| April 1, 2003 Bought another miniature peach tree: Bonanza Patio Peach 'Mina de Oro'. Also bought a red twig dogwood and forsythia 'Lynwood' to put in containers. Forsythia needs pruning to encourage fullness--will do this when I pot it up. |
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| April 2, 2003 Planted strawberries. There's an itty bitty peach on my 'Stark Sensation' peach tree. Planted I. siberica 'Snow Queen' and 3 daylily 'Happy Returns' from my Van Dycks order. Daylilies don't look good--roots very dry. Clematis 'Radar Love' is missing. Called and they will replace both. |
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| April 3, 2003 Bought this year's Boston ferns, portulaca 'Peppermint' to put in the container with the agapanthus. Also got a 4-pack of coleus 'Wizard Mix' and herbs: basil, sage, dill, and thyme. Planted 'Ben Lear' cranberries in a bed to which quite a bit of wet peat moss had been added. Brought Meyer lemon, Easter cactus, and all 3 Christmas cacti home for the summer. |
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| April 4, 2003 Topped off the soil in the pond bed, put in new soaker hose, mulched, and added more stones around the pond. Planted 'Brandy Boy', 'Celebrity', 'Fourth of July', and 'Big Mama' tomato plants, put their soaker hose and cages in place. Wayside Gardens order came in today. Pruned 'Lynwood' forsythia to encourage fullness. |
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| April 5, 2003 After a rainy start this morning, it turned into a glorious day in the 70s. Started cucumber seeds: 'Straight Eight', 'Dasher II', and 'Poinsett'. Also 'Park's Creamy Yellow' squash, 'Supersonic' crape myrtle (I want a white one), chives, and carnations. Potted up all caladiums ('Aaron', 'White Queen', 'Kathleen', 'Buck', 'Arno Nehrling', 'White Wing', 'Postman Joyner', 'Rosalie', 'Sweetheart', 'Candidum Jr.', and 'Gingerland' and watered last year's. Put all of them in the spa room to get started. Potted up bare root clematis: sweet autumn, integrifolia, durandii, and jackmanii until they're planted. Potted up new miniature peach tree. Potted up roses: 'Katherine Morley', 'Tamora', 'Fair Bianca', and 'Gruss an Aachen' and planted 'Zephirine Drouhin' under the maple tree out back. Hope it gets enough sun there. Potted up 'Sweet Baby Girl' grape tomatoes. Potted up patio lilium: 'Mr. Ed', 'Mr. Sam', 'Miss France', and 'Garden Party'. Planted daylily 'Buffy's Doll'. Moved the oldest clematis 'Polish Spirit' to beside the satellite dish pole. Don't really expect it to make it, but I couldn't just toss it away. 'Old Spice' sweet peas just beginning to sprout. Last weeks below freezing temps nipped bleeding hearts and 'Forever Pink' hydangea. Agapanthus 'Headbourne Hybrid' is sprouting after all! lilium 'Nove Cento' and 'Avignon' are both sprouting. I. germanica 'Camelot Rose' is sprouting, but 'Liason' is not. Looks like both of them are no-shows. Meyer lemon has gotten much more yellow in the two days I've had it home. Should be ripe in a few more days at this rate. Then I can prune, repot, and feed. I think I see the beginnings of blossom buds on the limequat. |
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| April 6, 2003 Topped off the soil in the front porch bed and mulched it, the street bed, the birdbath bed, and the tiny side bed. Bought 2 hanging ivys for back deck, a trillium, a wild geranium, an asparagus fern for the pond pocket, 2 reblooming daylilies: 'Brave Heart' and 'Freedom Ring', and 5 'Stargazer' lilies. Planted the things I got from Debbie last fall--I must find out what they are. Potted up the limequat, forsythia, red twig dogwood, and the Japanese maple. Also repotted both Camellia sasanqua. The red twig has what looks to be blooms. The limequat does indeed have blossom buds. 'Josee' lilac is really pretty--lots of blooms. Narcissus 'Bell Song' is blooming. Very pretty--like a miniature 'Salome'. Deadheaded narsissus. 'Arapaho' blackberries starting to show blossom buds. |
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| April 7, 2003 Raining and much cooler--high of 40. Potted up seedlings in basement: coral bells, rose campion, sedum, both coreopsis, and all three cannas. Spread some 'Sensation Picotee' cosmos seeds in the front porch bed. Should have done it *under* the mulch, but I didn't think of it yesterday. If they come up, good, if not, that's OK too. I'll water them in--maybe a few will get down to the soil. All strawberry plants look like they're putting out new growth and look healthy. |
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| April 8, 2003 Got my order from Bluestone Perrenials. Plants look good. Cool (low 40s) and damp--spitting rain--today. |
