The spring weather gods are now making up for our dry March by inundating us with buckets and buckets of rain, yet at the same time teasing us by interspersing it with a dry hour here and there, just long enough to entice me outside, whereupon it starts raining again and I either persist and end up soaked or run into the greenhouse for the duration and listen to the rain beat on the roof. And when I think it's never going to end, I dash into the house, just in time to see the sun peak out.
The other day instead of trying to get anything done, I just made a couple of circuits of the garden with the camera to see what was what.
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| Potted Podophyllums are all up |
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| 'Spotty Dotty' |
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| This Camellia was planted in the Ruby Red Death Bed last year and is flowering already -- it's called 'Black Magic' |
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| Erysimum 'Blood Red' grown from seed last year is now flowering profusely, but also floppy as hell -- I've got it supported so the lawn guys won't mow it down |
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| A second Camellia, 'Vestito Rosso MonBella' is now growing at the other end of the bed |
This Camellia was the target of a (wo)manhunt last year by my friend Camille, who showed up with it as a gift for me last fall after I posted about being in the doldrums. I finally got it in the ground a week ago, and it doesn't seem any worse for having spent its winter in a nursery pot, although its many buds have still not opened.
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| Native Dicentra formosa self-sows all over the garden, but it's easily pulled out where I don't want it, and also easily transplanted to spots where I do |
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| Ribes sanguineum is flowering heavily, hopefully feeding the hummers and bees although I haven't noticed that many yet |
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| Waterlogged Pulsatilla vulgaris |
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| Lunaria, a biennial transplanted into the cutting garden from seedlings that were self-sown elsewhere, is also flowering like mad |
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| Here's a welcome sight -- the beginning shoots of Datisca cannabina, which I planted last fall after seeing a huge clump of it growing at the Bellevue Botanical Garden |
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| A bird's-eye view of my house from their house |
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| One of my favorite small trees is starting to leaf out -- Acer circinatum 'Pacific Fire' |
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| For the most part only the tips of the branches are fiery red |
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| The red color fades further along the trunk |
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| A small pot ghetto -- at some point I'll get these in the ground |
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| About a quarter of the plants here are headed for the spring plant swap in Portland -- the rest will eventually go into the front beds that are getting renovated, a process that started last August |
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| The rest of the pot ghetto |
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| I have eight trays of seedlings, here and in the photo below, also waiting to go into the renovated prairie-style planting in the front beds |
So, that's what's up here in my garden.
