New stuff to show this week. It’s going to be the pink and purple edition.  Our flowering cherry tree has started to drop all the petals and the ground is covered in pink:

It’s kind of romantic, really. This is in the shade bed. Or I guess the tree makes the shade bed, to be more accurate.

Speaking of the shade bed, the Solomon’s Seal is flowering:

Isn’t that a fun plant? Those white flowers don’t open. They just stay like that. I planted two of them and they seem to be spreading just a bit – which is good! This garden bed gets morning sun and then shade the rest of the day.

More from the back yard is the flowering almond. Dang if this thing isn’t completely covered in pink!

I do need to try to stake it as it is leaning to one side a bit.

Up front the allium have opened up. These are purple sensation:

I think I mentioned before that the foliage isn’t very attractive, so I try to plant it further back in the bed so other plants hide that. Or I will go out and trim the yellow stuff if I feel like it.

My rhododendron (back right in this pic) is struggling a little. I did that rejuvenation pruning on it a couple of years ago and it was doing pretty good, but I think this winter cold got to it. I will try and shave off the top as the bottom is nice and green.

More allium:

I have a lot of these all over in the front and back. The interesting thing is that the ones in the back garden haven’t even opened up yet. It gets later day sun and this part gets sun right from sunrise and I think that makes a difference even though the actual hours of sunlight are pretty much the same.

This is one not quite open:

That’s my toad house on the left. Broken pot. The hydrangea will cover this and give nice shade to our toads.

Here is the fully opened allium

It’s like a starburst.  I have other alliums that I will showcase once they bloom. I’m sold on this plant forever!

I bought some petunias for the front. Long-time readers may remember that I’m not overly fond of the petunia, but the colors on this are really cool and I got suckered in to buying some.

It’s called Surprise Green Tambourine if you want to ask for it at your local garden center.

Closer look:

Have a good weekend. Come back next Friday for Iris Palooza!