Plant updates: before and after

Yesterday I posted an update on the kittens, so today I thought I'd give you a look at the progress a few different plants have made with some "before" and "after" shots.

First up is the honeysuckle vine. I love it's flowers, but I wish they had more fragrance -- there's really none.

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Remember that I chopped this way back earlier this year on March 14:

It's come back nicely so far, and will fill out even more over the next few years. Did I already say that I love these flowers?

Next up is this Artic Blue willow that I forgot to water and had to cut back hard on April 17th:

As I hoped, it's coming back strong, and will be even fuller than it was before. I need to get it into a bigger pot though.

Here are the Elephant ears (Colocasia esculenta) that I kept in the garage over the Winter. They looked pretty nasty when I pulled them out on April 1st -- really soggy and mushy in places.

Obviously that was not a problem, as they're doing great and producing several "pups" that I need to dig out and pot up. I'm concerned that these plants are already root-bound, but I don't have bigger pots, and putting them in the ground is going to take a BIG hole, so I'll probably just leave them in these same pots for another year, but remove as many of the "pups" as possible.

Lastly, I'd like to look at my wildflower/annual bed. The last close look we had on April 25, the seedlings were just coming in:

Although it looked like Cleome would take over the bed, it's the Rudbeckia that is starting to come on strong now. The deer (or rabbits) keep eating the coreopsis, so I may need to help those along a bit -- maybe plant some from pots once the other plants have grown up a bit. I'm not sure why the rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan) aren't being eaten since deer and rabbits both love them -- maybe they're not big enough to be noticed yet.

Also looks like I need to do a bit more thinning here.

I really like doing these comparison shots, as it clearly shows how much the garden has changed in the last month or two. Seeing the gradual changes daily you don't notice how green and wonderful everything has become.