Well, the redbud tree it was under was dying and had to be cut down a week ago. Our many grateful thanks to our friend Paul and the crew members he sent over to help us out with that tree and several other projects!

We watched from the east porch.

The girls were really happy to see the chip pile being replaced. They had accused Pa of “melting the mountain” when he used the last of the old chips. The truck was loud, though…

Once the tree was gone, the hostas were in need of a new home. We worked on moving ‘Sagae’ this evening. DH began by digging around it. It was tangled with the redbud roots.

“Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough…”

It came up in one large piece and one small piece. The small piece was planted under the redbud tree east of the kitchen.

The larger piece was planted in the long bed under the Southern Red Oak.

Done!

Tomorrow, we’ll work on moving the other hostas that had been under the redbud tree. With a good soaking drink and the shade returned to them, they should be fine.

~~Rhonda

The hydrangeas continue to look beautiful.

This smaller plant is a few years old. It grew from one of our older plants and we moved it around the corner. This year, it has quite a few blooms on it. You can bend a hydrangea stem to the ground, put a brick on it, and have a new plant at the end of the summer. Where it’s in contact with the ground, it will grow roots. In the fall, cut it from the mother plant and move it to another spot in the yard. We’re going to do this to make some new plants this year. Can’t have too many hydrangeas!

The daylilies are beginning to bloom. This is ‘Black Eyed Stella.’

Monday gave us ten FFOs (first flower out). Here are a few of the current blossoms.

‘Thumbprint’

‘Two Part Harmony’

‘Cosmopolitan’

Russian Sage is a great plant for the daylily beds. It adds texture, long bloom time, and an airy look that always draws attention.

The Asiatic lilies are beginning to bloom.

Pretty coreopsis with evening primrose in the background.

As the light fades, it’s nice to take a break and rest a bit in the swing. A gardener’s work is never done, but tomorrow is another day.

I hope you have a garden to enjoy.  If not, you will find some to visit at Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday.

~~Rhonda

While we wait on the daylilies, there are a lot of other things to see. We are really enjoying the hostas. This bed is under the Southern Red Oak in the back yard.

Hosta ‘Gold Standard’ with ‘Lemon Lime’ in the front…

This row of hostas is by the carport, near the back door.

This hosta bed is under the old mulberry tree in the backyard.

We have ‘June’ in two places in the yard. This one, under the mulberry tree, is in deep shade and the color is soft and dark.

‘Fried Bananas’ is a quick growing hosta and doesn’t mind some sun.

This bed near the front porch will look a bit neater once it is mulched. The hostas are (left to right) ‘Torchlight,’ ‘Royal Standard,’ and ‘Grand Tiara.’

We don’t know the name of this one, but it’s a pretty one.

‘Squash Casserole’…one of my favorites.

Under the redbud tree by the east porch.

‘Guacamole’

‘Liberty’

I have other hosta pictures, but I’ll save them for another day. Here’s a look at a few other garden gems. Aren’t the hydrangeas beautiful? I love these plants.

North of the fenced garden is Miscanthus ‘Morning Light.’ Very pretty in even the smallest breeze.

Fenced Garden

These red lilies bloom in several parts of the yard.

In a few weeks there will be a lot of color to share when the daylilies put on their show.

~~Rhonda

‘Blue Angel’ is just getting started in our garden. We’ve had it for several years, but this one will be quite large when it reaches maturity. It can take 7-10 years to reach maturity, so plant it where you can leave it. If you dig it up to move it, it may take longer to mature. Also, it will be bluer in shade than it will if it’s planted where it gets some sun. The sun will reduce the waxy coating that gives the hosta its blue color.

Hosta ‘Big Mama’ has decided to take off this year, after a few years of doing nothing. It’s looking great.

Never ending task…digging tree seedlings out of the flower beds. We’re not sure which hosta this is, but I’m guessing it may be ‘Fried Bananas.’ It has grown quickly and looks great under this redbud tree.

We have ‘Fried Bananas’ ringing a redbud tree in the back yard. Planted between each one is a smaller hosta called ‘Emerald Tiara.’

Great corrugation on ‘Fried Bananas.’ The late afternoon sun shows off the veining.

Planted in 2011, ‘Sutter’s Mill’ was the first hosta in our garden to put up a flower scape this year.

