Hello Pollen, Hello Spring!

Pollen pollen everywhere,
pollen pollen in my hair;
now my car is coated green,
and soon everywhere else I've seen;
I cannot wait until the pollen leaves,
because nobody looks cute when they sneeze;
the weather's great that is no doubt, but soon we'll have the pollen count.
Being outdoors is great except for one thing....Hello Pollen, Hello Spring!

I cannot wait to start planting my garden.  It is always a fun time and I love seeing what plants survived the winter and begin to bring life to the flower beds.  The roses are already budding and the climbers have new shoots.  The Canna bulbs are already shooting up through the earth as if to say "hello, I am here".   Once they start coming up I replant them in other flower beds.  My neighbor gifted me with 6 bulbs from her flower bed and in two short years I must have close to 50 of these plants.  Soon I will be "gifting" my friends with this flower bed "bully" as I affectionately call it.  It starts out such a beautiful green foilage plant and when I return from the beach in the summer these stalk like striking red flowers can reach up to 5 feet tall!  It tends to crowd out my roses but provides a tropical rainforest look.  I've noticed an increase number of toads and lizards in the flower beds where they are located.  The jasmine vine leaves have returned to green after the reddish color that comes each winter.  Soon the sweet smell will fill my backyard and compliment the gardenia bushes.  I would fill my yard with gardenia bushes but my yard gets too much direct sun, and the heat is not their favorite!  The english ivy in the front yard is starting to wane...which means I may have won the battle and can plant some shade plants there!!  The butterfly bushes hopefully will be happier this year, since I had to move them and they didn't not seem to like their new location.  I love the blue Plumbago bushes that provide great contrast admist the roses and under the dogwood tree.  The yellow lantana  covers the flower beds and sometimes tries to climb near the jasmine by the end of summer.  The purple and pink verbena in the flower pots provide a waterfall of colors with the annual plants that soon will join them. 

I love to visit the nursery and get new plants and add to the colors that return in my flowerbed each year.  I can spend hours at Plant and See, our local nursery in our town.  The boys will go with me and pick their plant for the year.  They will help plant the flower and love to water them for me in the evenings!  I've started getting more  perennials and hope this winters snow did not hinder their root system.  I love flowers that bloom all throughout spring, summer and fall.  Our new dog seems to enjoy digging and keeps getting into the rose garden...digging dangerously close to my jasmine vine.  I am not sure what he's after but once I get more flowers planted I hope that he finds somewhere else to bury his bones! 

Now once the pine pollen is completely over (and I hope for a nice long rain shower to wash it all away) then I can start planting.  Hello Spring!