WHAT'S COMING UP THIS WEEK - Tulips, Delphiniums, and Peonies (I think)

The tulips have been coming up for a while, but the red ones are now starting to flower. In a week or so, they should be spectacular. They're still in pots, and I have no idea where their final home will be.

In the front garden, there are four or five places where some herbaceous perennial is coming up--it looks to me like peonies. Which is nice, because I really like peonies. I've probably mentioned that there is also columbine and all kinds of other things as well. The old roses are spectacular.

At any rate, about the delphiniums. Last year, I planted several delphiniums, and they were growing in pots here and there. When we moved, of course, most of the labels fell off of everything, and of course a lot of stuff wasn't labelled anyway. So suffice it to say, I had well over 100 potted plants (when I say this, Mike always says, 'WHICH I HAD TO CARRY') and a whole bunch of them were kind of "mystery pots."

What I did about a month ago was to place them in groups. I have a bunch of lilies of the valley, which I want to place in this area around the pond, but I am waiting to make sure that nothing else is there first. So those are going to stay in pots, and if I recall correctly, there are about 35 of them (not 35 pots, as some pots have 3 or 4 in them). Similarly, I grouped all of the malva together, and then a bunch of mystery sprouts (pots which clearly had SOMETHING non-weedlike growing in them, but heaven knows what) and then in the back of the garden I put all of the pots that looked like they had nothing in them, but I figured I should treat them all as plants (and not dump them), as some would be dormant perennials.

Eventually I figured out that some of the mystery sprouts were campanula pyramidalis.

(image from fothergills.ca)

So I planted a section in the back with a mixture of these, foxgloves, and delphiniums. Mind you, the delphiniums are all mixed in together, blues and purples and whites, but I figure I can separate them later. They'll be happier in the ground in the meantime.

I also planted something else which may or may not be evening primroses. It might be another kind of campanula. I have no idea.

At any rate, after doing all of this planting, at least 8 of the "empty" pots sprouted little delphinium plants. So now I am going to have to find another place for delphiniums--which isn't a problem, as I love delphiniums. But there appear to be more now, and I am at risk of having a completely "undesigned" garden that just has delphiniums in it.

I'm also wondering if these are delphiniums I planted, or if they were, indeed, empty, and something went to seed.

I guess it doesn't matter, but it will be fun to see them when they bloom.

LOVELY NEIGHBORS

As I mentioned, only one set of neighbors are evil. The family on the other side is really lovely.

Shortly after I put up the giant pinwheels, the nice woman from next door commented on them and said that her children loved them. I said, "Well, you know, I just thought it's nice to have something cheery in the yard."

So yesterday we had a housewarming party. This went on until midnight, and there was a lot of Irish dancing and English Karaoke. I invited the nice neighbors over, and they came by for a little while, so we had a chance to really talk to them finally.

They asked how we liked the neighborhood, and I said it was really nice, etc., etc. Obviously, I didn't want to try to drag someone else into my problems with others, and on top of that, well, I have no way of knowing if people who don't live directly next to Angela would have any problems with her.

After a few more questions, they said, "So...what do you think of Mad Angela?"

Hilarious!

We then talked for ages. I guess Angela is absolutely notorious in the neighborhood. The neighbors two doors down used to own a pub, and they have two rottweilers that used to be guard dogs. They keep them in the back, in a well-secured area, and they have a nice dog house and everything. Well, Angela is not convinced. (Angela, who is three doors down from them and really shouldn't care what they do in their back yard.) She keeps going up other people's driveways to peer into these poor people's back yard to see what the dogs are up to, and if she disagrees with anything that is going on, she will knock on doors, etc.

When the guy who used to live in our house was remodeling, she'd wait until he left for the day, and then she'd walk in and talk to the builders, asking them what they were doing, and giving her opinions (!).

I guess when we put the pinwheels out in the garden, the husband saw them (I don't want to post their names on the off-chance that Angela found this), and went running to his wife and said, "Oh, you have GOT to see what the neighbors have put in their back garden! You'll love it! It's right next to the fence, too--Angela must be having fits!"

They have been nearly wetting themselves laughing about it ever since. They figured it must have been deliberate, but, of course, I wasn't saying anything because I was being too polite.

We had a really, really good laugh. They said that they were worried that we might think that they were friends with her.

It made me feel so much better.