It’s spring in the garden and I am wondering around asking all kinds of questions.

Some of the questions have easy, fun, life-affirming answers.

Will the Magnolia ‘Butteflies’ tree I planted last spring still be alive this spring and will its blooms live up to my expectations?

A resounding yes to that multi-part question!  And by the way it is also a big “yes”, BIG YES, for the new redbud Cercis canadensis ‘Ruby Falls’ that I planted in early summer.

Check and good because good trees cost good money so it is always good when they live through at least the first year.

Other questions still aren’t answered.

A popular question is “What happened?”

As in, “what happened to the other Virginia bluebells in this garden bed?”

I have blooms o’ plenty on the Virginia bluebells I got from a member of my garden club a few weeks ago. I planted them in the vicinity of some other Virginia bluebells, which are just now coming up. Just now. Why are mine so late and why were hers so early?

We may never know. I just know the cold, wet spring is slowing down a few other flowers around here.

Another popular question as plants pop up here and there and everywhere is “did I plant that?”  And the variation of that question, “what is that?”

I asked both questions about these plants that popped up.

You would think I would remember planting five big plants like that. Well, I don’t remember planting five big plants like that. I must have been “in the zone” so to speak and gardening unconsciously when I planted them. I must have had a whole bunch of bulbs and time was running out last fall so I planted them all over without much thought.

(Oh dear, I hate to give you dear readers the idea that I don’t have a well-thought-out garden plan and am just out there planting willy-nilly all over the place.  Well, the truth is somewhere in the middle. I do have a well-thought-out garden plan but the garden borders are more like garden theme areas that provide guidance on where to plant. So I do sometimes just plant all higgly-piggly. It’s really the best of both worlds. A compromise between stringent rules and an all-out free for all.)

Anyway, best guess right now is they are big alliums. I don’t know what else they could be in this climate.

Time will tell. Or rather, their blooms will tell.

Another frequently asked question in the spring is “where did all these weeds come from?”

Where did all these weeds come from that I now see throughout my garden? There are dandelions everywhere, plus lots of purple deadnettle. Or is it dead-nettle?  Such a name “deadnettle”, especially for a weed that is as alive and flourishing as it is in my garden.  I should molly-coddle all the weeds a bit. Maybe that will cause them to die, because we know plants wither under too much care, right?

My final question, at least for this week, is “is it going to stop raining so I can get out into the garden?” I think the answer is yes if you believe weather forecasters.

Then in a few weeks, I’ll be asking “do you think we’ve had the last frost of spring?”

That will be the last question for this spring.  Then it’s on to the summer questions. More on those later.