Good morning everyone and Happy May Day! It's beautiful in sunny Oklahoma. Rain fell in April, and there's more forecast for this month. Hallelujah! Mother's Day is right around the corner, and those old-fashioned favorites: irises, peonies and roses light up my garden this May Day. How about yours? Yellow and peach irises, 'Carolina Moonlight' baptisia, 'Center Glow' ninebark and variegated 'Peaches and Cream' Japanese maple (at rear). These are all in the garage border. I am not a huge fan of bearded irises, but I do like their vertical leaf form. Why am I, not a fan? Well, a rainstorm usually drowns them in their short season. You could say the same about peonies, but I have a soft spot for them. Plus, I support my peonies with cages beneath their foliage. They hold up their heads even when thunderstorms pound them. I don't know the names of the irises...

Early on, when I was a young gardener, I made a lot of mistakes--truth told, I still do. The unpredictability of climate and plant performance are part of my endless fascination with all things growing. Sadly, these errors in judgment often linger for years before I get around to fixing them. Hydrangea quercifolia 'Ruby Slippers,' Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket,' Lonicera sempervirens, American honeysuckle, the 2014 Wildflower of the Year. I planted this barberry too close to the hydrangea and need to move it outward. Some years, it's too hot and dry to do much in spring other than keeping plants alive until fall. I realize that sounds bleak, but some years are. Oklahoma was working on its fifth year of drought in early 2015. In the center of the state, this spring, however, we've had rain so I'm taking advantage of moisture and cooler temperatures to move things. Note that Logan County, where I live...

There is magic in the garden this spring, but there are no magic formulas to achieve such beauty. Gardening is hard work. Cutting back perennials, weeding, improving the soil and transplanting are all steps to achieving this alchemy. I planted six shrubs yesterday, two Hydrangea paniculata Quick Fire® and three H. paniculata Little Lime® among them. These were not to replace roses. When we rebuilt the deck this spring, it was a foot shorter so the garden border widened. Being on the East side of the house, I'm thrilled. I never have enough east-side room for all I want to plant in morning sun. In front of the hydrangeas, I moved three peonies that were too tight in another spot, and I'll plant daylilies in between. I planted the front edge in Mexican feather grass--not invasive in Oklahoma. New deck and expanded garden border. The day before, I planted four more shrubs to replace roses. These aren't...

What do you do when the shrub you based your entire English-cottage-style garden upon dies? The rose, that fair-blossomed beauty, fell prey to an ugly disease which we've discussed here before, Rose Rosette Virus. You might begin to invest heavily in new native shrubs, choosing hardiness and diversity for your garden. If you want native shrubs, they aren't that easy to find locally in Oklahoma. I can't imagine why, but they just aren't. Well, maybe I can think of a few reasons why. Rosa 'Carefree Beauty,' another one I still have. Maybe it's because plants native to the U.S. don't grow in as tidy a fashion as smaller cultivars. It could be because natives are often dioecious, needing both a male and female plant to produce fruit. You also can't trademark natives so there's no money in them. Some natives grow slowly too--not a good quality in a society used to gratification...