Yup this wisteria was taken last week, it’s just finishing up now. Yours isn’t blooming yet?

I personally don't have any wisteria but I know a couple of locations that have good specimens and they are not yet in bloom.

Btw, your 'mass planting' of Primula sieboldii is stunning.

I DO have a few things in bloom, and looking better than my cherry laurel lol

Rhododendron Capistrano -I have wanted one of these for so long and saw this last fall and finally picked it up! It's still in it's pot in my veggie garden. I bit of freeze damage but looking pretty good

Another impulse buy - Azalea Delaware Valley White. Also in the veggie garden (with some reseeded agastache)

Tulip Suncatcher. They're actually on their way out but looked so lovely in the sun the other day!

:)

Dee

Rhododendrons are funny. Long established plants in a garden have good, heavy blooming years and ones that are not.

'Mary Belle' is looking great. Its distant cousin 'Mary Garrison', planted near it and to my left in this picture, is having an off year.

The huge needles in the foreground are from Abies pindrow.

Delosperma Orange Vibe, Magnolia Fairy Blush, Noid Linum, Rosa Etoile De Hollande.

(uninstalled the houzz app, giving this a try on the mobile site....hope this works!)

The others

Variegated Solomon's Seal under a white Lilac bush

I just planted this area with 'Mount Hood' Daffodil last fall. They came up well in back of some asters that the rabbits are eating and i haven't cut the dead stems back thinking it would make it harder for them... I am looking for a companion plant for the mount hood.

Not a great photo of the Lilac, it's tall and i had to take a photo looking up.

How about this beautiful site? Rabbit damage to my best Arborvitae. What am I going to do with that? There is no regrowth when you cut these branches off. *sigh*

At least they don't enjoy Hellebores.... Not sure if this is 'Dark and Handsome' or 'Dashing Groomsman'.

I could post more rabbit damage, but, that get's old ...lol.

I did add quite a few new additions last year, small sizes, and I'm just glad they are coming back up. Here are two rugosa roses, won't know which is which until they bloom.

Honeysuckle with a big fat dandelion in there...

A clematis moved in the Fall...waiting to see which one it is. I guess i should label...lol.

That's about it!

Enjoying everyone's early garden photos. Still have a long month of May ahead for more! Keep them coming!

Spring well and truly sprung here. Hostas are looking particularly strong. My poor Gingko however, was burned by a frost at exactly the wrong time. About half the tree looks like this 😕

Spiderworts have started to bloom here.

I should probably move this one to give it more space now that my Munchkin Oakleaf Hydrangea is fattening up.

And we are well into roses and foxglove season. The rose is Cathedral Bells.

And we have more Baptisia blloming. This is Blueberry sundae with the rise Easy Does It.

A Lathryus

Two Hellebores in now full bloom:

Now this Bleeding Heart "Gold Heart" is not yet in full bloom but it just glows right now:

Cistus ladanifer 'Paladin' with Cordyline australis.

'Paladin' is so pretty....very unique flower colour and design @artinnaturez8b.

Iris 'Lovely Seniorita'

artinnature you ALWAYS have such beautiful colorful photos! Everything looks so vibrant! What a glorious iris.

rouge I was just thinking yesterday how I love my hellebores. They "bloom" from February well into what? June? Lifetimes ago, I got some seedlings from a fellow GWer, and my memory is cloudy but they were unnamed and were from some breeding program or other, so I have no idea what they are, and they do tend to seed around, but I'm okay with that, especially as each one is a slightly different color. But just yesterday some by my back patio caught my eye. They bloomed a light pink, to a deep pink, to a purplish magenta in late February, I believe, and the blooms are still there, having mellowed to varying shades of greenish ivory, which are just as beautiful as the original new blooms. So much length of interest for such an easy-care plant!

Indianagirl your hostas are gorgeous!

Loving everyone's pics! Living vicariously through you all since I don't have much going on right now - thanks for sharing!

:)

Dee

I've always liked them but my admiration for tree or intersectional peonies is increasing. Because for something so beautiful looking they are actually pretty darn tough. I barely watered this 'Sonoma Apricot' in the past two droughty summers, just enough to keep it alive, and it is thriving this year. It's in a light shade - a nearby rhododendron, slightly more shaded, died in summer 2024, in spite of my best efforts to keep it alive...which obviously weren't enough!

