will spring ever come?

just got back to ohio after a couple of business weeks in nyc. thought the dormancy would be breaking, but it is cold, grey and not too many signs of life out there. thank goodness for boxwood, ivy, euyonimous and climbing hydrangea which comes back early here.
supposed to be in the 50's this weekend so i will wait to go out and peek at the hellebores and look for other signs of spring.
anyway, so depressing out there i had to root thru photos to remind me of what is to come.
here is perle d azur from last summer......she should be fantastic this year, and late season last year i planted a henrii planted on the other side of the arch along with a Hf young. hf young is one of my favorites!

How pretty! Spring has sprung here. My clems are all coming up and I have several flowering trees that are blooming. Perennials are coming up too--in fact, my blanketflowers are loaded with buds. I've even seen several butterflies. I'm sure your spring won't be too much longer in arriving now :-}

You think you got the itch bad? MS has had sign of the hummingbird reported. Anyway - anyone want to trade houses? I move to where you live and you move to my house here in NH ( '-' )

Spring has sprung here too. I have a clematis blooming and one with it's first bloom. Our peach trees have flwoered and are starting to produce their fruits.

No spring weather here yet......I just can't wait for spring to arrive and feel the warmer air and get back to getting dirty in the garden!!

at least i know i have some spring itch comapny. 50 degree weekend looming...all hands on deck!

My Clematis are leafing out and I must get out there to prune!!..We will have rain for 3 days...we need the rain but I need to get out there to prune and fertilize..being ill this year ran into my prune time...Jeanne

Three out of four of my clems have buds on them and tons of leaves. Our red bud trees have already bloomed and the dogwoods are blooming now. The azaleas and pear trees are blooming too. It was spring until two days ago. But it will be back Monday I think for good. We have gotten 2 1/2 inches of rain since yesterday morning. Very welcomed. Tonights low is supposed to be 36° as well as tomorrow. Minor set back. One last hurrah for winter.

I am so jealous!

We are supposed to go down to 12 degrees tonight. Ugghh!

We've had several days when the temps got into the high 60's-low 70's and then a couple when the high dipped into the low 40's. Guess Mother Nature is playing games and can't make up her mind! We're suppose to get some rain this weekend, which will green up the grass and make the buds on the trees burst open.

The Clematis in my garden have not shown any sign of waking up yet, but I have several containers of them in my unheated garage and they shown growth & vigor. Clemaits "Bourbon" is growing so quickly that I need to pot it up from a 2 gallon to a 3 gallon container. I have to remember to take a picture of it so you can see for yourselves.

The Hellebores close to the house are opening their flowers and many varieties are loaded with buds.

12º carolyn? now THAT'S a bummer! sorry hun
it's 36º here right now but has been up & down - as usual. I hate memphis. We have rain for the next 8 days. So they say. Of course I've got the clems covered again. I know my neighbors think I'm a idiot, but oh well. My mailbox is FULL FULL of new growth & buds. It looks like it really wants to take off this year.

What do the neighbors know huh? I cover my plants too. The only one in the neighborhood who does. But boy do I have a pretty yard in the spring, summer and fall. Keep up the good work 2racing.

I honestly don't think I could handle 12° now. I did when we lived in OK one year but I was 15 yrs younger. Nope, not now. I hope we don't see that here, ever.

texas - you go that right. I will be a temporary snob and say I have one of the best looking yards on my street come spring & summer. Most everyone round here has some boring small shrubs and that's it. Sad really.

lol :)

Houses with nothing but shrubs around them!! How boring! I cover my stuff too if the weather gets cold enough. I'd say it's worth the effort--all our friends just love to take a tour of our yard when they come over. They also love to sit on the front porch and just admire all the flowers. That little bit of work covering plants is well worth it.

I run around covering my plants too. I don't care what the neighbors think - never have.

It was cold this morning - we are supposed to have one more night in the teens. Enough of that!

We call the perfectly trimmed bushes "Green Meatballs". Boring is right!

here's why I covered mine the other day. Look at the the new growth!!! I don't care what neighbors say! lol
My mailbox is beautiful all the way until about october!

and SPRING IS ALMOST HERE!!!!
AND the 20th is dh's & my 5th wedding anniversary. :D

here is hyacinth in front of the clem. I have several there.
when these die down I bag them and put 2 small mums or something. soooo pretty!

