Half Price Sales

I love fall. I also love the deals that it brings. Garden centres are eager to clear out their stock so most of them offer their plants at half price or better. Yesterday, I hit two local nurseries and picked up these plants for half price:
- Hydrangea Preziosa
- Hydrangea Pink Diamond
- Hydrangea Snow Queen (an oakleaf hydrangea) ** this one didn't survive the winter. I got my money back.
- Tamarix Pink Cascade
- Cedar Rheingold
- Weigela Midnight Wine
- Japanese Maple Inabe Shidare
- Karasuba Mukdenia 'Karasuba"

And of course no visit to a garden centre is without a hosta or two:
- Hosta 'Radiant Edger'
- Hosta 'Whirlwind'

Of course I need more plants just as much as a need a hole in my head. But I bought these to plant in a new border that I'm starting. Originally, I was to start this border next spring but the weather is so nice this weekend that I'm getting a head start.

I marked the area and started to remove sod. This area is under a maple and a crabapple tree so the soil is quite dry and the grass is patchy. Here are the cedar, tamarix, hosta 'Radiant Edger', and hydrangea 'Preziosa' after I planted them. Because I will further amend the soil in this bed next spring, I only mulched around the roots of the shrubs. The mulch will hopefully help them survive their first winter.