Yes, isn't that great!!! I started putting the feeder out on the 17th, took it in at night so it wouldn't freeze, last night was the first night I left it out as it was drizzling at bedtime.

I just checked out the hummingbird petunia (petunia exserta), lovely bright flowers, should attract lots of hummers.

I managed to pot up the "body bag" roses I picked up over the weekend yesterday; good thing too, because it's raining today. I know, the rose people say not to buy those bagged up roses, but they were the only Angel Face plants I could find. And they're cheap enough I can just think of them as annuals.

Woffie, I used to buy those roses and they performed just fine. How is the house addition coming along??

The foundation is poured and the forms removed. They were supposed to fill in the dirt around the excavation and dig the crawl space area out today, but it's really hard to dig mud. So they'll be back tomorrow. Unfortunately, our forecast is calling for rain for the next few days, so I don't know. Sigh, patience is not one of my more conspicuous virtues. Heh, I already have the bathroom vanity sitting in a box in the woodshed and the window on order, the new French doors are ready for pickup (the nice builder is going to pick them up for me), I have the carpet picked out and I'm looking for curtains. And I'm pricing out the building blocks for the new flower bed. They're the same price at both Walmart and Home Depot. Hee, the astilbe and peonies are growing in bags in the GH, ferns are on order, along with some pretty variegated plants for the shaded area of the new bed.
I think I'm going to keep those roses in pots till the fall, to give them a chance to grow for a while undisturbed, then plant them out early enough to give them a chance to settle in. I can't plant them out now because of all the construction activity. The last Angel Face got crunched when they had to trim the trees.

Seems like the weather never cooperates, but it sounds like it is coming along and I think it's a good idea to have as much stuff on hand as possible ready to install so that your not waiting on it.

Lots of nice plants for the new flower bed too.

Sounds really nice, Woofie.
I buy those bagged roses too.
This year I bought two at Home Depot for $6 each.
I am soaking them until I can plant them out.
They are "Iceberg" rose.

Wow! $6? Sigh, I paid $8 for mine. They had 2 Angel Face, so I bought them both! One of these days, I'll get one to survive. Till then, I'll just keep treating them as annuals. I had a beautiful one when I lived in SoCal that my mom bought for me, so I have a sentimental attachment to that particular variety, as well as just loving the color and form.

I must have hit it right as they are selling for $9 this week.

Even our bagged ones cost in the teens. Freight I guess. I give up on roses. Just don't have the touch and our weather is not conducive as it is wet. I fight mold on roses. Even the rugosa have a tough time. Think I goofed in where I put them. They need constant sunshine and even though they get morning sun it isn't enough.

May be I will try the 'sacrificial' idea and offer a couple of lettuce plants and onion starts to the hoop bed to see how they do. I was amazed at how long the lettuce held in the raised beds last fall. Clear through several frosts. I thought lettuce was tender but not so.

Well, we got an unexpected snowfall last night and this morning. It was an interesting test of the hardiness of some of those "plant as soon as the ground can be worked" seeds. The peas are fine, but the one sacrificial bean plant looks very sad. It was also a good test of my shiny new zip-up plastic greenhouse. It definitely will need a bit of help before I put another tomato plant in it. But the lettuce, spinach and bunching onions are fine. And the chinese cabbage as well. It got down to 28 last night. I think if I just put a 60 watt light bulb on one of the lower shelves, it might make it safe for the tomatoes. Need to put a registering thermometer out there to see.

We got about an inch of snow last night too, so annoying, the potted plants I took our from under the deck will probably kick the bucket now, I guess I will know soon enough.

Annoying, isn't it? I think the weather gods hate gardeners.

Ah, snow this morning, wind and hail this afternoon. Must be Spring, right?

Always something giving us a hard time for sure. I just potted up a couple of Gloriosa lilies in my shed, then I happen to notice all the dandelions growing in the long bed at the back of the house, they were easy to pull while small but I found the bed is full of roots from the trees, every year I have to dig around that bed to cut them off, none of the trees are that close.

April showers, northern style.

And thought we had it bad. Sorry.

We had some hail overnight, should melt quickly, sunny but it is cold, only 31f degrees.

We had three separate hail storms yesterday! But inbetween, there was some nice warm, sunny weather. This snow was NOT in the forecast. We get some freak weather in this local area. A few years ago, we got over two feet of snow overnight, but it was only here in this small localized area. Ha, it's supposed to get into the 70's later this week!

Snow here too!
Melting today.

We got some hail overnight, today was mostly sunny and crazy windy, supposed to be really nice for the next few days.