Already ?

I am awake way too early this morning .. we didn't have the rain as predicted, which I was hoping for of course ! and I have had a huge memory lapse from a planting I did last year and have no recollection of doing it !
Has this ever happened to you ?  is this a "getting old" thing happening ?

Look at the top of this picture a little to the left .. you will see a purple Iris flower ..
THAT is Cherry Garden (albeit with just one flower from the planting.
This is what it looks like

However .. in the other side are some remarkable blue iris (Siberian) ... that I do NOT remember planting ... I thought I had two patches of Cherry Garden on either side of the heuchera.

I know it was me who planted it of course .. no one but me is the gardener in my oasis .. but how I lost complete track of what happened is a total mystery to me .. at least it is a pretty mystery ?

Next .. for wow ! on colour impact.
Norther Lights azalea , specifically Mandarin Lights in a spectacular ORANGE .. I know, not for everyone .. but I am a Halloween freak so this is right up my ally .. even in late May.

Vibrant orange is difficult to photograph .. the wrong lighting can ruin the colour of the flower if it is not soft enough .. it can glare at you , over enhance the natural beauty, making it look artificial.
This is what my camera picked up on it's own.

Another difficult flower is pure white, as with this anemone sylvestris "Snowdrop"

I took pictures in the shade and just gambled they would look as pretty as possible.

Light mixed with shade in the right proportions can make plants look magical
Dre's Dagger fern contrasted with this primula , with a background of Solomon's Seal is wonderful.

Then add complete opposite colour and texture and another wow factor is incorporated.
Japanese maple and ostrich fern.

These are "overcast" photos but it is only to illustrate how quickly the garden leaps forward and the panic is instigated ... yes .. PANIC !!!

These are just a few sections of the gardens ... I often wonder, how am I going to keep this up?

I think I should follow the example of this dove .... and just take a nap !

Finally .....

I can't help but post one last picture of my daffodils from the front bed, early morning .. that is why it is so dark .. but it lends an atmosphere of drama to what is considered a common Spring bulb.
It is a marvel to me because those hits of bright yellow did us so much good after such a long winter and such intense times with the virus .. thank you yellow smiles !

I know .. more yellow ? .. but this was a long time coming for me to split these two hosta.
What ever the reason, I kept putting it off each year .. true, they aren't huge, but you know how mature hosta can be ? My best tools are the root knife I have from Lee Valley, and this nifty long handled shovel with a sharp V point, I bought on end of season sale .. they are magic !
I would have split them in threes but I just couldn't manage the perfect number at the time sadly.

Some of the tulips out front .. more to come .. but this picture hardly shows how amazing the colours are as they open and shift with age.
Antoinette is later, it has multiple flowers on each stem with a very soft morphing shade display.

Ballerina, in the back garden is chameleon  like, with it's shaping and colours

Jack Frost has been such a delight with this tiny blue flowers and contrasting them with yellow just seems the best scenario.

Yes ! there are other Spring flowers .. we are always one of the last areas to advance with them so it may seem a bit boring to those who have moved way down the road from this ? ;-)

Wood phlox mixed under the hellebore

Colonies of Freckles violet

How sweet are they ?

I know from this stage these don't look like Cherry Garden dwarf iris , but I swear they are !

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry a vision of delight with such perfect tiny blossoms

I have three Niveum (white) epimedium  under this Japanese maple flanked by white moss phlox.
My fear is that wondering cat will dig up my efforts with the battle I have had over the years.
My best offense are trimmings from the barberry .. no harm but it seems to repel the rascal.

Long view of the sunny side border that is finally filling out .. it seemed to take forever this year of strange and terrible events .. fingers crossed all will be well eventually for everyone !

Can you spot .....

This was after a couple of rainy days .. I was awake at 5:20, but couldn't drag myself out of bed until a little after 6 .. but ? .. being up this early gave me the bonus of YES .. seeing my little bunny again.
The other bonus was seeing those bright spots of CHEERFUL yellow from my favorite Spring flower.
Can you see the bunny (upper picture) get your magnifying glass out ? LOL

Can you spot my visitor now ? .. talk about well camouflaged !

 The little guy/gal just "froze" there, as I snapped some pictures and then he/she disappeared as if in a poof of smoke or from a magic hat ?

Meanwhile the garden is really coming to life .. I have a box of mail order plants to unwrap.
But .. those plants I bought before the frost ? .. annual baskets, Boston fern ... well the fern is toast.
The baskets I cut back all of the dead "stuff" and I am hoping they will come back .. geraniums mostly. Ironically the calibrachoa survived the freeze .. along with some annual verbena go figure?
That was a first for me .. losing annuals like that .. but ? no matter how long you garden there is always going to be a first some time or other .. that is life !

The impossibility of snow ....

Well ... what can I say ... and the fun doesn't stop yet .. we had more snow today, May 9th.

Meanwhile .. my utter excitement of finding some great native plants at one of our local garden centers .. well I bought them Tuesday May 5th and planted them May 6th.

A variety of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, white, red, and yellow trillium .. I wish I had gotten more !

The full Flower Super Moon happened along the way .. the last super moon of the year.

I am going to add metal stakes to the areas with the new natives since they tend to disappear with the heat of summer .. I don't want to mistakenly dig where they are.
I read that the yellow trillium looks especially good next to Jacob's Ladder.

Arisaema triphyllum should make a nice little colony behind a bright red Japanese maple here.

I'm hoping the contrast of red trilliums look great against the green lacy leaves of Waterfall Japanese maple .. although it will take a while for leaves to unfurl  in time ?

Epimedium "Purple Pixie" plus Angelina sedum almost echos the colour tones of Fall when emerging in the Spring .. I don't mind at all being reminded of Autumn.

Lichen, moss, and a variety of other not so obvious plants are always interesting to me.
They are all alive and well so far after winter .. but winter seems to NOT want to let go, even after the first week of May .. I worry what else we are in store for with all that is going on.

Meanwhile ... I am going to enjoy my garden ... snowfall and all !