LOL DaaaZ. I went out in my side yard today and found a whole flat of pansies that I bought last fall and had forgotten about. I'm like you. When I'm at the garden center, I'm full of enthusiasm and fill up the back of my car. Then I get home, take it all out, look at it and get overwhelmed. It's too early here for more than pansies and bulbs. Luckily, most of the pansies in the flat survived the winter, so guess what I'll be doing the next few days.

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Originally posted by Betts01:
LOL DaaaZ. I went out in my side yard today and found a whole flat of pansies that I bought last fall and had forgotten about. I'm like you. When I'm at the garden center, I'm full of enthusiasm and fill up the back of my car. Then I get home, take it all out, look at it and get overwhelmed. It's too early here for more than pansies and bulbs. Luckily, most of the pansies in the flat survived the winter, so guess what I'll be doing the next few days.

Did you get the pansies planted? I have about 4 plants that I need to get into the ground and a bag of caladiums, miss muffit, my favorite. Looks like rain today, so I will be putting off that chore again.

Blush. Not yet.... But I have been watering them. I'm actually off to the nursery today to see if I can get some potted daffodils....my favorite way to cheat if I failed to buy bulbs in the fall. I'll put the pansies in when I plant them.

The orange trees are blooming in my yard and the neighbors yards so when I go for my morning walk, it smell heavenly.

Wow, was the last post here in March? I'm putting in a few perennials today. My garden actually looks really nice. The penstemon, bluebells, peonies and yarrow are blooming nicely, along with several types of salvia. All my blooming shrubs are blooming as well, with the exception of the forsythia, which are done.

My penstemon were full of honeybees yesterday. I love to watch them go inside the bells of the flowers. They make such a nice summer sound in the garden. And I saw a red admiral butterfly on the honeysuckle yesterday. We don't see them very often around here, so that was exciting.

Now, I've got butterfly bush, daylilies, butterfly week, coneflower, salvia, yarrow, jupiter's beard and a few unknowns blooming. The bees seem to have left for parts unknown when the penstemon finished blooming. Hopefully they haven't succumbed to the bee virus. And still not many butterflies, but I'm hoping

lol...I didn't even see your May 16, post. Well, with all the rain we have been having here the plants and weeds will be growing like crazy. Red penta...yellow scrimp plant...purple porterweed and firebush are attracting the butterflies...Monarch, Zebra longwing, Gulf Fritillary and a couple of others. I'm trying to get pictures of them but it's hard to get the little buggers to hold still, lol. I just bought some parsley for them to eat and still have milkweed that comes up on its own here and there. My butterfly bush is not doing very well this year and I will probably buy a new one.

My daylillies are blooming...agapanthus is just finishing up. Don Juan is blooming it's head off and Carefree Beauty looks peaked. Lavender shrub rose has buds all over it.

Oh, what great butterflies you've got. The zebra longwings and the gulf fritillaries lay their eggs on passion flower vine, (if I haven't already told you that, LOL) And the parsley will probably get you some swallowtails. I love the fact that the females are black and blue and the males yellow and black. It's exciting to see them laying their eggs on my plants, even if I get some holes from the caterpillars. Actually, the swallowtails eat my parsley and dill almost to the ground! But it's worth it.

Ya know, I don't pay much attention to the bees, I just assume they are always out in the garden somewhere, but when I looked today, I didn't see any honey bees just a bigger black bee with light colored patches on his back and head. I wonder if dill will grow here in the summer, it's hard to keep track of what can stand the heat and humidity.

The crepe myrtles are starting to bloom and I love my rose-of-sharon and hardy hibiscus.

Well, with all the rain we are having, my garden is practically under water. It looks like it will dry out next week, so I'm hoping everything survives. Yesterday the sun came out for the first time in 2 or 3 days, I think the butterflies and dragonflies were as happy as I was to see the sun.

It's summer in the garden now. I guessing most of our rain has passed through and it's time for hot summer flowers. Coneflower.salvia and lantana are blooming, and monarda is getting ready to do so. My daylilies are pretty much done, with the exception of the Stella d'Oros, which will bloom some all summer. And my magnolias are still blooming a little, but I'm anticipating that will be done soon too. Still not too many butterflies, but I'm hopeful

I'm jealous that so much is blooming in your garden, Betts. We had a very cold, wet spring this year, and it's finally just warmed up, so I think everything thought it was still winter. My gaillardias are the only things blooming right now, but it looks like the black-eyed susans will be soon. I planted a butterfly bush a few weeks ago, so it's still pretty little, and it will be a while before it blooms. No daylilies yet, either, but I think the varieties I bought (planted in March of this year) bloom later in the summer. My roses are going crazy, though. I need to get out and prune them.

My roses are done with that mad blooming period. They're now into the blooming periodically and not very lushly season. It's so sad when something you love stops blooming. I love penstemon and mine are done, done, done. I deadheaded them hoping for a second set of blooms, but no luck.

My caladiums are looking good now...the gardenia has stopped blooming and I've cut it back. One of my hydrangea is looking gorgeous, one OK and one not so good. They are a little difficult here. Other than that...it's pretty much weed, weed, weed.

lol

My mother is not a gardener...so I planted some plants around her house for her...she kept mentioning that one of the plants would wilt whenever the sun would hit it...I meant to move it but didn't... so she fixed the problem herself. She took an old umbrella and stuck it in the ground over the plant. lol

The worst gardening days of summer are now here. If I don't water constantly, everything dies. Now rain starts looking REALLY good. But things like coneflower, sedum, black-eyed Susan and salvia are still happy. And some of my daylilies and roses are reblooming, albeit more sparingly.

It's going to be a struggle to keep up with garden chores from now until fall...just too hot and humid. I planted two purple coneflowers a year or two ago and they promply died, but I have one that came up on it's own this year and looks pretty good.

The adorable bunny that lives in my garden (very tiny and cute) just ate all my coneflowers. And they were the first ones I'd ever gotten to survive. Oh well. I guess if I'm an organic gardener I cannot eliminate cute furry mammals that eat my plants either

Awww...Poor little fella...he was just hungry I guess. No cute, furry animals here...more like a big old awkward armadillo, who doesn't eat plants, just digs them up.