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:

Hakone grass with pinwheel

peony obovata alba, jacobs ladder. NOID yak rhodie

viburnum

Holy moly what wonderful pictures here! Getting some good ideas....

Marie, a few things - laughed at loud at your comment about a tower or behind barbed wire! Second, how the heck is your hakone grass so huge already? Maybe because I just planted it last year, but two plants at my daughters are barely there - like one or two little three-inch wisps coming out of the ground. Yours is gorgeous! Lastly, how absolutely lovely that you have that beautiful azalea to remember Katie. I remember when she passed - how sad. She was such a generous gardener and a kind soul.

erasmus your Teasing Georgia is spectacular and gives me hope! I am really trying to save one I have, more because it was given to me by a fellow GWer so it has sentimental value. When I dug it up to move it to a better spot, this is what I found:

I really have no idea what was going on here but I knew it was very fragile. I put it in a raised bed for the winter and it came back quite robustly. I left it there for two seasons (this is it's third spring there) and now have a permanent spot for it, but I am afraid to move it again. I'm hoping it survives another move and does well. Fingers crossed!

Also, is your TG on any kind of support? Mine, in its raised bed, seems to grow rather horizontally, so I am wondering if I should put an obelisk or tuteur out there for it to grow on, to support it.

I have GOT to get more clematis! I have a rooguchi that I adore that was given to me by a friend, and a jackmanii, and that's it. I don't know why I don't have more as I do always admire them...

rouge, spectacular foliage pics! Having so much shade, I do admire foliage, and have always been a sucker for variegation.

I bought a few new peonies last fall so I am looking forward to those blooms!

Gorgeous morning glories! I grew them as a beginning gardener (those and sweet peas) but now seem to have lost any touch I had and can't seem to grow them any more!

This is the time of year I always wish I had more iris. But then fall comes and I have to always be digging and dividing the few I have and I wonder why I grow them lol. Then spring comes and answers that question. Then fall.... it's a vicious cycle lol!

:)

Dee

Dee, that hakone grass has been in the ground at least 8 years i ll see if i can a message to you regarding the circumstances of the azalea.. pribably not today.

Thanks, Marie, maybe that's the difference. I've planted this before in some of my customer's gardens and I don't recall it being such a late riser. I ordered a couple more to add to my daughter's bed. They will probably be bigger than the ones in the ground lol, so I'll swap the new ones for the old ones, since they're more front and center. My daughter is having a get-together at her house next week so I'm trying to make the beds look as good as possible for that.

So I'm pretty bad at posting pictures (mostly because my phone takes pretty lousy ones) but I did want to post this photo of my Ivory Queen hosta. I actually planted it in a customer's garden and when she moved she told me to take anything I wanted. I didn't feel quite right about that, thinking the buyers had paid for the whole package, garden included, not just the house, but I did take the Ivory Queen! (And now wish I had taken more lol, as when I drive by the house her lovely garden is sorely neglected, and parts of it are even destroyed. :( )

This picture does not do justice to the way this hosta pops in the shade! I love variegated plants, especially hostas, and I'm usually more of a fan of green/chartreuse/yellow variegation, but I do so love this hosta! You can see I planted it in a metal root bag. Have lost a few things in this bed to those darn voles, and didn't want to lose this!

:)

Dee

Dee, that is a good photo! And I LOVE that Hosta. I’m very fond of variegated foliage too. I think I have only bought two Hostas that were solid colors and the rest have been variegated.

Wow, you have to plant in a metal bag! I recently heard someone talk about how they have no trouble with voles or moles or chipmunks ….even squirrels because there are so many cats in their neighborhood.

PM2, funny you mention that. I have a ton of cats and still have a vole problem - and now a cat problem lol!

My neighbor, who moved in about 8 years ago, started having cats around her house about 4 years ago. Well, they are not spayed or neutered, and it's getting to be a bit much. She sells or gives away a lot of kittens, but there are at least 6 cats running around her yard (and mine). (She told me her daughter had 5 cats in the house - I don't know if these are the same that are outside, or more cats!) My beds this spring were like a giant litter box.

At first I didn't mind too much (the cats are mostly gorgeous calicos, and I figured they would indeed help with voles). But then the beds starting getting to be a mess, all dug up, with craters all over. Then I was working out there early in April and all I could smell was cat poop. And then one day about two weeks ago I went to take off my gardening gloves and saw one hand had cat poop all over it. Yuck. My husband mowed the grass yesterday and said there was cat poop all over the yard. I will admit I have not seen it in the grass, and honestly I haven't seen much in the beds either the last week or so, and the digging has let up a bit, but still, I shouldn't have to deal with other people's animals.

This is the same neighbor who's husband was talking to me over the hedge one spring as I was planting annuals in my cutting garden. His turkey kept walking around me, stepping on the seedlings. He said, maybe you should build a fence around your garden. I couldn't believe it! I wanted to say, uh, maybe you should keep your turkey in your own darn yard! And I am always shooing their chickens out of my gardens. Other than that they are good friendly neighbors so I don't want to cause a rift because of this, but it is trying. I just hope maybe I won't see as much vole damage this year!

:)

Dee

Dee! That is outrageous! In our part of the world, we rarely see a cat. Most people I know keep their cats indoors to avoid them being eaten by coyotes, that are everywhere. Very surprsing they let them out. But possibly they were homeless and they just encourage them.

I think I might rather have voles…lol.

You have a lot of patience. Turkeys, chickens and cats….and you should get a fence!? That is really nervy. Sometimes I think people are just clueless about their own behavior.

Oh, I just realized I have another photo to share! Of another hosta lol. Or two...

The hosta on the left is Spartacus. I think it's wonderful! It's hard to tell the size from the picture, but it's about three feet tall and at least 4 feet in diameter. It really is beautiful. The hosta on the right is unknown (I can't remember and no one can seem to ID it). I moved it this spring. It was closer to Spartacus and they were just way too crowded, so I decided to finally move it (after thinking about it for a few years lol).

Of course, there were roots involved (three-inch diameter tree roots, hosta roots, and roots from something else), rocks (a small boulder about 2 feet in diameter) and also a run-in with a pocket of hundreds of disgusting little worms. All to move this darn hosta over a foot or so. And I think already I need to move it more! I did split it into three, and this is the biggest division. I'm hoping some day to find it's name somewhere in my records.

Interestingly, those yellow edges fade to white by the end of summer. Spartacus retains its color. They are both in a bit too much sun since we lost the huge oak (you can barely see the trunk behind them, behind a stand of monkshood) but I have a redbud planted there so hopefully in a few years the shade will return!

:)

Dee

Apols for pic fails per usual but these have been quite thrilling. I grew them from seed, thought only one had germinated so planted the entire pot in a larger permanent pot...when instantly, another half dozen popped up. Nonetheless, I am always amazed that this plant has failed to really gain any traction in nursery sales as it is really quite something...and goes on for a long time.

https://www.alamy.com/rehmannia-elata-chinese-foxglove-with-dark-pink-flowers-buds-and-green-leaves-on-tall-stems-image216135174.html