I'm back!

Hello, Grey to Green fans, and happy spring!  I've been mostly ignoring my blog for the last eight months or so, but now with the arrival of warm weather, things are beginning to happen in the garden again.

The Japanese Maple has timed its budding just right this year - it missed the March frosts completely. 

Apparently if I wanted it to be a tall, straight, vertical tree, I should have pruned the bottom branches last year so that it could concentrate on growing its upper branches - but I just didn't have the heart.  So I think this tree will always be a semi-horizontal bushy thing.  No matter.  It's a beautiful tree no matter what.

You may recall that this was supposed to be an Orange Dream Japanese Maple, with a hint of orange when the leaves came in and bright orange in the fall.  That was a lie.  This is a plain ol' green Japanese Maple, and in the fall the leaves turn brown.  Again, no matter.  But I will not be buying trees from random guys on Amazon.com again.

The Upright Japanese Yew continues to be one of the stars of my garden.

  

It did very nicely over the winter (it is, after all, an evergreen) and it just thrives in the light-deprived conditions of my garden.  This was a purchase from ForestFarm of Williams, Oregon, and it was the best $35 I spent last year.  

Also from ForestFarm is one of my problem children, the "Mr. Bowling Ball" Arborvitae.  Arborvitae means "tree of life" in Latin, and someone should definitely mention that to Mr. Bowling Ball.

He's an evergreen too, but he looks like he's having a bad hair day.  I suspect he needs more sunlight than I can provide him.  If anyone is interesting in rescuing him from me, please let me know.

The winterberry hollies did well over the winter.  Since I stopped blogging in July, you never got to see that Red Sprite had four berries.  But here are a couple of photos from September showing them.  Aren't they lovely?

Jim Dandy and Red Sprite are just starting to bud for this year, and I'll be adding another female winterberry holly, called "Berry Heavy," to Jim Dandy's harem this year.  He can pollinate five female plants, maybe more.

Among the other plants that are doing well are the ligularia that Alice brought me, the helleborus that Jenn brought me, and the lamium that Liz brought me.  Thanks, all!

Meanwhile, in Hosta-land, there are little sprouts everywhere.

That last photo might be upside-down...  I think I can split that one with four sprouts.  I'm not positive which one it is because the pot got turned around, but I think it might be the Touch of Class hosta.

The heucheras are coming back to life too:

As for the rest, the hens and chicks plant looks pretty much dead, and there's no sign yet of the Bleeding Heart or the New Guinea impatiens or most of the astilbes, but I'm not giving up hope yet.  

There will be much to blog about in the coming weeks as new plants arrive.  Stay tuned!

In Which Liz Arrives Bearing Plants

I actually want to start off tonight by showing off my new macro lens.  Let's take a look at my Jim Dandy winterberry holly, which is about to bloom.

All those little spherical objects are buds that will soon be tiny holly blossoms.

The English holly down the street is already blooming.

However, having only my male holly bloom does no good.  The male and the female holly both have to bloom at the same time for pollination to occur.  Fortunately, Jim Dandy is not only an early bloomer but a long bloomer, so Red Sprite has a little while to catch up.  Which is a good thing, because though I stare intently at her every day, so far there's no budding action.  I occasionally hallucinate a single bud at the center of a group of leaves, but I think it's probably just more leaves.

If Red Sprite doesn't bloom, I'll get no berries this year, and berries are pretty much the whole point of winterberry holly.

Now I want to tell you about the plants my friend Liz brought me last night.  Liz has a house in Connecticut where she can grow plants in the ground like a normal person.  She very kindly brought me three shade-loving perennials for my collection.

First is the lamium (Lamium maculatum),  One website describes it as a "tough yet showy perennial groundcover."  Sounds like my kind of plant.

 

I planted the lamium with Red Sprite, though it may get a little crowded in there.

As you can see, I moved Red Sprite closer to Jim Dandy in the hope that pollination will eventually occur.

Second is the European Ginger (Asarum Europaeum).  It too will spread to become a ground cover.

I put it under the Dwarf Alberta Spruce.

As Liz pointed out, it's a bit leggy.  "Leggy" as applied to plants is a term I've learned only recently - basically, it means that the stem is longer than you'd want it to be.

Finally, the Astilbe (Astilbe).  There are 18 different species of Astilbe, and I have no idea which of these species this one belongs to.

Astilbe is one of the few flowering plants that really love shade.  I'll be looking forward to seeing what color this one turns out to be.

It's moved in with Mr. Bowling Ball and the New Guinea impatiens.

I am definitely running out of room.  Fortunately, there's only one plant that still hasn't arrived.