A pox on this cold and rainy weather! February was like May. May is like March. My frustration grew yesterday, so I put all the cushions back on the porch furniture…if it rains, it rains, they’re indoor/outdoor anyway!
Then I got in my car while light rain was spritzing my windshield and I drove to our local nursery. I was craving flowers. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people there, despite the weather. I find that everyone is as antsy as I am. We want to plant. We want warmer weather (coming next week, apparently.)
If it was going to stay unseasonably cold, I had just the solution:
Pansies! Confession: I’ve never planted pansies before, though I love them. Due to my frugal gardening nature, I usually plant all my pots once a season and that’s it. So I would normally plant these urns with something that would last through the summer.
But I threw caution to the winds yesterday and went with the pansies. And they cheered me up!
I have other plants-in-waiting. They’re currently waiting on the kitchen table.
And that doesn’t include impatiens, hanging plants, plants for the galvanized bucket, etc.
And mulch, which I will buy today or tomorrow.
In the meantime, it’s cold.
As happens at least once every spring, I looked outside to see a bunny inside the corral, running around in a panic because he/she couldn’t get out. After going outside and to open the gate, I went back inside and watched for a while, hoping he’d figure it out.
Nope. There was another bunny on the other side of the fence waiting for him. So I finally went outside, walking around the outside of the corral, hoping to nudge him toward the open gate. Didn’t work. Knowing he would be even more scared, but also knowing it was the only way to ‘rescue’ him from the corral, I stepped over the fence into the corral – staying far away – whereupon he panicked, running up against the fence a couple of times before he saw the gate and ran out.
Poor baby. But better that than an entire day stuck in the corral, getting more and more upset. I’m not sure why these guys can’t see the opening in the big corral that leads down to the house and the open gate. Let’s hope that’s the last time that happens. I saw him run around the house to the area just outside the kitchen window, where he stopped, collected himself, and proceeded to clean his paws. He’s okay.
Mowing? Mulching? I’m not sure.
Try not to get too excited.
Happy Monday.
Poor bunny. You did the right thing by helping him. Your house bunnies are proud of you!
I know you are anxious to get those flowers going. It is. Funny how doing a bit of advance work helps. Yes, put those cushions out! Seeing them waiting for warm weather, like you, will help!
Have a great rest of the day! We are in the mid to high 80’s this week! Sending warm wishes your way. Becky
Exactly! The cushions are now back on the porch where they should be! Envying your temperatures, Becky, but I’ll gladly take 70 degrees at this point!
Poor little scared bunny…so glad you finally got him headed in the right direction…The pansies were a great choice…I brought home a bouquet of carnations from the grocery store the other day…I just had to have some flowers and it was marked half price…I guess we have to enjoy what we can at this time!
We do. The lilacs, I’m glad to say, survived the rains and they’re still hanging in there!
I’m glad the bunny got out of the corral. I”m also glad you went ahead and planted pansies! It’s cool here today and through the week. Weird weather. I’ve so much to do this week and hope I can find time to paint a little . I also need to get some passport photos taken so I can renew my passport. I never know when Ashleigh might say lets go to………… (fill in the blank with a foreign country). So I will renew it soon. I have paperwork to do, phone calls to make and appointments to keep. Today is rest day though! Hugs!
I have to renew mine this year, as well. Hopefully, I’ll get around to it soon! Rest today, Linda.
first things first … thank you very much for helping the rabbit!
and the pansies are beautiful; great choice.
hope you have a great week ahead, even with the mowing and mulching!
kathy in iowa
I like mowing, though it can be tiring. Mulching, too, because in both cases, I can see the end result. Satisfying!
Those new planters look great! Sunday I was planting pansies too because we were equally antsy and went to the nursery. It was about a month earlier than usual. We were looking for a tree to replace our beloved diseased ash that was cut down last month. Our new “Autumn Flame” maple will be delivered, along with two good sized white lilac bushes, on Tuesday. I put the pansies in a planter and then had to drag it into the garage when we got frost warnings. In May!
I think pansies can tolerate cold weather, but don’t hold me to that! Your new tree and lilac bushes sound like they will be beautiful additions to your property! Congratulations!
Funny bunny! I think pansies are a great idea. I only plant once a year…but those look so cute, I might have to change my strategy. Still sort of cool here…60, but no more frosts for at least a week, so I’m going for it. I’m planting my perennials this afternoon. It’s a small bed that I vividly remember planting and weeding with my mom over the years. Sweet memories! Mowing and mulching? Yes, it is exciting, because these are the days we anxiously wait for all year long! ;)
I don’t think we have any official frosts coming, but the temp is dipping down to 36 and 37 the next couple of nights. I’m going to be cautious and wait until Wednesday!
It is cold here too. But is is a lovely sunny day.
Pansies are one of my favorite summer flowers. Here they last the entire summer. I dead head about once a week or so. I love going around to each of the flower pots and dead head. But, I know it isn’t everyone’s thing.