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| April 11, 2003 Got over 5 inches of rain in the last few days. Wind, too. Went to Anderson's and picked up more caladium bulbs: 'Mrs. Arno Herling', 'Fire Chief', and 'Fannie Munson'. Also got 3 Yubi portulaca 'Rose'. Van Bourgondien order arrived while I was gone, as well as the replacements I requested from Dycks. Chives and carnations are up, as well as all varieties of cucumber. |
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| April 12, 2003 Great day! Temps in the high 60s to low 70s with a slight breeze and a cloudless sky. Went to Lowe's in Winston and bought a 'Chickasaw' dwarf crape myrtle and a rhododendron 'Nova Zembla'. At Wal*Mart got 2 clematis: C. lanuginosa (clematis hybrid) 'Candida' and a replacement clematis montana 'Rubens'. Came back by Tressie's and got a smallish pink flowering dogwood (Cornus florida rosea) for container culture. Also got a few impatiens there: 'Super Elfin Red Velvet'. Moved 'Gruss an Aachen' rose to the back deck in it's container. 'Ultraspire' apple tree has blossom buds!! Potted up the Yubi portulacas, the new caladiums, and got the ivy topiaries for either side of the garage door potted up. Trying plant food spikes this year to some extent. So far they're in all the ivys and the Yubi portulaca. Planning to use them a lot. My last cranberry plant arrived today--complete with blossoms--got that planted today. It looks as if the older ones have buds. Lilac 'Josee' is gorgeous. Clematis 'Polish Spirit' that we moved last weekend is looking good--much to my amazement. Planted recently purchased herbs into the same container. My chives are just now sprouting, so I think I'll buy a clump to put in there with the dill, sage, basil, and thyme. |
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| April 13, 2003 Another great day! And very busy. Got some chives and planted them in the little herb garden pot. Potted up the new rhododendron and pink dogwood. Potted up some summer bulbs so they can go ahead and get started while I'm deciding where to put them in the garden. Potted up some free hanging basket begonias that I got with an order. Never had much luck with these before. Brought plants from the basement to harden off. Potted up the canna lilies--put plant food spikes in with these. Sprayed apple and peach trees. Should have done it before now. Potted up hardy orchids--they'll need to be stored in the winter. May plant them in a bed later. May not. Fed camellias and rhododendrons. Planted another gardenia beside the old one that's not looking too hot. Moved creeping germander, Poet's Laurel, and tiarella to more appropriate sites--more shade for all of them. Tiarella has lots of blossom buds. Fed tomatoes a little Miracle Gro since they were looking a little peaked from all the rain and wind. Planted 'Chickasaw' crape myrtle in the street bed at the driveway end. Dug up 'Concord' grape and 'William Baffin' rose and potted them to await renovating that bed. Could have left them, but I was afraid they'd put out too much foliage before we got the bed done--hopefully next week. It might work. Potted up Ismene festalis (Peruvian daffodil). Since it's not hardy here, it'll have a better chance of being dug up and kept until next year in a pot. Moved lavendar 'Lavanite Petite' to the other side of the house. |
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| April 14, 2003 Another beautiful day! First thing this morning went and got more manure. Spread some around 'Arapaho' blackberries and worked the rest in the beds for the cucumbers. Mulched the blackberries, too. Picked the second lemon from my Meyer lemon plant and pruned, repotted, and fed it. Repotted a couple of container plants, including a hosta from the back deck. Bought a Greek oregano and added it to the herb container garden. Also got a columbine 'Biedermeier', complete with aphids, and 2 'Sweet 100' tomato plants for containers. The columbine went into the small back deck bed and the aphids were dispatched. The wind/rain/cold did a number on the grape tomato plants I had so I tossed them. The first bedded tomatoes don't look so good, either. |
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| April 15, 2003 Both carnations ('Grenadin' and 'King of Blacks') look like they have blossom buds. 'Josee' lilac is gorgeous! 'Northblue' and 'Bluecrop' blueberries both have a fair number of buds and new growth. |
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| April 16, 2003 Got a few things planted. C. jackmanii (street bed fence post at far end), C. durandii (mailbox post), 3 I. siberica 'Ceasar's Brother', 2 each dwarf reblooming iris 'Jewel Baby' and 'Baby Blessed', 1 'Camelot Rose' I. germanica. Also potted up C. integrifolia 'Blue'. I had thought my 'Carolina Jasmine' was dead, but when planting C. durandii, I found it. Potted it up to see what happens. |
