April photos from my phone; the flowers

When our weather turned non-stop sun I kind of lost track of time. I could look at the calendar and see it was still April, but mentally I couldn't wrap my head around it, July! July! July! Was all I could think/feel. On the 21st our local weather guy Mark Nelson wrote this on his blog: …how many times can you recall waking up to sunshine for 11 consecutive days? It’s nothing unusual if you live east of the Cascades of course (drier climate). But west of the mountains, even in summer, it’s rare. From fall through spring it doesn’t happen because we have weather systems moving through from time to time. In July and August, we get occasional surges of cooler marine air and low clouds. So even in the peak of summer we typically don’t see more than 7 cloudless days."

With all that sun I wasn't able to move plants out of the basement (no clouds = sunburn on leaves that haven't acclimated to outdoor conditions), and it just didn't seem like the best time to plant, so my time in the garden was kind of random. Combinations of clean-up, repotting containers, watering, and scheming. Oh and being confused and feeling like I was wasting precious time. I did manage to snap some phone photos and that's what I'm sharing now. Today the flowers, tomorrow the foliage. Paris quadrifolia...

Citrus trifoliata, aka Poncirus trifoliata

My one and only Pacific Coast Iris hybrid, 'Wildberry Shortcake'

Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron'

Magnolia laevifolia

Okay not flowers, but berries... Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'

Stachyurus salicifolius

My newest Rhododendron! I wanted R. forrestii for the form and foliage, but wow...

I am in love with those flowers!

Pretty fabulous, right? (thank you Roger Gossler)

The blue blooms of Ajuga reptans 'Black Scallop' always catch me by surprise. I forget about them, until suddenly there they are.

This is one of many plants in my garden that was a gift from Alison, who used to blog at Bonnie Lassie. I do hold out hope that someday she'll decide to blog again.

Solomon's seal (Polygonatum) 

I'll wrap up this post with the tiniest flowers in my garden, on Pittosporum divaricatum. This was a gift from Sean Hogan years ago, and I don't know that I've ever noticed it flowering. I would have probably missed it this time around except for the fact I was at my friend Ann's place and she pointed out the flowers on her plant. I came home and checked mine, voila!

Weather Diary, April 28: Hi 72, Low 46/ Precip 0 

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