Happy Mother's Day!

I have been in a funk for a couple weeks due to, I'm guessing, all the stress that the changes at work have been creating^[1] - and that garden-pillager didn't help either! But yesterday I had a great day. I woke up around 9am, made some coffee (Farmer Brothers ROCKS!), and nestled into my couch to order some bulbs from Breck's before their $25 coupon expired. Here's what I ordered (all of the following images are from the Breck's catalog):

I liked my Arabian Mystery tulips so much that I just had to have more. I originally bought these from a nursery in the Twin Cities that has an awesome fall bulb collection - but they sell them in open bulk bins, so I'm never 100% sure that I'm getting what I think I'm getting.

The Sunrise tulips speak for themselves!

The Trout Lilies looked perfect for our Zen garden^[2], they reminded me of pagodas.

The Exotic Emperors just caught my eye. The combination of colors looks so elegant. I can't wait to see these in person!

After I sent my bulb order in, I slammed the rest of my coffee and headed out to the garden to get some weeding done before heading off to work.

It was perfect weather - cool and sunny. I don't like heat. I prefer high 60s to low 70s. I can take higher temps if the humidity is low, but around here it gets really humid - not Florida humid, but pretty damn close.

I was getting so much done in the garden that I decided to skip work (which I can do pretty much at will since I am in charge of my own scheduling at my job - nice, huh?). I weeded pretty much all the beds in the main garden and even moved some plants around - including those Greenland Tulips that I have been meaning to move from under the burning bush for years. Even though they weren't really flowering anymore because they weren't getting enough sun and were being strangled by the dense root mass of the bush), they were still multiplying nicely. I also noticed that some had moved themselves from under the bush into more sun and were actually blooming pretty well (I left those alone). I hope that means that the move will get these tulips blooming again; they are such lovely tulips.

I lost an ornamental plum tree and over half of my delphinium, so SSB said we should go to Funkie Gardens to see if they had any trees that we could put in the area. I always love a trip to Funkie Garden. They specialize in hostas and unusual perennial plants - hence the name. Well, $136 later we didn't have a tree, but we did have some very nice plants!

2 Eupatorium maculatum 'Carin' (Joe Pye weed)

2 Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Rubra' (pasque flower)

2 Trollius c. 'Golden Queen' (globe flower)

1 Iris cristata 'Eco Bluebird' (wood iris)

2 Heliopsis h. 'Prairie Sunset' (false sunflower)

1 Athyrium niponicum 'Burgundy Lace' (painted fern)

1 Tsuga canadensis 'Cole's Prostrate' (dwarf hemlock)

2 Silphium lanciniatum (compass or cup plant)

The last one I was not familiar with at all. I got it because the leaves and base were so intriguing and it said that it could get up to 7' high!! When I got home and Googled it - well, it wasn't what I was expecting - and I have two of them! I'm sure that I can find some place to make these work.

On the way home we stopped at another nursery that I usually get my delphinium from. They only had one variety this year, so I only got two hoping that I could pick up a couple more colors some place else. The guy selling me them was excited that I had such a big bed and commitment to growing delphinium. He told me to hang on, disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a small pot with a delphinium in it. He said it was a gift to me. He had grown it from seed himself. Aw! I was so touched! I promise to take good care of it.

I felt so good by the end of the day; content and happily tired! What a great early Mother's Day!

^[1] I work at a pharmacy and one of the pharmacists quit, leaving only one pharmacist. And of course the one that left was also the one that made my job around there much easier. The other bookkeeper also left leaving me in charge of ALL the business management. That bumped my hours up about 20 more hours a week as well as giving me a whole new pile of things to learn and sort out.

^[2] The Zen Garden is named so because it is inspired by Japanese gardens and our cat, Zen, is buried there.