‘Janet’ is a sometimes confused with ‘Gold Standard’ which is a larger hosta than ‘Janet.’ I wanted to show you this one in particular because it has produced a green sport. A sport is a shoot of a plant that is different from the original plant. ‘Janet’ is supposed to have a lighter center, with a darker border. The all-green leaves are a sport. This hosta needs to be dug and all the eyes separated to get the green out. We’ll replant the sport elsewhere in the garden and will let ‘Janet’ get back to normal.

Here’s a picture of ‘Janet’ taken in our garden in 2007, in all her loveliness. We had several years of dry summers around that time and ‘Janet’ stayed lush and green when other hostas dried up and burned.

It’s not all hostas in the garden. Volunteer coreopsis is beginning to bloom. It adds a bright note to the beds.

The lacecap hydrangea is looking better this year than it ever has. I wasn’t very impressed with it before this year. But it’s looking pretty!

The other hydrangeas are loaded with blooms, as well. They are just beginning to turn from green to pink and blue.

The Siberian Iris ‘Gull’s Wing’ is one of the whitest irises we have. It looks nice paired with the blue of the false indigo.

In the back yard, the rhododendron is making quite a splash of color. This was sold to us as a white rhodie. Imagine our surprise when it bloomed pink. But such a lovely pink. I’m glad we have it instead of the white one.

We don’t have enough astilbe. It’s such a pretty, fluffy spike of a flower.

Plants aren’t the only things that grow in our garden. The variety of wild life sometimes surprises me. This week, when DH brought an iris blossom in, a hawk moth rode in on the petals. We put it outside and it spent the entire day on the back porch. It was still there when I went out to visit the garden that evening.

I hope you have a garden to enjoy. If you’re local, you are always welcome to visit ours. Or you can visit a lot of other gardens at Tootsie’s Place. Enjoy!

We’re planning a plant sale for June 2, by the way. All proceeds will go to the mission fund at our church. If you want to be on an email list for plant sale reminders, email me at reacoulter@gmail.com.

~~Rhonda

This one went together pretty fast. I used a round crystal bowl to hold it, with floral foam taped into the bowl. I like the way it turned out.

The glass votive with a few stray blossoms is courtesy of Rose Red. She likes to use it for the flowers she picks in the garden. She doesn’t have the hang of picking stems with her flowers yet.

~~Rhonda

The columbine are setting seed. They self sow easily. If you have a columbine plant, you’ll find new plants in the bed next year. If you want to save seed to sow them where you want them, wait for the seedpods to turn brown. When they begin to split, collect the seeds. These columbine are hybrids, so the new plants may not look like the parent plant. But they are all beautiful.

Carpenter bees chew wood, but do not eat it. They consume nectar and pollen like they would find on this columbine, pollinating as they feed. Male carpenter bees do not have stingers. You can tell a male carpenter bee by the white spot on its face. They are very curious and will buzz around people but are not aggressive. My grand-daughter was excited to actually touch one as it hovered near her on the east porch the other day.

Peony ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’ looks great paired with Siberian iris ‘Caesar’s Brother.’

‘Monsieur Jules Elie’

The peonies that opened first are now finishing their bloom time. But others are just opening, like ‘Nymph.’

Another late blooming peony…just getting started.

The iris ‘Alabaster Unicorn’ has a unique pointed beard, like a unicorn’s horn. It’s a beautiful clear white with yellow beards and white horns.

Yellow Flag Iris

The hostas seem particularly vigorous this year. Anyone else having the same experience?

Hosta ‘Squash Casserole’

The hosta ‘Big Mama’ has been in our garden for several years. It hasn’t done much until this year, but this spring it has certainly taken off.

Hosta ‘Golden Meadows’

Hosta ‘Midwest Magic’

The hosta ‘Love Pat’ languished in the garden until we moved it to this bed. Now it’s looking much better. Sometimes you have to move them around until you find the place they like.

The hosta on the left is ‘Orange Marmalade.’ The large green one behind it to the right is a sport from the ‘Orange Marmalade.’ A sport is a shoot of a plant that is different from the original. Amazing that it can be SO different, isn’t it?

The rhododendron in the front yard has finished blooming, but the one in the back is just getting started.

The Queen Anne’s Lace had reseeded itself in the yard. We dig a lot of it out, but do like to leave some because it’s a host plant for Black Swallowtail caterpillars.

