I Won, I Won!

I tend not to win things, apart from doing rather well in the husband lottery (six-foot-three woodworker who can talk about feelings).  I won something else, and it's pretty awesome.  I won a GIFT CARD to Santa Rose Gardens from John over at Obsessive Neurotic Gardener, which, by the way, is a much better blog title than mine.  So thank you, John!  Now I have to figure out what to get, which is difficult enough that I will probably end up spending half again as much.  At the moment the Perennial Shade Garden is looking pretty tasty.  This time of year I am such a sucker for anything plant-related.  I get so hungry for green-- for us Easterners, it's been a long icy winter.  We had some warm sixtyish days and the snow is almost melting, but not many signs of spring.  There are snowdrops at church and my witch hazel is fitfully trying to bloom. Haven't seen any bulb action at all.  A number of my new shrubs are looking pretty daunted, but I'm hoping they'll look better when it's time to start into active growth.  I'm still really pleased with the bones of the new back yard.  Brian the Landscape Architect rocks.

In other news, I have about six flats of seedlings going and some Costco bare-root perennials (liatris bulbs, hosta, and oh hell what WAS the other one? Blanking.  It'll be a lovely surprise, I guess).  I soaked them for a bit (the perennials) and potted them up in moist homemade seedmix (potting soil, perlite, and I mixed in the spagnum moss from the perennial bag, probably a no-no, but I needed more bulk.) They're in the garage and basement where they theoretically stay until they sprout and it warms up. I was afraid to plant them this early and afraid to leave them in the bags.  We'll see what happens.

For seedlings, I am attempting Pacific Giant Delphinium (presoaking seeds does work, friends.)  Caryopteris, two kinds of nepeta, stock because I had it left over, asclepias (no sign of that), penstemon (not much doing there yet either), ajuga (no sign of life), campanula Blue Clips, centaurion/Jupiter's Beard (grew some a couple years ago, love this stuff), achemilla mollis (nothing yet), clematis summer indigo (nope), lychnis, sedum, eupatorium.  They're under shoplights in the basement.

All right, I have a day off and much to do.  Off I go.  I'll report back when I get my Santa Rosa plants.