I thought that our dogwoods were finished, (I have a pink and the local natural ones are white).... but now I find, in the area around my street, two or three beautiful dogwoods, simply covered in blossom, which are a lovely deep cream (almost yellow) in colour. They are really splendid..... does anyone know the variety?

Monkeypuzzle trees always catch my eye.

Ceanothus shrubs, 3 of them 5' tall and round, covered with blue balls of flowers. I don't know if they are Victoria or what.

My Rugosas are in bloom now but I don't think any keep on blooming all summer. I just got Topaz Jewel so I'll see how she does.

Kousa dogwood is in bloom now, frequently planted here. So is Ceanothus 'Victoria'. I've planted 'Topaz Jewel' a couple of times, later pulling it out - twice. One of those, like 'Flamingo' that ought to be appealing but just never satisfies.

I hate to say it but no one but me in my immediate neighborhood is a gardener. :( I'm surrounded by some very bad pruners. Topped trees and shrubs sheared into weird shapes that don't make sense in the landscape.

There are neighborhoods in Portland that have outstanding gardens all over the place but I don't live in one.

Up here the first type is called a "view neighborhood".

My neighbors aren't much gardeners either. Things that catch my eye tend to be of the 'good lord what were they thinking' variety.

There is a small retaining wall covered with Lithodora on the corner that is very striking. And my dogs are intrigued by it too, so it must get peed on all the time yet it's in perfect health and covered with flowers.

Tumwater Hill in Tumwater is absolutely breathtaking in May when all the rhodies, irises, lilacs, ceanothus, cherries, dogwoods, magnolias etc are blooming. I'll skip the freeway and take the surface streets into town to see it. Those people are gardeners!

There are some very nice gardens scattered about Westside Oly that I go by when walking the dogs. Rhodies of course do fantastically here, as do pieris and japanese maples and dogwoods and cherries. Some of the gardens are old enough that the pieris are small trees! There are blocks planted with Kwanzan cherries that are spectacular in bloom. And someone on 5th Ave has a 15ft tall Carter's Sunburst camellia with about half of the plant blooming solid rose pink flowers, absolutely spectacular in bloom.

Lots of people have roses too of course but roses don't do so well in Oly, between deer and blackspot. Dahlias are a big fave and will take over the show in late summer.

My Knock Out rose bush. It's huge and groaning with blooms. If you go to zillow.com and look up your house you can see aerial photos. My Knock Out rose just dominates in the photo of my house...and the surrounding houses. Maybe you can see it from outer space as well. ;-)

I've got two on a formerly hot, dry and neglected corner next to the neighbor's yard and they are spectacular. Boring up close, their petal count is so low, wish I would have planted the doubles but these were $2.99 marked down and have performed like no rose I've ever had before. That neglected corner is now a beacon of obnoxious magenta driving down the street. I added a Clematis 'Durandii' in a cage between them and 'Stella d'Oro' daylilies so it is really bright and colorful. Maybe they will keep their dog out of it now.

My Distant Drums is spectacular right now.

I can hear them thumping.

I would love to see your rose garden hemnancy! You have a never-ending rose collection. It was funny how you said before that now you've been getting apricot roses. So have I. We've been working on a huge new bed on our south side with lots of sun. So far I've gotten Brown Velvet, Cafe, Buff Beauty(I'm not quite sure if this is OK here?), and Just Joey. I'm also going to put Chianti in that bed too. I was thinking Westerland for a climber.

I hate to say it but, I also have an original knock-out that is pretty spectacular right now.

We planted a Pagoda Dogwood two years ago that is looking nice too. It has gotten pretty big with a nice horizontal spread at the edge of our woods.

A couple weeks ago ..... a huge Ceanothus in a yard on the way to my daughter's house was breathtaking. Every time I drove by I stopped across the street just to look at it. Today, my smoke tree - which reaches the roof - is ablaze with purple puffs and other drivers stop to stare at it. But the year round eyecatcher on my street is a Harry Lauder walking stick in my neighbor's yard.

pacnwgrdngrl- a lot of my roses are buried in weeds. I had to dig DD out to take the photo. I was gone for the month of June 3 years ago when my 2 grandsons were born and have never recovered weed-wise from the grasses all going to seed. Getting my vegetables in takes top priority and I'm just now tackling the weed problems again, which are monstrous.

I got Westerland and Buff Beauty as bands last year but the hot spells harmed the little plants but I went ahead and planted them out in fall. W didn't make it, BB was down to one tiny bud when I did a rescue and dug it up. I also got Gabriel Noyelle a couple years ago but have not been impressed so far. Crepuscule and Reve d'Or do fabulously, as well as a mini called My Honey. Clemintina Carbonieri is either mislabeled or dead. Last year I got a large Apricot Nectar which has nice big flowers and a band Apricot Queen which will have to wait to see how it does. Lady Hillingdon has been somewhat disappointing, not many petals to the flowers and few blooms but should improve as she gets bigger.

Any sub-tropical exotic catches my eye, like the Gunnera's, Windmill palms(Trachycarpus fortunei), giant ricepaper plant (Tetrapanax papyrifera 'Steroidal Giant'), the many different species of bamboo, hardy eucalyptus, & the hardy banana (Musa basjoo). Also the other hardy and semi-hardy palms such as the Sabal's, (Jubaea chilensis) Chilean Wine Palm, (Butia capitata)Jelly Palm, (Butia eriospatha) Woolly Jelly Palm, plus a few others that I see around the area. I also find the bright flowers of the hardy Grevillea and Callistemon very eye catching. Of course Chilean Firebush (Embothrium coccineum) during the spring also catches my eye along with the bright blue flowers of the Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa)
I also like the bright yellow flowers of the Scotsbroom, specially during our dark, rainy, depressing spring days. Those bright yellow flowers are so cheery. Scottsbroom also provides cover and food for one of my favorite birds, the valley quail. If it wasn't for the scottsbroom around Olympia there wouldn't be valley quail. I also like the bright cheery flowers of the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). There isn't the range of color, fragance, and time of blooming of any other plant for the northwest. They are very attractive.

There's a smoke bush near SE 50th & Boise in PDX that is 20 feet in all directions. Amazingly, it's not in the way of anything (yet).

There is a Monkey Puzzle tree in the parking strip near SE Schiller & 37th that is getting into the utility wires. Amazingly, the City has not cut it down (yet).

I LOVE all the Cornus Kousas (Dogwood) in bloom right now in Seattle. They are totally covered with blooms.

Later in summer I love the magnolia grandifloras -- pity they won't survive in my cold Index garden (quite a few Seattle plants won't!)