garden joy!

The European ginger and the lamium have both jumped the sidewalk and are headed south. I just bent over to admire a little patch of the lamium and suddenly realized that what was growing beside it was not weeds, but quite a good-sized patch of European ginger!

I'd go plant them out front, but I'm sure they'd die there immediately, since it wouldn't be a spot of their choosing. But since I don't exactly want a lawn of European ginger, I might try moving them anyway, and sprinkling some grass seed in the hole.

I just LOVE plant surprises (mostly--like, discovering poison ivy is not a plant surprise I like).
There are a few ferns coming up, but I wouldn't exactly say they're going like gangbusters, as my brother says his are. I really need some height there in the sea of periwinkle, but so far only the daffodils seem to be able to push their way through. The ferns look completely anemic. I'm going to take some periwinkle cuttings and put them over on the south side of the sidewalk since there's nothing but dirt and weeds there anyway.

At this point I'd say it's a toss up, which is going to rule the world: the gallium, the ginger, or the periwinkle.

I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow. The periwinkle is blooming like mad and looks just gorgeous, and the double tulips out front are very beautiful this year. (Last year they had no stems and bloomed with their chins pressed against the dirt, so to speak, like Alice.) Also the lily of the valley is starting to bloom--I love the scent of lily of the valley almost as much as lilacs.

Mental note: MUST get some Casablanca lilies for under the window for the summer! I wonder who around here has some?

The columbine has buds, and so does the Henryii clematis. The two Jackmanii will be a little late blooming this year--I pruned them way too late and they're having to make up growth. I didn't prune the Henryii, so it can just put out leaves and flowers.

I wonder if it's shady enough over on the west side of the house to put patches of ginger and periwinkle and some clumps of daylily and let them fight it out? Or pachysandra, although I tend not to have any luck with pachysandra, which is a plant that catalogs assure you are foolproof and unkillable. All I have to say to that is HAH!