Ligularia Marie Britt Crawford breaking through the ground:

Polemonium Stairway to Heaven:

Phlox, you can easily see this one is a runner:

Corydalis solida, I let it seed everywhere, each plant has a different shade of red/orange/pink, some are white or purplish:

Chionodoxa, a seeder , disappears in the end of May.

Primula vulgaris Dawn Ansell

Primula vulgaris Belarina Blue:

Anemone nemorosa Vestal

Uvularia grandiflora, very intense yellow halfway to orange. This clone popped up in my garden, compare to the yellow in the background.

Anemone blanda White Splendor, the name is telling the truth.

Anemone blanda , a large flowered clone, probably a crossling from White Splendor

Adonis amurensis, double:

Anemone nemorosa Blue Eyes

More pictures follow...

Flitillaria ruthenica, a big bulb can have up to 5 flowers. Not eye-catching, a plant with a quiet charm, and very perennial.

This is a picture of a lily with a visible broken shoot, and then it pushed another shoot! It defies everything I have read and experienced before. It is not a double divided bulb, but a single one! What is more, it happened on TWO BULBS!(an old Connecticut King)

Tulips Apeldoorn Elite. I once found on the Internet a list of tulips, which were supposed to perennialize well. I bought more than 20 varieties. Most of them are long gone history, some are still coming with a very few flowers after 4 years. This one has come with flying colors 3 years in a row, ALL of them!

This is another tulip, noid, it has been in my garden since we moved in(20 years ago), sometimes reduced to only one leaf, but coming back. It is redder in reality, with bluish heart inside. Anybody with a clue for the name?:

Rubus spectabilis Olympic double, it grows in a big, bottomless mason tub, sunk into the soil. Otherwise
it would be all over the place. Passers-by think it is a rose!

May, Smilacina racemosa, my pet plant, very fragrant. Love it!

Paeonia mlokosevitschii, very beautiful for exactly 4 days, provided there is no wind and rain. 8 years ago I planted 5 seeds, 3 of them germinated. This one started blooming in 4th year, second one in 5th but was hot pink. The third one is still without blooms. I should probably toss them out, but I have babied them for so long...

Podophyllum peltatum, some have pink flowers and some white:

Clematis alpina , a seedling here. Unlike all the others, this one is keeping its flower stalks upright and flowers facing outwardly. I got lucky , didn't I?

Erythronium Snow Goose:

Hosta Big Daddy:

Hosta Paradise Island:

From my kitchen window(East):

From my kitchen window(North). The pink azalea on the left is my own creation and it is FRAGRANT!

In front of the chicken coop:

At the south end of the garden. The yellow azalea is my own creation. Double and fragrant!

Rhododendron Blue Peter:

Meconopsis cambrica:

Podophyllum peltatum , a giant clone with white flowers:

My own azalea: white, double and fragrant!:

Blue Peter close-up

Ranunculus aconitifolius Flore Pleno

Iris Spinning Wheel. Next to Sultry Mood, the best iris ever created after 1970, as far as health and robustness is concerned. I have never understood why American Iris Society gives awards to plants which are utter rubbish, while some really good ones somehow do not get pushed.There is something fishy/rotten in that organization.

I hope you enjoy my pictures.

I have heard many reports on winter damages on really a lot of plants, especially bushes. Cotoneaster, Magnolias, Rhododendrons(dead flower buds), Budleias, Roses and others. My irises survived this winter, but the previous one was very testing for many. The rule was : the older the better survival rate. All the new fancy ones died.

And the alpine Clematis is definitely a keeper. Yes, you did get lucky!

I love Fritillaria but the Red Lily Leaf Beetle here is attracted to them so I don't grow them.

I also enjoy seeing how much your Chionodoxa is self seeding. I just added some to my lawn 2 years ago, but they haven't seeded anywhere. I think I will have to add them to a bed somewhere. And I've tried Anemones twice and they didn't come back after the winter. One of these days I might try them again. Yours are very pretty.

Lovely garden! :-) And you raise chickens? Do you enjoy it, or is it a lot of work?

