I went to a garden party/ To reminisce with my old friends

I'm getting antsy to start trying to do gardening. We got this hydrangea at our housewarming party, and I want to find a place for it outside:



It was doing fine for a while, then some of its leaves got a bit crunchy. I hope I can get it to survive until I'm able to get it outside.

Jake and I went to Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria on Valentine's Day. I've started some flower seeds in little pots. I chose penstemon digitalis, because the description I read said that the plants attract bees and hummingbirds. The seeds are super small. I could barely even see them as I put them in the pots. I'm afraid nothing is going to come up. Jake chose a plant called liatris spicata. I really need to learn the common names of these things. Go Google! Okay, the common name of mine is "beard tongue" and Jake's is "blazing star".

I also have a bunch of seed packets of vegetables, but haven't tried to start any of them yet. I have 2 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of peppers, lettuce, mesclun, and cucumber. I'm not sure how much I should try to start. On the one hand, I don't want to start trying to grow too many things at once and become overwhelmed. On the other, I want to make sure that I'm successful at growing something (even if it is just one thing) and the more things I try, the more likely it is that something will work out.

Oh, and I got flowers from Jake on V-day. I just told one of my coworkers that I can't remember the last time I got flowers, so this was cool. He also bought the vase for me on etsy. Here are pictures: