I have a new bush in the family. A Flaming Mound Spirea with lime yellow,
edged in the finest strokes of red along every leave, up thru the tips of
the new growth shoots and spilling out into the newly emerging leaves with a
bonus of pinkish red flowers at the ends of every branch in a few weeks
slapped me in the face at work yesterday. I had had my eye on her or her
sister when the different spireas came in a few weeks ago. I succumbed to
the desires for the first ones I've already mentioned, but the Flaming Mound
was so tempting........but I passed her by for awhile. But yesterday I was
showing a customer some of the different Viburnum's we have, and noticed
that someone had snapped up the largest and most showy of the two bushes
sitting on the benches. So after no deliberation or thought, the sticky pot
syndrome went into automatic overdrive, and once I was thru with the
customer, I walked back to the table, unbelieving that I'd blown my chance
at getting one, when deep in the leaves of some viburnums, was the smaller
of the two bushes that'd come in. .........She was mine.............

I picked her up, carried her to the cash register up front and told Susan
that "this one is mine" where upon she glanced over and remarked "WOW,
THAT'S AWESOME!!!We have THOSE????" And I grinned and said "YEP!" but
neglected to tell her it was the last one so far............

Once I was clocked out, I went and grabbed up two packages of reduced Pansey
booster food that was 50c a bag (one for me and one for Miz Mary's pansies
that I enjoy by the driveway on my way out and in), resisted the urge to get
three more pots of Japanese painted ferns, and made a bee line to the car.

The drive home was awesome as the sun has broken out and the dogwoods are in
full shouting white form, lighting up the woods thru the soft haze of newly
emerging leaves on the trees, with pink lights scattered thru where the
redbuds are finishing up, and once I got to the gate, I quietly stopped, set
the Spirea out beside the fig bed, and backed the rest of the way in before
Rose realized I was home.

She immediately knew something was up, because as I got out, and walked over
to where one of the spades I use to dig large holes with was, she gave me a
funny look, started sniffing the trail I'd left and walked right over to the
shrub I had decided to plant outside the edge of the fig bed amongst the
Zebrina's, sedums, coreopsis that seeded outside the bed, and along side of
the residing Amsonia Montana dogbane plant that is tufting up nicely with
blueish paint brushes.

There are so many more plants and flowers up and out now, the eye is dragged
from sight to sight in a flurry of colors. Tulips I don't remember at all
planting or even having as I don't buy tulips........only the little species
ones.......columbines everywhere and rising up to dangle their tempting
petticoats at the fairies to try on for the spring ball.

Great swaths of daylily leaves, looking like rolling mini meadows with
punctuations of a stray narcissus in lemon yellow, or the surprise of more
blue Sultana vinca flowers in places that I had no idea the shoots had crept
and settled to..........I have even found a clump of it in the pasture next
door, flaunting itself along side the privet trunks with the new growth and
the loud presence of the Euphorbia or common spurge I will also be removing
for the rest of my days........

I had already done a clean up of the spent grasses of my Zebra clumps, and
I'd also come home the other day with a dainty little grass called China
doll that I might have plunked in the wrong spot............next to the
Amsonia. If I should move it, someone tell me now.............

A pot of creeping red Phlox called simply 'RED' was sitting patiently where
I'd placed it on top of the pot of soft lavender phlox in the herb jar, so I
dutifully dug into the rich soil and shoved it up to it's neck and it's
contrasting nicely and will come along eventually into itself and hopefully
blend with the rest of the phlox. It wouldn't do for me to have a spot to
actually PLANT these ground hugging spring plants.............how I long for
a small wall to hang the phlox, Alyssum, and Iberis to wander adn bulk up
and make a mass of mounding colors.................given time, there might
be an odd little wall somewhere up front g even if it's a mini wall!

The pussy willow still hasn't found a spot to call home, and there is a new
red dogwood that Squire insisted on planting in full view of from the
balcony off the little mini den beside my nook, so I might just have to
plant it a few feet beside her..........

Thanks for the time. This week will be one of spring perfection in regards
to weather and more flowers before the Easter weekend. I won't be back for a
bit, but there will most deffinately be continuing sagas of flower madness
abounding up here in fairy holler.

madgardener, up on the ridge, back in my fairy holler, overlooking a
greening up English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee--zone 6b, Sunset zone 36