Spring flowers

More photos from  April 18.  Since then we have had a few sunny days that really bring out the flowers.    This is the berengaria next to the west coast planter.  It looks like this planter is wearing a frilly green dress with a pink corsage.  :)

Close up of the Corsican hellebore and another self seeded hellebore with the donkey's tail sedum along the stone path at the front.  They have seeded themselves here in this fine color combination, next to a heather that blooms in late summer in purple. 

This anemone now has more blooms and is looking great.  The pleione is next to it with more shoots coming up.  You can see the lilies starting to sprout up too.  This is the litttle rock wall just across from the west coast planter and the other little alpines that are well established now.

This camas is in bud and will bloom soon.  It is along Mrs. P.'s sidewalk.  I am surprised she hasn't killed it too.  The camas is a native plant.  The natives used it as food.  :).  Above the camas, which goes dormant over the summer, is a very vigorous dark purple Jackimani clematis climbing on a trellis.  This froths out all over its space and needs to be pruned back in early spring or late autumn to just at its trellis height.  Below the camas is this very invasive bisshop's weed that looks really good as a ground cover along by this sidewalk and grows in the clay, with very little water in summer.  I need to cut it back after it blooms and it grows again and looks good until it is killed by frost.  Also along this strip of clay is the cut back camillia, and 2 rhodos and one lovely azalea.  Under these shrubs are some daylillies and some lily of the valley.  I will want to move some of these plants to under the deck; especially the lily of the valley, before Mrs. Pee kills them, too.  In front of the bishop's weed I have a burning bush with red new leaves in spring.  I have to keep this pruned back off  the sidewalk, too.  It is there to screen my front door view from their garbage cans.  Just next to the burning bush and at the corner of my house is a Japanese anemone and the lovely Simplicity rose blooming in pink all summer and autumn.  Under these plants there are violets.. another very vigorous plant.  They have to be vigorous to survive Mrs. Pee's attentions.

This is a bunch of violets.  They are lovely, and I keep some around as ground covers here and there.  But they seed themselves everywhere.  The roots have to be dug out, as they have a tendency to just break off at ground level and just spread more from the roots.  I have too many in the moss garden at the back and they need to be cleaned up there, as well as in the front garden.  I would like to get them established under the deck with some of the lily of the valley plants in the heavy shade. 

These are the two clumps of pasque flowers, or prairie crocus, that live at the front by our driveway and in front of the cedar hedge.  I could use a couple more of these plants there, as they are well behaved and long lasting.  When finished blooming they make a nice clump of feathery foliage.

This is the little trillium at the front, showing 2 blooms this year.  There are two trilliums at the back.  More on them later.

Yesterday, we spent the day going out to Port Refrew and around the loop to Cowichan Bay and home past Duncan and the Malahat.  It was a wonderful day trip.  Lunch at the Port Renfrew Hotel was scrumptious.  We also visited Skutz Falls, which are really just rapids on the Cowichan river with fish ladders added.

Last evening when I went out to look at the pond from the deck I saw a splash in the water from what I think was a frog leaping off the waterfall rocks.  I have not seen it today.  I hope it is not one of those big frogs that have been introduced into the wild and are taking over the habitat of our indigenous frogs.  I haven't seen any fish yet, either.  I wonder if the frog has been eating them.  Some of the fish were quite big though.  The splash in the pond, did not look like a huge frog... maybe 2 inches across is all.  Some of those fish were at least 5 inches long.