Note: Rumors of the death of this blog have been highly exaggerated.

I've been walking around the garden for a about a week, rejoicing daily in new signs of green!

The first green foliage to pop up for me each year isn't from spring bulbs, but from tiger lilies, up close to my foundation.

Maybe my hellebore will bloom this year.

Hyacinths like it wet over winter and dry in summer--they're perfect under my roof overhang.

Bearded irises are emerging.

My first clump of daffodils, near the foundation and under a chair, boasts my tallest bulb folaige so far.

I wonder how long these tulips (at least I think they're tulips, but I don't remember planting them) will last, given the real sign of spring in my garden...

{bum bum bum}... the groundhog has awoken from hibernation! For some of my previous encounters with groundhogs, see this and this.

I got this very small azalea from a friend a few years ago and look at its nice bud--the first flowers it's had! So looking forward to it blooming.

Speaking of buds, I love viburnums. This one will bloom in pink. And I would tell you its cultivar name if I knew where its tag was.

The ice has melted on the little vernal pond behind my house, where American toads sing and breed later in the year. (Like all vernal ponds, this dries up by early summer.)

I love love-in-a-mist foliage.These didn't actually pop up recently; they've been evergreen since last fall, surviving under snow and ice. In fact, if you ever need to know for a quiz show, love-in-a-mist is the only annual I know of that can come up in fall, overwinter in Michigan, and bloom in spring.

But note they spread! You can barely see the prickly pear cactus in the middle of all the love-in-a-mist seedlings.

Squirrels digging in the "lawn" is also a sure sign of spring around here.

Notably missing are witch hazel (which was blooming this time last year), snowdrops (which come up first for everyone else and almost last for me), and crocuses (no foliage up yet, but it seems to grow overnight).

And, finally, a sure sign of spring is that the snow has melted from my winter-sowing containers! (Snow on the ground has melted now, too.) I have one last flat to sow today; we're definitely at the end of the winter-sowing season here in zone 5b/6a.

Edited to add: After a day of temps in the mid 60s and sunshine, look what I found: crocus buds and leaves, which came up together! Shamrock shakes and kisses all around!

The Matthaei Botanical Garden's plant sale runs today through Sunday. Click logo for details!

I volunteered to help set up for the sale on Tuesday and Friday mornings. The sale is a huge endeavor, requiring a lot of staff and volunteer time and planning. My little bit of help was only a small cog in a much, much bigger wheel! If you're in southeast Michigan, be sure to stop by for some plants. They have a huge selection, and a plant list is available by clicking the logo. The sale is a major fundraiser for the gardens.

We had wonderful weather on Tuesday, sunny and warm, but not hot. This morning was another story. Lots of rain. There were also very strong thunderstorms going through this afternoon and evening, once the actual sale opened.

On Tuesday morning, our group of volunteers put price tags in flats and flats and flats of plants...

...and recreated any missing plant tags.

Once that was done, we started moving plants from the holding areas to one of two tents. The garden tent booked pretty bare on Tuesday morning (this is only about half of the space!)...

But ended up full, lush, and ready to rumble by noon on Friday. Some plants include:

Oenothera missouriensis 'Lemon Sunset'...

Digitalis purpurea 'Camelot Rose.' I've always adored foxglove — they seem like a quintessential faerie garden plant. (Which is ironic as I don't have any!)

Poppies (Papaver nudicaule, 'Flamenco') just popped in the dark tent.

The parking lot tents were also ready by noon on Friday (note volunteer in rain parka and wet pavement!).

Plants were also set up in the auditorium.

Another volunteer, Chris, and I were responsible for getting the rhubarb plants (which you can't see) and the raspberries (which I'm sure you see standing tall in the back) from one of the greenhouses to the auditorium. We also pruned the raspberries as needed.


We used this kind of cart to wheel the plants through the conservatory to the auditorium. The hanging baskets and other accent plants are located on the patio. Note the wet pavement. It thundered and rained Friday morning, which didn't deter the brave volunteers assigned outdoor duty.

