March Mart 2004.

mark your 2004 calendars now -- mercer arboretum's annual march mart sale is scheduled for friday and saturday, march 26 and 27.

i went last year and bought a bucketload of new plants. most of them are even still alive.

survivors:

• coreopsis grandiflora, not only still alive, but it has multiplied. it didn't bloom last year, but i'm willing to bet it will this year.
  
• laurus nobilis, taller than it was last year and apparently happy. it's spending the winter in a pot in the garage.
  
• penstemon tenuis, bloomed lightly after being planted and i let them set seed. the plants also made a few offsets, so i am hopeful there will be more this year.
  
• phlox divaricata var. laphamii, didn't bloom, but seems to have increased slightly.
  
• salvia greggii, bloomed briefly, but didn't grow much, either due to location or just having been planted at a less than ideal time (i.e., after it started getting hot and dry and i have a bad habit of not watering new plants).
  
• salvia urtica, bloomed a few times and grew a lot.
  
• thymus serphyllum, thriving. it has grown enough that i've taken cuttings and moved them around the yard.

losses:

• stipa tenuissima, dead. i left it in the pot on the deck and never watered it.
  
• thymus x citriodorus, struggled mightily, but finally succumbed. possibly poor location, but the nearby thymus serphyllum has thrived.

jury still out:

• gladiolus byzantinus, bloomed a few weeks after i got it. after the foliage died back i dug up the corms, which seemed to have increased in number. i have since potted them and wait to see what will happen.