Do you remember in 2009 when I gave up buying plants for Lent? This Lent, I decided to give up desserts instead. It's a much more feasible choice. I'll work outside and maybe lose a pound or two without sacrificing my sanity. As one friend said, this spring, I've been a plant buying fool. The buying frenzy started with Cercis canadensis The Rising Sun™. This small redbud which tops out at twelve feet blooms purple and has orange emerging foliage which later turns a pleasant light green. It debuted last spring, and I finally found it this year. It is a very special tree selected near Muskogee, Oklahoma at Greenleaf Nursery. I also purchased my first Forsythia x intermedia 'Linwood Gold.' There is a rumor I don't like forsythia, but I do. I just don't like how people put them in the worst places, and then prune them within an...

Each year, just when we fear winter will never end, redbuds swell and eventually pop open creating a purple fantasy. I think God gave us redbuds as a kind of "Here's to you, Kid," for surviving another brown and gray Oklahoma winter. If February is the cruelest month, then March is Little Miss Tricksy. One day, it's 80F, then back down into the 30s. What's a plant to do? Go native, that's what, and gardeners should follow their lead. Enjoy what nature has to offer and wait until late April to plant those tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant at the local box store. About this time each spring, my email inbox also swells with questions about Cercis canadensis. People see that lavender against the Oklahoma blue sky, and they find they must have one or two for their yards. I mean, it's Oklahoma's state tree, right? Everyone should own this piece...

Please forgive me for being late to Bloom Day hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens. I apologize. I was laying sidewalk from the potager to the back door. It is nearly finished, and my poor shoulders and elbows feel older than their years. March in my north central Oklahoma garden is all about the bulbs, those darling, deer-and-rodent-proof daffodils and their friends, the crocus. Support staff for the narcissus blooms in the form of flowering shrubs like Spiraea 'Ogon' a/k/a Mellow Yellow. I hate the tradmark name Mellow Yellow. Although it trips off the tongue quite well, it sounds silly. Even with its silly name, I have three of these beauties which give me color three seasons of the year. Other daffs which have long ago lost their tags still bloom prettily. This is an early white one with a large, school bus yellow cup. It blooms beneath a...

The weather is finally turning a bit, and I've been planting like a busy bee. Today, as I dug holes for an apricot tree and four shrubs (a forsythia, two red-twig dogwoods and a golden arborvitae), I thought about why I garden. I was covered with leaf mold, cotton burr compost and dirt, and yet, I felt like a child again. All around me violas, pansies, crocus and daffodils were blooming. Bees were just starting to buzz, and every day, something different was poking its leaves above ground. In our ever busy, super techno world, it seems people are more cynical, and many try to regain their childhood in unhealthy ways. I can promise you playing Xbox is not the path to happiness. I had a bone density test this morning, and as is often the case this time of year, I stood, in jeans, boots and gardening t-shirt, waiting....