The east side of the house pic the one before the foamflower pic, I guess it's Homestead Verbena. I thought that was Lobelia next to the phlox in that same pic. I was tempted to get one at Lowe's but got three Grace Ward Lithodora instead...sooo yummy. I have clay hope they do fine.

Yes, that's Homestead Verbena. Next time I'm at Lowe's I'll have to check and see if there's any Lithodora.

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Homestead and Blue Princess verbena

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Apple tree buds

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Atamasco lily

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Alicia, you may have already mentioned it somewhere in one of the threads, but please tell my what kind of camera you are using. Your pics are gorgeous! :) Thanks!

Alicia, I've had one of those pale a. canadensis bloom before- it lasted about 3 yrs before it died last year. Has yours come true from seed? Mine has some babies coming, but i won't see bloom til next year. That one always got powdery mildew, though. My regular cana is trying to take over- need to dig a bunch of it and relocate because i don't like the red and yellow with some of the fuchsia and purple shades i have in certain spots. It seems to be the most promiscuous of the bunch.

Rosebush thank you. I have a Pentax K10 with 18-55 lens. It's a very good camera for its price, according to reviews. I've always had a Pentax camera so I was happy to see that Pentax had finally come out with a good DSLR when we were ready to get one.

Tammy the pale A. canadensis must come true to seed because they've been traveling around my garden at the same rate as the regular ones. I like the delicacy of color on the pale ones.

Alicia, I'm glad to hear that! I like the delicacy, too, despite my normal distaste for pastels. I was tickled the first time mine bloomed. I'm hoping i get a few more in a few years, but at least i know where i can get some seed if i need some! :)

Tammy do you want a pale-flowering columbine plant? I can easily dig one for the swap.

Sure. Thanks! I did keep some seeds from my plant and planted the resulting babies (but i don't recall where- oops). Since it'll be next year before they bloom i have a while to wait. I'm such a dork sometimes.

oh isn't spring delicious! thank you for posting the pics! mary t

My camera isn't nearly as nice as everyone else's and most of our gardens are against the house. The house as a backdrops isn't always ideal, but what the hay.

hosta and hot pink azalea
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Self seeded Balloon flower against the house and the ones closest to the camera were the 2 clumps we planted several years ago
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Peony Shoots (I think they are all Sarah Bernhardt)
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More Shoots
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Yellow/Orange Tulips (a little past peak)
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Astilbe
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Azalea (to tell you the truth I don't know the difference btw azaleas and rhododendrons, but i think this is a double flowered frilly azalea)
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Another Hosta
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Red Tulips
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White iris buds with tulips and more iris in the background
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Hope y'all enjoy :)

Native bleeding heart. This is a volunteer seedling of a disease-resistant clone from PD.

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Looking downstream. Creek that borders my property.

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Looking upstream. The creek forks around the little island seen at the top of the picture.

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How much longer before this river birch goes over?

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Hawthorns are starting to bloom.

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Parsley hawthorn leafing out.

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Perennials that border vegetable garden starting to get some size.

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Climbing Old Blush getting ready to bloom.

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Part of the bed on the south side of the house.

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Apple tree blossoms starting to open up. They have a heavenly fragrance.

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One of my favorite things about apple trees is all of the colors in the bark.

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Here is an old plum tree that the butterflies and bee's love.

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That plum tree is loaded with blossoms! Very nice capture of the butterfly.

This is the downstream view of the stream that I messed up earlier. Sticking up out of the water is the remnants of a cherrybark oak that fell over in Hurricane Floyd. This creek is maybe 40' wide normally -- after Floyd and Alberto it was 3/8ths of a mile wide.

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Jqpublic, I want to see shots of that peony when it opens up! :) Are those Dutch iris?

You know that spring is here when the snakes come out! This is a Black Rat Snake, a big one. As you can see it's as long as this broom.

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This picture isn't very sharp but you may be able to make out the round pupil.

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Looking for a place to hide.

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Cool! He's a beauty!

Send him over to my place! I gotz a bad case of the "voles"! I am going to spend serious time this summer improving the snake habitat in my woods. Now if I could just come up with a winter active reptile since that is the season that gets the most damage from rodents.

Yes those are dutch iris Alicia. We only had 1 bulb maybe 10 years ago. For some reason they double every year. I dare not move them b/c they are kind of growing under/against the wood separating the garden bed from the sidewalk. Each year they multiply. I believe I counted 18 separate flowers! Sometimes the flower stalk will have another flower further down. Is that normal? They are white with yellow-centered falls. 2 opened today. The ones further back could be Japanese Iris b/c they are huge...and one is halfway opened today. It is yellow and white...not sure yet b/c it is the first time I've seen them bloom.

