Garden Pics: April shows brought these May flowers #5!!!

again the willow.

lamium

Ok.... I can't decide which of these next to is the better picture. So, which do you all think is the better of the two?

Thoe other one.


also the last pic for tonight.

OMG what wonderful pictures! No way to comment on every one that I really liked...I would be here all day!

Ginger and Bea, loved the bumble pics.

Willow, your rhodies are gorgeous, especially the big pink one.

Beahive, ditto your iris! You have me very anxious to see mine start. I loved the orange/white one, reminded me of a creamsickle!

Katie59, your pots are great! The color combos are perfect!

Katye, Your garden is gorgeous! You posted two things that thrilled me...I have a very similar noid tree peony who is only four and has grown by leaps and bounds. Would love to see him get as glorious as yours sounds. I also have the davidia, but mine is still a little kid and hasn't bloomed for me yet. I can't wait! It is so unusual.

Redchic, Pics are awesome as usual! Your garden looks great, and full enough that weeding shouldn't be too much of an issue. The clematis was great. Can't tell you which of the hosta pics I like best...they are both wonderful. Maybe the first one??

I was worried about my Carol Mackie daphne this year as it lost all of it's leaves this winter. It has never done that in my yard before. Fortunately, other than a few branch tips, it has come back in all of it's splendor. This one I wish you could capture the scent with the camera as well......heavenly!

Johnson's blue geranium is just starting.

My very favorite noid tree peony. It only has two blooms on it this year as it was traumatized by flooding this winter, but it is an eyecatcher with just one flower open. I will try to get another pic of it when it is fully open.

And the last one for this morning. This is another tree peony that I am crossing my fingers does as well as Katye's in the future! Has about 10 buds on it right now.

Julie - if you have any pruning on your Daphne, get it done asap but when it's dry. Spray with a fungicide - they are prone to picking up all kinds of fun stuff when there is an open wound.
My D. Odoras did not fare so well - several main branches & I'm not sure pruning will help unless it's extreme. They do break from older wood, but this is all the way down the branch. Not looking forward to a possibly negative outcome.

"A little dwarf yak."

Hey willow... I can top that...


Big Baby Yak. (Yasmin)

Thanks RJ.... But that's the only bed in the yard that's that full. The others are just full of weeds, and maybe a few plants! lol Beautiful Johnsons blue geranium and tree peony!!

Beadmom..... cute little yak!

Yak yak, I love your little yak. Liked the first picture or the hosta for some reason.
Love all the peony trees. My other one is a real dark purple violet.
Good to know about the nandina. I think I will do that to mine. When did you cut them back? Good pictures. Like your container. I have that Trientalis all over the place.
Katye, love the veronica and the golden rhodie.
RC, that back-lit white rhodie is super.

Patricia - I did it about a month ago, I think. The temps had warmed up, but it was still rainy. The Trientalis hadn't even poked up its head yet. It's really only been the last week that I've seen this new growth. I was sure that was it - this was really surprising.

And I've been getting used to not having them in this bed and have enjoyed thinking about their replacements. Now I have to backtrack a little. There's no way I'm digging them out since they're at the base of that fir tree . . .

Bachelor Button

The foxglove are beginning to bloom.

The lupines are huge this year.

I like that Bachelor Button a lot.

Yakkety yak...yakkety yak - wasn't that a song from the past?

Great pics everyone - cute yak and wow I like that foxglove!

I like this combo in my garden.

Gosh, ladies, your flowers are beautiful. I love that shade combination, Judi.

Katye, Thanks for the advice on pruning the daphne...I have never done it before, so was unaware that they are susceptible to the crud! Will do it this weekend and spray when I spray my roses with fungicide. Hope you have good luck with yours..they are such nice plants. I needed to give you a HUGE thank you too. (at least I think it was you....) Someone, and I am fairly certain it was you, recommended using hog wire to confine perennials that got unruly.
DH finally picked me up a roll, and I made my maiden attempts with it yesterday, and I am already in love with it! What a wonderful way to confine a plant and have it still have a decent form (my previous method was to noose it time after time after time to the point where it looked like a very heavy lady wearing a girdle and a wonderbra--not a pretty sight to say the least!).

Kathy, Isn't it funny how Mother Nature keeps us on our toes! At least it was something that you like in the garden surprising you by coming back rather than something that you had intentionally thought you had gotten rid of!

Ginger, absolutely love the Yak!!!

Bea, Pretty pretty pretty! I love looking at your pics as they tell me where my world will be in another few weeks! Such beautiful color!

Judi, That is a wonderful combo! What is the white flower? Such a delicate effect next to the hosta...stunning!

My walk was late tonight, so not good light for a lot of pictures, but one of my very favorite azaleas is showing it's stuff. This is "Elsie Lee"

And another close up.

RC, yes, you're right-I must have the Flore Pleno as well. Thanks! Nice Rhody. I'll have to think on the Toona tree, though.

