Sunday
We have FINALLY had a good weather day here. A bit windy, but sunny and high in the 50s. Even though I have plenty of things to occupy my time inside, I was going a little bit stir crazy with the continuous crappy weather. This is the time of year you think you will be in your gardens, so that was more the trigger for going stir crazy than anything.
I took advantage of the last few days by getting a start on updating the alive/not alive status of plant records in my database. I went through all 2300+ records and marked those that I knew off the top of my head that were no longer alive. Sad to say that the number came out to about 750. I am already starting to see trends.
Many of that total were the first plants that I purchased back in the 1990s when I was initially starting out with gardening and very naive about it all. There are a few that have survived though, going on 30+ years now. Those just warm my heart.
There are plants that I have liked and tried numerous times that I just don't have any success with at all. Most people tend to give up after three attempts. From my records I can see that I have given about ten attempts before I call it quits, but even then I may keep trying anyway 
Agastaches, anemones, astrantias, digitalis purpurea... I may have too much shade for agastaches, but even when I've planted them in full sun they never reappear the following year. All purchased cultivars of japanese anemones, except one, have completely disappeared. 'Mont Blanc', the one which is still alive, was purchased in 2012 and had actually disappeared for many years, making a reappearance about 3 years ago. How crazy is that? I've tried the Pretty Lady series, 'Pretty Lady Diana', 'Pretty Lady Emily', 'Pretty Lady Julia', as well as others like 'Pamina', 'Queen Charlotte', and 'September Charm' readily found in the nurseries. There is a noid pink anemone which has been passed along from a fellow gardener from DC at our Mid Atlantic swaps that is absolutely thriving though. From a few plants, it has grown into a nice swath that blooms in the early fall. As far as astrantias, I won't be trying those anymore. In theory they should do really well in my shade conditions, but I've never had luck with a single one, ever. And digitalis purpurea is one I will keep trying for as long as it takes. It is such a favorite. I'm stubbornly optimistic that I will get it right at some point.
Then there are plants that I seem to have a 50-50 percent type success rate with, such as astilbes, camellias, clematis, dicentras, ferns, polemoniums, pulmonarias, rhododendrons,... I have no idea what triggers the success or non success of most of these. With ferns, I've noticed that the native ferns fair better, as do the japanese painted ferns. The named cultivars are the ones that seem to have more failures. Same with polemoniums - the straight polemonium reptans is prolific but any named cultivar has completely died out. The dicentras are a puzzler. They had been very dependable, returning year after year for 20 years or more, but at least half have started to disappear.
Another whole group can actually be thought of as short lived perennials. For me, this includes aquilegia and dianthus. From my records, I can see that I purchase a few of each every single year. They are fairly cheap at the amish nursery, so in my mind I think of them as consumables that are worth the money. If they last two or three years, great, but I'm not that disappointed if they don't.
Oh, and I have a deer problem 
Hostas were a big casualty, as were hemerocallis, hydrangeas, phlox paniculata, tricyrtis, ... Several young trees were obliterated by deer rub too. I have changed my gardening strategy to acquire only plants that the deer tend to leave alone, and either protect or pass along anything still alive after the deer damage.
The most depressing group are the plants that I acquire, full of optimism, that never make it out of the staging area for one reason or another. Life happens. Unexpected things take priority. It has happened on and off over the years, but the worst case was in 2022. After my parents passed away in the winter, I really went overboard with the spring amish nursery spree. I thought that I would have an abundance of gardening time that I hadn't had in years of caregiving. Then my brother switched gears on me about getting the house on the market - not the leisurely "give it a year" timeframe that was initially discussed. I wasn't happy about it, but it was what it was. I had to devote months to it. Most of the plants from that spring spree didn't survive.
On a much happier note, what really stands out are the plants that have nearly 100 percent success rate year after year, except for a very few single instances. Galanthus, calycanthus, digitalis grandiflora, hellebores, hyacinths, paeonia, and narcissus are what come to mind. The only fail with narcissus was the Daffodil Trail concept of 2002 and 2003. This was a project that I remember very fondly because Mike helped me plant a few thousand bulbs along a logging trail behind the house. We had glorious weather and a good rhythm with the planting - he would drill holes while I laid back and basked in the fall sun, and then I would plant the bulbs in the holes while he laid back and basked in the fall sun. It was one of the few times that he truly enjoyed helping me with gardening stuff. The concept was fun, but not practical - way too much shade for those bulbs to thrive and way too many fall leaves that accumulated in thick mats on top of them. Never did have much time back then for the maintenance needed to rake away the leaves, and they eventually completely died out. The only paeonia fail was a group of four from a 2019 purchase that I am pretty sure were flooded out with an overabundence of rain one year. They were directly in the path of excess water flowing down the hill from the front porch landing area. The only hyacinth fail was when a lot of new hardscaping work was being done where I had planted them, and most were casualties to back hoe digging. All in all though, all of these are, and should remain, go tos for me. Hellebores and paeonias are pricey, but with the success rate and longevity, it is a lot of bang for that buck.
