What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday

Today!

Yesterday

Today!

Look how my favorite pink one opened up! It's like the outer petals are making a saucer. It's so pretty.

And for added fun, can you find the Puddy Cat?

I Don't Remember Planting This Many...

...but I'm not complaining. I obviously must have planted this many, otherwise where did they come from? I guess I just forgot because the spring after I planted the bulbs, the siding guys trampled all the tulips as they were starting to come up and it's taken them three years to recover. As you can see, I'm still harboring a bit of a grudge, but that's a subject for another day. Right now, I'm enjoying my oodles of tulips.

I love love LOVE the pink ones!

Oliver is such a handsome boy!

New on Perennially Yours

I've just updated the page Perennially Yours. Check out entries on Astilbe, Dicentra 'King of Hearts', Fern-leaf Peony, and Tiarella.

Plant of the Week: Grape Hyacinth

The grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) just started blooming this week. I was beginning to wonder if they would. Their leaves of this little bulb come up first, and we had a few cold nights a few weeks back, so the tips of the leaves got frosted and didn't look so hot. (you can see this in the photo below)

We have Muscari in several places in our yard. The ones in the above photo are between the house and the sidewalk leading to the door. The next two photos show the ones in the lawn. They were planted about two years ago, so it's a young planting and isn't to the impressive mass planting yet. But they're still cheerful.

It's truly a shame scratch n' sniff blogs haven't been invented yet, because then I could share the  wonderfully intoxicating fragrance of grape hyacinths with you.

Wascally Wabbits

I have a client in Edina who is being terrorized by rabbits. These are not ordinary rabbits. Think the Monty Python and the Holy Grail rabbit, but they mercilessly subject your landscape to a slow death instead of ripping out your throat. A few weeks ago I was talking with the client when suddenly, mid-sentence, she points and says, "Oh, Jen! There is it! Get it!" In the neighbor's yard across the street was a rabbit placidly sitting under a tree. Even from that distance it looked bigger than a cat.

Over the winter they ate everything that was above the snow. The Euonymous, Spirea, Wigela, and even the Japanese maple were nibbled within an inch of their lives. The Aroborvitae were umbrellaed nearly three feet off the ground. And the branches and twigs were left on the ground. Solely to taunt us. I'm sure of it. Last week one started digging a hole under an already stressed Japanese lilac.

And then the willow. Oh, the poor willow. Last fall I had planted a Dwarf Arctic Blue willow hedge. Those blasted rabbits nibbled them down to the stump. But they started at either end of the hedge and worked their way in, so that the three willows in the middle still look somewhat normal. Odd. Maybe the middle was covered by a snowdrift. 

Yesterday I came into the backyard just in time to see a rabbit hop away from one of the willows. Oh, it is on.

So, at the end of the day, I sprayed everything with Liquid Fence. That stuff is foul on a good day, but on this occasion it was particularly ripe. When I say everything, I mean every thing. Even the plants they didn't touch over the winter. I am bound and determined to make my client's yard the worst-tasting in the neighborhood.

I just hope I have more success than Elmer Fudd.