Progress in the rose garden, part 3

Early rose

Our recent sunny weather has brought out a couple of very early rose blooms, so of course the rose garden will start to look nice now. I've finally been able to plant more too, now waiting for everything to grow. What a difference from late January!

Jan. 28 to April 10, looking north

Jan. 28 to April 10, looking east

From local nurseries:

• 5x Stachys byzantina 'Silky Fleece' - a very short Lamb's Ear 
• 6x Erodium x 'Bishop's Form' - Heron's Bill
• 1x Phlox subulata 'Crimson Beauty' - pink creeping Phlox 
• 2x Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue' - blue creeping Phlox 
• 3x Ranunculus asiaticus 'Mache' - mixed ranunculus, but these three are all red 
• 3x Lavandula multifida (fern leaf)
• 3x Lavandula 'Munstead'

The ranunculus are very scraggly now, the leaves are not doing well. I suspect it was too early for them to really be outdoors when I planted them. Everything else is growing and starting to spread out.

Bare root plants, from Breck's:

• 5x Salvia nemorosa 'Blauhugel' (Blue Hill)
• 1x Agastache 'Black Adder' - anise hyssop
• 5x Nepeta faassenii 'Walker's Low' - catmint
• 10x Ranunculus 'Purple Sensation' - these are bulbs, not yet coming up

These looked so tiny when they arrived, but they've been in the ground for a week and are starting to grow. There were quite a few more than 5 each of the salvia and catmint, so that may make up for the small size.  I hope they will all make good progress before the dry summer weather arrives.

Catmint

I also divided a giant geranium from a shadier area of the yard and planted four pieces in here. It is a true geranium, possibly 'Johnson's Blue' or 'Rozanne'. I'm leaning more toward 'Johnson's Blue' now, but need to see it bloom again to compare pictures.

Geranium

The peonies that I planted in the fall are doing great too. They were a grab bag, should be one each of pink, red and white, but I don't know what varieties. I hope they'll bloom this year, but peonies often don't the first year.

Peony

I've let the wild geraniums grow on the lower section of the north side, and weeding everything else out. I cut a couple of small blackberries today but otherwise the geranium seems to be crowding out the worse weeds.

Jan. 28 to April 10, looking east at lower section of roses

Now, I need to wait for other plants that I'm growing from seed to get big enough to put outside - and keep up on the weeds! I suppose we'll need to mow the lawn eventually too, before the dandelions go to seed.