Planted Some Plants

We broke down and bought a few perennials and shrubs for our flowers beds! It became a family affair to plant them over the weekend. 

We bought everything pretty small (cheaper) and tried to give them room to fill in over time. One of my pet peeves it when people plant things way too close together--it may look good at first, but in a few years things get overgrown!

In the shade we added three laurels and three purple heuchera, and in the sun we planted grasses, salvia, daylilies, a mini Colorado blue spruce, phlox, rudebeckia, and a purple sand cherry.

We love these grasses! We want to go buy a bunch more and spread them throughout the landscape.

Oh, and I also got this lime green hydrangea! I absolutely love it and hope it adapts well to our soil... they prefer acidity, which we do not have in Utah!

It kind of looks like we're getting somewhere. I'll refrain from listing everything we still need to do to finish the yard...

Bloom

Our landscaping is hardly spectacular, but if it has a shining moment it is now!

My brave bleeding heart survived a hailstorm right after I planted it and bloomed four little fuchsia beauties.

The one and only shrub in the back yard turns out to be a show-stopper! It's a bridal wreath spirea, and boy is it spectacular right now. It reminds me of a firework.

My tomatoes are in full bloom and I even have a few first fruits setting.

My peas are in full bloom too. This morning I found my first pea pod!

Best of all, a few of my iris bloomed. I just planted them last fall and didn't expect much from the first year, but they rewarded me.

It has been fun showing Maddie why they're called bearded iris and how they sparkle in the sunlight. I remember being fascinated by them when I was little, and I think I've succeeded in passing that on to the next generation. They smell heavenly too.

I love flowers. I think they are a supreme gift from a supreme being. Their perfect beauty reminds me that He loves us and cares about every minute detail of our lives.

Forsythia

A beauty at my sister-in-law Rachel's house

Teasing and changing it's mind as it may, spring is never official until you see the cheery yellow blooms of Forsythia. Most of the year they are inconspicuous leafy green shrubs, but in early April the glory is all theirs!

Forsythia was discovered in China by a famous 18th century plant hunter, Robert Fortune. It was brought to Britain and named after William Forsyth, one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain.

It is the bravest shrub of them all, flowering before any other trees and shrubs. This strength is also exhibited in its vigorous growth and ability to propagate itself by dropping branches to the ground and rooting them. Lovely and brave as it may be, gardeners need be sure it is granted plenty of space as it has a tendency to dominate! (In fact in some places it is known as an invasive species.)

For me forsythia is a sign of hope that warm weather is really on its way!