Too Late?

Sorry for the late post today--time got away from me! I don't know if you noticed...but this is also our 50th post!

It is appropriate that today's post is on the late side...because I wanted to let you all in on a little secret: Last fall I was gifted several daffodil bulbs to plant...which I STILL have not done. So, in the nice days ahead, I am going to plant them.

Novice gardener that I am, I'm not even sure if these babies are still viable. My heart is just to weak to simply give up on them, though. I'll let you know how it turns out.



Grow little bulbs, grow.

New Bulbs!

I just bought 100 of these:



Anemones. Red anemones. I am SO EXCITED. Well, I am a little disappointed, because I wanted to plant ranunculus, but ran into some road blocks:

1. They are not really hardy for zones 5-6.
2. You have to buy a mixed bag, instead of buying a single color.
3. They are a little expensive for a novice gardener.

I won't give up on my ranunculus dream, yet, but this year's anemones will have to tide me over to next spring. I think they will look great with the sand cherries and tulips that are already in the bed.

Can you believe it?

Last week, I was so excited to see some of my bulbs start to come up:


Then, over the weekend, nature brought us this:

I am sure spring will get here eventually, but I am starting to get impatient.

Weeping Maples

While in my yard yesterday, I noticed something interesting. My husband recently re-edged our landscape beds. In the process he cut a couple of roots from our maple tree that were at the bed edge. It has been really dry here lately. However, the soil around the pruned roots was wet. I snapped this picture, but I am not sure if you can see the wet soil. This is just another sign of spring coming. Maples are known for sap weeping or "bleeding" in the spring season, especially from pruning cuts or other wounds. This is caused by the sap beginning to move just below the bark tissue and should correct itself once the leaves begin to emerge.

Cutting Back Ornamental Grasses

Yesterday was beautiful in Kansas City. The gardener in me had to get outside and get my hands a little dirty! I decided to cut back my ornamental grasses that I wrote about yesterday. To make the job easier, first I tied each grass up with natural twine.

Then I used my Felco hand pruner to cut off last years growth about 6-8" high.

Since, I only have three, this was not a problem. If I had a lot of grasses, I would use a hedge trimmer. A hedge trimmer makes the job go really fast!

Ornamental Grasses

While walking around my yard over the weekend, I realized I still needed to cut back my ornamental grasses. I left them up over the winter for some interest during the cold months when I don’t have a lot of other color in my landscape. As you can see, they are starting to fall over (part from snow and wind, part from my kids hiding behind them.) Now is the time to cut them back before growth begins to resume later in the spring. If you wait too long, you will cut off the new growth and your grass will look funny.

Spring is Coming

I know it is cold and we'll probably get some snow before spring is officially here, but spring is on its way. I walked around my yard over the weekend and looked at my landscape plants. I noticed my daffodil bulbs are starting to emerge from the soil. I snapped a picture of the new foliage coming up. I also noticed the buds on some of the maple trees in my neighborhood were starting to swell. All signs that plants are starting to come out of dormancy. I love spring!