Woolybuns: Garden Party

I hosted a garden party here at my house yesterday. According to wikipedia, "A garden party can be a prestigious event. For example, invitations by the British Sovereign to garden parties at Buckingham Palace are considered an honour. The President of France holds a garden party at the Palais de l'Elysée in Paris on Bastille Day." Mine was a bring your own shovel event.

Planning for this event started about the time I realized my big ol stump is just gonna have to sit there and rot. I adjusted to that decision by way of a garden nursery hop, visited a half dozen or so nurseries, searching for a pair of Appalachian redbuds. I first saw some of those at a local nursery about 4 miles south of me but hadn't yet realized my stump and I need to buddy up and I needed to come up with a new plan for shading the house. The sun's daily parade here aims it's rays straight at the front of my house all. day. long. Coming out of the house now, we're like moles pulled unwillingly out of the dark, squinting and blinking and blinded by the light. I crave shade. By the time I decided on Appalachian redbuds, it was too late. All of them at the nursery down the street sported sold tags. I searched and discovered that most of the nurseries hadn't even heard of them. I did finally find Winterberry Garden, which is a wonderful experience I will treat myself to perhaps annually, but still no Appalachian redbuds. Why my quest for the Appalachian rather than the more common Eastern redbud? Richer masses of more intense spring flower buds. The Appalachian buds are closer to red, the Eastern pink. So. Wait a year to plant or compromise? My need to plant outweighs my desire for red. But the Eastern redbuds, at least the healthy looking ones, were also tagged sold. Winterberry did have an abundance of Forest Pansy redbuds and I succombed to their charms. Like it's cousins, Forest Pansy wows spring with a plethora of pretty purple pink flowers, but it also sports a purple leaf, although it's also described as blood red. And apparently the leaf changes colors with the seasons. Lots of garden interest with this tree. I bought two for the front yard. Both my family room and my living room have matching 12 foot wide windows, and I want a tree planted in front of each.

So yesterday my kids came to my garden party. My daughter arrived first and we got in the mood with a visit to a couple of our favorite nurseries just down the street. Here's the haul as it looked packed into the back of my car. The pink rose bush and two of the small dahliettas went home with my daughter. The dahlias and the remaining dahliettas are for my deck. The lacy green middle left is Moonbeam coreopsis, a sweet cheery plant, a couple for my garden beside the driveway, and one for the base of the mailbox. The other rose bush isn't easy to see in the car, so there it is on the left for you to see. It's a Knock Out rose, touted as easy to grow, low maintenance and disease resistant. I hope so because I'm not so good with high maintenance, black spot prone versions which my climate loves to attack.

By the time we got back to my house and the boys joined us, summer had arrived. After the early preview of summer back in March, weather here has been very early spring like with mostly cool temps only occasionally wandering up to low 70s. Yesterday, it hit 85 with high humidity. Yeah. Timing. I ain't got it. But my wonderful kids dug in. Literally. The root balls of my trees need holes in the ground of 4 feet diameter and 2 feet deep. It took the three of them a couple hours under the full assault of all that sun to get the first one dug. The almost-in-law joined us for the digging of the second hole. Poor guy worked all day before pitching in here. While they started on the second hole, I headed off to buy beer. When I got back, rain started. It felt good. By the time the second hole was the required 4 foot diameter and about 19 inches deep, they hit a snag. There is either one ginormous rock in there or they hit ledge. And then thunder boomed in the distance, so I called a halt to the dig. We covered the holes with plywood and wheelbarrows, left the light on over night so hopefully no one will fall in, and settled in for their well earned dinner: deviled eggs to tide them over while I prepared a salad of spring greens and baby spinach with strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and chicken in Poppyseed dressing, followed by beef kabobs and roasted baby red potatoes.