I'll take pics of the peonies when they bloom for ya!

More epimediums:

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Arisaema sikokianum:
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Arisaema urashima:
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Hippeastrum blossfeldiae:
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Euphorbia helena's blush has been a winner in every season:
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Every year I ask myself 'why did I plant this plain yellow tulip?', then it does this:
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White phlox divaricata:
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First salvia of the season, 'Lipstick':
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Wow, I really like the white epimedium in the second picture and the pink one in the 5th picture. They're beautiful. Are those Asian Jack-in-the-Pulpits? The native ones weren't even up those week. I like that tulip too. Do you know the name of it?

I'm swooning...they're all beautiful. I've already killed one E. 'Helena's Blush' but I think I'll have to try again. I'm guessing that the pink in the 5th pic is 'Lilafee'? I think that will be the one I get this year to try. I'm working on a PDN list for open house. I have one and half years of Christmas GCs from DH to spend and I'm in the mood.

Karen, i was going to ask about the lilac one, too. gorgeous! Ihave noticed lillafee before. It reminds me of some of the really long ones i've shot at duke gardens. The orange one is really pretty, too. I love the ephorb- how pretty! Does it seed true? The a. sikko is amazing! Have yours set seed yet? With the natives it takes awhile before they seem happy enough to do so. I know it must, since i've seen seed for sale, and I've thought about trying that one for a while now- have you found it to be easy to grow? My natives are popping up now.

Alicia, it's nice to see pix of your creek. Much bigger than i'd pictured! My apple trees are blooming away, too. I was just looking at it the other day and thinking i needed to get a pix. Maybe if the rain hasn't knocked too many petals off.

The white epimedium is E. youngianum 'Niveum'. It's a clumper and a very reliable bloomer. Mine's off to the side of the drive, totally neglected except when I'm admiring it. The dark pink one (fifth down) is E. grandiflorum 'Rose Queen'. Another clumper and not as drought tolerant for me as the rest. Unfortunately I didn't know that when I planted it and it's in a very dry spot, so sometimes it doesn't look very happy. I've got Lilafee but put it in too dry a spot too, so it will need to be moved whenever I 'get a chance'. The orange is E. x warleyense, maybe 'Orangekonigin' but the tag is long gone. The orange tulip is 'Daydream' and came from Brent and Becky's (on their 3rd year now and still blooming, if you can believe it).

Shari, this was my second try at Helena's Blush, so do try again. In the winter the foliage turns a deep rosy pink. I wasn't expecting that and took more photos of it with my new camera than I did of my third child's first year.

Alicia, I've been thinking you're probably a few weeks ahead of me in spring, based on the photos you've been posting, but I've got native jacks with pitchers already, and in two locations so I don't think it's just a microclimate. Maybe it's just population variation. The pictures I posted are both Asian species, which like drier conditions in the summer than our native. I've been told that you need two sikokianum to get fertile seed set. I was bummed to hear it, because just the one was something of a splurge. But I was fortunate to get seed from a very generous GardenWebber a few years ago and so far have managed to grow them through two dormancies. It'll probably be a few years yet before I'm looking at any seed in the garden, but I figured it would be worth the effort rather than pawning something to try and buy enough for an Arisaema grove. Tammy, I can talk to you at the swap about my experience growing from seed. I read a fair amount about it before I started and was a little worried about that first dormancy, but it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

Karen most of my Jack in the Pulpits are down in the floodplain and I wouldn't be surprised if that is behind you springwise. Whenever we would go to the Arboretum or to Chapel Hill we were usually a good 2 weeks behind them. Now that the house has been moved up 6' in elevation I can tell a big difference. The verbena around the house started blooming at least 2 or weeks before the verbena around the old house site (in fact it's just now in full bloom), so microclimate can make a huge difference. I'll have to see if any JITPs are up tomorrow. They do just suddenly appear, and are not the earliest things to come up in any case.

Hopefully the Jacks will be up; we have sizeable colonies in a few locations unless they've been shaded out as the trees have matured. I'll also have to see if the Atamasco lilies are blooming in the slough. The ones in my garden have been blooming but they get full sun.

Iris kochii

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More Crimson King

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Toothwort

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Dwarf crested iris

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Climbing Old Blush

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Alicia, what is that wonderful picoteed iris?

Alicia, is that my unknown dianthus? I love that iris. I'm finally getting some blooms to open on mine. It's nice to finally see them after waiting 2 years.

Tammy that is Jesse's Song. Very prolific and very disease resistant. If you want a piece I can bring it to the swap.

Shari that is a dianthus that we picked up at Lowe's years ago. It doesn't have a scent but it's survived everything short of fire, including overcrowding and floods.