Now that I've made a first pass at it by sitting at my computer during the rainy and cold weather, I'm armed and ready to start verifying the rest. I did get outside to verify more narcissus ids a few evenings ago while it was still light outside. It was cold and even though I was very satisfied to be making more ids, I was more than happy to get back inside.
With the much better weather today, I spent my time clearing out the accumulated fall leaves in the deer fenced in Hosta Haven. Very slow going with lots of breaks, but then Bonnie showed up and of course it went fast with her help. So, that garden is spruced up and I was ecstatic that the slate markers I put in last year are 100% accounted for - no displacement or disappearances and the labels from my Brother P-Touch label maker haven't faded a bit.
Friday
I have a goal to determine what is still alive in my gardens after 30 years of acquiring plants, and to also make positive cultivar ids. This is a job for a detective 
How??? Well, I have my extensive notes and I can also make use of online resources to match cultivar ids, especially when the plant is blooming.
Over the years, there has been many plant genera that have caught my fancy. I had to google the plural of genus because genuses just didn't look right. I've heard the term genera before, but didn't realize it was actually the plural of genus But, I digress... As I acquired more and more cultivars of the same genus, I realized that they can be thought of as collections. I can definitely tell by looking at a plant what genus it is, but the numerous cultivars are a different thing altogether. I want to know which is which, but my plant tagging woes go way back.
Last year I made a good stab at my hosta collection when I was working in the Hosta Haven garden, and the ferns in the Fern Bank garden, but nothing else. So far this year I've identified the cultivars in the galanthus collection and have started on the daffodil and hellebores collections. I've identified the early blooming daffodils, and now that the mid blooming daffodils are making their appearance, I'll work on those.
Other collections with numerous cultivars acquired over the years include anemones, astilbes, clematis, columbine, daylilies, epimediums, iris, lilies, peonies, pulmonaria, tricyrtis... A lot of these have really died out over the years, but others are alive and thriving.
I guess my approach will be two-fold - garden area by garden area as well as by blooms week to week. I'll not attempt to add my new slate labels to all of the plants, just specific cultivars that are part of a bigger collection. There are over 2300 plants accounted for in my database. I'd be lucky if even half of those are still alive, but I'm not optimistic. Maybe for once I'll look at it with the viewpoint of "glass half full" vs "glass half empty", and be amazed and thankful for what IS still alive 
Thursday
We have had three straight days of rain. There have been several big storms that lasted for a few hours and then they subsided, but the rain continued slow and steady. It has been cold too.
The big storms dumped mud into the pond - sediment from the surrounding slopes ends up in the creek that feeds it and also ends up directly in the pond itself. It only happens during big storms with lots of rainfall in a short span of time. Not that often, but it takes three days or more for the sediment to drop to the bottom and the water to clear up.
A big tree uprooted along the driveway too, and instead of falling, it got hung up in the branches of another tree. It was leaning dangerously over the driveway. Mike was really concerned and kept eyeing it for days, but he didn't want to attempt trying to get it down while it was still raining. Well, he finally decided that it was riskier to leave that tree in that condition than it was to try to get it down safely in the rain. It is scary and dangerous when big trees get hung up like that, but he managed to get it down successfully late yesterday afternoon. Once it was down, he was done with it for the day even though it is blocking the driveway. He will be going out to cut it up soon - he isn't a morning person, so his "first thing in the morning" is more like early afternoon
I've been pre-occupied for the last two days with getting my information together from the last 7 weeks to take with me to the diabetic nutritionist appointment - daily food logs, eating time/frequency patterns, etc... I've probably mentioned that I've been dealing with Type 1 diabetes for the last several years. Technology has come a long way with integration of an insulin pump with a continuous glucose monitor. My blood sugar levels are much better managed, but with the total automatic integration I'm getting a higher volume of insulin than when I was doing it manually. With increased insulin, came increased weight gain. Insulin related weight gain is one of the hardest to lose, and I've been really struggling on my own. The weight has reached an uncomfortable level that is impacting me every day with stamina issues and general ability to do what I want to be doing. Anyway, this nutritionist specializes in Type 1 diabetes, and I am giving it my best effort, hopefully for the long haul. After meticulously keeping a daily food log, I had lots of questions for her, both general and specific. The appointment yesterday went well and I'm making good progress in every goal that was set at the first appointment. She also showed me the food tracking app MyFitnessPal that she uses - why she didn't show me this at the first appointment so that I could use it was a bit irksome. Now I'm spending time transferring the data to it. Oh well, it will be easier to use than what I had come up with on my own and she will have online access to it for assessment and guidance.
