Normally I look forward to the catalogs each winter. I make my lists, pour over them, get realistic, cut them back and eventually order some plants. I just didn't want to this year. A couple of weeks ago I did finally order some shrubs to complete my hedge, 3 delphiniums and a buddliea. Oh yes, I also picked up a dahlia at HD too, but that's it.

I'm blaming that awful winter and what's turning out to be a rotten spring. It's still cold - a solid week of rain - maybe some snow tomorrow night. I've only managed to do the initial spring cleanup and that's it. The garden still doesn't even seem like a possibility this year. It certainly didn't last winter.

Anyone else in this gardening funk?

Oh yes, just read an article about the predicted summer temps - below average. I guess more often than not the more ice on the Great Lakes, the cooler the summer.

Kevin

I don't blame you for being in a funk when the weather doesn't even seem like spring yet. Cooler summer temps. might not be so bad. You'll be able to get more done outside if it's not too hot out. That could be your silver lining. :-)

Where I live we had a mild winter, and an early start to spring. I've already been tackling a lot in the yard and have lots of bulbs flowering, hostas that are leafed out already, and flower buds about to open on many shrubs. .....but wouldn't you know, we have a hard freeze warning tonight, so I may be in a funk right along with you by tomorrow.

The emergence of some long-awaited perennials was gratifying this past week but didn't give the surge of excitement I've typically felt in previous years.

The only thing I'm in a buying mood for is Hakonechloa/Japanese forest grass. A nearby nursery has a variegated form for sale and promised to save me a gallon pot until it's warm enough for me to plant it in my north-facing shade bed. I've tried to buy it in the Spring for several years running only to find it sold out wherever I shopped.

I grew enough perennials, trees & shrubs from seed via winter sowing between 2010 & 2012 to fill all my garden beds and may, with very few exceptions, never buy from a nursery again. The ornamental dogwoods I grew from seed the first year have grown taller than I am already--I gave my neighbors two that are currently 6 ft. tall.

All my butterfly bushes were grown from seed that another gardener sent me because I was (at the time) a newbie winter sower. They're all amazing plants; maybe not hybrid cultivars but healthy, thriving all the same & doing what they're meant to do.

Garden clean-up has just begun but I'm gradually chipping away at it. I regret it's happening so late this year--I feel like us gardeners (okay, other folks too I suppose) have been cheated out of six or more weeks of nice weather thanks to the l-o-n-g,
l-o-n-g winter. Everyone suffers when this happens but I think gardeners in particular feel the pain of those lost weeks when garden beds normally awaken. It's time lost neither our gardens (or we) will ever get back.

I can sympathize with your garden funk Kevin. Funny thing about a garden, though. Eventually it begins to lift your spirit out of the mud and into the sun.

Maybe the 'not ordering anything' will work to my advantage. I've been through those years when I've gone absolutely crazy with plants and ended up with so many not-thought-out purchases I kind of drove myself crazy when it came time to find a place for them. This definitely will not be one of those years. Why not take a year off to do some more arranging, dividing and assessing of what I have? I just won't be contributing to the economy this year.

I am pretty excited about the Delphiniums after last years success and the same goes for the Buddleia and the dahlia. Those should keep me going this season.

Kevin

I'm sure when the weather finally warms up and it's time to hit the nurseries for the yearly annual-buying binge, I'll be all gung-ho :0p

Last Fall, I decided to redo a few areas and put in an order for roses. The nursery sells out quickly so I had to put the order in early. I'm still trying to find disease resistant roses and keep trying a few. And that was the extent of my ordering until March when I had to order vegetable seeds.

When you order roses you have to choose a shipping date and you're supposed to get the barefoot roses in as early as possible, so I chose the last week in March for a shipping date. They came the day we had a week of freezing temperatures and I still had snow on the ground. [g] So I had to keep them in the refrigerator for 10 days before I could plant them. But they are doing great and I'm amazed. I thought for sure they were not going to make it. So that's exciting.

I did go shopping last weekend in that dreary cold rain we had, and had the nurseries all to ourselves. Brought home a few shrubs and native plants. One of the fruiting Sambucus which I am also excited about and have been trying to find one for a couple of years. And tomato plants that I didn't get started in time, that are now sitting under lights until the weather warms up. What about July maybe? :-)

Seriously, this weather has to change soon, right? Every week, I say to myself, this is the last week and the week after that it's finally going to warm up. As soon as we get a sunny week with temperatures in the 70s, we'll all be a lot more excited and motivated!