The Garden in March

Late tonight I heard the most amazing sound - a soft tapping on the window which increased in intensity. It couldn't be I thought but, sure enough, a trip to the window confirmed my hopes. Rain, glorious rain! A sound that's been few and far inbetween this winter. It lasted less than an hour but oh what a great hour it was. All in all it's been a decent week in the garden, despite the yo-yoing of temperatures from day to day. On Wednesday I came home to discover that a few of my daffodils have started to bloom. And those wasn't the only plants waking up from their winter slumber.

The daylilies are peeking up everywhere. Love the striping on the daylily below, which is coming up around the fringed leaves of the larkspur that thankfully reseeded itself. I am so thrilled with how the larkspur flourished in the garden that I've bought 6 more seed packets last month. Now if only the weather will stablize more so that I can sow the seeds. It will be interesting to see what colors appear on the plants, especially the daylilies next to the Larkspur. These were planted last fall and I've totally forgotten what variety they were. Must dig through the tag pile after they bloom to match up their names. The majority of the daylilies have been gifts from a co-worker whose home garden seems to multiply daylilies and irises like Tribbles. And I have been on the receiving end of that generosity. Last count that was about 50 irises and probably 40 daylilies. Everyone with a young garden should be so blessed to have a friend like this!

The Salvias, Veronicas and scabiosas are bushing up too. The rose bushes are leafing out. Trimmed off the died rose blossoms off the Knockout Roses. I know they're suppose to be "self cleaning" but all those dried up buds were so untidy looking. They are also a good lesson to me about reading the plant tag. The Knockouts have tripled in size and overshadowed the underplanted irises and daylilies, so it's transplanting time for those plants this spring.

The Clematis plants are also a lesson in verticality. The saying "First year it sleeps. Second year it creeps. Third year it leaps." totally applies to this plant. I almost ripped one out in the second year when it seemed like the plant was underperforming and would never amount to anything. Boy was I wrong. Last summer that plant went gangsters in a matter of days. I even bought two more to add to the back garden. This week, within two days, several leaves have appeared on all the Clematis vines. Ah, the promise off large, gorgeous blossoms to come.

While poking around in the beds and clearing out dead leaves, I even saw one leaf of my earliest Asiatic Lily coming up underneath the mulch. These lilies are stunners. Around 5 feet tall with deep magenta coloring. Wish I could plant more but these came from one of those bags of lilies one finds at Walmart and I've never seen them again. Hopefully mine are putting out little babies and multiplying in the bed. The only thing better than a pass-a-long plant from a friend is a free, naturalized plant already in one's garden. Here's hoping your garden is waking up from its slumber to reward you with glorious green leaves and a promise of beautiful blossoms to come.