More May Flowers

My goal was to take photographs of every single flower type in my yard this spring and summer. As the months progress,  I'm realizing just how many there are! 

The columbines are everywhere. Years ago I bought one purple columbine and every year I've saved and planted the seeds. The light pink columbines all came from plants I rescued almost 20 years ago.

I was please by the color combinations that the spirea and the columbine created.

The raspberries are developing fast. They started blooming the middle of May.

Now the bumblebee are all over them, busy helping us polinate. The bright red-orange on these bees is so bright.

A bee hotel we set up last month already has residents. Probably mason bees.

The bumblebees are also busy working on the comfrey.

This bee was so yellow. I don't think I've seen this type around before, but they were all over the chives.

Can you believe that orange?

The wild roses are now smelling so beautiful and also covered in bees.

Much of the end of May was rainy, but that gave me plenty of opportunity for pictures of raindrops.

The monkey puzzle tree is so spikey and the raindrops are so round.

Raindrops are heavy! The poppies can't hold their heads up.

Huckleberry leaves with their pretty colored new leaves hold the raindrops delicately.

This poppy is waiting till morning to bloom.

The sun came out briefly to light up the buttercups. Even on a dull day they are shiny and bright.

Lupins are always a favorite.

Foxglove's color is beautiful and they spread so willingly from seed.

Last year I had white foxgloves and fuschia ones. Now this year I have these delicately shaded pink ones. 

The blossoms seem to be turning pinker the older the blossoms get.

More delicate pink, this time from a perennial geranium. I like the shape of the buds.

 This is a new shrub I bought as a tiny reject plant at a sale a couple years ago. Now it's bloomed for the first time and it's just a pretty as I had hoped.

Thyme in a delicate shade of lavender.

Some flowers are so tiny you almost miss them.

Sometimes the color comes from the leaves. 

I'm so pleased with how this white maple lights up in the evening sun. 

Small cherries dot the wild cherry. The birds will be getting most of these.

The bright red tendrils of the silver lace vine.

 The brilliant poppy my Mom dug up from her yard in Calgary and brought me.

The california poppy also demands to be noticed with it's bright orange.

The honeysuckle is blooming. The first leaves are so interesting in their shape.

 I like the symmetry of this blossom.

Pacific Nine Bark is a native shrub. The tiny flowers still manage to put on quite show.

The clematis we rescued is blooming in beautiful colors.

The skies are supposed to be clearing now for June. The sun is going to come out and everything growing will explode. 

I'm looking forward to blue skies and sunshine. 

May Flowers

In the beginning of May the tulips and forget me nots were fantastic. 

The forget me nots come in white too.

This mountain bluet and tulip make for an odd but attractive couple.

The color of this tulip changes through the day. In the sun, the color warms up, but when light fades it seems to turn almost black it's so dark purple.

The strawberries are blooming.

The nashi has finished blooming and little tiny nashi are visible now.

 The snowball viburnum is green when it starts and slowly turns whiter and whiter. 

Perennial geranium, the leaves are also attractive in this one.

The roadside flowers I put in are surviving against all odds.

This rhododendron was saved from sure death after being dug up and tossed aside to make room for new plants at Holland Park. When we salvaged about 12 of them, we didn't know what color they were going to be.

Happily most have survived and now after a year of recovery they are blooming. I'm quite pleased with the color they turned out to be.

This rhododendron was salvaged from the garden of a home that was demolished to make room for a newer bigger house. When it was dragged out of the ground unceremoniously by a excavator, it was about 8 feet tall and almost as wide. Even though I had to cut off most of the branches, one tall one survived and more and now sprouting from the bottom. The honeysuckle I planted near it nicely compliments the color of the blooms.

Aquilegia (columbine) is all over our yard now. All of these started from one plant as every year I collect the seeds and start new plants.

The purple columbines are doing great too. This is the first year there's enough of them to be noticeable.

Even the leftover chinese cabbage is blooming and adding it's bit of brightness to the yard.

A new shrub with pretty white flowers I got from the discount table at the local nursery.

Snow in summer and mint. Mmmm, summer and mint tea.

Lupine about ready to bloom.

The grape is blooming. The color of the new leaves is almost unbelievable.

I love chives. Sour cream and chives is so tasty, but I think I like the flowers even more.

 The pine tree is forming brand new pine cones. I was so pleased when I first discovered these on the new little tree we bought, I thought I was only getting evergreen.

One one branch there's an oddity in that usually the pollen bits are on one part of the branch, and the cones are only at the top. This branch decided to mix it up a bit.

The wisteria is blooming. One morning I got up early watched the sun rise, it was beautiful as it first shone on the blossoms and the trees. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Although it's not a flower, in the full sun the bright green color of the new maple leaves was almost unbelievable. This sunny weather has been a great start to May.

Thanks for hanging out with me in my yard.