"Flowers are the earth laughing."

I loooove that quote.  I just saw it in a Stampin' Up catalog, and I was like, What beautiful figurative language!! Ralph Waldo Emerson said it.

Another quote I love is from that wonderfully famous woman, My Mom:  "Flowers make life worth living."  So, so true.

I just wanted to show you all of the pictures I've been taking of my spring flowers.  They've been so much fun.  But first, let me show you my birthday debacle:

Ugh.  I really wanted something I could put in front of my dryer vent - I have garden area around there, but nothing can grow right there, obviously.  So I saw this birdbath and was like, oh my gosh, perfect.  And it kind of matches the paint on our trim and front door and stuff.  So I bought it and got it in the car, and on the way home, the tray fell off the stand thing.  I thought, Jeez, I'm totally taking this back.  But the way it fell off - the paint from the tray was still on the tray, and if you positioned it just right back on the stand and used clear glue, you would never tell the difference.  Ben has any kind of adhesive you could ever ask for, so I asked him when he got home if he could use something to re-attach the tray to the stand.  He said, "Oh yeah, I'll use Liquid Nails!"  Cool, I thought.

Not cool.  Not cool.  I learned that Liquid Nails does NOT dry clear.  It dries white.  And so now my birdbath looks like crap.  Like bird crap, actually...

And no birds have come to bathe in it, which also makes me very sad.

Moving on.

Last fall, I asked Ben when he went to the grocery store (I make him do the shopping.  He is more easy on himself with the budget than he is on me.  So I make him go so we can get more of what we need.  Kar is usin' the ole' noggin.) to get me some daffodil bulbs.  He did way better than that.  He got, like, five different kinds of bulbs!!  So, so fun.  These little guys came up:

I don't remember the name of them, but they bloomed and re-bloomed a few times, which I really appreciate.  They're not like my dumb crocuses, which bloomed once (and only three of them bloomed for me this year) and were done.  Blah.  I think I'm throwing my crocus bulbs away.  Or maybe I need new crocus bulbs each year???  Anywho, these guys were so teeny that I think you need to buy lots and lots of them to make a good impact in your bed.

My beautiful dwarf irises:

They only bloom once too, dang it.  I actually need to go out there and divide them up today.  Every couple of years I have to do that so they don't take over the whole world.  I especially love these dwarf irises because I got the starts from my grandpa.  If you want any dwarf iris starts, give me a call.

My tulips were spectacular again this year:

Here's a better shot of how colorful and fun they were:

Love those.

I have always, always, always wanted some hyacinths, and I finally got to plant them last fall.  They did not disappoint:

 The nice thing about hyacinths is that their blooms last a good three weeks.  I like that a LOT.

My new daffodil bulbs performed really well:

But I didn't get one bloom from my old daffodil bulbs.  I'm wondering if those need to be completely replaced every year, too.  Gardening is such a learning process.

These were by far my favorite, favorite bulbs that came up - grape hyacinths:

They were soooo showey, and again, their blooms lasted forever.  Three to four weeks.  They made me really happy.

With some of my birthday money, I also finally invested into some creeping phlox:

They're not creeping yet, and they're not very spectacular-looking yet, but next spring, they will be show-stoppers.  I remember once visiting a friend, and she had some hot pink phlox blooming in her front yard, and I go, "What are those???" I've wanted some ever since.  They spread up to 18 inches in diameter.  I put them in the perfect place.  They're done blooming until next spring, but I'm really excited to see how they do.

My bleeding hearts are blooming:

Oh, how I love them.  One of my white bleeding hearts didn't make it through the winter.  Let us take a moment of silence in memory of her.

I might go get another one with my birthday money.  And some potting soil.  It's sad that I'm using birthday money to buy dirt.  But I have GOT to amend that soil in my backyard.  It's driving me nuts and making my forsythia very angry.  She only gave me a few yellow blooms this spring.  Not even worth taking a picture of.  She needs some major help.

These pansies crack me up - they were supposed to be annuals, but surprise!  They come up every year.  And I'm okay with that.  But they only re-came up in one bed, when I had planted them in two beds.  Really weird.

 We got telstars again for Mother's Day at church:

I'm excited to show you my older telstars in front when they bloom.  There are so many blooms on them when they're a few years old that you can't even see the green.  They're nice and round and bushy and gorgeous.

I wish I knew the name of these dudes:

Again, they came from bulbs.  They're nice and tall.  Probably three feet tall or so.  Ben calls them Truffula Trees.  Micah calls them Bangs.  I don't know why.  He has the weirdest words for things. He calls church shoes, "Bops."  No idea why.

My candy tufts (Micah calls them "Candy Tuffs") are one of my favorite spring bloomers.  Love these things.

 See?  So many blooms that you can't even see the green.  I like that.  They're soooooooooo pretty.

So anywaysssssss, that's what's been going on in Kar's Garden.  Micah is quite the little gardener himself.  My mom got him some seeds and his own little gardening tools for his birthday, so I have a feeling we'll be out there planting those suckers today.  He actually snuck outside and planted some this morning while I was feeding and dressing Gage.  He totally put them in the wrong spot, so we'll have to dig them up and put them where they're supposed to go.  They're vines, and he planted them, like, in the front of a flower bed.  So we'll relocate those toward our porch railing so they have something to cling to.  He's a silly boy.  :)  And he seriously might have a future as a botanist or a landscape architect.  The kid has a green thumb.