False Indigo…a great plant for the garden, if you have room. It can grow four feet tall and spread as much as six feet wide. When you plant it, be sure you want it there because it does not transplant well. It’s a native Illinois prairie plant and likes full sun.

Lacecap hydrangea

All the hydrangea bushes are loaded with blossoms this year.

I took a lot of pictures today, but I’d better quit here. Why don’t you sit in the garden for a while and relax? You are always welcome!

You can visit other gardens at Tootsie’s Fertilizer Friday link party.

~~Rhonda

Five different kinds, though it’s hard to tell from this picture. ‘Raspberry Sundae,’ ‘Sorbet,’ ‘Monsieur Jules Elie, ‘Honey Gold,’ and ‘Festiva Maxima.’ All with a very heady scent, too. DH picked them Saturday evening and the entire downstairs smelled like peonies on Sunday morning.

~~Rhonda

The turtles were on the east side of the fenced garden.

The same turtle was found May 1, 2010, in the flowerbed under the Southern Red Oak in the back yard.

And in September 8, 2009, east of the veggie garden.

Box turtles can live up to 100 years in the wild, with shorter life spans in captivity due to the fact they have specific requirements which are hard to meet. Box turtles have a home range of less than 800 feet in diameter. If you find one in your yard, you may meet him or her again in the years to come. Males do sometimes range wider in search of mates. Several turtles can share the same area as they don’t mind living near other box turtles.

I have taken pictures of more than ten different box turtles in our yard since 2005. I’ve only seen a couple of them more than once. I’m hoping to find more repeats as time goes by.

~~Rhonda

There was time to play with the rocks in the driveway.

And time to help Pa plant a few daylilies he had divided while digging.

Any time Rose Red sees the shovel she asks, “Can I dig? Can I dig?”

All done.

Snow White helped package plants for the yard at the farm.

And Rose Red checked the mail. Just to be sure.

While all that was going on, the girls’ parents pulled weeds. Yay! Thanks, again! We hauled two wagon loads, piled high, to the compost pile.

~~Rhonda

The redbud trees are loaded with seed pods. See those brown areas?

Some of the redbud trees have green seed pods and some have red ones. I don’t know what makes the difference. The seed pods are edible. I tasted one today. Almost a tangy lemony flavor. Like sorrel. Not bitter like they were last week when I tried one. I think they’re ready to harvest. We’re going to try them in a stir-fry. FYI, the blossoms are also edible. Great in a salad.

This picture was taken in 2008. It shows the green seed pods.

All those seeds…that means more trees to dig out of the flower beds next year. But the bloom color in the spring is well worth the trees we pull out. We also like redbud trees because they make great dappled shade for hostas. I took this picture this evening in the last of the sunlight, but for the greater part of the day, the hostas are shaded by the redbud tree.

All but one of our redbuds are native trees with green leaves. The other tree is a ‘Forest Pansy’ redbud that has pretty maroon colored leaves.

Leaving some stems from last year’s garden provided a place for a little spider to spin her web. The color in the background is the ‘Forest Pansy’ redbud leaves shining in the sun.

The peonies are blooming all over the yard. We have at least eighteen different cultivars with multiple plants of many of them. This one is ‘Dancing Butterfly.’ It’s a beautiful shade of rosy red. I managed to catch a bee making rounds of the peony blossoms.

The iris ‘Kevin’s Theme’ looked great today. That’s false indigo behind it (Baptisia australis).

And the columbine is really pretty right now. This is a great flower. Reseeds itself, but not aggressively. A perennial, so it comes back the next year. Easy to transplant. Can take some dappled shade or sun. Just a happy spring flower.

It works well with the hostas.

The Star of Bethlehem is still blooming around the yard.

And the Honesty plant looks good, too. It’s beginning to make its green coins. I plan to cut some of the Honesty back so it sends out fresh flowers. It’ll have a rebloom in a few weeks.

Just as I was ready to go back inside, I noticed the birds under the bird feeder. DH keeps it filled each morning, but it had run dry. So the birds were checking for fallen seeds on the ground. Here a cardinal, a mourning dove, and a house sparrow search for a snack.

Mrs. Cardinal was there, too.

I’m looking forward to more garden time on Wednesday. This is my favorite time of year. Not too hot and new things to see each day. I hope you’re able to get outside to enjoy a garden! If not, you can stroll through other gardens at Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday.

~~Rhonda