in bloom

I was in for a real surprise when I went and looked at my big Pieris today... it is blooming!! Currently I have 4 shrubs that are blooming: the Margaret Davis camellia, the middle Tom Knudsen camellia, the forsythia and now the Mountain Fire Pieris.

I spent most of my yard work time today working on weeding the rest of the shade border, this time the part that is on the front yard side of the fence. It went fairly quickly and Jordan came over a helped me a little bit. I also planted 2 Elegens hostas in there. One didn't look too great, but the other one looked good. I now only have 1 Elegens left. I'm planning on planting it in a pot for later use in one of the shade beds.

I also found a hosta nursery in Spartanburg by following a link on the Clemson extension site. It looks like they have a lot of nice hostas and good prices. So, I will need to check the lily lady, JFS and now this place in Spartanburg if I need any more hostas. I still want to get the Penny Mac hydrangea to put in the shade border and then I would like to add a few ferns and astillbes.

I am planning on waiting on the fern front until the Native Plant sale (which I might miss due to being a collie nationals, but I can send my mom). I do want a cinnamon fern and at least one Japanese painted fern. I saw some pictures of lady ferns that made them look pretty nice too, so we will see. I did buy a big Boston Fern for the porch the other night. I think it looks good and I will place two pots by it with coleus or something once it gets warmer.

The other day I did finish up planting hostas, including the 3 Julie Mross on the back yard part of the shade border. I also planted the last few lillies of the valley, I really am not sure any of these are going to take. Then I went to plant the bleeding hearts. Two in the package looked moldy, so I tossed those. The other 3 looked okay, but I couldn't figure out which side was the root. I finally planted the big woody part into the ground, figuring that was the root as I've ready bleeding hearts basically disappear during the summer. The package was NO HELP as far as which side was up, and I tried to call Clemson Extension, but they were closed for the day. We shall see if I guessed right. I am kind of doubtful that these will come up...

Overall, I'm not sure how well I did with the bare root perennials. They are definately a lot cheaper than buying already growing plants in a pot, but I just don't know really if ANY of them will actually take. Now, only time will tell. I will just have to be patient and keep watering everything.