Bringing Spring on... indoors

It's way too wet and cold to do much out doors this week, such a wimp I am !  But, I did find this tiny blooming  Primula 'Guinevere'  to bring in for a bit of spring .

And my seedling are coming on . I couldn't be accused of over crowding . I only planted a very few seeds .  I've got  three Cosmos 'Runenza'  going . Cosmos bloom so late in the summer here, that I  can make a few more sowings later on.

One sturdy looking Echinacea paradox 'yellow cone flower' . I think I'll be sowing more of these  .

A little group of Helenium hoopesii needing to be potted up.

Scabiosa atropurpurea  

A very cute Geranium pretense 'Splish splash' which I started late last summer. It died back in the winter , but  came back  when I put under my new light set up.

My new 2 ft  florescent tube lights , which is why I'm only sowing a few things at a time. It seems to be doing the trick, except that one of the tubes needs lots of jiggling about every morning to get it  on.
My other set is LED ,(yes there is another shelf above this one)  which requirers no jiggling about , so I think this annoying florescent light will be replaced shortly.

February in the garden

Finally the snow has all melted . I didn't even  take any photos this time round . My camera  battery needed charging.  Today the sun came out and it was not freezing cold.  

The stick still holding up the Decaisnea.

I managed to get quite a lot of the garden cleared up before the snow arrived . Even the gravel paths got raked  back into place.

I raked threw the Feather grasses , I wonder how many new ones I'll have this year ?

I 've been looking forward to moving the Albizia . And here we have it , in it's new spot , with much more space to fill out.

T. humilis violacea  

Tiny Chrysanthus orange mararch are still blooming away.

 C. biflorous spring beauty has become a nice sized clump . These were planted in 2013 .

Tommasinianus taking in the sun today!

Tommasiniana enjoying

Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin'

 A new Iris for me this year . I think I'll plant all the small bulbs , like these dwarf  Iris and  crocus in gravel along the paths . That way I don't have to do so much early clearing up to find them all smothered under dead planting.

Out about in the garden...

A few mild/dry days , and  I was out clearing up and hacking back as much as would fill the yard debris bin , plus a bit more. Like all this spindly and dead bamboo from the stock tank . I also cut back Salix Purpurea  and the Cotinus  and everything else that got in my way.

The shade garden got a good going over . Sometime soon I'm going to lift and divide all the clumps of dwarf  Mundo grass  and the black .  I cut the big  Vitex 'silver spears' down to the ground again this year ( It was sticking out on the leftt side of the path)  , last year it quickly grow back , but a little less huge , so I could walk past it . 

Found more Irises 

Hammamelis 'primavera' once again only has a few blooms on the lower branches , I think it's the dry location , so lots more water this summer.

First almost blooming Polygala chamaebuxus .

A couple more Crocus hidden under over grown shrubs 

Viburnum x bodnantese 'Charles Lamont ' is only small right now , but it's will be  lovely  as it grows and blooms in late winter . 

Late January blooming bulbs

Just one blooming January bulb ... just made  it!  My super market Mini Iris pots I always pop into the garden   . They must be blooming  early , I haven't even seem them in the super market yet .

 Crocus chryanthus 'cream beauty' are  always the first to bloom in February .

I had to get out and clear up a area or I'll never see any bulbs this year .  Sometimes I run  the mulch mover over the lot. This really needs some going over , as in grabbing and just tugging out as much as I can get of those pesky self seeders.
This will take quite a few sessions ....

A few things in January

I spent very little time in the January garden , I just can not make myself go out in the  wet , gray and cold . It's all very mucky and squelchy anyway .                                                                                                                                                                      

 I have noticed  several broken pots . Even my Bonzai pot took a hit !

Maybe the figs trees  need to go into some of the stock tanks, but then I'd have the problem of somehow getting the bamboo out.

 I found a lovely fat Rose hip while poking around.

I did have a good clearing around the big Sacchararum Ravenna grass . Out came the the old Lavender , everything else got cut back.  I'm  thinking  of leaving  it more open this year . I say that ...then  all the self-seeders start  popping up.. 

This was planted last summer,  it's only tiny , I think it's Leucothoe fontanesiana .

One of my favorites....Chamaecyparis thyolde 'Heatherbun''

Euphorbia 'Blackbird ' 

Lots of early buds on the Honeysuckle this year .
Now for a nice stretch of dry sunny days for a good February tidy up...

Jelena and Diane

Hamamelis 'Jelena' and 'Diane' seem to be the first to bloom in January . I missed  them  for a few days , because it was so rainy out .
The sun is out these last few days , and I've had a chance to clear some of the worst of the  mucky stuff up ...that means you Japanese Anemone !