EDIT...adding a copy rhodies.

1. Several of my cross between Jenny Tabol and Evening Glow have now bloomed. As expected, most are poorer than either parent. (there's a joke among rhodendron breeders...if you want a white rhododendron, cross two yellows!) This is the first at least worth keeping. I'll give it a few more years before even thinking of naming it, though, to see if the truss form improves at all. It's VERY yellow in bud, as you can just make out, but the flowers fade on opening...which is very typical.

2. I don't really like purple rhododendrons, but 'Polarnacht' is one of the best, and one of the only Hachmann hybrids to have done well in my garden.

Sea Heart (or maybe Silver Heart?), next to the heat pump and the window well.

We’re far enough along that I mowed my lawn for the first time on Tuesday! yay! Yesterday was warm and sunny so I started moving plants out to the porch and the scent of my lilacs was amazing! I took a zoomed in pic from the porch… These are Madame Lemoine and Charles Joly lilacs — except Charles was run over and crushed as a young tree, and must have been grafted because all that grows now is common lilac. I have another darker purple further back there… I cut a bouquet and the entire house smells of lilacs. It was a WINDY DAY!

These are barely opened

Wow, I just went back to see pics, read comments, and catch up here again. All of your plants and photos and gardens are gorgeous! Most of you are growing plants I’ve never heard if, or have never seen even if I have heard of them. I don’t exactly live in a gardener’s paradise and I am not a neat gardener. :)

Sarah Bernhardt peony. Actually staked it way ahead of time this year so it looks better than usual

party music I'm not a neat gardener either lol! When I bring bouquets into work everyone says, oh your garden must be beautiful. I think of the mess back home, say thank you, and leave it at that lol.

Funny you have a Madame Lemoine. I just found out about this lilac about a month ago. That was my mom's last name and I wish I had known about this while she was alive. I looked rather casually online to see about getting one now but a quick search turned up rather expensive ones! But I will likely get one, as I do like white lilacs.

Speaking of white lilacs, I'm going to digress a bit here to tell a somewhat funny story. Years ago the New England forum was VERY active, and every year - well, twice a year - the folks from CT would have a swap, which was really just an excuse to get together, eat, chat, and hang out for a few hours. Anyway, one year, one of the GWers brought a white lilac sucker for me, labelled with my name. Like at any swap, not only do you get lurkers or new people showing up, which was awesome, but you also got the people who ran in, grabbed stuff, and left, without bringing anything and frankly without speaking to anyone. Hit and run, lol. Well, my white lilac disappeared, despite the fact that my name was on it. I said, well, maybe the person didn't know it was MY name, like, the name of one of the people at the swap. We joked that somewhere in CT, in some garden, some gardener would proudly be showing off her Digger Dee white lilac!

I have some irises starting to bloom, a beautiful, prolific yellow who has been in my garden so long I don't remember the name, and a purple Siberian (I think) that one of my customers shared from her garden. And my lily of the valley is blooming. I've always thought it a bit unfair that lilacs and LOV bloom in such close succession. They are two of my favorite flowers because of the scent, and I wish I could spread them out over the season lol. They come and go too fast!

This was a totally serendipitous grouping. A few pots that I pulled out of my garage that are not out in the garden yet. I don't remember the hosta (the tag is in the pot somewhere) and I think that's a Lemony Lace sambucus. It caught my eye when I was coming out of the garage and I will have to see if they can survive in the same conditions, and maybe I'll put them together.

James, you've got me excited for my Sarah Bernhardt to bloom!

:)

Dee

@Jameszone7a Philadelphia that’s a gorgeous peony!

Here I have rose Sweet Spirit, Coreopsis lanceolata and Baptisia grape taffy.

Clematis ‘Venosa Violacea’

Nepeta Walkers Low and the roses Fire Opal and Raspberry Cupcake

My favorite columbine.

Mostly the garden is all about roses at the moment.

Diggerdee, Mme. Lemoine is the prettiest white lilac I’ve ever seen and it has a beautiful scent! I was able to buy it locally… 15 or 20 years ago and it may have even come from Lowes, so check at those kind of local places. I bought it in bloom so I knew exactly what I’d be getting. :)

A dwarf iris with creeping blue veronica, the names of both long forgotten.

