April Flowers

Hello again,
Fresh flowers and new foliage are all over the landscape today! I left work yesterday angry at myself for forgetting my camera at home. So I quickly walked the landscape this morning looking for plants worthy of the blog. There are always things I have to pass up because they are not peaking yet, and I want to save them for a future blog. But I couldn't resist the temptation to take a picture of Mertensia today. Here is what I saw.
Viburnum x juddii is one of my favorite plants of all time. I know I say that all the time, but it's actually the first plant I ever planted once I got into this field. This picture is of the flower buds of course. They are most tantalizing. At 18 years old, I didn't know much about plants and I remember telling people at the garden center I worked at that these were Witchhazel. Oops. That was my first embarrassing moment in horticulture, followed by many more of course. Waiting for these buds to open is like waiting for three weeks to eat your birthday cake after licking the bottom of the candles.
Our entrance today looks very nice. The Daffodils are blooming their little heads off making our sign more attractive.

Hyacinth 'Carnegie' is a real nice white Hyacinth that we carry in limited numbers in fall. It is sharing the spotlight with the Daffodils in the entrance spawning the comment from Linda Michels, "The beauty and power of white!"

Antennaria 'Pewee' is an introduction from Intrinsic Perennial Gardens in Hebron, IL. It is in full bloom right now and looks real nice. This could be a good candidate for our groundcover program. It has proved itself as vigorous, but not weedy. There may be some potential here.



Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue' is one of those plants that you either love or hate. I think there is definitely a space in the garden for Creeping Phlox. What else produces such a nice bloom so early in spring? As you can see from the picture, our plants are just beginning to bloom. There are tons of buds all over it ready to show off. Better yet, it is very drought tolerant which in our new world is very important.

Carex pensylvanica is a great native groundcover. When flowering, it offers a very ethereal planting. Here it is mixed with Hyacinthoides hispanica which creates a very beautiful combination I would recommend to anyone.

Mertensia virginica speaks for itself. We have planted a large group of them in our woods here and while they aren't as far along as this one is at our entrance, they are starting to look good. Once the whole patch of them starts blooming, I'll be posting pictures of that. Truth is, I can't wait to show off the woods here. So much is about to happen. The anticipation is killing me!


Finally a shrub. Forsythia Show Off is a fairly new introduction from Proven Winners Color Choice Plants. These Forsythia are so floriferous it has caused many people to change their opinion of the Forsythia. In the landscape they maintain a compact habit and don't get gnarly like some of the old fashioned types. Definitely worthy of garden space.


Thanks for reading this edition of the blog. With the heat approaching, we should have plenty more to share next week. Enjoy the beautiful weather and until next time, have a great day!