to town.. especially the new stuff I bought from Santa Rosa gardens last year I lost a lot of agastache all over the place, which is odd 'cuz it's usually very hardy. But, the one thing that I am COMPLETELY shocked about is that my most "delicate" rose (IMO) that I have.. Princess de Monaco. She came back! She's about 8" tall right now and is growing like a weed! I think she's a zone 8 rose, too! But I *really* buried her deep and put almost 1/3 of a bag of mulch on her for the winter to make sure that she made it. And she did!!

good for you Toni I have to weed to day as I goofed off yesterday at my brothers with family but he sent me home with 4 chickens that weigh about 6-8 lbs. each he raises the best chickens yummm ooo

Good to know about the primrose lilac. I hate when the catalog pictures misrepresent the plants. I guess I should stick to yellow roses and lavender lilacs. (Maybe pink/white if my other one blooms). Why drive myself crazy with a search for lavender roses and yellow lilacs.

I am working my way to the "monster trellis" wall with William Baffin and the Austins. They will be greatful to get more space - assuming they do.

Yesterday I dug out my monster miniature Jeanne La Joie. She was over 6' tall and full of buds after I cut her back. She bounced right back in her pot. I added Clematis "Graveye Beauty" to keep her company and minimize pots to move. I plan to grow her alone once I get settled in. here is a picture (not mine)

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Procrastinating again. I am so sore today, could think of things I would rather do than dig and pack, but I don't want to be rushed at the end!

I never liked that last minute packing rush either, Andi.

I have too much stuff and too little space. I am trying to pare things down, but I am not a minimalist by nature.

I am marking each box with a big red letter for the room (and smaller writing for contents). I want to get my friends to help me put the heavy things in place so that I don't have to move them. I have a rough sketch, assuming the place I want works out. I wasn't able to lift anything when I moved in here so everything was placed wherever anyone dropped it. I don't want to go thru that again.

Sorry I've been gone...busy gosling hatching season is over but I have 20 plus goslings I'm growing out for replacement stock and fall sales.
Between that are gardening not enough hours in the day!

Big surprise with what seemed to be a not too bad of a winter but it knocked back 4 of my previous Austin hardies to almost dead....
James Galway, Wm. Shakespeare 2000, Rose Marie and Leander.
I will probably dig them up since they only have a few inches of growth.
My beloved Cressida is looking bad as well but I think its out of commerce so hope to save it.
Also had a couple Rugosas and one Alba with more than normal dead branches. Surprised to see that too.
Everybody else looks happy and budding up but no blooms yet.
Had lots of wonderful rain this spring which I'm very grateful for.
Hope everybody here is doing well.

A few Spring pics from around here.

I like the container arrangements.
especially the second to last golden one.

The baby geese are so cute.

Nice to see your post and wonderful photos Vicky!! I think I still need a Sebastopol goose someday since I live in the town by the same name.

Cindi - take cover as this is on its way. Just took these pictures about 1/2 hour ago.

Toni,
tonight I hosted a garden club meeting in my yard--the Organic Gardening Club--with lightning in the north sky, but clear skies over us. At first, it was real windy (40mph?) and we were kind of hurrying around. Later, the wind died down and it was a beautiful evening. I was expecting a small group of maybe 15, but I think we had 60 or more. I didn't get a count because people scattered all over the 10 acres. Wonder how many would have come had the weather forecast been better?
The roses are in their first big flush and they looked beautiful. The iris are at peak, and most of the peonies are still pretty full. Several of the visitors had never seen Itoh peonies or yellow Bartzellas, so that was cool. They were impressed by how healthy the Austin, Buck and Earthkind roses are, and the very few HTs I have are still clean. Everybody smelled my McCartney rose and Gertrude Jekyll. I think I convinced a few people not to throw away their grocery store minis!
My beekeeper was here and he talked to the group about what I grow for the bees.
I forced myself to relax all week and not worry about this tour and it worked. Yes, I put in 10 hours a day getting ready, but mentally didn't sweat it.
The next tour is Saturday night but it's a bus tour so they all come at once and leave all at once, which is easier.
Tomorrow I head to OKC to meet up with my daughter at the College National Softball tournament, and the forecast there REALLY makes me nervous. We're going to a big concert....hope it is indoors.
Whew.

Some of my recent photos show a theme developing: cats in containers.





Chantilly, Magnolia, Roger, and Ambrosia

Highly ornamental! I think Roger is one of my favorites.

Reminds me of this image I stole:



I don't have any roses blooming (well, not any that are not freshly planted this year, so those don't count IMO), but I do have some irises going finally.

These are all NoID irises.



Sheba's Queen


Innocent Star


and my shade corner next to my house (house is freshly painted on Monday)

Lovely container kitties!