May Day A Day Late

I went out into the garden yesterday morning with the camera and took almost 100 photos, fully intending to put together a May Day post. But after coming back inside, uploading the photos onto the computer and making a quick mental note that some of them were passable, I went right back outside and played in the dirt until the figurative streetlights came on.

So here are my pictures a day late. I really don't want to waste a single minute of our wonderfully abnormal sunny spring weather, so I'm going right back outside as soon as I finish this post.

My Grevillea 'Poorinda Leane' flowers have finally opened.

Aren't they lovely?

Armeria maritima is a favorite native perennial

I've pulled quite a few baby paperbark maples out of my front bed where the new tree was planted this past fall. I'm tempted to pot this one up and see what comes of it. That red is hard to resist.

Centaurea montana

Rodgersia foliage and the beginnings of a flower, against the out of focus blue-green foliage of a cardoon

Red fern and chocolate foliage of a Cimicifuga

Native Delphinium

One of my goals when I revamped the back bed was to get a self-sowing patch of foxgloves started. So I've planted some that will flower this year and drop their seeds...

...And also started some under home-made strawberry container plastic cloches, which will make rosettes this year and flower next year, and with any luck will keep the cycle going.

They've been sown all along the fence

Serviceberry is flowering profusely. I'm thinking this year I may pick them and try making jam, since the birds seem to ignore them.

More Trilliums are flowering

Some of the foliage is quite captivating too.

I thought my Devil's Club had died over the winter. I planted it about this time last year, and then neglected to water it. But it's definitely alive, there in the middle of all the weeds and Douglas fir debris.

You can see how it gets its common name with one look at the stem.

A self-sown Euphorbia along the edge of the stream

And a self-sown Corydalis also at the side of the stream

Rhododendron 'President Roosevelt' is new, bought during a weekend excursion with Peter, The Outlaw Gardener to Furney's Nursery. You can read Peter's post about that nursery trip here.

I love the opulent red flowers

The variegated foliage really makes this Rhodie special.

Last year the forget-me-nots were in the brown pot. Now they're all over the ground in front of it, which is fine with me.

Cerinthe retorta, bought a couple of years ago from Annie's Annuals, has self-sown modestly.

Lewisia, planted in a colander, has exactly the well-draining soil it likes. I thought last year when I bought it that it was flowering so well because it had been pumped up with ferts. But it's doing just as well this spring.

I moved my Podophyllum pleianthum last fall, and it's much happier in its new spot closer to the front of the bed.

Looks like it even has a flower starting

Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the pulpit) is always a late comer. It has just popped up.

And Shhhh! My Primula viallii has apparently decided it isn't dead yet.