Our climbing hydrangea, weaving around the birdhouses, is ready to bloom on the brick wall outside our sunroom.   

Last Sunday afternoon, several of us met at a fellow Camellia Society member's garden and learned how to air layer camellias in order to create new plants.  With a knife, we scraped the bark of a healthy limb, painted it with root hormone, wrapped the area in wet sphagnum moss, then tied on plastic wrap, and finally wrapped in foil. It will take about three months to see if our attempts were successful.

Enjoying a bite of lunch after our air layering lesson.

 

I have a few Sibirica Iris (Siberian Iris) which are beginning to bloom.   They have 2-5 blue-purple flowers per stem, but they may occasionally be lavender or while.  Maybe not as dramatic as the Tall Bearded Iris, but the small and more delicate flowers are still pretty and should definitely have a spot in the garden.

You can't beat the heat tolerance, relatively disease resistance, DEER RESISTANCE, and persistence in the landscape of Baptisia (False Indigo).  They do have a deep taproot which makes them drought tolerant and difficult to transplant.  I do have some gardening friends that don't appreciate the fact of the deep taproot because they complain that they can never get rid them, so be forewarned!   I have a several cultivars of Baptisia and I enjoy them all!

Baptisia 'Blueberry Sundae'

Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight'

Baptisia 'Cherry Pie'

Baptisia 'Cherries Jubilee'

 Baptisia x variicolor 'Twilite Prairieblues'

Bearded Iris are blooming!

Tall Bearded Iris 'Immortality'

Tall Bearded Iris 'Magical Encounter'

Tall Bearded Iris 'Awakening Embers'

Tall Bearded Iris 'Darcy's Choice'

Tall Bearded Iris 'Magical Encounter'

Tall Bearded Iris (unknown cultivar)

Tall Bearded Iris 'Dawn Eternal'

 

Hmm ... did it snow last night??

 

Our Rhododendron 'Brandi' is in full bloom!  It is one of the Southgate series which are early blooming and heat tolerant.  

 

This is the second year of our early large-flowered Clematis 'Guernsey Cream' which is planted at our mailbox.   

Planted alongside is Clematis 'Rooguchi' which isn't blooming yet, but is budded up.  The blooms are 2-inch, nodding, shiny purple, bell-shaped flowers.  I like this combination of Clematis.  

Clematis 'Guernsey Cream'

Our Rosa banksiae (Lady Banks Rose) was gorgeous this year!  It typically blooms in April, but spring has been so early, that it actually bloomed in March.  

 

I don't recall when we planted this Lady Banks Rose, but by the looks of her trunk, she's an old girl!

I just put out one of our hummingbird feeders yesterday, and today our first little hummingbird showed up!  Carol, the owner of Birdhouse on the Greenway, said that the males are the first to arrive followed by the females in another week or two.  Enjoying the ruby throats of those little guys.  

Itoh Paeonia 'First Arrival' is living up to her name with being our first peony to bloom this season.

Finally!!  My first blooms from our Calycanthus raulstonii "Hartlage Wine' after years of having the deer ravage the plant and break the branches down to the ground.  Grr!  Last fall I decided to try to protect the plant by putting some fencing around it (which doesn't always keep the deer out as we gave found) and EUREKA the deer left it alone!  The blooms are just stunning!

Calycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'

 

We are getting a lot of activity at our nesting boxes from our nuthatches and bluebirds, so I am checking the boxes for eggs.  

Nate and Nan, our brown headed nuthatches, have four eggs!

Bert and Bonnie, our bluebirds, have five eggs!

As I walk the garden in these early spring days, I am remembering our friend and mentor, Dr. Larry Mellichamp, who so kindly shared some of his favorite plants from his garden which are in bloom on this day.

Trillium decumbens (Trailing Wakerobin)

Arisaema sikokianum (Japanese Cobra Lily)

Trillium rugelii (Southern Nodding Trillium)

Trillium stamineum (Hellicopter Toadshade)

Calanthe (Kron Hybrid)

Calanthe sieboldii

Trillium flexipas (Bent Trillium)