You are very adventurous and patient to tackle hybridizing azaleas. I have never tried any hand pollinating. I can't even keep up with the weekly garden chores, so I doubt I will ever get around to hybridizing. It does sound fascinating though. And to get fragrance as a trait is a nice result. You certainly keep yourself busy. Enjoyed your photos.

that made me laugh. :)

What a beautiful array of flowers you have! I am soo jealous! Thank you so much for sharing!

Actea alba:

A romance between azalea Nabucco and clematis Guernsey Cream. It is the only large flowered clematis thriving in my garden. All the other large flowered proved to be worthless rubbish, dying one by one from the wilt. This one never had wilt.

I have just discovered that it is actually ménage à trois.

My own creation:

Iris sibirica Illini Dame, the best of the 'pink lavenders'. Large flowered, up to 5 flowers per stem here(2 side branches). Gorgeous real iris shape(I hate what some breeders are doing to sibirian irises now, making them FLAT!!!), non-flopping foliage. One of those that should have had a medal(instead for example Pink Haze).

Azalea Golden Eagle(my wife's favourite) and Feuerwerk(my favourite)

Iris Olympic Challenge. Out from the warm toned ones it is the most reliable bloomer and grower for high up North. If only the stems were stronger, I would make the whole world sick of me talking about it.

Hosta montana Aureomarginata. I don't know why but I love it.

Tree peony, bought as Kao, which I doubt. I've made a mistake with this one planting it in full sun. The flowers burn badly. But I'm afraid to move it.

My own creation(fragrant):

Meconopsis cambrica. Love them. Such cheerful plants. The doubles seed less than the singles.

Azalea Ballerina. The name fits perfectly to this one.

Rhododendron Mrs T.H. Lowinsky.

Hosta White Feathers, very late this year, I thought it did not make it , so I dug it up. But it was alive!

Rhododendron Fastuosum Flore Pleno. Of the violet coloured ones it has the most useful shade of violet.

I hope you're enjoying my pictures!

Betty

Do you ever shape your azaleas? I would love a full sized azalea here, but would need to shape it as I don't have much room and would like it to be shaped into a certain direction.

Yeona

Jan.ON, my garden is always open , especially for people from America. Sometimes I pull passers-by in . Some think it helps if they walk on the other side of the street!

Yeona, I try to avoid to shape them, because I like them most with natural shape. But basicly yes, they can be trained to a certain degree, as long as you 'go with their nature'. I made one into a small tree, but it had already one strong stem to begin with. Some Azaleas are naturally smaller(Whitethroat- I think it could be trained easily). Evergreen azaleas are smaller too, but the colour range is much smaller. Some deciduous azaleas grow naturally 'all branches up' and some are more 'all branches sideway', and some in between. Or some grow up to begin with, but then spread into an umbrella-like shape. There are azaleas for each purpose. If possible, I plant the 'tall growers' centrally and surround them with 'spreaders'

I also love your primroses and anemone Blue Eyes. Also the rubus - I'm not familiar with it but it looks spectacular.

You can have some more pictures, I will soon begin posting June pictures. Some of my favourite Azaleas and Rhododendrons:

Azalea Fireball(dark red with dark leaves), the last to bloom , closes Azalea season with a bang.

Klondyke:

Ballerina

Calsap:

Gibraltar:

Silver Slipper:

Soir de Paris (very fragrant)

Homebush:

Enjoy!

I too like the azaleas natural shape, but that isn't going to work in my limited space. I more or less wrapped the runners around my lilac to create a shape I needed in the garden. Maybe I could wrap or braid some of the branches out of the way. My garden requires some shade and more flowers, so I've been trying to combine the two.

Yeona

Some double clones of Ranunculus ficaria

Trillium erectum album

Brunnera Jack Frost and Trillium albidum

A very pale Uvularia grandiflora(very late to emerge and bloom in comparison to the dark yellow ones)

A very intense pink clone of Podophyllum peltatum. Emerges much later than the others.

A lighter pink one

Smilacina racemosa amplexicaulis, from North West USA. Taller than the straight species. Very fragrant, my pet plant.

Double Trillium grandiflorum