After finishing my volunteer shift, I took a closer look at some things in the conservatory. I love this display of a huge lobster claw (Heliconia vellerigera), orchids, and ferns.

The lobster claw was fascinating up close. It grows yellow flowers, which turn into berries, first yellow, then turning green, and finishing up blue. Doesn't that berry look like a marble? I found it stunning. And I love the fuzzy texture!

I was also fascinated with this sausage tree (Kigelia pinnata). Now if only there were a bacon tree!

The most amusing thing in the conservatory is this flower kaleidoscope. At first glance, it looks like cool garden art; a decorative and imaginative container planting. But the kaleidoscopes really work.

I put my camera lens right on the eyepiece so you could see what I mean.

You get different patterns by moving the lens...

This may actually be intended for kids, but I got a real kick out of it.

Special thanks to Deiatra, who let me use her camera on Tuesday and emailed me the photos!

And, finally, unrelated to my plant sale experience, I've been wanting to show this sculpture on the Matthaei grounds:

Shadow Pavilion by Karl Daubmann in collaboration with John Marshall. (The mulch is incidental.)

I like how it looks different, depending on where you're standing.

And that it's easy to interact with. You can touch it!

This is my favorite angle.

Greetings! This is my third post for the Seed GROW Project, organized by Mr. Brown Thumb, with nasturtium seeds (Tropaeolum majus 'Spitfire') donated by Renee's Garden.

Well, I'm sorry to report that the two nasturtiums above are all I have left. I winter-sowed six in a flat and five in a milk jug. The one on the left is the only one that came up in the milk jug and the one on the right is the only one that survived in the flat. Michigan has fickle weather. It warmed up early this year — everything is about a month ahead of schedule. But then it still got freezing at night and even though I covered the flats, all but one nasty succumbed to frost, turning kind of gooey. A few other seedlings were affected in a similar way.

Breaking News: May 3, Ann Arbor: A second nasty in the milk jug has sprouted!

I've sown tons of nasturtiums (particularly for the Cobblestone Farm historic fountain garden) and never had a problem. I'm certain it had nothing to do with the seed quality, but with environmental conditions. I normally would have winter-sown them by February, and I did these in early March. If the seed coat needed softening for the seeds to sprout, perhaps there wasn't a long enough moist period in the flats. And frost sometimes kills even protected plants.

I'm going to be planting the nasties along my privacy screen, along with the hops and some morning glories (which also had low germination, also very unusual).

I still have a lot of nasty seeds left over and will spring sow them soon, as I do love the plants.

Well, since I'm still here and you're still here, let's look at some other winter-sown plants.

Most everyone has their set of true leaves and could be planted out... but I like the tomatoes to get a lot bigger first, and I need to figure out where all the rest can go. Corn (circled in orange to the right) wants you to know it can be winter-sown!

Some seedlings were big enough to plant out, like radishes and baby carrots in their final containers. (The spinach and chard are from Lowe's, and just sown between them are mustard greens. Yum!)

Two kind of beets here, Detroit Dark Red and Chioggia (thanks, LaManda! Shout-outs for other seeds are in the previous post.). I grow them in containers because I have limited beds with full sun exposure and can tuck the containers into sunny spots throughout the garden.

Turnips are looking good.

I also planted out two kinds of peas, beans, stock, and baby blue eyes 'Pennie Black' in this tiny patch of lawn that gets pretty good sun. The beauty berry was the only thing previously there. I did a run (um, slow walk) around the garden, gathering any and all kinds of supports I could find and felt pretty resourceful. Later it dawned on me it might look a little hillbilly, but I don't think we're ready for an #uglygardens redux, are we?!

Sundries Sunday*

Because I still seem to be posting and you still seem to be reading, let me meander further. Remember earlier this year I made my first plastic model, a DC-3 aeroplane, under the tutelage of my friend, Peter? He recently completed this stunning plastic model of the USS Constitution. The deck has all sorts of wonderful colors and details and the whole things just blows me away (you can click to enlarge). And check out the flags! He made them curl like that; that wasn't part of the kit. As one of his friends remarked, he da man!