So, major gardening delays due to weather and the other priorities of the last few days. It has finally stopped raining today, but it is pretty cold out there and everything is saturated. Not that appealing to get outside. Bonnie has been going stir crazy without the hour or two of gardening after her work days, and swears that no matter what the weather is like this weekend, she is gardening. I guess I will be too.
Monday
All weather heck broke loose in the wee hours of the morning. Booming thunder, lightning flashes, and torrential rain. The heavy storm lasted about an hour and then subsided to a slow but steady rain until early afternoon, but it has been cold and cloudy all day. This kind of weather sure doesn't let me get on with gardening. Another inside day, and it was a lazy one. Sometimes I am so tired and also so cold, that all I feel like doing is wrapping up in blankets and dozing. I had the TV on, but wasn't really watching anything. River stayed curled up next to me on the couch, not wanting to do much of anything either. He perked up when he heard Bonnie get home from work and was out the door and through the woods like a race horse out of the gate. He is getting older, but he can still run as fast as ever. I will never get tired of watching the sheer athleticism of it.
The most exciting gardening related thing to report is that I have had great germination from my tomato seeds, even most of the older ones. So far, 15 of the 17 varieties that I sowed are up. The only two that haven't shown any germination at all are 'Sunrise Bumblebee' and 'Umamin Hybrid', both from 2017. I'll keep them on the heating mat and under a humidity dome a bit longer before I give up on them. I was waiting to see how the old seeds from 2017 fared before I sowed the last of my even older tomato seeds. I will go ahead and sow 'Cherokee Purple', 'Mortgage Lifter', and 'Rose' - all pass alongs that are more than 10 years old at this point. Again, nothing to lose but time.
Two more days of rain are predicted, and then after that it will still be cloudy and cold - not getting any warmer than high 40s and low 50s until Sunday. Where is the great spring weather?
Sunday
In 2021 during an excursion to a local native nursery with a few of the Mid Atlantic gardening friends, I saw a shrub with pretty purple flowers in full bloom. It sure did catch my eye, and I found out it was Rubus odoratus, commonly known as Purple Flowering Raspberry. Unfortunately, they didn't have any stock for sale, but it has been on my wish list ever since.
My friend David works there. He said that it is hard to come by and that they don't get it in stock very often, but he would keep an eye out for it. His wife Pat let me know that after nearly three years, the nursery finally had them. I went to Watermark Woods on Saturday to check them out. They were pretty much dormant, but I could see some itty bitty growth just starting to emerge at the crown on a few. This is a plant that would never have caught my attention if I had not seen it in a mature state and in full bloom. I am so excited to finally have it! It is a native that thrives in shade, very understated but with such pretty flowers. Mostly deer resistant too except for the possibility of nibbling on emerging leaves.
This is a link to an article with a nice photo and some basic information:
https://edgeofthewoodsnursery.....
I ended up purchasing two and have to decide where to put them. Possibilities that I'm mulling over are the Pond Path, the Driveway Circle Area, or the Stumpery. I'll be growing them on in pots for a while, so I have time to think about it.
No gardening on Easter Sunday. It is a time for family celebration. We all met at my sister Tina's house for brunch. It is about an hour and twenty minutes away, but I picked up my sister Julie who lives nearby and we had a nice visit during the drive. Her husband Tom has major back problems and it was acting up this morning. Once Mike heard Tom wasn't going, he opted out too. It was for the best with his sister Bonnie working this weekend and having River to look after. It would have been a long day for that dog to be cooped up in the house. Anyway, Julie and I enjoyed our extra time together and it was nice to see the rest of the family. Christmas and Easter were always a big deal for my mom, and I'm glad we carry on our family gatherings even now that our parents are gone.
