Hi Bert -- I'm not fond of snow and ice. It has been so unusually cold here this winter. I've wondered what plants I've lost or will lose. I can already see a few that won't make it. Some of the semps are black and they are usually very hardy ... but apparently some of these aren't. I only have so much room in the garage for potted plants so some of those are iffy. I can see the tops of the irises and my hellebores are doing fine. Thank goodness for the toughies out there!

One the other hand, the birds are beautiful.

Tee, last year when I had to give up my gardens and move to this concrete cave (condo), I dug up and planted gardens in my sister's yards. I can't wait to go and inspect them. My iris, peonies, hellebores, sages and all types of lillies I have 6 sisters, so I still have lots of gardening to do, maybe by next week the temps will let me get out in the dirt.
Bert

It's predicted to be almost 70° here by this time next week.

What varieties of peonies do you have?

Tee, I don't know for sure, they are div and pass along plants. I'll take pictures this year. I remember one I have since my grandmother died, it was in her front yard back in the 1920's we have a Mothers Day picture of that generation with my mother in a tram and the peony in the background. Fluffy white with bright purple streak, it probably is imperial? I don't have any old iris that have names either, but just like the roses and daffodil that stubbornly continue to come up to show us where there was once an old house they have proved to be very hardy.

A lot of peonies are pass-along plants and I love them. 'Imperial' is gorgeous. I don't know the names of some the ones in our family either. Be sure to post photos when they bloom, if you can.

I have the usual plants thinking it's spring, already: iris, tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, and peony.

The little magnolia tree (I call it a tulip tree) is covered in buds but no blooms, yet.

None of the bulb plants have even begun to bloom but they are all up or just starting to emerge from the ground.

Temps, here, are getting warmer, thank goodness!

It was warm enough Friday, Saturday & Sunday to bring my daylily seedlings outside.

They seemed happy out there this weekend.

A lot of the spring/summer birds are back with more returning every time I look out.

I'm looking forward to getting back out there!

I'll whisk them back inside at the first suspicion of temps too low for them.

Hello Billie. So nice to see you here.

I had to look at a TN map to remind myself where you are located. Has it been exceptionally cold there this winter or about average? Have you had a lot of snow?

I'm seeing more clumps of daffodils up in the back yard in just the last few days. No blooms here yet either but today is such a beautiful, sunny day that if it stays this way, I should see some blooms soon.

I agree. I want OUTSIDE.

It was well below zero several days this winter and I saw frostbite on some plants that I never even considered susceptible to the sub-temps -at least here in my yard!

Two varieties of hedges got nipped and so did some of my roses. Oh, they'll live -but I'll have to trim out the frostbite that deadened the tips.

So far, I haven't been able to claim any daylilies passed away due to the harshness of this winter but -then- most of them were covered up by the last of the falling leaves, which may have saved them.

I see little plant life *bursting forth* in my little corner of the planet....it's more like *cautiously approaching*. ;)

It appears some of my evergreens and a few other shrubs have tip burn from the cold snap. I'll have to wait and see what happens and what the extent of that will be. I'm hoping the evergreens will drop most of those needles - time will tell. The others will need a little TLC.

I know what you mean about caution. Hopefully this warm spell we're having is the end of any freezing weather. :)

I meant to ask you if the avatar you had previously is your house there?

Yes, the photo is really me and our 'ponderosa'...lol!

The Asian lilies and daylilies you see in the background are the ones we dug up late last year after they stopped blooming and transplanted to the back yard in a *major* (for us) landscape renovation.

During out renovation efforts we took out the old black plastic pond that had been there for years and didn't get quite finished with things as the colder weather overcame us.

We've got a lot more 'finish' work to do this season.

I still have buckets of bulbs left that we didn't get a chance to get in the ground. I just stored them in the garage along with a few of the plants that we had left over.

We ran out of time last year and didn't get everything transferred to the rear garden. I was concentrating more on getting all the daylilies in the ground in time for them to take root and survive the winter.

Little did I know it was going to be a severe winter.

Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me this season.

Since gardening is my favorite passion, I'm all in!

LOL. I'm laughing with you and not at you. Am I ever familiar with that scenario!

It's a lovely house. How large is your lot?

These are all photos of our front yard a few years ago. It was pretty but it just got out of hand with me working full time and the plants (and weeds) doing what they were supposed to do: grow.

The decision to renovate the front landscape came at a price, though, and I'm not talking $$ because we did the work ourselves -I'm talking about losing a few plants.

Besides the plants that I gave away by the gobs I did lose a few...they perished before I could get them into the ground in their new home in the back yard.

I stored bulbs and a few rooted plants, though...hopefully, I can get everything back in this year and my yard straightened out before cold weather again.

Tee, the place is not huge but -I guess- sufficient.

The whole place sits on the side of a hill, basically.

Gives credence to the term ' East Tennessee hillbilly'.

;)

Beautiful work! We've been here since '09. I got started with projects and then DH's health took a turn for the worse so I could only do what I can lift and pull and tug and move myself. The front yard isn't large but the back is. We have about a half an acre.

Tee, I love all those photos!

Inspires thoughts of spring.....thank you for sharing!

You're very welcome. If I would organize my photos, I'm sure I could do a better job. Then I got a new camera and haven't quite figured that out yet. Excuses, excuses.

Tee, no complaints, here...you did good!

Thank you. Today I have the most gorgeous birds at one of the back yard bird baths. I can spend so much time looking out the window at the birds -and soon- the blooms.

I have seen so many Goldfinches and Cardinals this week. I can't keep the feeders full fast enough! I have about 7 doves that come to the feeder. They eat the food that the other birds drop. I have all of my feeders outside the living room window. I'm watching them as much as the tv now!

That's great, Clint. I like having doves for that reason too. They make a good cleanup crew underneath the feeders. Lots of finches here as well. I think I have about five or six doves that are regulars.

How do you hang those feeders that are outside your window? Tree branches or do they attach to the window/frame?