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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day -- May 2013

It's May 15 which means it's time to celebrate Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. With our recent 3-week stretch of warm, sunny weather, followed by drenching rain, things are really popping in my garden (including the weeds, better get on that).

The bed in the front garden, under the Forest Pansy redbud and the paperbark maple, got lots of divisions of hardy Geranium, Armeria and Dianthus last fall after the trees went in. They're blooming all along the wall that separates my garden from the neighbor's gravel driveway.

A pink Pink

I planted some tall Alliums in that bed last fall too, close to the front, about which now I'm saying "What was I thinking?" I must not have realized quite how tall they would get.

There are some pretty flowers in the gravel garden too.


Tiarella

Silene

Hardy Geranium 'Margaret Wilson'

Spanish lavender and Carex testacea

There are Alliums in the tall culvert planters too, here with a backdrop of lilacs

Echium russicum is preparing to flower, disguised as a Nepeta flower spike. I hope the Echium will eventually turn red.

The back garden is full of flowers too.

Red Oriental poppy


White Oriental poppy

Looks like candy!

Verbascum


Native Camassia

In white too, but this one has variegated leaves, which you'll see tomorrow for Foliage Followup

Jack in the pulpit in the shade garden


Last fall I pulled out a bunch of columbines to make way for some more interesting shade foliage plants, but I did leave a few.

I prefer single Columbines, with those long, elegant spurs

Native Aquilegia formosa with maidenhair fern

The tips of Indian paintbrush are coloring up

Looking a bit like Queen Anne's Lace on steroids, Heracleum maximum aka cow parsnip is growing way back in a dark corner. It's another favorite native.

In late winter I dug and divided all my Pacific Coast irises, replanted some and potted up the rest. Now the only one flowering is one of the potted up divisions.

I bought this Enkianthus last year about this time, but only got it in the ground a few weeks ago. It's flowering beautifully.

I hope you enjoyed this look at what's flowering now in my garden, here in Zone 7b/8a Washington. Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is the brainchild of Carol Michel of the blog May Dreams Gardens. Every month on the 15th, bloggers from around the world post about what's flowering in their gardens. You can find links to their posts here.

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!