Good morning, Brooke,

Nice clematis - I seem to acquire a couple new ones each year, but I don't have 'The President.' My 'Henryi' ought to bloom in a couple weeks or so, behind my 'Superstition' iris.

I wonder if Scotch Broom is the shrub I haven't been able to identify blooming all over up here? But ours have burnt orange flowers.

My pot ghetto is almost gone. Just a few late starters waiting for a warmer break in the weather. For some reason my WS marigolds are total no-shows this year, and I'm going to have to break down and buy a couple packs of them from my favorite nursery. I need to go plant out more sunflowers, too, to make up for what the rotten rodent ate last week. A few of the sunflowers were left with a pair of true leaf bases, and are branching out from there. They can stay, but the rest were nibbled down to the nubbins and need to be replaced. I'm glad I planted too many this year!

It's cool and rainy up here. I need to swing by the store and pick up some slug bait today before the slugs discover my hostas in a big way. And I need to fertilize everything this week, too.

My husband pretty much leaves the garden alone. He admires, but doesn't touch. Sometimes he'll ask me what a particular plant is, or comment that something looks particularly good, but he doesn't offer any critique. We trade off mowing the "incredible shrinking lawn," and when I was doing the rock-wall-and-gravel-routine he helped a few times, but mostly the garden is a one-woman show. I guess I like it that way, having one thing in my life that I can more or less design and control in a benign way.

No scapes up here, but no surprise. They'll show up soon. My irises are lush this year. Right now 'Honey Glazed' and 'Red Zinger' are in full show, and 'Edith Wolford' and a handful of historics are right behind them.

I have to go - the kids are squabbling.

Laurel

I had SB once, Brooke. Mine was yellow and it got really out of hand. my ghetto is down by about 29 pots. I planted most of what I got from numama. The ones that had scapes, I left though as I didn't want to disturb them. I was able to get all the others in the ground without them knowing it though. I didn't want to take a chance on the ones that are big enough to bloom though. I also set out 34 more seedlings today. That make 173 in the last couple of days. About 350 more to go. You know, some of these looked as though they could possibly have bloomed this year. I didn't want to wait though as there is so much to do when the dls start blooming. I can hardly wait. BTW, love the clematis. I don't have that one but Henryi and Jackmani are showing off. Nellie Moser hasn't started yet..Niobe is going really good too....Ellie

Looks like a Tea Tree to me.
Same form and flowering habit.... from what i can see of the pic.
Also they come in everything from white, burgundy, pink, fushia and all those red varients.

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hey brooke if the flowers look like this, its a leptospremum (tea Tree)
It was bugging me i didnt know the name so i looked it up and pulled some pics for comparisson? I had one and killed it and i always wanted one, but i guess the rain was to much for it here?
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Gerard I know what the Tea tree is and of course, my memory cell won't let me tell you the real name, but it isn't hardy in this zone. I have considered getting one as a tropical bonsai but they are hard to come by unless I get one in FL. I was too busy when in FL buying daylilies, I didn't find the Tea tree - lol!

They really are called Scotch Broom but still don't know if they are trees or shrubs. I had a small yellow one too Ellie that I rescued (my hubby hates it when I drag home a bargain plant) for $5 at a nursery. It was pitiful the first year, decent the second year and didn't come back the third year. I don't think they like wet feet and it was the winter when everything had waterwings or they didn't survive the winter. I also had a few daylilies forget to come back too that didn't like to swim.

I have several clematis but still have five to bloom. Countess de somethingorother, Jackamani, Henryi, Polish Spirit and somethingorother Blue are all a little later here. I lost Dr. Rupel, very mysteriously with buds about to open, this spring. I pointed it out to the hubby and asked Round Up - oh no, wasn't him. Obviously they are quite sensitive to it and some drift got it. Rouge Cardinal, Nellie Moser, Sunset, Pink Fantasy, Ernest Markham and a lost tag are all blooming now. I soooooo love things that bloom prior to daylilies kicking in because once they start, I miss anything else.

We planted everything even in scape. They will bloom enough for me to grab the pollen. I was amazed at the root systems when they were unpotted. The hole was dug and set in the ground without much root disturbance.

