Spring! There's finally life in my garden...

After three months of garden ugly (not just winter, but extreme storm damage) I can finally look around and see things that are alive. It is a wonderful feeling! Today I want to share the joy and take you around the garden, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a few of these photos already, but there are plenty of new ones too.

I'll start with the orange blooms of Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Akebono'. This is the first year I've been able to take a photo of the blooms en masse in front of the orange wall, last year an unexpected snow at the end of February knocked them back.

More orange! As I've worked the plants that don't mind our spring rains (like the marginally hardy ferns) out of the shade pavilion greenhouse, I've been using the space for things coming up from the basement. Here the spines of Aloe broomii are illuminated by the afternoon sun.

Saxifraga ‘Aureopunctata’ with it's winter color and new growth pushing out from the center.

Thalictrum ichangense ‘Evening Star’, this one always surprises me when it shows up, I forget all about it each winter, since it dies back in the fall.

The Trilliam I planted last spring returned!

Itoh peony foliage (Paeonia 'Smith Opus') coming up through Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'.

Veratrum californicum

Syneilesis aconitifolia and Epimedium wushanense

Paris quadrifolia

Since cutting back the dead branches of Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' I've been enjoying the morning sun on this Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard', the callistemon used to obscure the view.

Aesculus hippocastanum 'Laciniata' (Cut Leaf Horse Chestnut)

I missed getting a photo of the leaves as they were unfurling and looking like a bizarre spiders web.

The Podophyllum pleianthum show is on!

I especially love watching the emerging dark leaves of 'Red Panda'.

Arisaema ringens being bashful (the leaves are still hiding the bloom).

Podophyllum peltatum and new Adiantum venustum fronds

Clematis ‘Pixie’… not nearly as many blooms as when I bought it last year, but since I suck at keeping clematis alive I'm thrilled it's still here and blooming.

This crazy plant! It was almost wiped out a few years back by other more vigorous plants in the same area. But what do you know? They've since succumbed to winter cold and this little guy is back with a vengeance. Arisarum proboscideum, aka mouse plant.

Here's the bloom.

Moving on to the asarum, this one A. splendens.

It's blooms are past their prime, and frankly a little grusome.

Asarum caudatum, our native wild ginger.

And wrapping up my asarum collection, A. maximum 'Ling Ling', panda faced ginger.

One of the painted ferns, Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum-Applecourt' I believe.

A volunteer adiantum.

Impatiens omeiana

I love that bright white lightening bolt down the center of the leaves.

The rodgersia leaves are so good as they emerge from the ground and expand to epic proportions. I can't remember what is what anymore, but I think these might be Rodgersia podophylla ‘Bronze Form’.

Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron' stalks growing. These are so beefy!

Finally I thought I'd share a couple photos of guests that showed up at the front door last weekend.

This is the second year in a row this pair has spent a few weeks in our neighborhood. They move between a group of six houses mid-block.

None of us have a pond or a pool, but that doesn't seem to bother them. Happy Spring!

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