10 things

Thunderstorms rolled in at 5 a.m., and the power went off until 10 this morning!  Rained almost half an inch, which was really needed.

I thought I would take inventory today, and list what I am liking about the garden and what distresses me as of Spring 2010.

Ten Things I like:

1. The back hill is filling in and growing.  Trees are leaping up.
2. Finally like the right side of Meadow's Edge, with camassias and Ogon spirea and the happy  geums next to the stump.  Love the stump.
3. Dry creek bed.
4. Doublefile viburnum bloomed this year and looks ready to fill out and grow.
5. Paperbark maple is growing and getting some shape finally.  Love the stewartia monadelpha next to it. And the Bloodgood maple, and the Crimson Queen too!
6. The little cabin and gravel walk whimsy under the redbud, so sweet.
7. The whole west walk, nice composition when the grasses grow.
8. River birches, wow.
9. Love my sourwood.
10. Glowing burgundy heuchera at the edge of the Birch garden, seen from afar, and the geranium wlassovianum too.

Ten Things that I don't like:

1. The gaura Whirling Butterflies didn't come back.  Try it in pots? And lost all the crocosmia, except maybe one.
2. The sweetbay magnolias always look iffy in spring, but they fill out much later.  Need to be patient, they look skimpy and unwell at this stage (May)
3. Witch hazel blooms are nothing to look at.  Maybe with time and maturity (and having replanted Diane to the new bed?)
4. Spicebush plants are not really thriving... they're ok, but slow growers, both in the field and the ones on the berm.  They did bloom this year, slightly.
5. Lost both persimmons.
6. Holes in the low dwarf forsythia hedge, I'm losing entire central branches (voles?)
7. Don't like the pinky purply clematis planted under the hummer feeder.  Get something with prettier color next year.
8. Bayberry was beautiful and a strong grower all summer, but got winterburn and is still brown looking even in May (new buds, it is coming back, though)
9. Front walk is still not pulled together, but better now with the itea and bulbs.
10. Epimediums are slow taking off under dogwood (Frohnleiten)