Forsythia

Commonly referred to as Lynwood Gold, the forsythia (Forsythia intermedia) is one of the first profuse bloomers in the spring:

It is amazing to see a tall bush lit up entirely in yellow from ground to the top, the leaves yet to arrive and dilute the effect.

The bleeding heart

A little experiment with the Bleeding Heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis), for both its spring blooms as well as for its shade tolerance:

Iris season

A profusion of irises this time around! All of mine were obtained through the largess of a very generous neighbor and a few Freecycle donations:

White iris (Iris siberica):

Beautiful clematis!

Clematis varieties are proving to be quite difficult to get going in my yard. I got one to flower well last year but it is struggling to survive this time around. I am beginning to suspect that my chipmunk epidemic is somehow responsible for this, as evidenced by numerous deep holes around the roots.

One escapee is the clematis I planted last year, somewhat far from all the chipmunk mayhem (but close to deer haven; there is no free lunch, unless you are a deer!). It produced four gorgeous blooms this spring:

There are so many varieties of clematis, and I want to try them all! Well, let's first see how far I get with the eight plants I have now!

Vines!

The humble beginnings of our first red grapes:

I hope the wildlife leaves at least some of these alone for long enough!

Peonies rock!

From ice cream scoop...

to full bloom, in a couple of hours!

Here is a pink peony in an early state of bloom (it filled up nicely over the next two days):