Patience is a Virtue

Last year, I laid the ground work for my perennial flower garden and was feeling a little down about the way the flower garden looked - plants were small, floppy (from moving/dividing them) and there was no "style". The pictures in BHG haunted me - why can't my garden look like that?!

This spring proved it was worth the wait! The irises are tall and hearty. The roses are tall and bushy. The autumn joy, lamb's ear, candy tuft, and lilies have multiplied 3x their previous size. Even my $2.99 Clematis from Walmart has come back (it died last year). There is so much to go around that I have been dividing them up and planting them in new places in the yard. It's still early enough (in my zone) that dividing and replanting won't prevent this summer's bloom. I found that the key to dividing now is to keep the soil around the roots intact.



Now that I have enough plants to go around, I'm replanting the roses, irises and autumn joy to create some symmetry in the garden bed. I'm massing in color to create a bolder statement especially from afar. Also, I'm planning ahead and thinking about how I can plant things so that there is something blooming throughout the summer.