Happenings in the 'Hood*

Let's start with a game! Can anyone identify this plant?

It showed up last fall. It lost all its leaves during the winter, and it's growing like crazy now. I have no idea what it is. I don't think I planted it. It looks too healthy for me to dig up, so I've just been watching it out of the corner of my eye and hoping someday it will do something so I know what it is.

Here's what I meant about the phlox. It's so tricky. It looks beautiful now, but soon--- .

In Seattle, I fell in love with azaleas. Azaleas aren't really suited to Indiana's alkaline soil, but last year I planted one anyway and sprinkled some sulfur around it. It's still quite small, but it has started blooming.

Quite a few years ago, my mom and I helped clean out a bed and took home lots of irises. Since then, I've moved a couple bunches to the backyard and given some away to at least five people. Irises are a bit like the creeping phlox to me: They both will spread and spread if they can. They're both beautiful for a short period of time, and then they really aren't. Yet I can't bring myself to get rid of them.

As an added bonus, I'm also allergic to irises. If I touch them, my skin starts screaming at me and trying to fling itself onto a passing human who would take better care of it.** I wear long sleeves and gloves when I mess with it... except for the times when I forget or believe that I won't really be touching it and so the protective layers are unnecessary.

The peony is full of buds ready to break.

The alium is glorious.

The vinca I planted under the birdbath a couple years ago has flowered for the first time. I have read that this plant can be pretty aggressive, but my thought was that I could always run over it with the lawn mower if I thought it was contemplating world domination. So far, it's not even working toward birdbath domination, so I feel pretty safe.

Last year I planted a new perennial bed. Then we had a drought and record heat. I lost a lot of plants.

Okay, I'm going to tell you the truth, and not just in a footnote. I also suspect that I lost some of those plants because that bed gets a lot less sun than I had hoped. There are houses, you see, and houses create shade. This is a part-sun bed, and I wanted it badly to be a full sun.

Anyway, I'm still waiting to see what plants will make an appearance this year, but one of them has decided to put on a show before all the other flowers arrive.

Amazing, yes? I've never had a colombine before, and I love it.



Random: Does anyone else spend a lot of time considering what their superpower would be if she were a superhero? For me, I'd help plants to grow. I'd be Poison Ivy from Batman, but on the side of good. I wouldn't really be the type of superhero to stop bank robbers by causing ivy to wrap around their legs. I'm thinking I'd be more of a Plant Whisperer. Your geranium is mopey? Let me come take a look at it and see what the problem is.

Oh, wait. Maybe by "superhero," I actually mean "horticulturalist."

Spring is a time of Hope. A time of Believing Things Will Be Different, that I will Faithfully Water and Fertilize.

I am hopeful.

*If by "'hood" you understand that I mean "yard."

**If by this you understand that I mean I get a red, itchy rash.