Buy more early spring blooming plants. I don’t care if it ends up looking garish! Seeing all these spring bloomers has been a boost after the depressing winter I’ve had. Lots of Muscari! More Chionodoxa! Anemone nemorosa & blanda galore! Find some early Corydalis! Pack in the Tulips (even though I swore I wouldn’t buy more)! A truck-load of Crocus! Break the bank on Epimedium! Go hog wild is what I’m sayin’ here, lol.

Just find a plant already. I’ve had empty spaces around the garden for way too long now, waiting to find the “perfect” plant to fill them. Not sure that is ever going to happen, so it is time to settle for second best to at least have something to fill the gaps.

Go ahead and order if I can’t find it locally. I really dislike mail ordering plants, mainly due to the outrageous S&H most places charge for sending to the PNW. If I can’t find what I want around here than I will order this year. Unless I forget again, lol.

Give that uggo the boot. If I dislike the plant it’s time to get rid of it. There is something inside me that still screams it’s sacrilegious to throw out a plant that is doing no harm, but I'm getting better with this ((and before someone jumps all over my phrasing there….by “throw out” I mean throw to someone who wants the thing, unless it is invasive)). In with the new!

Your turn. ;-) What notes to self do you have going now?
CMK

A few years ago, I was determined to have more dicentra and have been picking up a few every year at a local plant sale for $4. each. Last year, I added five new ones and they are small and will take another 2 years to get to the size I like, but I still need MORE!! Right now, Lunaria is blooming with white dicentra and I just love it, I just need more white dicentra.

The first epimediums I planted was in 1996 and I decided a couple of years after that to add more every year and I'm still doing that. Two or three plants a year. I forgot how many I bought last year. I see five new plants I forgot I had and they are really making exactly the effect I wanted, which makes me very happy. I just have to wait for them to get larger. Some are large enough to divide and as soon as they finish blooming, I'm planning on dividing them to increase and still planning on buying more.

I have always wanted a ton of pansies in the spring, but it's just too expensive to buy new every year. I've tried buying them in the fall, starting them from seed with the winter sowing methods, but I still can't find a reliable, cost effective, not too much work method to provide a lot of pansies blooming in spring. It's too late for this year, but in the Fall, I'll try to figure that one out again.

Oh, natives is another direction I'm putting more focus on. I've been adding natives all along, but this year I'm particularly noticing some of them are doing so well, I want to add a lot more. Tiarella cordifolia has come back reliably since planting and in a very dry, bed with a lot of tree roots, it seems to have spread nicely. Arctostaphylus has also spread better than other groundcovers I've tried, so that is on the list.

Okay, I'll stop now. lol

Note to self: I don't have to move or save all those daylilies. I've grown to kind of dislike them anyway - the blooms aren't worth the crappy foliage later on - so digging and composting them is OK. I need a change. There are a million other better choices.

Kevin

Another surprising early bloomer that is cool...'Red Russian' Kale! The yellow flowers and purple foliage is neat with tulips and that Lunaria!

-Kevin, so nice to meet another not-so-keen-about-daylilies gardener! ;-D

-Campanula, I get where you are coming from. For some reason list making is very soothing to me. Second best thing is being able to cross something off a list. LOL. Bizarre, I know.
CMK

As for epimediums, I've ordered half of mine from the specialty nursery by Daryl Probst who collected them in China and bred them.

I've grown red russian kale in the vegetable garden, but have none this year. Interesting that it blooms with the lunaria and bulbs. Of course, that it is edible is a plus~

I'm also not a daylily fan. I only have one in my garden, 'Hyperion' and I've kept it because it is fragrant.

Kevin

Actually, that RV Lunaria has purplish foliage too! Quite stunning as a matter of fact:

CMK

On that epimedium link I posted, at the top of the page, it has a link to Darrell Probst for more info. If you click on it you will see an email pop up addressed to Karen Perkins, Garden Vision Epimediums. I know that is a little confusing, but they were once married and then divorced and he now does coreopsis breeding and she kept the epimedium business. If you email her, you can either order off that page, or she will send you a catalog.

They have some expensive plants, but also some very reasonable prices. Have no idea about the shipping to the West Coast though. They are in New England. I just ordered herbs from Oregon and the shipping was $13. Brother. I don't do that often, I hate to pay shipping too.

Good luck!