May foliage follow-up

The May foliage follow-up is here! I love May for the foliage! It's at this time that everything is so vibrant. I love seeing all the new growth emerge! One of my greatest excitements has been seeing the agaves wake up from their winter survivalist mode. I've had a number of sad looking agave arms, but all in all, I'd say things are looking quite good going into summer for these guys.

Aloe aristata has been a rock star tucked into these rocks. My larger more exposed clump is not looking so nice.

Everything looks so vibrant in the late-spring sunshine.

Dicksonia antarctica has started to push out lots of new growth.

As has melianthus major...

There's just so much to be excited about. (I know this is the foliage follow-up, but can you see the bloom about to emerge from the largest echeveria glauca!)

Prickly pear growth has got to be one of the coolest things to happen in my garden this spring. It's a first for me!

It kind of looks other worldly in my opinion.

The leccino olive has really picked up in the last month. And for good measure here is a solo shot of my favourite trachycarpus in the garden.

Pretty soon I'm not going to know what to do with this canary island date palm! It is the happiest of little palm tree (though becoming less and less "little")

Well happy foliage frenzy!!! Head on over to Pam's blog digging for the rest of the foliage follow-up.

garden bloggers bloom day!

It's bloom day once again! And for all the joy of spring over the last bloom days, the May bloom day marks the beginning of summer or summer-like bloom day magic! How exciting is that!?

I'm still swooning over the tubular red flowers of russelia. I have not noticed any hummers yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they flock to this beauty.

One of the happiest things at this time of year is the trachycarpus blooms! The males are always ahead of the females and tend to droop downward.

Chamaerops humilis are also blooming...

In the soon to be blooming category I have olea arbequina and olea leccino.

Of course it wouldn't be spring in the PNW without some rhodo blooms. This particular rhodos future is in limbo. Thoughts have been percolating about planting a large teddy bear magnolia.

While its not always my fav, this year the heuchera are looking quite swell.

 Chives are blooming and looking wonderful as well as this beautiful iris. Each year I threaten to get rid of the iris and then I'm reminded of how beautiful it is in bloom. It's almost orchid like!

Happy bloom day everyone. For more, check out May Dreams blog.

My Weekly Fav!

Over the last months I have enjoyed danger garden's weekly posts about her favourite plants in the garden this week, and so I have decided to borrow one from her playbook. Who knows, maybe we can start a garden bloggers weekly fav's!

So for this week, I have to share a plant that is very special to me... sedum palmeri. I purchased this plant two years ago and have been thrilled with its performance in the garden. It reminds me of a thick clump of echeveria. And it is a rock-solid performer here in the PNW.

One of the best features in my opinion is the beautiful blue/green foliage.

In the springtime gorgeous yellow flowers emerge and really add a burst of colour to the garden. I have two big clumps going. One in full-sun and the other part-sun. The part-sun patch has been the most vigorous of the two. I don't know if that is just coincidence or if other people have found the same thing. But that has been my experience so far.

I love the way it looks against other plants like black mondo grass. This patch is slowly creeping towards the mondo grass.

Xera plants has this to say about it: "A wonderful evergreen Sedum that is an excellent garden performer in the PNW. This form was found at 10,000' elevation in Mexico and has been reliably hardy down to 0 °F. Lovely gray/blue rosettes at the end of trailing stems. Yellow flowers in late winter. Full sun to light shade in well drained soil. Performs with or without water in summer. Cut back in spring to tighten up the new rosette. 10" x 10". Great container plant." (http://plantlust.com/plants/sedum-palmeri/)

What's your favourite this week?!

Nursery Hopping - Phoenix Perennials

One of my favourite things to do is nursery hop - the act of nursery hopping. For a plant nerd, this is one of the most exciting things to do. And visits to Phoenix Perennials are always very exciting ... especially when you have plants from Cistus Nursery waiting to be picked up! I can't even say how grateful I am to the Phoenix Perennials crew for arranging a group import from Cistus!

Before picking up my plants, I decided to do a little perusing... One of the first things that caught my eye was this frantoio olive! I was struck with plant lust (no I didn't buy it ... and I'm already regretting it). But check out how beautiful it is!

 I can just see this in amongst all my yuccas and agave.

But my problem was that I could see almost all of these plants in my garden... How to choose?!

good things always come in these green pots!

When I stumbled upon this, I'm sure I gasped. With the knowledge that I've already killed one, I was able to put it down, but I might just have to go back and get it.

Citrus anyone? This is one of the best selections of citrus trees I have seen in and amongst Vancouver.

Lots of danger too!

Another plant I've been lusting after is this variegated agapanthus! It reminds me so much of my yucca 'bright star'

My plant radar was going on overload. Does this ever happen to anyone else? You get so excited that you feel overwhelmed. Where to even begin?!

So I'm sure you are all wondering, what did I actually get? There's no way I was going home empty handed. But this plant lust purchase came right out of left field. It actually happened when I pulled into the parking lot. The very first thing that caught my eye was the last thing I thought I couldn't live without .... russelia equisetiformis!

Here it is at home in my garden! I still haven't decided if I'm going to plant this not at all hardy plant or if I'm going to get a nice pot for it. But it certainly belongs!

And don't worry, I can't forget about my Cistus plants... meet my new yucca margaritaville.

And my two nolina 'la siberica!'

The best part of it all was the sun shining and temperatures soaring to 90F. All in all I'd give it the EPIC seal of approval.