Finally, because the photo of Fiona (aka Bizi) in the last post looked a little, um, Sopranos, here is a contrasting shot where she looks like a sweet fuzzy widdle baby kitten. (Trust me, this is rare. She even let me put the cat snack on her forehead!) Noogie!

*It's not just Mish-Mash Monday (I'm tickled to see how many of you have adopted the term)! If you'd like to borrow titles for willy-nilly posts for other days, go here.

For many reasons, that song has really resonated with me lately. And, yes, despite my lack of posting, I am still alive. And so is my garden. Walk with me now and we'll have a little look-see at what's blooming.

It's been raining and everything is sprouting by leaps and bounds. Last fall I dug up a bunch of bleeding hearts from my mom's garden, and was surprised that some of them are white. Aren't they cute?

Starting at the front of the house, here are some cute primroses.

The purple sand cherry outside my front door was blooming when I got home from Chicago. The pale petals are very bright at night.

Noogie!

Look how tall the peony is already--they normally bloom in mid June!

Aw, my little Geum triflorum finally has buds (waves to Xan and Kylee).

PPPP (thanks, Gail!) is doing really well in the foreground, and there's the giant Euphorbia in the background, plus Jimi, Sandy (my car), and Pinky (flamingo).

In a long bed that parallels my house and the street, this native ninebark has really taken off. I got it a few years ago looking literally like one small twig.

Nearby the ninebark, my little $3.33 Pieris is kicking out blooms and taking names.

Isn't she the sweetest? (Just smile and nod.)

In the same bed, my darling fothergilla is starting to bloom.

In the xeric bed along my driveway, these little rock garden sedum seem to be doing well.

Farther up in the xeric bed, is rattlesnake master, one of my favorite Michigan natives. I just love the leaf margins!

Got the creeping phlox on sale past-bloom last season so I'm happy to see it flower!

The candytuft was another sale find last year, and I also welcome its first-time blooms for me.

A few Trillium at the north side of my house, which is my shadiest area. There were some Jack in the Pulpits here as well, but...

Moving along the north side of the house, and the only boundary with a neighbor, this viburnum smells wonderful!

And looks nice, too.

I was shocked to see hops growing near my privacy partition. It was given to me last year but I thought it had died, because no foliage ever came up. Sweet!

On my deck are winter-sown containers, plus some larger things that have been planted into larger containers while waiting to be planted out. These radishes will go into a container with the baby carrots (thanks, Lisa!) as soon as the carrots are large enough.

Turnips are looking good.

The marrowfat (or maro) peas are coming along nicely--I can't wait to make mushy peas. (Thanks so much, Anna, for mailing me the seeds from England!)

I got the Bintje potatoes, which were sprouting, planted in a container last week. As the foliage comes up, I'll add more soil to the tub.

These irises (possibly from Randy) along the east side of my house are blooming very early this year.

The cat garden has the most color I have in any one place in spring.

In case you missed it above, tulips! So far this year, no groundhog damage (knock wood)! The Valerian in the background is taking over the cat garden (be warned, Sweetbay).

Along the north side of my garden, I've had this funky viburnum for at least five years and this is the first year it's flowered. It also seems to keep its leaves all through the winter, unlike any other viburnum I know.

Some bleeding hearts in bloom, plus hosta and lilies coming up, in the east wild bed.

Now that so much buckthorn is gone, I have a better view into the park. I'd never realized there was some spring color hiding back there!

Farther west along the south property line is this little lilac with just one bloom.

Also really early this year, usually early June!

Farther west still along the same south bed is the area mostly cleared earlier this season by the city. There's still a lot of clearing out for me to do, too.

With Jimi in the background of so many photos, I asked Bizi to come out and pose in the cat garden. Even though I normally can't keep this cat inside, of course she refused to come out just because I wanted her to. Yep, that's Fiona. (Fiona = Fi = Fizi = Bizi.)