It looks just like what I have which is definitely perennial. I'd love to ID it. I took a bunch of it to one of the swaps.

Alicia, i would LOVE a piece! Thanks for the offer.

I took these pictures next to one of the sloughs that runs through my farm. The drought seems to have really cut back on the numbers of flowers.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (just newly emerged leaves so far), Southern Lady Fern, Atamasco lily, meadow rue

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Jack-in-the-Pulpit

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Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Hearts-a-burstin, and bellwort

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White turtlehead

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I love all the beautiful photos and information in this thread! There are some gorgeous gardens in the Carolinas. We rode by "The Twin Sister's Garden" on Ghimgoul Road in Chapel Hill today. We couldn't get out and visit because our greyhound was with us. The azaleas, cherries, dogwoods, redbuds, tulips and such are gorgeous in Chapel Hill right now.

I finally remembered to take some photos this morning. I've mostly been working in the garden! Sound familiar?

Cameron

Dutch iris by the front pathway:

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Lady Banksia over the door; Kwansan Cherry to the right; Jasmine on the stone corner.

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Through the garden gate, view from east patio by the waterfall. Spanish bluebells along the stream:

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Inside the fence, the cottage pinks and lavender are cranking up:

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The Japanese Maple in full glory:

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Wow!!! You're property is beautiful. Do you have sand where the lavender is? Mine died when the rains started, I tried mixing a little sand with the clay each hole but it wasn't enough dry enough for them I guess.

My lavender is planted in garden soil (brought in). It is planted high in the ground for good drainage. This is my Spanish lavender. I've got some water damage with my Provence and Munsted Lavenders, even though we thought they were planted high enough.

Some hawthorn pics

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This is a large slough that the beavers dammed up before we moved here. Except in severe drought it's full of water 365 days a year. Red maples, willows and tupelo grow in it, and we almost always see large water turtles and wood ducks when we walk down here.

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Another shot of the creek, slightly up from Saturday's rains.

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I have gotten a LOT of plant material from the area in the floodway and by the creek. Northern River Oats, Atamasco lily, bellwort, white turtlehead, meadow rue, hawthorn, still working on the possawhaw, winterberry, and hibiscus.

Alicia - do you notice the box turtle comeing out of the leaves in the background of the photo with the single Atamasco Lily and the baby Jack in the Pulpits? Look near the tree trunk.

Alicia, what are the yellow flowers on the ground in that same photo with the atamasco and turtle? I'm so jealous of your wetlands. I'm at the top of the ridge and it tends to be pretty dry. I constantly covet my neighbor's pond and consider what I would grow along the edge if I owned it.

Oh yeah, he adds a nice dimension to the picture, lol. Too bad I didn't zoom in on him too.

On the day I took the first set of stream pictures a pair of wood ducks practically flew out from under my feet. They were in a quiet part of the water under the lip of the bank. I don't think there's any humanly way I could have focused fast enough -- I noticed them too late in any case -- which was a shame because that would have made a heck of a picture.

Karen those are jessamine flowers. Not sure if it's Carolina, or swamp -- maybe I have both -- because the flowers I've checked out are fragrant.

Some lyreleaf sage by one of the horse pastures

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Close-up of foliage

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Ebony spleenwort

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Baptisia is almost ready to bloom

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Goldflame honeysuckle buds

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Iris kochii (bottom 3 flowers) blooming with Crimson King

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Closer look at Iris kochii

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Is this Christine Yeo? I got this from PD a few years ago. The flowers are purplish red and the foliage smells like sage. Karen we traded for Christine Yeo last fall but that's just barely poking out of the ground at present.

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Alicia, I think that is S. greggii 'Diane'. If you purchased a few years ago 'Christine Yeo' would not have been available plus the leaves are smooth like a greggii. I'm jealous since I lost mine.

My Amsonia is just emerging and nowhere near blooming. I've had it a few years too.

Thanks Shari. I can root some of the "Diane" for you if you want.

I'm surprised we're ahead of anyone springwise. It always seemed as though we were 2 weeks behind everyone else. Perhaps the amsonia down in the slough will still come up then. I didn't see any when I went down there and that's where the amsonia pictured came from.

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Shari's, right, it's not Christine Yeo. Glad to hear yours is coming up from last year. I haven't grown Diane so I don't know what the early blooms look like. But I really like the photo, so if you're cutting and rooting ....

That is a yummy colored salvia! If you have enough when you're cutting, I'd love a start of that one, too. I got christine from Karen last swap and it'll be going in the ground this spring. I like all your columbines, Alicia! Very pretty. You're well ahead of me with your baptisia and amsonia, too. I tend to be a little behind on most stuff, but this spring has been really wonky. Stuff's all out of order.