checklist!

So, it is a very, very dangerous thing to go to Lowes for a carpentry project on a spectacularly warm spring day. First of all, it will trick you into buying plants you know you are going to have to babysit constantly through the frosts for the next month or so. Second of all, you will wind up spending roughly 10 times what you were planning on, because of all the bulbs that mysteriously fall into your cart.

On the plus side, I have accomplished several things on my checklist! Yay me! I planted my MAC roses (yayyyyyyyy) AND the Miss Kim Lilacs I bought, oh, about a year ago. Haha. In fact, one has blooms on it already, just little buds. I have agonized for months on where to put these plants, but today I just had enough and plopped them down in a couple of spots in the yard. If I hate it, I can always move them, and now they are in the ground and getting healthy and bigger. Off the list, I also planted some new plants I picked up at the Lowes. A Nelly Moser Clematis, which I planted by the deck, some SUPER charming Amaryllis that is a candy pink with white stripes, which is going in the cottage garden. Sowed some Cosmos over there as well.

I bought Peegee Hydrangea which is super tiny, like 6 inches high, and I planted it by the garden shed. I'm worried it won't make it there.... in fact now that I'm typing this, I'm thinking maybe I should go move it to a better place. I want to put some shrubs and other plants in that area, because right now its just a bunch of pine trees. Any recommendations for some plants for the area are welcome! I bought some Christmas fern .. bulbs? They aren't bulbs, but I don't know what to call them. They can't be corms or anything else... rhizomes? Anyways those are also for near the garden shed, but they aren't in the ground yet.. which brings me to my next train of thought...

2 steps forward, 6 steps back, as I bought quite a few bulbs/corms/whathaveyou that need to be planted. Cannas, Caladiums, the aforementioned Christmas ferns. In addition to that, I foolishly bought some geraniums. Why did I do that?! I have a baby to ... well... baby! I can't be babying plants too! Oh well, We'll see how they do. They are quite pretty, I just couldn't resist.

mini update

So mini I shouldn't even consider posting it, but it beats keeping the seed packets on my computer desk for weeks on end. The following plants were 'winter' sowed, but really they were more like 'at the very end of January' sowed.

California Poppy 'Mikado' -- taking a closer look at this it looks like I may have sowed this at the wrong time. Oops.

Flax Blue Lewisii

Old Fashioned Garden Mix -- hollyhock, foxglove, calendula, pinks, stocks. This was an ancient seed packet that my stepfather gave me. Will it come up? Will any of this come up? Will I manage not to pull it up thinking they are weeds if they do actually come up? Only time will tell. Sorry for the lack of pictures with this post!

update: wow, Rock Rose put up a great post for a noob like me, pictures of all her sprouting winter sown plants! This is SO helpful, now maybe I won't pull up any future plants that sprout up... fingers crossed that I see some of these friends in my garden!