Celebrating Sun Breaks

While it rained on and off on Saturday, we did have a few sun breaks much to the delight of the cats.

The weather allowed me to go outside and take a look at my front flowerbed.

Here's my patch of native Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa). The plant is two years old now and has spread to a square three feet wide.  It makes a great ground cover for a shaded area.  

I am finding it to be a bit aggressive!  It is eating up a columbine.

And is spreading toward my Pink Fawn Lilies (Erythronium revolutum).

I am floored by the numbers of bloom stocks the plant sent up this year.

Watching this plant the last couple of weeks, I thought it was a Columbia Lily though it was far too early for one to be growing.  As it turns out it is a Rice Lily (Fritillaria camschatcensis). I just bought two more so I'll have a little colony!  

This is a Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea). It now lives in a cage as you can see the deer munched on it pretty hard and it is still recovering.  The red stems are pretty all year. The leaves turn red and orange in fall.  The flowers are small and very different than other native dogwoods. It is often found growing along stream banks, but I now think that my Mystery Plant of a few days ago is a large Osier Dogwood. They can grow to be 6'-18' tall.   

Near the base of the dogwood is my Columbia Lily - maybe.  I'll have to watch and see.  It needs to keep growing so the Bleeding Heart doesn't eat it up! 

As I mentioned I bought a couple more Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii) and I already had one plant.  So once again, I'll have a small colony.

Here's what I'm striving for!  This lovely scene is repeated each spring in a neighbor's naturalized front yard.

And while this plant is not a native, Dicentra 'Gold Heart' has a huge wow-factor right now! 

The blooms are profuse, but it is the foliage that really give the plant a kick - especially in the dark shade.

My Small Flowered Trilliums (Trillium parviflorum) will not bloom this year. Plants need to be about 3 years old before the do.

But that's okay because my Trillium 'Volcano' is knocking my socks off!

I hope you enjoyed my early spring garden tour!