*these were taken THIS MORNING by the way so ♬♬spring is coming, spring is coming ♬♬

This message was edited Mar 13, 2009 9:04 AM

LOL "Green Meatballs." Good one Pirl.

2racingboys--love your mailbox "cover."

lol, it is true! that's exactly what they look like.
little or medium, round shrubs and bushes. look in the background of my mailbox pic. I swear! lol

they are really boring. At least my blue juniper evergreens are spiraled. lol

we have some in our neighborhood that dont' even have the green meatballs. I always wondered if they just didn't care or if they were just lazy.

probably a combination of the 2. That's sad too b/c it just brings down value and enjoyment to the whole neighborhood.

I have neighbors that leave out those big green garbage cans for weeks on end - never pulling them to the side of the house. UGH!! I seriously think people just don't care. -AND lazy. I mean how hard is it to *roll* the can up to the house? sheesh

Here are the green meatballs next door:

lol Pirl at least those are "gourmet meatballs" lol
these here look like sooo ugly. Like plain ol boxwoods that haven't been taken care of at all.

Some folks consider the meatball look "artistic." YUCK is all I have to say. And no flowers!!

I would prefer to keep the bush's natural shape and then grow clems through the bushes.

clems can look great ornamenting a contoured and shaped shrub tho.
the counter point of neat and frilly is very appealing.
i love the meatballs and the natural shrubs both. i don't so meatballs, but have a lot of boxwood that i keep hedge shaped and let clems drape on some parts.

different stokes for different folks as they say.

niobe on box and alberta spruce

So sorry CG--I didn't mean to hurt any feelings. What I meant is that I just can't get excited about the "meatball" shrubs when there are no flowers mixed in (as you said, different strokes). I have a good friend who has sculpted shrubs (I like all natural and have several fountain type shrubs). I tease her about her "bowling ball" shrubs and she throws barbs right back at me about my "unpruned messy shrubs." All in good fun of course but I shouldn't throw such comments around on here. BTW, your niobe is beautiful.

The more I see that Niobe clematis - the more I am thinking abou that one too........she is pretty.

Meatball shrubs are what you get when you have a lawn service because you are too busy to do it yourself. 5 years ago we re-landscaped our entire front yard and yanked out 12+ dwarf (hah) youpon holly that had even passed the meatball stage and were like one huge "roll." The only thing I regret about the new things we put in are the loropetalums. I didn't have time to keep them pruned like I like them last year, and had to cut them way back in the fall. The way they grow, it will probably only be a couple of months before they are huge again. Also the yellow flag iris may be getting a little out of hand. May have to divide them soon.

Lynn

Yup--Niobe is on my wish list too. I thought I had bought one a couple of years ago but it was from Wal Mart who, of course, is famous for mismarking plants. It turned out to be a purple one but that's O.K.--I think they're all beautiful. Next time I'll go to my favorite local nursery--she only sells clems that are already in bloom so I will KNOW I have a Niobe!

I have two huge purples that were labeled Rouge Cardinal. I could go on and on with the mistakes including a big pink that was labelled Jackmanii. A nurseryman once told me the most errors made in greenhouses were with astilbe and clematis. Maybe that's part of the confusion when it comes to varieties.

I can believe that! I got three purples before I finally got some of the other colors I wanted.

here is another shot of niobes first 08 blooms. they were on the vine for a loooong time and were huge! i like this photo as it shows the mature bloom and how the sun brings up the color to show the central bar and margin color that is usually rather hard to see.
if you love clems you gotta have niobe. maybe i shouldn't have changed my name!

Wow, my Niobe is much darker, wonder if it was mislabeled?

Mine is also much darker.

you guys have niobe there. these were the first blooms and stayed on the vine an amazingly long time and kept bleaching out. the photo attached is the same plant either earlier in season, or from the second flush. they just kept hanging on and bleaching out.
it was amazing.
same plant

effect of full sun and blooms lingering on vine

another view of same niobe planting.

It's amazing what the difference in sunlight does to Clematis. Both pictures are beautiful! Just varying amount of sunlight!