Garden treats

It's bright and cold again this morning. Like yesterday, the bird bath is frozen over. At least the sun is shining and yesterday's cold North wind has died down.

While debating just how much outside work I wanted to do on Monday (turns out - very little! Brrr), I found a couple of surprises. First off this very early iris. I don't remember when or from whom I got it (senior moment). I only know that it is short, has 'real' iris foliage (not like Dutch or Japanese), and blooms in mid-April. I had no idea that it was this advanced by Sunday night and it obviously did not enjoy the 27F. The petals are sort of translucent, a sure sign of freeze. Poor thing. Hopefully the nights won't be as killer the rest of this week and I'll keep an eye out for the others.

I think I posted earlier that I bought 2 rhododendrons to put under the white-blooming crabapple tree. This 'Vulcan' sports deep red blooms and will make a nice change from the rest of my rhodys (lavender).

Obviously these new plants are more advanced than mine. Even so I did not expect them to start blooming in this cold weather (or hot, depending on the day - sheesh!). Still, it's a nice pop of color and (at least this year) I'll be able to see the red under the white crab.

Another garden treat (for which I don't have any pics) was a fun visit from fellow Ohio garden blogger, Jeph. You can check out his gung-ho gardening adventures HERE. Also, he and friend Mary have started a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) co-op this season and you can watch how all that shakes out HERE.

We toured the gardens, exchanged plants (toms, veggies & herbs), shared tips and ideas and thoroughly enjoyed the visit. All too soon he had to leave. Having taken the day off work his own beds beckoned while I was compelled to get out of the wind, so headed down to the basement to start some trays of annuals. After all - it's only 4 weeks till plant out. Woohoo.