growing fast

Last week we had rain and thunderstorms, today it was up to 82°. Wow a ton of stuff is springing up in the yard. Joe pye weed 'chocolate' :

My giant hostas on the side yard:

Sensitive fern I transplanted in a row alongside the hosta are unfurling now

More hostas- these I moved last year also- under the holly shrub

Lily of the valley are blooming:

The red/bronze huecherella look better now they've gained some size:

My peonies are rocketing up. Really want to put a few more in this year!

Black-and-blue salvia made it to spring!

I'm very happy to see the milkweed growing

Gladiolas! quite a few new ones, too- I think they're multiplying

My sedums around the stump came up faster than ever this spring

I'm not crazy about the rose, but it too looks very healthy and vibrant

Not sure if it's just because I'm so happy to see all the plants reappearing, but they look better than ever- they all seem larger, richer in color than before. It could just be that the plants are better established, or that I'm getting better at taking photos with the camera- but I'd like to think their health and vigor has improved because I've been breaking up all sticks that fall on the lawn and leaving them to disintegrate naturally under the shrubs and perennials. (A nice side effect of this is that when my kids hear sticks snapping underfoot, they know they've stepped too close to a plant I'm tending!)

yard plants-

love the colors of joe pye weed

blue hosta near it has rounder leaves than I remember from last year

I like how the contrast of colors turned out here, the brighter salvia between edge of vinca and blue hosta under the yellowish leaves of euonymus (which needs a trim!)

the echincea are getting taller and fuller. I've had to start thinning out their offspring. Going to remove that white-edged hosta on the left. I don't like the way it looks.

Mock strawberrries seem to be fruiting more than last year. I didn't dig any for pots this time. I've already cut down with the lawn mower the blue-green weeds, as they were starting to set flower heads.

Tried to train some of my sweet peas up the retaining wall. To keep more of it from sprawling on the ground I need to get some kind of arches or other supports...

Rose is blooming. I've picked caterpillars off it twice already- the fishes feasted. Perry doesn't like caterpillars, though! I give him the few leafhoppers I catch, and the tetras get the larvae.

Sensitive fern frond

Cranesbill is full of flowers

they are among my favorites

more yard plants-

walking around checking on things, pulling weeds, seeing how they're all doing: turtlehead is coming up fast

some ferns are emerging, but not my favorite 'sensitive' fern, yet

I am delighted to see my echinacea appears to have self-seeded. I count more than seven plants in the row! and some are off to the side- definitely grew on their own.

Rudbeckia is coming up thicker than I recall planting it, too. This is great because I need stuff to fill in.

joe pye 'chocolate' is barely sprouting

Astilbes came up at an incredible rate, already thick with foliage

My bleeding hearts are still small. I saw one in a neighbor's yard already three feet high and full of bloom. Hope mine get to that state some year.

Whatever I did wrong to it last year, it appears that my lilac will bloom this season!

Strapping daylily foliage-

I didn't particularly care if the mums in the front came back or not, but they all did except the one I added to a blank spot last year.

On the other side, my silver blue dusty miller didn't make it. At least, the large parent plant I transplanted in summer is dead. Two or three of the young ones I took as cuttings survived under a tree in the back.

My peony is up!

and the rose I once again forgot to move-

and there's more for the next post...

more spring plants!

columbine foliage just seems to glow

heartleaf brunnera-

the flowers are so tiny

monarda!

I can't believe how numerous the vinca flowers are this year. I didn't really do anything special for it. Just a bit of trim in fall.

New leaves on the rose- which I forgot to move again.

Lilac buds. Hope for more bloom.

Clematis vine sprang up really fast this year.

It has quite a few promising buds already.

I'd almost forgotten I have allium. Seems to have spread a bit- three or four clusters this year instead of two.

Shy hellebores

pale dusky pink

tiny new leaves of cranesbill

daylilies pushed up out of the extra leaf coverage I gave them when the snow hit last month- I was going to uncover again but didn't have to

no sign of echinacea foliage yet, but there are seed heads left. I didn't see birds feeding on them in the winter. Going to cut these down and scatter in case a few will germinate.

Forsythia blooms sparsely for me. Either because the deer ate it or because it doesn't get enough sun.

but I think the irish spring is keeping them away, because none of the new leaf buds are nibbled since I hung a new piece