Rite of Spring

This year's visit to the Toledo Botanical Garden's annual plant sale yielded these treasures:

Rosemary
Spicy Orange Thyme
Silver Thyme
Sweet Woodruff
Golden Variegated Sage
African Blue Basil
Lemon Basil
Lime Basil
Orange Mint
Applemint
Spearmint

I'm going to need to get a membership, because at least two herbs I wanted were all snapped up yesterday at the members' only sale - columnar basil and globe basil. *sigh*

Here's a piccie of my basket of goodies:



This was taken in my back yard - you'll also see our beautiful azalea, part of my little stone circle, and my guard dachshund. :) The plant growing behind the dachshund is sweet woodruff, one of the plants I've discovered that does well in our extremely sandy soil.

Who woulda thunk it - a beach in a Toledo back yard. Now if only it came with an ocean...

Lavender, one of my faves, is a bit of a challenge here. The two plants I have are still alive, but if they've grown an inch since I planted them last year I'll be surprised. Lemon balm - yeah, it likes it here. It'll be a monster next year. Chives and parsley come back every spring--in a different place each time!

None of my thyme made it through winter, which surprises me because normally you have to try hard to kill this stuff. But I'm told that no one's thyme has been doing well around here for a couple years now. So at least I know it's not me.

I took some other pictures of what's in bloom at the botanical garden, like trillium, azalea, rhododendron and lots of native plants. Their herb garden is only now beginning to awaken...in a few weeks it'll be magnificent.

Those pictures are forthcoming. :)