Banished!

I’ve been banished to the basement this week! Not as dreary as a dungeon or cellar, by any means. In fact, the basement is our quite cozy family room and my quilt art studio. Nonetheless, it is disorienting for me to move my tasks and time to other locations within my own home. Silly? Yes. Especially when I prefer to believe that my easy-going, alert nature overrides my need for routines and organization. Ha!

This forced isolation has given me the opportunity to reorganize my blog a bit and provide you with some quick reference labels to topics that may be of interest to you. I hope this new feature will be helpful to you as the gardening season gets into full swing. Soon, very soon!

To encourage us all to keep our eyes open for the first signs of spring, I'm inviting you to participate in my "first flower to bloom in your garden photo contest." Bulb, shrub, perennial, whatever. Mail your digital photo to jhcstudios@yahoo.com and include the name of the plant, your location, and the date of the photo. I'll publish the winner here at The Art Garden.

This photo is of the beautifully colorful Winter King hawthorn (Crataegus viridis 'Winter King'). This is a wonderful small tree (30'Hx20'W) with white flowers in spring, and glossy green leaves that turn purple to scarlet in the fall. Another positive: few thorns! This particular hawthorn is not as drought tolerant as some of the other species, so keep it moderately moist.