What's in full bloom now? MAY 16th - MAY 31st

Willow - that was superb! Forget the remembering later. Should be in a motto of some sort...

Holly - my camassia was looking nicely a couple days ago.
it was hugging the soil earlier this evening: horizontal camas.

Willow, I will take this to heart and update all my garden maps with variety names of things I want to reference later, like the blueberries (so I know what kind have the best flavor if I ever want to get more bushes).

Oh My..what beautiful blooms. I'm always in awe this time of year!! Ariseama

Podophyllum

Some kind of iris.

My Dad is only now starting to have trouble remembering words and he'll be 92 in August. Why didn't I get that gene?

Linda, which podophyllum is that? It looks like you've had it for awhile. Are the blossoms red? I took a photo of my blossoms tonight, but the pics are all fuzzy . . .

Trientalis

Lonicera ciliosa. And yes, the vine is pulling the little trellis over. I need to find (or build) a more serious support. I did find that I have another vine in my little wooded area on the other side of the yard. Yippee. To think that I pulled these when I first moved in . . .

BEAUTEOUS blooms everybody!!!!!

What a treat to look at all the pretty blooms over coffee while it is still raging outside. Pixy, I think the thread is "lasagna gardening - voles" or something along those lines in the Herb Forum. It's toward the bottom. At this point, they are somewhat mystified, perhaps you can stir them on to figure out which plant(s) they have in common. I have many of the ones they were referencing if you need any starts.

I'll look for it, Deb. Thanks.

My camas lilies are blooming but they look like crap. Also, the leaves have ugly discoloration on them. I've had these bulbs for years and have yet to be anything but irritated by them. They get one more year to prove their worth, and then out they go. It worked with the lilac. Maybe this will work with these bulbs.

Wow! Where to start?

Bea, that columbine from the OG is fab! It would have a hard time not losing some seeds to my pocket if I lived close! I liked the flannel bush too... had never seen one before. Your Crystal Fountain clem pic will have Mom all excited. She got that one this year and it has a couple of blooms and she has already decided that it is now her favorite clematis!

Deb, I really liked "Pink Panda". I have admired them at the nursery, but am very wary of using anything that has to do with "strawberry" as a groundcover. When we bought our property, I made a holding bed for the plants that we wanted to move from my house and Mom's. Mom wanted to bring some of her strawberries, so we planted a few plants in and amongst the roses, etc. Fifteen years latter, I still have strawberries everywhere in that bed.... I am glad that I am not the only one who has trouble with Snow-in-Summer. I have managed to keep one little patch alive, but that's it. It goes really well with your forget-me-nots!

Pixy, Your alpine columbine is very cute, and that green primrose is to die for! It looks like the one that I was drooling over on one of your catalogues at the seed exchange. I also really like your "lavenders"! What a beautiful combination.

Katye, I love the stitched garden pic! I still am in awe of people who's gardens look so neat and orderly. Your clems are very pretty as well. I loved Venosa violacaea... such a pretty color/form. I am also very jealous of a rose bloom that looks like a rose bloom should...

Linda, your podophyllum is just gorgeous. I finally figured out where to plant my little kid... am crossing my fingers that it does as well as yours. Love the iris also.

Kathy, Our natives are so similar! I don't have lonicera ciliosa in my garden area, but it is here and there in the woods and is in full bloom for us right now as well. When we had Gma's ceremony, we climbed the hill between her property and mine to sprinkle some of her ashes on the dogwood grove there. We have admired the dogwood blooms from far below, but when we got up there, we realized that there were bunches of lonicera ciliosa all around the feet of the dogwoods. It couldn't have been more perfect! I also have trientalis everwhere in one of my gardens. It is such a dainty little plant.

Worked at cleaning up/planting yesterday until the monsoon came. I got my shade garden all cleaned up yesterday and the impatiens put in. It was looking very nice by the time I was done. I went out to hunt slugs there this morning (protecting my new flowers from the absolute slug INVASION I am fighting off) and found that a big branch of the maple above it had broken off in the wind and crashed into the middle of my clean garden. Pooh on this month anyway! This was before branch....

