If You Can't Afford to Buy Plants, Move the Ones You Have

The title comes from a saying attributed to my great-grandmother, Ma Lily, pictured here with some of her plants, I'm guessing about 1920.

I took advantage of the last of the warm weather and dug up the overgrown azaleas in the front bed and moved them, along with two of the Little Princess Spirea around to the back border, which is essentially a holding pen for plants that I don't know what to do with yet. I then hauled the snow azaleas back to the front yard and planted them in a drift around the Yoshino Cherry. It looks a little weird, like they are sunken in with the other spirea around them, but I think it will work. See before and after below:













I'm going to add a couple of camellias, one from...yes...the back border...and maybe a Carolina Moonmist. I'm still thinking of a winter daphne or some other evergreen of similar size, and some firepower nandina for more winter color. The rest of the bed will be perennials. I went to New Garden today and bought some aster, Happy Returns daylily, Moonbeam Coreopsis, Black-eyed Susan, and Becky Shasta daisy from the 50% off table. I can divide some more aster and coreopsis from the other bed and have a nice looking sequence of blooms this summer. I'm tempted to go back and buy the rest of the Black-Eyed Susan and make a big drift in my sun bed in the back.



Here are some new shoots coming out on my Anthony Waterer Spirea.