Poor Pollen Sufferers

My neighbor who not only adores dogs, but also plants has been in the hospital all week in
Birmingham with Asthma and Bronchitis. Because of the pollen, she has missed out on seeing
quite a spectacular spring show. It seems to be getting better all the time. Except for the
record high tempatures. I got to see Silver Bells bloom for the first time this week. My
Pearl Bush is to kill for, and the Chinese Snowball is gaudy as the devil. Last year due to a
late freeze, the Chinese Snowball failes to bloom.
Surely hope your spring is not being ruined by the pollen.
Oh yea, I went to Perry Lakes Park to see the Carolina Silverbells bloom. Sad to say, I was
too late.

Back Breaking Work

For the past few months, most of my waking hours has been devoted to work on the computer
and reading. However, next week , my time will be spent outdoors in the 80 degree weather
weeding, hoeing, and digging up my vegetable and cut flower garden getting it ready for spring
and summer. I have just ordered 15 plants from www.woodlanders.net. Hopefully the order
will arrive sometime next week. Hope I have the energy to get things accomplish. Oh yes,
something I hate, I have got to pick up more pine cones. It seems like that's all I did this
winter. The price one pays for beauty. It would be nice if you could obtain beauty while sitting
in the shade sipping on frozen magaritas.

Carolina Silverbells anyone?

The Carolina Silverbells will be blooming at Perry Lakes -Barton's Beach Project near Marion,
Alabama. There are masses of this native Halesia.

The New England Flower Show starts this weekend in Boston. They have an interesting theme
they named Asian Fusion. It highlights the Asian influence, but not only does it use oriental plants, it also uses plants typically grown in New England.

Tour the world's great gardens on Google.

Google images have some great photos of the world's famous gardens. It also has great images
of gardens of no fame. Am wishing I could catch an Airbus A 380 or slow boat to Europe to visit
some gardens. I will never forget the day I spent at Versailles and the day I spent at Allhambra
in Malaga, Spain the summer of 75. Also the parks and street scenes of Spain, France, Italy, and
Greece are spectacular.

Why doesn't your Garden Tractor crank up when you need it.

That 4 leaf clover and veitch seem to be a great place for snakes to hide. Of course, I don't know
if they have come out of hibernation. Couldn't get my little tractor. Had to struggle with the
small gasoline push mower and often the clover won out.

Allan Armitage

Allan Armitage, the well known horticuluralist from the South is giving a
lecture at Swarthmore College in Surburban Philadelphia.

Four leaf clover

The countryside is inundated with 4 leaf clover. And Saturday is St. Patricks Day.
The clover in our yard is high enough to hide many a leprechaun. To me 4 leaf clover looks
like shamrocks. I guess I haven't seen any shamrocks.

Pros and Cons of Bradford Pears

The Bradford Pears are nearing full bloom. They are beautiful when they bloom, but I can not
stand to see them shaped like lollipops. On my 50th birthday a Bradford Pear fell on my house
in Mobile. So they do not have the strongest of limbs. Also in Alabama , they are greatly overused when a lot of lovely natives are ignored like Shadblow Serviceberry, Silver Bells, and
Chinonanthus.

The Flower Shows.

It's getting close to the time of the year for flower shows. The best one I ever so was in Philadelphia in the spring of 1980. It was at the city's convention center across the river
from downtown, not far from Penn. Not only were the show flowers superb, but for me
the individually created garden scenes were tops. It takes quite and effort to time every bloom
to the flower show and the logistics of getting it in place is something I'm glad I don't have to
think of.

The time of the year is hear when you don't know what to wear. It was very chilly this morning, now it's hot, hot, hot. The clover and veitch is growing like mad all over the country. And this
small wild blue flowers are to kill for - wish I knew what is was.

For Gardeners in the South

It's hard to find a better reference book than Southern Living's Garden Book. Their book on
Landscaping is also well done. I've heard that Michael Dirr's books are excellent.

Tornadoes tear up Alabama

After bragging about perfect weather for a week all hell breaks loose in Alabama. Not only did
a huge one cause chaos in Enterprise, but the one at Miller's Ferry was in the middle of the
black belt about 30 miles from where I live. Ithink the people who got snow were much better off.