Gorgeous pics @Markay MD-Zone 7A (8A on new map)("Sun Disc" with "Fire Witch" is a stunning combo).

Thanks @rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) I should have also said there is a baby Yucca Color Guard to the left back there too.

Love the Lathyrus and dianthus! 😍

I’m still at the early Spring bulb stage:

Yep, Sun Disc and actaea are the last of the narcissus to bloom. Tulipa sprengeri is the last tulip...both flowering late into May. Lovely photos, Markay.

I'm so very excited an experiment worked out! Every year my 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories only bloom a week or two, i.e. the first part of October. I started it super early, and babied it all winter long... It's blooming today. Mind you, it's only 2 in tall, and it made peter out in the next month... But I am very very happy that I might be able to do something that I see the blooms longer than a week, or two. Whew! Awesome sauce.

Today's

Some other year

Noticed these plants a few doors down:

Some variety of Pulmonaria:

And a Spurge:

Salvia Mes Azur is always onenif my first perennials to start blooming.

Enjoying all the blooms! I love dianthus too. and I really miss morning glory.

Peony

Rose Rise up Lilac Days

Iris

Foxglove

Cornflower

Rhododendron and azeala

Crimson clover

Happy gardening

Fire witch I planted last year and first bloom on some iris I planted last year

Beautiful blooms, all! May blossoms are always such a welcome sight.

Pulmonaria, “Shrimps on the Barbie” (I think)

Brunnera, ”Jack Frost”

Geum, ”Totally Tangerine”

Corydalis lutea:

Love the early blooms! I see some of you are in a warmer zone.

I have never grown Lathyrus, in the pea family? Does it add fertility to the soil?

Haven’t grown a Corydalis either, and keep saying I need to add one. But I have native Wood Poppy that is similar and I love that too. So pretty and looks happy.

Love the Iris - I moved some into more sun last year and I’m hoping they will bloom this year.

Love the rose on the Arbor.

Such pretty foxgloves - are they Foxy?

I keep meaning to try crimson clover for a cover crop.

LOVE that morning glory!! I hope you have a nice long season of bloom.

Snapdragons? Do they reseed?

Woodland phlox, I love but haven’t been able to establish it. I tried a couple of times, but it just disappears.

A gentleman stopped me to introduce himself as I was weeding the library garden this week. Before retirement he had been chief horticulturalist for the city of Baltimore. He talked at great length and I listened politely. After his departure I told the librarian that he had recommended removing the bearded iris because the front garden contains too much purple. The iris are staying ;)

Another lathyrus...this one pink:

Gold Heart:

White Gold:

Apols for lack of pics but I have a coupla centaurea 'Silver Fountains' (or Feathers) which I can see clear across the whole plot. Totally stunning in their perfect silvery glow. Not even bothered by flowers - the leaves are outstanding and makes the adjoining artemisia Silver Queen look drearily pedestrian.

Peony season has begun.

Alliums are starting.

The epimedium are having a banner year. They were blooming in April too,but there are still a few flowers hanging on and the color of the foliage is so pretty too. In this bed, it's combined with European Ginger and Painted Fern.

This just opened up about a week ago. One of the last daffodils to bloom. Most of my bulbs are just about gone by.

I allowed the seedlings under the Japanese Maple Bloodgood to stay last year and this year they came back and are larger. I've been looking for a gold leaf version and sure enough I finally have one with red edges. I'm going to try to grow it on.

I love this epimedium coming up in the Vinca. It had a lot of visible flowers that are gone by now, but the red edge is pretty. This is carefree. I don't even need to go in and cut back the dead foliage the new foliage and flowers, just grow up over it.

This is the bed on the north side of the garage, so, it is in a lot of dense shade. This is the fullest the epimedium has been.

https://www.specialplants.net/shop/seeds/allium_insubricum/

Not my plants but nonetheless, a photo to display the lovely 'Lombardy Gardlic'...or allium insubricum. I have been wanting this for a long time so from seed sown in 2022, I can finally see emerging flower spikes. Thrilled as always, with a 'new to me' plant.