The poor bunny . Scared. I wonder why he doesn’t remember how he got in there, and the same way. When the cats like their paws we think it means “I am not afraid.”
I’ll take your advice and dead head when necessary. I’d love it if they last all summer, Trudy!
Don’t know why – unless he got under the chickenwire somewhere else in the corral and couldn’t remember how to get back out!
I don’t think we are to go over 66* all week again. High of 55* tomorrow. Certainly better than a month ago, but I get so impatient (to plant the impatience, etc!!!!!) Those night time temps can be scary.
Love the pansies. I have never planted them, either. Some people say that they will stay all season. Their colors are so striking.
Well, kiddo, have a great Monday. Hope you spend some good time chatting w/ Don today on his day off. Bet they are anxious for the show to open!
Impatient for sure, as is yours truly! Trudy was just commenting that they stay all season – I think she’s in Minnesota. Maybe they’ll stay all season here, because they’re awfully pretty.
Just spoke to Don. He’s taking it easy after an incredibly long and hard week for everyone involved in the show. He may drive out to Borrego Springs to see the stars. They are an official, is it dark? community? No streetlights at all. Out in the desert. It could be pretty spectacular. I told him if he’s going that way, I need another Julian pie.
We have finally got some warm and dry weather. All of the plants are in full bloom and think it is already June or July. Such crazy weather we have had all Spring.
The bunnies sound so cute. They do get kind of crazed at times if they feel trapped. Glad they finally figured it out.
Have a glorious week.
Judy
Crazy, crazy weather! Yes, the bunnies get so panicked and then I appear, which makes them even more scared! But I had to try to steer him in the right direction.
I’m glad you were there to notice the bunny’s predicament and help him out. We had another bird fly in the front door yesterday, but instead of panicking and flapping around, he flew straight through the house and exited through the back door. We, however, did his panicking for him!
Today it’s all about bringing all of the outdoor furniture inside and boarding up the windows and doors. We’ll try to bring the sunny weather with us!
I would have been panicked, too! I’m glad the bird flew right back outside! Yes, please bring some sunny weather!
I plant pansies every single year, as soon as they are available in the garden center. Up here on the mountain top, they often last the whole summer, although they are straggly by the end. In my big planters I add other summer flowers that will fill in and conceal any straggly pansies. If they get too bad, I just rip them out, cut them back, and stick them in a pot in the shade until fall.
Poor little bunny, I’m glad you rescued him, he must have been awfully scared!
Good advice about the pansies, Debbie. Thank you!
Those Pansies are lovely. I have to buy some flowers. My sister planted some flower seeds,including Pansies. Will have to wait and see if any come up. Pansies do like the cold,so perhaps they will thrive and grow.
Marilyn
Let’s hope so, Marilyn. We’re counting on them!
I’m also a spring pansy lover, mine have been in for weeks, but they aren’t too happy in the CT summers. I also take them out before they get leggy, cut them way back and am in love again in autumn when the mums are gone and the summer pots look tired.
Deb
I feel like I’ve been missing out on pansies. I really love them! Do you cut them down to just the stem?
Your pansies are lovely! They are by far my favorite…and the bunnies around here agree :-) Oh well, I just plant enough for all of us to enjoy. In our Tx climate, we can have them all winter long. If we by chance get ice or snow, they recover well. But, by the middle of May, the heat cooks them. When I dead head, I toss the spent blooms down in the bed. Several weeks ago, I noticed the seeds had germinated and produced plants! In all the years I have planted pansies, this is a first :-) Isn’t Mother Nature grand?
She sure is! She continually amazes me!
Some of my bulb leaves are turning brown, so it’s time to sow flower seeds in the bulb planters. I bought a packet of “For the Bees” flowers and will sow them in about a week. All the leaves should be brown and plucked out my then. Plants have gone crazy with all the rain we got this past winter. I’ve been out trimming trimming trimming. I hope your true Spring comes soon so you can enjoy some gardening other than mowing.
It’s coming, just slowly! I think that next week will bring temps in the seventies. I just have to hang in there (as does everyone else in this neck of the woods.)
It’s unseasonably cold here in the UK as well Claudia. The temperature seemed to be climbing a couple of weeks ago and as my dwarfs French beans were looking a bit leggy indoors I planted them out in the raised bed and then the cold wind blew in. Disaster! They are looking so sorry for themselves now and are just about hanging on. I talk to them every day saying that the warm weather is on it’s way, hopefully in a few days time if the forecast is to be believed. I love your pansies. I plant them most years in my pots at the front of the house and feel they are smiling at me when I come home!!
We had abnormally high temps in February and then again in April and now we’ve plunged back down – sounds like this is happening a lot of places! Keep talking to those beans (I talk to my plants, too!)
Thrilled with the pansies by the way, I feel like I’ve been missing out all these years. They make me smile.
I do cut them back pretty far Claudia and they’ve never failed to pop back up. I don’t know how you can not smile at a pot of panseys. 😊
Thank you, Deb!