And my fothergilla in full flower this year because I finally got wise and protected it from deer and rabbits this winter!

My apologies for my atrocious photography skills. Believe me when I say these are far more beautiful in real life!!

No apologies needed @chouchou_gw as the subjects of your pics speak for themselves. Gorgeous I say. Neon blue and that fothergilla is full bloom is stunning. Just curious, how large is that plant and how old is it?

Thanks, Rouge21. I bought that fothergilla from Canadale at least seven years ago, but it was chewed down to almost nothing a few winters ago. So happy it survived and today it is almost 3 feet tall and about 2 1/2 feet wide. Last year I bought a variety called 'Blue Shadow'' which has stunning blue foliage. Looking forward to that one maturing. Definitely one of my favorite shrubs.

Rouge, I havent posted here in a really long time. Here is my only hellebore.

Variagated weigela

The best hosta on the planet, June. I have several of these.

Sherry

LOL sherrygirl, there you are with that June again! You really are going to make me buy one! Actually since that discussion on the other thread, I was thinking - I think I actually had a June and she was in such a neglected spot. I kept saying I was going to move her and of course I never got around to it. Then what remained of her got accidentally weed-whacked and that was the final insult lol. So, my bad. I could have had a beautiful, mature June by now but I will have to go out and buy a young one and wait - and take better care of her this time!

Your hellebore is lovely too - sooo many flowers!

Nice fothergilla, chouchou. I planted a couple of Legend of the Fall last year, so hopefully they will establish well. What I really want,but seems to be hard to find, is the fothergilla species. I think this would do well in a difficult spot I have, and would be the right size, but I can't seem to find one.

Speaking of hard to find, i will be persistent in my search for Madame Lemoine, party_music! I've decided I must have one - maybe two, as my daughter would like one to honor her grandmother.

:)

Dee

Excellent pictures @sherrygirl zone5 N il. And we are glad to see that you are again able to contribute. JUNE is a wonderful hosts for sure.

Love looking through everyones' beautiful photos.

June was my favorite hosta too. After losing a few trees and neglect from time spent cleaning up our lost trees years ago, the shade garden I used to have on the north side of our property is gone except for a few very tough survivors, mostly Variegated Solomon's Seal and daffodils. I'd like to find a bigger version of June, same colors bigger leaves.

I have some red and yellow echinaceas starting to bloom here, butterfly weed, purple milkweed, verbena bonariensis, oakleaf hydrangea, a couple viburnums, and lots of marigolds but still a lot of just green. We finally got a much needed rain. Now we need some sun to follow.

You'll have to picture my flowers in your mind. I've taken so many videos of my grandkids, my cloud storage is full so I can't post photos. I need to transfer my videos to something else and free up some space. It would be easiest if I paid for extra storage but I'm pretty sure there's a way around that. I just haven't taken the time to figure it out yet.

I‘ll have that little riff from the ZZ Top song in my head all day now. :)

Wow artinnature! That’s s gorgeous iris!

This is Dianthus ’Georgia Peach Pie’ and it is a great little plant even with the heat and humidity here. It’s going on it’s 4th year here.

Physocarpus 'Summer Wine' at 6am - just before the rain started

Siberian Iris

Peony Do Tell, one of my favorites with nice fragrance

Unknown peony dug from abandoned farmhouse nearby. County was mowing down everything so I went over and dug out some roots. Sadly no fragrance on this one.

Another unknown peony, mislabeled so I don't know what it is, but it's intensely fragrant.

Clematis John Warren

Huechera sold to me as 'Firework' which I've never found as an official cultivar. But I've kept it alive for 10 years which says something as they usually don't last but one or two seasons for me.

And last, a conifer - Pinus strobus 'John's Find' showing crazy curly candles which become crazy curly branches ;-)

On a foggy morning between rain showers.

I saw this yesterday and I knew it wasn‘t a typical hummingbird moth. This one is Nessus Sphinx (Amphion floridensis)… identified by the two yellow stripes on his abdomen.

Calycanthus florida. its a rangy uncontrolled beast…..but fragrance, the color!

The ”Hillside Garden” between our neighbor & us.

whi is this blue fellow who self seeded under my rotting bench? lobelia?

