Mid Spring

The early spring flowers lingered longer than in past years. The last sporadic Magnolia blooms are dropping, the Daphne finished last week, and the Lenten Rose is fading. Dogwoods still hold center stage this week as azalea's begin to break and next week they will be in their prime. Here are some early azaleas in my garden.

Just two weeks ago the Solomon's Seal was just breaking through the mulch.  Today it is in bloom. Once it gets established it puts on quite a show.

I think this may be the last week for the tulips. These are the late bloomers and look as good as the early and mid tulips.

I have Golden Banner planted near False Indigo as a complimentary bloom but it is blooming already while the False Indigo is just barely putting up shoots.

The last blooms this week are of Money plant. At one time I had both white and purple but  they self sow very heavy and in thinning them I pulled all the white.

I've had a difficult time wintering over coneflowers--finally realized last year that it was voles eating the root crown and late last fall they began eating them again. So I potted the wilted plants and planned to install a root cage this year. Last year I made round cages which proved to be very effective and this is my first rectangular. I think I like the round ones better since they are easier to dig up if I want to move them.