Tidied Up and Ready for Spring

I haven't cross stitched the past few days, so my Mom agreed to show her latest project.  She is working on Lizzie Kate's "Hip Hip Horray for the U.S. of A." It's a freebie and as we've only see a black and white photocopy of the chart, it has been fun to watch it come to life as she stitches away.

I feel rather guilty about joining up with Tuesday Garden Party as again I ended up supervising watching as my sister and Mom tidied up our Mudroom Flowerbed rather than contributing much in the way of labor. 

My Mom bought Clematis "Wisley Cream" from Xera when we were up in Portland.  This plant is supposed to put out bell-shaped blooms from November through February.  Won't that thrill the hummingbirds next winter?

We'd done quite a bit of cleaning up in October and November, so it did not require hours of effort to get the flowerbed back in shape. 

Trimming this monster Salvia "La Trinidad Pink" was the biggest chore.  

With our dry winter, this transplanted evergreen needed a good drink of water.

I was surprised to see the Salvia "Black and Blue" regenerating.  It is a rather tender plant, and usually one of the later salvias to reappear.

This will be the 2nd year for this clematis, so I am hoping for more growth and blooms.

My sedums have very much enjoyed this drier and warmer than usual winter.  The group of twelve looks like something I just purchased and potted up, rather than a display that was over-wintered. 

Amazingly the snowdrops are done for the year, and the crocus have mostly finished.  The earliest varieties of of the daffodils have had their fling as well. But luckily we have a couple of dozen different varieties of daffodils planted, out so our show should continue on for several weeks yet. 

And what would gardening be without our many Garden Helpers?

I had three gray squirrels on the Front Porch caching sunflower seeds in my pots of bulbs. Who did you have helping you?