On Saturday, I had a chance to do some garden work, but not as much as I would like (OK, well I went fishing!). Too bad I got skunked at fishing! I did finally spray my fruit trees with horticultural oil. Wade Tischner brought it over. I meant to take note of the brand, but I can’t remember. I do recall that it was 98% mineral oil, or some high number like that. I also sprayed the roses in back and the raspberries, too. I planted the two bareroot roses (‘Nearly Wild’ variety) up among my aspen trees. I did…

My Forsythia bush just began blooming in the past two days. I’ll have to take a photo and then post it here. The daffodils in front are starting to open up now. Lots of buds are swelling on the trees, too. I pruned a few more roses in back today, but I need to finish later this week. I also need to plant those bareroot ‘Nearly Wild’ roses very soon. They’re still soaking in a bucket of water.

I worked on pruning the big row of roses in the backyard yesterday, but I only got halfway through when I had to quit. It got really cold and windy, and snow started falling. But today, it’s about 60 degrees. What a difference we can have in day-to-day weather! The first of my daffodils are just starting to open today. The pansies and English daisies that I planted last week are doing well. The little purple anemones are still blooming, as are the crocuses. I have only a few scattered blooms on my creeping phlox, and I wonder if it…

Today, I got home from work early, so I did a little garden work. I divided my three-year old clump of dianthus and put some on the driveway end of the front walk and some out in the front flowerbed. I also divided some Shasta daisies and spread them around a bit. I put my new bare-root roses in a bucket of water in the garage so they’ll soak the roots before I plant them in the next few days. These are the ‘Nearly Wild’ rose variety. One specimen is bigger and healthier than the other, and I hope the…

Today, I pruned my clematis down to one or two leaf buds from the ground. The vines that I cut off had some green leaves coming out on them, so I cut them into smaller segments and put them in a jar of water to see if they’ll root. I read on GardenWeb.com that someone had luck leaving clematis cuttings in water for three or four months, and they rooted. If it works, it’ll be awesome, because these were expensive plants and they will be so beautiful when they grow large and produce those large red flowers.

I just came across an informative thread on bindweed at GardenWeb.com. It’s at: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg0510060716313.html?66 I get some bindweed in my garden, and in some places it’s a serious nuisance. It would be nice to find a website that has photos of all the weeds that grow in our area and how to fight them.

Here are some postings on how to fertilize clematis from gardenweb.com. I bought fertilizer, bone meal, and composted steer manure last night, so I’ll do this very soon.  RE: What to feed my clematis? Posted by: suzymac z6, Mass. (My Page) on Wed, Jun 22, 05 at 8:59 Clematis like rose or tomato food. I feed mine ‘Espoma ‘Rose Tone’ which I pick up at my local nursery. It’s an organic granular food. Also, a big shovelful of manure around each clematis in springtime helps to promote lush growth. I use a sprinkling of bone-meal sometimes as well. Suzy ——————————————————————————–…

I counted all my seedlings this evening, and here is what I have: 34 Coreopsis grandiflora ‘Mayfield Giant’ 10 Salvia nemorosa ‘East Friesland’ 62 Echinacea purpurea, a white variety, possibly ‘White Swan’ but not sure. That is, if they come out true from seed. It’s possible some will be purple or maybe even a very light purple cross between the white and the purple! Wow! 62 of them! Those were some good seeds. 48 Eschscholzia californica ‘Summer Sorbet’ — the pink California poppies 28 Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Double Click’ They seem to be doing well. The coneflowers that have been on…