@Marie Tulin Boston burbs z 6a, such a lovely garden.

My Bradbury Monarda ’Mojo’ is blooming now. I love these! I have dry, sandy soil so I struggle to keep Monarda didyma alive and I don’t really like the washed out pink of Monarda fistulosa so I was thrilled to find this vibrant purple variety that thrives in my garden!

Dicentra in 2026:

White GOLD:

Gold Heart:

And my neighbours spectaular classic Dicentra...in full sun:

Ooooo, I like that White Gold!

My Great Expectations hosta peeking out. :)

Very nice @party_music50. Hostas go so well with B ❤️❤️.

Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum' still look good - usually sooty this time of year.

taken Apr 28, 2026

taken May 27, 2026

Last year someone suggested I do this. Can't recall who and can't find the thread, but I finally made the Dinosaur Egg Garden.

At the moment it is comically out of proportion, which kind of tickles me, but just wait till it hatches. :o)

Very cool @SeniorBalloon.

One of my favorite alliums i.e. karataviense. Still a large flower but on a much shorter stem with leaves that dont yellow like many other alliums. Here is a grouping today:

And here a less common perennial that I often miss when it is in flower as it is in a location that is a bit out of the way.

Lathryus aureus

Geranium + Rose

Geranium + Hosta

Lady’s Mantle Alchemilla mollis 'Auslese' + a lonely Geranium

Viburnum dilatatum 'cultivar unknown' – flowers develop into bright red fruits - berries are attractive to birds – it does self-seed aggressively. Old stems make good walking sticks.

Tomorrow is the last day of May if anyone wants to push to add more photos. I'm unfortunately out of action for the next 8 weeks, so no photos from here. And the June thread will need someone else to start it. Looks like everyone's garden is off to a good start!

June thread started @prairiemoon2 z6b MA. We look forward to your return come...August?

Rouge, last year I only had 1 Standing Cypress, Ipomopsis rubra seedling show up. It was in a spit that gets pounded with cold ,frigid wind in winter. I was too afraid to move it, because they resent transplanting. It died over the winter. I got a brainstorm and decided to try sowing the seeds in a pot. I sowed the seeds in a sandy mix and got great results. I have successfully planted about 20 and they are all doing great. I haven't let them dry out and they are about ready to fend for themselves. I don't know why I never thought to do this earlier? I also grew some Petunia exserta from very old seeds, and they are about to bloom. Petunia exserta evolved to be pollinated by hummingbirds. I should have tried moving the lone Standing Cypress that I had last year.

Ive never grown Johnny Jump Ups before. There's a similar native species that's difficult to source. I wouldn't mind if these Johnny Jump Ups naturalized. The fuzzy stuff is Cotonwood.

The majestic Linaria canadensis being fanned by Scutellaria lateriflora and Lonicera canadendis and adored by some ubiquitous yellow Wood Sorrel. The Oxalis is now history, but it never actually goes away now does it?

Fragrant False Indigo, Amorpha nana. The scent is divine.

Bluebill the leatherflower, Clematis pitcheri. They look like porporcelain .

Yellow Avens, Geum allepucum, Calico Penstemon, Penstemon calycosus and Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelistinum.

Penstemon grandiflorum has large flowers and waxy, glaucus leaves and stems. Looks more like a western Penstemon.

I discovered this plant species when I identified it. It's Carolina Woolywhite. It has very dissected leaves and a wooly, white bloom on the stems and leaves. There are no ray petals on this composite. I was anxious to get a good look at it's flower structure.

Penstemon cobaea. 1st year and I'm comepletely blown away with this Penstemon. Foxglove sized blooms that last a long time. It's growing on the south side of the house, so there might be a slight microclimate thing going on.

A Globe Mallow, Spheralcea grown from seed. It might also be benefitting from the microclimate?

Allium stellatum, I think? I planted some Allium tricoccum bulbs in the spring. Im also trying to grow the European Allium ursinum, Wild Garlic from seed. I often deadhead these Allium.

Penstemon cobaea again.

Foxglove Beardtongue, Penstemon digitalis with pure white blooms. Theres a lot of color variations with this species. Some offspring have dark red foliage.

Aaron's Rod, Thermopsis villosa with Amsonia illustris behind it. Photos don't cqpture the yellow radiance.