More plants survived the winter

It's been exciting to check the rain garden each week to see if any new shoots have emerged. My big concern over the Hibiscus coccineus is now laid to rest. Both clumps have new green shoots emerging around the old stems from last year.

I planted some Maidens grass by the overflow pipe from the rain barrels, just to see if it would survive in soggy soil as an experiment and it too has new green shoots coming up.

The wild columbine went from little bunches of leaves 6 inches high to full bloom with those lovely red bell-shaped blooms dangling from 24 inch stems in just a week. The fact that we had temps in the high 80's had a lot to do with that. The progression from leaves to full bloom usually takes 3 or 4 weeks but this has been an unusual spring with temperatures that matched the record books recorded highs.

The spiderwort is also beginning to bloom with those vivid purple star-shaped flowers atop the stems and the blue indigo that refused to poke its head up has now reached a height of 18 inches in just this last 2 weeks.

We have a new challenge it seems for the rain garden. We have had less that 1/8 inch of rain in the last 2 weeks and none is predicted for at least another week. So many things are popping up and really need that moisture to continue to grow and form healthy plants. I guess we'll now be testing the drought hardiness of some of the more delicate plants.

I'll be posting pictures of the rain garden soon, so check back to see what kind of color and texture is happening now.