My husband got the pavers around the one bed today. It would have been done days ago but he decided he wanted the pavers around all four sides and not just three. He had to dig that section, get the landscape fabric down, then the sand. He announced he is done with it. He is nice and lets me cut off the exposed fabric.

We might actually have a sunny day tomorrow so hopefully I can get four hosta dug and moved to new homes, better spaced so they don't eat their neighbors. I also have the same two weeds I've been fighting all spring, popping up under the daylily foliage. Don't know what it is - Janet didn't know what it was but Clint's Dandy Digger and I will be meeting it tomorrow.

More and more scapes in the field - it really gets busy around here then.

Brooke

Brooke, is your clematis growing against an old windmill base? Love the color combination, by the way.

Maximus - we've had it for four years and as soon as my hubby got it up and running, a big storm came through and blew the windmill turning thingee OFF! So much for that design idea.

One of my no name clematis bloomed today and it is a purple double. Maybe I can eventually take a pic and have someone ID it for me.

Brooke

Poor hubby! You can't put two pinks next to each other??? Is it ok for to have two blooms open at the same time on a pink daylily, or should one be excised? If you ever get around to 'splaining clash, I would like to be in the class. Lol

I have never seen Scotch Broom, but your picture looks purdy. When I was first trying to decide what type things to plant in my newly built house, I read about Cytisus, which is called Scotch Broom. Looked promising, but never tried to locate it. Don't know if that is what you have. One kind is invasive, probably the yellow Ellie mentioned, but so are species daylilies.

With all that work, are you still practicing on your piddling?

I'm still trying to master the fine art of piddling. I'm getting better (now that the stone walls and gravel paths are done, I have no real excuse to do anything sweaty or hard). I've been potting up goodies for a plant swap at my house. And, I'm being overrun with teeny tiny tomato seedlings from a plant that dropped a lot of fruit on the ground last year after a storm. I couldn't get the winter sown ones to sprout worth a darn, but these "accidental" ones are making like a shag rug.

It's been so cool here lately that the plants seem to be in stasis as far as blooming is concerned. The irises that are open are lasting a LOOOONG time, but the ones half open are just sitting there, waiting for some warmth. And nary a daylily scape to be seen.

Laurel

So sorry Royce, the last class of the year that I teach on color clash, just started and it is soooooo involved and technical, you probably couldn't catch up with the other students.

Of course I wouldn't excise two blooms on the same scape, opening at the same time unless one crowded the other or I wanted to hang a pod on it!

I did manage a good piddlin' session last night after dinner. I am behind on the piddlin' because the weather in the evenings has not been piddlin' friendly. I need to be warm when I piddle.

I think it is the yellow Scotch Broom that reseeds freely. I wish the dark pink one would or if it does, I weed it out with the other weeds that pop up.

I hear you Laurel on the reseeding volunteer plants. The annual geraniums I had last year were reseeding by the end of the year. Thrifty me says, heck, why spend a big $3 for seeds when I can save my own. Not one seed, in two attempts, germinated for me this winter. When I was redoing two of my annual containers this spring, guess what I found. Yup, reseeded geraniums about 2" tall. I pitched them because it would be September before they bloomed. Next year, I buy them.

Brooke

While piddlin' last night, guess what I (the original lazy gardener) found, still attached to the Scotch Broom. Again, Royce was correct - it is a Cytisus Burkwoodii and this is the description "round, bushy, deciduous shrub with 3 palmate leaves. Dark pink flowers that have yellow marginated crimson wings produced on axillary clusters in late spring and early summer".

I have been trying to watch to see if the hummingbirds like it but they either don't or I miss them.

Brooke

you probably couldn't catch up with the other students.color>

Oh dear, you know me too well already. Probably couldn't have kept up, even if I had started with them.

The reseeding thing is sorta funny. I have a watermelon plant growing (very small) right beside my doorsteps. I had watermelons last year and guess I dropped a seed there accidentally. Not sure what to do with it. Don't have much weed free/nut sedge free space, but it really needs transplanting.

Nah I'm a great teacher, I'm sure you would have passed the course but usually men struggle to get an A.

Leave the watermelon vine where it is - you won't have to walk very far to nab a melon.

Brooke