Wow..that's an early Heavenly Blue morning glory! Your method worked! Will be interesting to see what it does this year. They do take forever to get blooming. I have some babies of it in the ground this year.

Those are all beautiful pics above.

I've been mostly happy with my clems this spring but am seeing some wilt or else maybe it's too much water lately. We've had more than 3" this week. Here's Henryi next to rose Teasing Georgia. I really didn't think this out when planted. I had no confidence Henryi would grow. I have a blueish clem , Jenny, planted under this rose too and it comes out from under it but isn't blooming with the rose.

Pillu or Piluu

Vyvyan Pennell - some very double ones this spring

Omoshiro and Petit Faucon

These are the early birds.

Natacha...this one seems to be wilting. Waaah!

i have some lovely flowers but i feel jealous that rabbits dont decimate Rouge’s lathyrus or that spring comes earlier to zone 7 and that Erasmus has such stunning clems while i am digging up dead ones.

Here are my early May offerings:

Epimedium Cupreum

A Polly Hill azalea i call ”Katie’s” because former poster here ”runktrun” (Katie)

gave it to me. She died about a year ago. Beneath it is lovely epi Pink Champagne.

how’d the garbage cans get into the photo.?

Erasmus…Your rose in the first photo looks SO happy there! What variety is it? And what did you do to get such an amazing display?! And I love Henryi - I forgot how large those flowers are. Beautiful. These are all blooming now? It’s early here for both.

They are all gorgeous, but I think the Omoshiro is my favorite. Love that delicate outline of each petal. Sorry about your wilting Natacha. Maybe it will recover. I’ve had some wilting in Elderberry bushes every season and was starting to think of removing them, but this year, they look perfect and are covered with flower buds. I’m quite surprised that it just worked it out. I didn’t do anything for it. Although we had a lot of rain in the past year and I think that helped everything in my garden.

Marie, Your garden is looking so mature. Japanese Maple? It has a very graceful form and I love your birdbath. Your Hellebores and Epicedium look like they are happy too.

I didn’t hear that runktrun died last year. I thought she was younger. Sorry to hear it. Thanks for letting us know. I know it’s been at least a decade since she was posing here, but I still remember her. She was a very lively contributor.

This year has been great for me and looks like everyone else’s too!

Corydalis heterocarpa

Primula sieboldii

Menyanthes trifoliata in my pond

Epimedium ’Pretty in pink’

I love forgot me nots(myosotis sylvatica) when massed and grown right

Wisteria floribunda-brings out memories of woodyoak with this one

Aquilegia flabellata var. pumila in my rock garden-can’t help but post these same plants every year

Arisaema ringens

Pinellia tripartita-I love how agressive looking they are. I get this feeling they are going to eat you if you get close

Vaccinium vitis-idaea var majus-can’t wait to make jam out of it

Heruga, Your ‘Pretty in Pink’ Epimedium is good looking. Not all of them have the flowers above the foliage and I have looked for those when I can get them.

Thanks for the reminder of Woodyoak. I think of her every timeI see a Wisteria too. :-)

Pretty aquilegia. Mine are just starting to open. And I love Jack in the Pulpit. Does yours spread?

That’s a Lingonberry in the last photo? Where did you find that and how long have you grown it? It’s very cute, does it require acidic soil, like a blueberry?

The rose is Teasing Georgia, Prairiemoon. I don't do much to it...no irrigation, not even water from a hose. It went about 6 months with hardly any rain last year. I toss some Rose Tone or Plant Tone under it in spring, and maybe some 10-10-10 a little later but usually I concentrate food on younger plants. I didn't prune it much this spring either. It just rained enough this spring. It's a grafted plant. It's past its peak bloom right now. The roses are about two weeks early this year.

I like the myosotis above. I can't grow corydalis here because it reseeds too much. It's pretty though.