Pixy, that iris salvaged from the old house is gorgeous! Waiting to see what color something is going to be can be torturous, can't it? I brought an unknown poppy home from the Eugene Farmer's Market a few years ago, and it was such a little thing that this is the first year it has formed flower buds. A grand total of two.... that is until last week when I woke up to find that something (or someone?) had snapped the biggest bud off. So now I'm down to one chance for bloom, fingers crossed it will actually bloom this year and end the suspense!

Don't you hate it when you're just waiting on the bud to open - and then something snaps it off. Grrrrr.

Kymmco, the way around the torture of waiting is to have so many other plants that you forget about the one NOID . Then when it blooms you are surprised and look at the tag. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Maybe if you try to forget that poppy, it will put up another bud...Buds breaking off... I hate when that happens!

Julie, the garden is looking lovely! Remind me that you love the green primrose next time you are here or we get together.

Dwarf varigated weigelia before it rained. Just at full bloom. And the basket my DD gave me for Mother's Day.

This message was edited May 21, 2010 5:22 PM

This little jewel of a frog on the laceleaf in the courtyard.

From a distance. Hope this one isn't blurry.

Blue Ensign, first of the purples.

Hotei. Not many blooms this year. It lost most of it's leaves last year in the heat when I forgot to water.

The neighbors snowball bush.

Hooray for wee froggies! :D

Julie your garden looks beautiful. Nice work!

Cute froggie Willow. :)

Katie..I believe this is podophyllum pleianthum. I purchased it from the original Heronswood. This particular plant was planted about 4 years ago and has out performed in this location above any where else I have it growing. The blossoms are red/burgundy.

This isn't full bloom but ya gotta start somewhere......I've been watching a few palms around here and all in Gig Harbor proper, are in full bloom. It seem like a lot of plants in my world are weeks behind of where they were last year.

Thanks, Linda. I sure do like it.

Thanks for compliments on my shade garden. It is one of the very few that I have "done" this spring...cleaned for the second time (third if you count the stinkin maple branch, which I grumbled the whole time I was cleaning up) and annuals planted...

Love the color of the frog with the maple Willow! Like Blue Ensign as well. Can't believe out of all my rhodys I don't have a large flowered purple. I have been drooling over Mom's Chappeau (sp?) and Blue Peter over the last week or two and now seeing yours, I really need to add at least one!

Linda, I think your world is probably behind because of the style of plants you grow.... they are all waiting for "tropical" type weather, and we have been about as far from that as we can get these last couple of months ^_^

Blooming? I'll tell you what's blooming in my garden. Slugs! And leaf miners! The flowers are hanging their mushy heads and their petals are on the ground in damp little piles. :(

Orange poppies caught in the sun.

Valerian - from the serenity section of my herb garden, smells good.

SUN??? Bonehead, I think you sat there with your camera poised for the 30 seconds the sun appeared. Or you're in Tahiti but not telling us.

I did have some sun yesterday for part of the afternoon. I foolishly started painting my picnic table frame, thinking the dark clouds would just blow by me. Wrong. My chives are now all sprawled out on the ground, and the poppies are likely going next. Who knows what my paint project looks like, I'm afraid to look.

Oh no! I hope it's not ruined! Frustrating!

My laburnum is at its peak right now... Golden Chain Tree in The Rain... I notice it is always about two weeks behind most others. Also my alliums are blooming... Their blooms have never been full, I thought maybe it was an age thing, but they've been in the ground three seasons now. Do you think it's a lack of fertilization? I never have fertilized them much...

Blue Peter rhode

I don't do anything for mine, but they're about 15 yrs old now. However, it seems to have taken them at least a few years to get up to their fullest; sort of like Lilies.

Good to know... :) Do you bother deadheading them? I haven't and maybe they're spending too much energy producing seeds rather than growing the bulb for next year... we do get a lot of baby alliums...

Again. It is quite similar to your Blue Ensign, Willow.

no - they get nothing! they are expected to do no more than rise from their slumber, make leaves for the slugs to eat & hide under, then bloom their fool heads off. I don't cut them until they have dried, at which point I bring them in & stick them in a vase. When i am tired of seeing them - off to the compost pile they go.