So many great pictures-again! RC, which Hosta is it in your nice sunlit hosta shots? It's lovely.

Those tree peonies are beautiful-must not look too close, LOL

Nice, creative plant combos Kathy

And Kate, as with every other picture I've seen of your garden, great plants, and so nice and polished looking. My garden is always a bit, er, casual (to put it nicely) compared to your well-thought out graceful garden.

And, that baby Yak is just way too cute

OMG, Julie. I think I need to have that . . . an azalea???

something like "yakity yak....don't talk back"......my dad managed the Student Union at the State College when I was little....when the guy changed the records in the Juke Box he gave the old one to my mom....that was one of them....

Beautiful Pictures everyone! I don't have much in bloom right now...just getting started and my whole yard is only 43 x 20......but I get lots of pics on walks around the neighborhood...

at least he hit the mail boxes and missed the beautiful white Rhodie in back of them....

Who hit the mailboxes?

Kathy, Yup, an azalea. From Home Depot several years ago at some ridiculously low price. It is a nice double l picked up at some crazy low price at home depot several years ago, and is supposed to stay fairly compact, but in it's own self defense in the garden that I took the pic in, it has grown to about 3 1/2 feet tall to stay above the rest of the mess. It is my absolute favorite with the exception of the exburys. If you can't find it and would like to try a cutting, remind me at roundup. I have two, and would be happy to let you try a branch or two.

Okay. Thank you. I'll keep an eye out for it when I'm venturing around this summer, too. I do love the double flower.

I leave the house for half an hour last night to take Laura to the library to pick up a CD...a guy who is staying with the kids across the street from me comes in either drunk or high...hits the mailboxes at the end of the street, continues up here to their house an hits their car in the driveway..we had medics, fire truck, the entire Tumwater Police force up and down the street, they had him in handcuffs when they took him to the hospital...I am just thankful that he was the only one with injuries....his second accident yesterday!!! Don't think he will be back and the kids he was staying with will be lucky if they aren't evicted. Too much excitement for this neighbborhood!!!

Geranium renardii:
I have lots of this - adapts to a variety of light levels.
Nice soft grey-green pebbled foliage with wine-coloured veining on the petals.

OH, I like the Geranium........similar to this one?

Very creepy, Trisha. Where did the kids go - are the old "kids" or children?

I love the dainty geranium flowers . . .

They are in their twenties....old enough to know better.....but most of this area is 50+....starting to get a younger group in.....as I told the maintenance guy, they should have let Laura and Sean move in...their cats don't do drugs, have loud parties or run over mail boxes!!

Wow, Trisha..... What a story. I'm glad to hear that everyone is all right though! How scary. Glad that he's off of the Road now. Nice pics.

Katye.... pretty geranium.

Love the azalea RJ.

Bea.... everything is so pretty.

Portland.... i agree, that's a very nice combo!

Thanks All! and thanks for the feedback.
Susybell... Unfortunate for id'ing purposes, I bought the hosta with a good discount because it was a NOID even to them.

This message was edited May 22, 2009 12:41 AM

Very nice geraniums!

Trisha, Sounds like your neighborhood got cleaned up the hard way. Glad no one was hurt other than the mailboxes!

I actually had to take time to water pots before work this morning. Does that mean that spring/summer is actually getting here for real?

My Pink Walloper rhodie actually has two blooms on it this year. It is one of my favorite rhodies, but had some trauma a few years back with having part of a 90 foot section of a hemlock break off and land on it, so that set it back a wee bit. I wasn't able to cut the tree off of it, but it was just mashed down in several sections rather than broken off, so it was able to eventually recover. The worst part of the tree breaking (other than the massive cleanup) was the fact that I was standing about 20 feet from it when it happened. It was really windy, and I had just gotten home. I was standing on the front deck when I heard a big CRACK and saw the tree start to sway. All I could think to do was run in the front door, scream "LOOK OUT" to DH who was sitting on the couch in the living room, and duck an cover in the doorway like you would in an earthquake. We still joke about it (fortunately it fell the opposite way of the house, and other than some smashed rhodies and a lot of work afterwards, there were no major casualties) as all my screaming did was alarm him and he had no idea why I was curled in a ball in the entryway.

My thunbergia is starting to recover from being hauled out of the greenhouse.

WOW..Didn't we start a new page last week?

Ginger

Julie that is really beautiful! I may have to start looking at some new Rhodies....everything here was put in by the owners 25 years ago.....have no idea what any of them are....most are a beautiful red and few are the pink in the bee photo I took....

The purple peony tree opened one blossom today and the deer left me two bloom on the hardy geranium. I will get pictures tomorrow morn. I cleaned up the whole front side and driveway today. Feels good.

Love the hosta and white. I would also like to know what the white stuff is. That light purple azalea is really nice.

Had and Iris Bloom this morning!

and this one.......should have a yellow soon.