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| April 17, 2003 Ordered from Exciting Gardens today: daylilies 1 'Pardon Me', 1 'Purple D'Oro', and 2 'Stella D'Oro, 2 American redbuds, 2 red flowering quince, 1 Helleborus niger altifolius (Christmas Rose), and 3 Red Painted Daisies. Since my first tomatoes are looking pretty sad, I stopped at Southern States on the way home and pick up 3 each of the following varieties: 'Better Boy', 'Big Boy', 'Celebrity', 'Bonnie', 'Pink Beefsteak', 'Park's Whopper', and 'Marglobe'. |
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| April 18, 2003 Raining. At Tressie's today I got: 'Super Fantastic', 'Mountain Pride', 'German Pink', 'Supersteak', 'Supersonic', and 'Rutgers' tomatoes. Also picked up 'Duet Candy Stripe' and 'Duet Golden Sunrise' Portulaca grandiflora. |
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| April 19, 2003 Still misting rain in the morning. the third try at a clematis targutica 'Radar Love' arrived and has been potted up. This one does have some semblance of a root system, so I'm hoping for the best. Boy, did I mess up. Forgot all about the cucumber seedlings in the basement, so they're toast. I'll direct sow seeds for them in a few days outside. Sheesh. |
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| April 20, 2003 Got all new tomatoes planted, as well as the 'Super Crisp' sweet peppers. Need more tomato cages. |
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| April 23, 2003 My neighbor brought me a Gloriosa lily tuber. Blue flag and yellow flag iris have buds. |
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| April 24, 2003 Direct seeded cucumbers: 'Dasher II', 'Poinsett', and 'Straight Eight', and 'Park's Creamy Yellow' squash. Mini rose 'Nostalgia' arrived and potted up. Potted up the Gloriosa lily. Planted the rose campion that I ordered and hollyhock 'Carnival Pink' that I started from seed. Iris germanica 'Immortality' is blooming. |
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| April 26, 2003 Put small tomato cages around the sweet pepper plants. They always fall over and I have to stake them, so I'm trying cages this year. Despite the cool spring, everything is moving along quickly. TBIs have started blooming and a few days of warm weather and they will be in full bloom. Yellow and blue flags are budding and will bloom in a few days, too. The older Siberian iris are making buds. Pruned 'Josee' lilac. Narcissus 'Falconet' is finally blooming. It's a tiny, tiny thing, but so cute. |
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| April 27, 2003 The 'Wizard Mix' coleus I planted for the railing outside the kitchen window are not doing well. Too much rain? Squirrels, despite the chicken wire protection? Dunno, but they're dying. Bought some bronze leaf pink begonias to go in that container. Decided to put an arbor in the "herb" bed, due for renovation next week, on which to grow the 'Concord' grape vine. I'll still be able to plant something fairly large "inside" the arbor. Put some old cut-off tomato cages around the 'Sweet 100' tomatoes in containers. Planted one Tradescantia 'Snowcap' in the back deck bed, planted second I. germanica 'Camelot Rose' in the iris bed, and planted a daylily 'Happy Returns' in the little back deck bed. Planted another Tradescantia 'Snowcap' in the pond bed. Planted 2 of "my" rose campion plants in the front porch bed--saving the other for the soon-to-be arbor bed. Planted one 'Sunray' coreopsis and the 'Sterntaler' coreopsis in the left side bed. All 3 Simplon lilies are coming up, as is at least one Nerine Bowdenii (Pink Spider Lily). Got clematis montana 'Rubens' and clematis ternifolia (Sweet Autumn) planted in large pots inside the arbor at the small back deck. I have to keep these watered. |
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| April 28, 2003 Started working on the old "herb" bed today. Having to engineer a drainage system because we get lots of water down the driveway and into that corner. 'Wonderblue' lilac came today. It's going in that bed, so I potted it up until I can plant it. Stopped by Tressie's and picked up another cell pack of 'Wizard Mix' coleus to replace the dying ones. I think it's due to too much rain. Yellow flag iris is blooming. |
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| April 29, 2003 Got the arbor installed in the bed, got the bed lined, and what looks like a solution to the drainage problem at that corner. Blue flag iris is blooming. |
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| April 30, 2003 Got the new bed filled and started planting: 'Concord' grape, 'William Baffin' rose, lilac 'Wonderblue' and clematis 'Candida' so far. Had a thunderstorm with pretty good rainfall that tested the new drainage system--it passed. |
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