Carola's Alberta Garden 2019: April 30, May 1/20 Crocuses and Rose Bushes Unwrapped

Crocuses blooming April 30, top of Picnic Hills /Scenic Sands

Crocuses are a sure sign that spring is here! They are about 10 days later than last year but its so wonderful to see the first little clumps raise their heads after a long winter. (April 30/20)

Rose Bushes

I unwrapped my Karl Grootenbos red rose bush April 26. It is in the flower bed next to the house facing south east and has had no snow for a while. It looks pretty dead, no shoots or anything, but it was slow to show signs of life last year too.

April 27 I unwrapped my Morden Ruby rose bush and took off the peat moss and mulch leaves, spread some of the peat moss around that bed (Stackstone bed.)

I unwrapped/ unmulched my Morden Centennial, Morden Belle and the Never Alone rose the next 2 days, April 28/ 29 I clipped off some obviously dead branches and some tiny thin branches off my Never Alone. Its so strange to see that rose in that spot under the bird hose where I have had a Morden Blush for 12 years. My beautiful Blush was doing poorly the last couple of years because it wasn't getting much sun anymore since the trees have grown so huge now. I finally gave up last spring. I planted the Never Alone in that same area, but more to the left and forward where the sun is a bit better.

I cleaned up the Stackstone bed really well and removed a lot of quack grass and tiny chive seedlings. No sign of life from the 3 Hostas yet, not the ligularia.

Stackstone bed Chives, Persian Cornflowers and small evergreen in foreground

I noticed that my Rock Garden bed had the quack grass starting its take over already!I took over an house to dig up the sedums around the edge of that bed, remove a tub full of quack grass roots and replanted the Sedums. I watered everything by hand with 6 watering cans full of rain water. Time to get diligent husband to bring the hoses out of the shed.

Tulips

Tulips side of house April 1/20

May 1

I cleaned up most of the round

angel bed. I unwrapped my John Davis Rose bush, removed the mulch and peat moss.
Many of the stems of this rose bush still areas to be alive which would be wonderful so that it can start setting buds instead of having to grow all new stems from the roots.

I also cleaned up the long perennial bed around the hostas, removed dead leaves and clipped off the old stems of the Maltese cross which is showing signs of life. No buds to see yet on the flowering plum or the Quick fire hydrangea bushes.

Greenhouse May 1
I transplanted/repotted 8 spaghetti Squash plants. They already have buds!
I also repotted zinnias into individual pots as they were root bound in the small pot they were all in.
(I had also done the same to some lavataras the day before.)

Still to repot:
cosmos, another pot of squished zinnias, and 1 other pot of Lavatara.

Butternut squashes
I had planted 3 seeds and they all came up. They are still small but look healthy.
There are over 60 pots in the greenhouse to look after now.

Green beans- Livingroom
There are 3 pots of green beans which I have been hardening off, putting them out on the balcony in the sun and the wind for a while each day.

Green beans and Lupines darted from seed (living room)

Also getting hardened off on the balcony (May 1 to May 9) is 3 regal geraniums, a pink zonal geranium, and a Firebird Dahlia, (all which I over wintered).

I planted this Firebird Dahlia in April from some tubers that looked pretty dried out, but did have a tiny bud on both tubers. It was in the kitchen bay window for a few weeks, finally sprouted out of the soil and started growing 2 stems. It has amazingly set 3 flower beds on one of the stems although they are not very tall yet. Im going to let it develop flowers then from them off after they're done to let it grow bushier.

My lovely Bergenia at the end of my long perennial bed (which my friend Wendy G gave me), still had a lot of green leaves under the snow from last season! How amazing is that.