Easter

Beautiful 50ish sunny day here.  All family/church duties have either been successfully completed or avoided, my chocolate bunny fueled youngest is whirling like a dervish (ok, she's dancing The Cat from Peter and the Wolf) and I am slowly working up to the 8 yards of mulch in my driveway.  I've been working, really I have, and it's been lovely.  DH and I planted a sweetbay magnolia, cultivar ned blah blah let me look at the tag, but it only gets ten feet wide supposedly-- I planted it near our awkwardly positioned Bilco doors which are near the living room windows, to provide yet another layer of lacy screening between us and Mr Nursing Home.  We also put in a rather frighteningly expensive Dragon Lady holly.  I managed to get my Costco bagged liatris bulbs, ferns, and hosta in the ground.  I planted some Chocolate Chip ajuga (irresistible in full blue bloom) in the rock wall.  Much dividing and clean up remain.

In the casualty list, all of the Franklin's Gem boxwoods are so peed upon, trampled, or traumatized by cold that we're taking them all out and replacing them with Winter Gems from Costco ($15 each, yay).  The big spruce seems ok, if not loving life, as does the Edith Bogue magnolia.  I have had passing thoughts that the monster butterfly bush might be dead.  The Japanese maple is absolutely dead, but I don't mourn it. Camellia has left this mortal coil.  The Serviceberry appears to be alive. The Otto Luykens cherry laurel got the hell knocked out of it, but with some shearing I think it will be okay. My white vinca minor, ordered in a persnickety manner from the other side of the country-- to my belief, the ONLY white vinca in this zipcode-- bloomed a lot, so that's cool.  There's some purple in there too but O well.

A lot of my seedling have made it So Far, but they have to make it to actual planting.  I have them on my porch approximating what I consider hardening off.  I am hopeful seedling perennials won't be kilt by frost.

From Pickering nurseries, my bareroot Rosarium Uetersen (aka Seminole Wind), Mayflower (David Austen), and Golden Celebration (ditto) are all planted.

For the west bed plan, I am moving more towards (left to right roughly), the R. Uetersen on the fence, perhaps a blueish mounded evergreen/pine arrangement, Blacklace Elderberry, Pink Velour crape myrtle, three staggered holly type things or some other tough evergreen, the Dragonlady Holly and a boxwood by the door.  Some flowery things like the Mayflower rose, my much-tried peony, and either caryopteris or spirea to front down the evergreens, and then groundcovery stuff (geranium?  wall germander?)

I ordered my wonderful goodies from Santa Rosa nurseries and am looking forward to: Rozanne geranium, alchemilla mollis, a dwarfer type of catmint, and agastache Black Adder.

So now I either take a nap or put on a talking book and go work.  Hmm...