What do you see on your garden walks? 2013

Pimelea ferruginea

Well, that's the mountains for you, Anne!   ;-)   I hope it clears up soon though so you can enjoy those views.  Please do post photos!  I would love to see them.  I'm not sure how our hiking plans will play out this summer with so many bridges washed out on the highways in to the mountain parks (a minor complaint, needless to say, compared to the situations of those who have suffered flood damage to their homes, though).

A few things from the yard, in the first burst of bloom on the perennials:

Iris versicolor; Echium russicum (soundly perennial here); Silene uniflora (x2) - pinkish and white among the self-seeded multitudes:

Silene zawadskii (x2) - I love this plant!  It's tough as nails and takes all conditions.

Anemone canadensis... horribly invasive but tough and beautiful.  I thought I'd finally get rid of it this year but now I'm wavering again... as it silently invades under the plastic barrier, past the fence line and into the inner yard... 

Update on mountain lily, Ixiolirion tataricum:

Hemerocallis flava - very fragrant:

The start of bloom on Verbascum x phoenicium:

Every year is a good year for Verbascum nigrum in my yard! ;-)  (I'm always thinning out the self-seeded hordes... I do love to have it around, nonetheless.)  I'm also struck by how much more advanced your season is compard to ours... V. nigrum is weeks from blooming here.  

I've not yet had any success at wintering over the hardy gladiolas, unfortunately, so very  well done, Rick!

Rosa spinosissima is spectacular right now and very fragrant (funny, I didn't used to notice the fragrance from it) - the bees are having a lovely time in it:

Eremurus himalaicus;  Athamanta turbith ssp. haynaldii - does this thing have a common name?

View from below of Caragana arborescens 'Walker' on a high graft (DH likes to refer to this as "the acacia" - yes, he does know better!!!)

Very nice, Rick.  Your Echium russicum are so nicely upright - mine are always curved.

The result of two different storms (each with about 4 inches of rain) is that my giant perennials are even bigger than usual... Here's Persicaria polymorpha, reaching for the sky:

Oriental poppy, 'Allegro':

A variety of colours on the hybrid tea rose 'Rio Samba':

Geranium x magniflorum and Gillenia trifoliata (that's the old name, I know):

Clematis recta... nicely fragrant; looks like I will need to reef it up again to keep it from flopping over on the peony;

Penstemon x barbatus have self-seeded throughout the yard (which is delightful!) and are starting to bloom:

Sorry, Mark... I thought you were referring to the orange columbine photo.  In trying to respond to your concern, I reposted the one photo, then added another clearer one,  although I see that one of them is not loading now for some reason.

This was different than the first time I exceeded whatever the limit is for embedded photos.  That time, the later photos in the list would not enlarge.  This time, it was the first photos in the list that would not enlarge.

Anyway, here's the photo you noted does not enlarge (and it doesn't enlarge for me either in the original post... though I thought I had it corrected it earlier).  Uggh, it's all very confusing.  Spurless flower on the left of Semiaquilegia ecalcarata or hybrid thereof, and spurred ones on the right:

Wow, stunning, Harold!  I've just bought one butterflyweed and planted it in the front yard (a very normal orange form) - had a few of the garden variety Asclepias years ago but they seemed fairly short lived in my conditions.  Do yours get constant moisture?

Lychnis chalcedonica, pink form;  Allium; Astrantia carniolica 'Rubra' and Nepeta nuda; some of our few annuals, honeywort (Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens'); Verbascum x phoenicium and rugosa roses:

Ligularia macrophylla has been brilliant:

Campanula thyrsoides is starting to bloom - in my garden they are 3' tall, which I imagine is 2-3x taller than in mountain meadows?; Stachys macrantha; Anthemis carpatica; another shot of Persicaria polymorpha, Veronicastrum sibiricum and Lychnis chalcedonica; Veronica in the front yard:

[quote=RickR]

I find wild Butterfly weeds grow in dry or moist sand and moist clay based soil prairies.  Quite an adaptable species, although not to adaptable to transplanting, even at a young age. 

[/quote]

Perhaps it's not the dryness that resulted in them being relatively short-lived in my garden (as I've read that Asclepias tuberosa is supposed to withstand drought) as much as some of the more frequently-cultivated species being somewhat on the edge of hardiness here?  Oh well, this genus is certainly worth another try for me, in any case.

Gentiana lutea survived tranplanting from its dry spot next to a big spruce, and has managed to flower, after a few years of barrenness, in these moister, friendlier conditions... flowers are a bit "squinny"-looking this year (not as nice as I remember previously) but maybe it will recover with time:

Osteospermum barberiae var. compactum 'Purple Mountain', planted in 2001 and coming through every winter since (amazing!!), with a little guest seemingly munching on one of its flowers:

Allium cernuum; Scutellaria alpina; Scutellaria pinnatifida (formerly orientalis) ssp. alpina; Allium senescens (thank you for the ID correction, Mark!  I received this as Allium roseum years ago and didn't realize the error until now):

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Cambridge'; Verbascum eriophorum x 2; Verbascum nigrum starting to bloom:

Erigeron glabellus; Linum flavum 'Compactum';  Dianthus deltoides cv.: