A Misty Day in April

When the rain comes down in a soft mist; the water gathers in the pretty patterns on the emerging spring garden. A misty, soft, gray day used to be more common here in the northern Willamette valley. These days seem rare now. As I write this post, the rain is coming down in buckets. BUCKETS. It feels severe. However, I am thankful for the rain because our corner of the world has been rather dry this past winter and early spring.

Below, the rain left a beard on the epimedium below.

Epimedium × versicolor 'Sulphureum'

Epimedium × versicolor 'Sulphureum'

I have a deep love for this epimedium. The colors of the new foliage is striking. This year I did not cut back the old foliage (not sure what the right call there is?) but the upside was that the new foliage was higher up, sitting on top of the old and much more visible.

Lamprocapnos spectabilis 'Gold Heart'

When it rains lightly, the water gathers into big, fat, droplets. My imagination runs a little wild and I imagine gemstones sitting on the foliage of my flowers.

Hosta..but can I remember which one?

As we've been homebound for nearly six weeks, I've been motivated to clear out my personal plant nursery (aka the plant graveyard). I pulled my hostas out, probably three years ago as they were just ravenged by slugs and snails. We had an terrestrial molluscs problem. I've worked hard the last two springs and used my little 'slug hotels' to help eradicate the problem. I've been fairly successful, so it was time to replant the hostas...except I don't know which plant is which anymore....

Iris foliage, with it's gentle curves gathered raindrops on the tops of bent leaves.

What about raindrops on conifers. I have a small collection of dwarf conifers (one could get really obsessed with these little guys) and I caught the water gathering so sweetly on picea omorika 'Tijn'. It's a precious little Serbian spruce and I love the Dutch connection.

Picea omorika 'Tijn'

Now, this was taken on my misty rainy day, but this particular plant sits under the dogwood tree and didn't get wet...it was still a pretty little vignette.

Lamprocapnos spectabilis 'Gold Heart'

Next, a colorful scene with Spanish bluebells in the background and the brightly colored budding blooms of Centranthus in the forefront.

What damp day would be complete with out a picture of geum 'Totally Tangerine'? 

geum 'Totally Tangerine'

When I think of spring blooms...I don't conjure up the color orange, but this sweet spray of color is fun and a promise of warmer days ahead. I have divided my plants a few times and the divisions have found their way into neighbors gardens and one of my garden blogging friends too. 

I can't be completely certain, but it does appear that my dog 'Tillie', pictured above, was not thrilled with our excursion into the damp. How would you caption the above pic?

Cheers to rain ~ Jenni