Thank you for all the lovely comments on the garden so far. But as the title of the post suggests, not everything is rosy in the garden.

And I think it’s important to share my failures, along side my triumphs. Now that we are almost to May, the things that didn’t make it through winter are more evident

I lost my favourite dark purple Delphinium. Delphs are somewhat short-lived perennials, usually lasting only three – five years. But this one was only two, so it was a bit of a disappointment. I have some Delph seedlings started, so hopefully there will be a dark purple one among them.

None of the tender Sages I planted have returned. They were a definite gamble, but I hoped that the mild winter, along with mulching them heavily would have helped, but it doesn’t seem to have.

It looks like many of those pretty Tickseed I planted last year did not make it through. The pinks were not a total surprise, as they aren’t as hardy, but the pale yellow, and a couple of the reds aren’t showing signs of life. I’ll give them a few more weeks before I give up hope completely.

My Hardy Glads are gone. I’m really ticked about this… you’d think from the name, they’d be hardy – right? Well – I missed some fine print on the website I bought them from “Lift in fall Zone 3 to 6”. I’m in Zone 6. It’s a shame, because they were gorgeous! I’m debating on getting more and trying again (lifting this time).

I lost one of my lavender plants. I had three, and the other two are doing great, so I’m not sure what happened to the third (they are in the same general area in and around the catio). I will probably get some more – but I think I’ll put some out front.

One of the Mums by the catio gate up and died. They only live about five years, and it came from the townhouse so I guess it was just done. It means I might lose the other two next winter. But I don’t mind buying more Mums!

Most of the roses are coming back beautifull, but I was worried about a couple: Caroline de Monaco and Good as Gold were not looking good. I cut them back hard – almost right to the base. Gold put on some new growth and seems like she’ll pull through.

But Caroline… I’m not so sure. There’s some growth on her, but it looks like it might be growth from root stock. Like the tickseed, I’ll give her a couple more weeks before I make a decision on pulling her or not.

And… I’m very sad… out of 10 asparagus plants…

Only ONE is sprouting!!!! I think I didn’t plant them deep enough, and then the squirrels digging probably didn’t help. I will probably get more, because I LOVE asparagus – and they take 3 years to get going enough to harvest.

I’m sure there will be more failures to come as we come into May. But they will balance out with the triumphs. Like irises in bloom!

These are a dwarf iris – they are very special, as they came from Mom. They are almost always the first iris to bloom each year. But they won’t be the last. I think I have at least a dozen different irises in the garden now.

And the mystery plant in the front garden was ground cover tulips, as I suspected. But I really don’t remember planting them there – maybe I did! Or maybe the squirrels made their own revisions to my garden design!

Plants are starting to show up at the garden centres now and I was amazed when I saw the pot containing these beauties. They are Ranunculus or Persian Buttercups. I’ve tried to start them from bulbs, but without any luck. i’ve never seen them in any of the garden centres. This pot had three beautiful colours. They aren’t hardy, so I’m going to try to save the bulbs over winter, and replant them in the spring. But now I’m going to enjoy every bloom.

It’s still early to put much out, but these pansy hanging pots were on clearance for just $7 at Home Depot.

I have no idea why they were on clearance already, but I snapped them up. I’ll have to bring them in if the overnight temps are going to drop below zero – but other than that they can take some cooler evening temps.

Despite the inevitable fails, it’s going to be another amazing gardening year!