Prairiemoon, thanks. The arisaema doesn't spread, this ones a clumper but if you meant the pinellia yes they do spread quite a bit and I pull all the unwanted seedlings out each year. Yes that is a lingonberry, I got it from Shady Glen Nursery around 5 years ago. I divided it into two pieces though 2-3 years ago. I believe they are still selling the european var. minus but no more var. majus. It does require acidic soil, I sprinkle a layer of peat moss on the surface under the mulch every spring and it seems to be happy.

Erasmus, thanks. Same with the myosotis I have to prick off all the corydalis seedlings that are too close to each other and in unwanted areas but they grow nice if you allow them enough space.

Heruga, I did mean the Arisaema. I thought it was not a spreader, but the one I had, I had for such a short time, I wasn't sure. I need to get one again.

I have blueberries, but it's not easy to cover them with netting to prevent the birds from eating them. I thought those Ligonberries, look a lot easier to do. Thanks!

Erasmus, what part of the country do you garden? That seems amazing to me how little your David Austin's Teasing Georgia requires. Where I am, I used to have a yellow David Austin - 'Golden Celebration' and I didn't have much luck with that. Our winters were cold enough that it would start from the ground in the spring. And our summers would get dry enough and humid enough in July and August, to require watering and end up with Blackspot.

You're doing a great job, that 'Teasing Georgia' looks amazing and I don't see how it could look any happier...lol.

This year, my roses had very little die back. Growth all the way to the tips of the canes. And I see buds forming on Julia Child. Usually I don't see a bloom before June 1st, so I'm wondering if I will have earlier bloom as well.

Alexander The Great Brunnera:

A neighbour's "Old Fashioned" Bleeding Heart:

Things are coming to life these days! Guernsey cream is the first clematis to flower for me.

A dwarf iris backed by amsonia 'Storm Cloud' (one of my favorite perennials.

Another dwarf iris with 'Amber Queen' epimedium

View from my kitchen window

Very pretty. Guernsey Cream is the earliest for me too. Mine's on my mailbox..it puzzles me how it doesn't reach to be taller. ( so far) I'm impressed with how tough it seems as I don't get out that way with my hose much.

Prairiemoon , I'm in NC, zone 7a. Thanks re Teasing Georgia. I forgot to mention that I do spray it with fungicide a few months of the year, twice a month.

I've enjoyed these two grey plants together this spring, Powis Castle artemesia and a sedum:

You can see my grass is really ratty. I don't feed it or do anything to it because I do most of the mowing and if I fed it I'd have to mow more. It is ok grass, as far as I'm concerned.

Brunnera is pretty and I always like bleeding heart. That Amber Queen epimedium reminds me of crabs on stilts.

The amsonia is blooming now. It is one of the truest blues in my garden.

but i feel jealous that rabbits dont decimate Rouge’s lathyrus

@Marie Tulin I was proactive this spring and relocated 7 of them....it has helped lots so far.

Tell me more please

to a tower or behind a barbed wire fence?

Only foliage:

Oregano

Aralia Sun King

Shockwave Phlox

Liberty

Rhode Island Red JM

Double Stuff

Dr. Brown JM

We moved to our retirement house last fall. The landscaping included several large peonies. I asked DH to transplant them all to an area by the driveway where they will be AMAZING for a week and then perform as shrubbery for the rest of the season. My fingers have been crossed since then, hoping the colors will be an attractive blend. They're blooming this week (so naturally several days of heavy rain is forecast) and... success!

Success indeed! Cecily.

Markay, I have Amsonia 'Blue Ice' which is smaller and it doesn't even have the flower buds yet. I really enjoy it, unfortunately this variety does not have the wonderful Fall color that I've seen in the larger Amsonias.

Rouge, you have some a lot of great looking foliage plants! The 'Shockwave' Phlox and the Rhode Island Red JM are my favorites. Is that variegated Solomon's Seal or something similar?

Cecily, that is a beautiful display of Peonies! And the foliage is so attractive, to serve as shrubery the rest of the season. Great idea!

Pear tree buds:

Cute daffodils:

Sedum Frosted Fire: