"Barbara" Year 5

 Hard to believe it's been five years...

Here is how the bush is doing.  I still haven't cut anything back.

Barbara - Year 3

 Bloomed just ahead of Mother's Day...

Phase 1 of freshening up the outside of our house

The eventual plan is to paint the wood on our front porch gray and do something different with our front door. And possibly paint the garage doors  But for now, it's new mulch for the first time since 2015 and Cindy's touch on the front porch.  Amy and Steve got Cindy a new bench for Mother's Day and Cindy has added a cushion, some pillows and a new table/chair.

We added three calibrochoas...two hanging.

(These posts are partly for us to refer back to so pardon the detail.)

 

Here is the mulch....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tidied up St. Francis and my brick and rocks from childhood home

 

 

Here is the porch...

 

 

Pre-middle pillows

 

 

Amy potted two of our planters as well...

 

 

 

A few long views...

 



Barbara - 2nd year

This lilac bush was a gift to Cindy to honor Ruth.  We call her "Barbara".  Here she is year two..

 

"Barbara" finally bloomed!

Cindy was given a lilac bush from her dear friend Cindy Francis when Ruth passed last year.  I posted pictures of it getting planted and we had some late summer buds last year.  Over the winter, the deer really chewed it back and there was less bush this spring  But lilacs are resilient and it bounced back with green leaves and buds.  We thought it would take another year of maturity to bloom but that changed in the last few days.  Here is the bush we call "Barbara"...''


 

 

And here are this year's calibrochoa after surviving high winds and hail...

 

 

And finally a Mother's Day gift from Amy and Steve to Cindy...

 

Here and Gone (late-blooming lilac bush)

Lilacs are known for blooming around Mother's Day.  Our new bush (Barbara) was planted in honor of my mother-in-law Ruth.  About a week ago, I saw a small bud starting.  I Googled it and it's not unusual.  But this didn't last long.  Within a week it was gone and it's the only one I've seen.  But it's growing very well and I've been covering it to protect from the deer.

 

Gone...

I'm bushed (after today)

Finally had a chance to catch up on a few things around the house.  My neighbor friend who gives me milkweed pods gave me some extra flowers (salvia, impatiens, etc).  They have been sitting on my porch since probably mid-April.  And then Cindy's dear friend Cindy Francis bought a Korean dwarf lilac bush in honor of Ruth.  I named the bush Barbara.

So today with it hitting over 90 degrees again, I mowed, potted flowers and planted a bush.

Here are some of the flowers...

 

And here is the bush pre-planting...



 

I'm posting this partially for me to remember what I used...

 

 

Here are the flowers...

 

 

I had a few extra salvia I stuck in the ground

 

 

 

For the bush, it needs some sun.  It can get five feet high and five feet wide so had to give it room.

This is where we decided to plant it...

 

 

 

Prep and planted...

 

 

Project done...