What's Waking Up? March 23, 2016

Here in Noblesville, Indiana I've got lots of sleepy plants just barely waking up for Spring. Here's a photo tour of what's going on... if you just glance at my yard from the sidewalk you'd miss it, but if you get down on your knees you can definitely see things happening. I'm "that guy" walking around my yard with my iPhone taking pictures of mulch...

Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' survived the winter after being planted later in the season last year (September). Can you see the eyes? No? It took me a little while to find them myself. Ok, I'll admit I dug down a bit to spot them and then covered them back up again to keep them warm.

'Wee One' dwarf lavender with new green on old pale blue stems

Lots of new and thick looking culms growing from my 'Green Panda' bamboo Fargesia rufa

Hosta 'Patriot' going strong, still a good 2 weeks ahead of last year

'Annabelle' hydrangea waking up with green coming out of plump buds. They will form new growth and bloom on new wood this summer - but I am trying something different this year by leaving more old growth above ground instead of cutting them down to the ground completely.

Purple cone flower 'Prairie Splendor' by the utility boxes - this is the one that had a disease or something last year, it never formed real blooms and it got all wonky looking. I was kinda hoping it would come back normal this year if the disease died off over the winter. On second thought, based on photos, it looks like this one has Aster Yellows disease and I should rip it out before it spreads to anything else. Sorry little guy!

Shasta daisy Leucanthemum × superbum 'Becky' coming back after being transplanted in July

New Addition Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears'

This is my first miniature Hosta, it's a little tiny Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' that I'm trying out in my dry side yard and hoping to divide and fill in little spaces in both of my shade gardens. It only gets to be about a foot wide and 8 inches tall. Reading up on it a little, I'm thinking I may have to keep it watered quite well on the dry shade side until it is established.

This hosta is considered 'blue' because it is dark blue/green in contrast to other types that are lime green or yellow

Tiny blue mouse ear leaves!

This miniature hosta is a perfect size for my dry shade garden that curves in to only 9 inches wide at the narrowest point (to give me access to the water spigot).

Speaking of tiny Hostas, I noticed what I believe to be Hosta 'Libby' sprouting a baby. Rather than dividing this entire plant, I cut the baby off and planted it in a new spot. I'm not sure if all Hostas have babies like this, but I didn't notice the same thing happening with my Hosta 'Patriot'.

What I think is Hosta 'Libby' with a little baby off-shoot. I harvested this one instead of dividing the entire plant for a new division.

Free plants, can't beat it! Let's see if this one survives the winter.

Update 9-20-2015: The next morning I found that a rabbit had immediately enjoyed the young hosta leaves from my baby transplant (not my store bought Mouse Ears thankfully). I had my first sighting of the actual rabbit as well! He was hiding in the Russian sage by my utility box and went running. I sprinkled some Animal B Gon all around the bed and the utility box and I haven't seen him since.

My divided baby off-shoot hosta immediately became rabbit breakfast