What's Looking Good May 2025

@fairygirl ah, I got the name the wrong way round! Ok, it's not as silly as many hosta and hemerocallis names... And it does describe the colours, which lots of names don't. It's a good little plant.

 

After the rain.

Hosta Essence of Sunset.



Dianthus Carthusianorum.



Hosta Sum and Substance.



Geranium Ann Folkard.

 

Evergreen Azalea

 

First Callistemons (Melaleuca) to flower and always before the commoner reds.
Callistemon salignus.


Perth Pink.

 

My Callistemon is dying off now and Mellaleuca will soon be with the white.



That was a week ago.

 

Saxifraga urbium :-



Rhipsalis eweldiana :-



Oxalis triangularis :-



Erysimum 'Erysistible Sunset' :-



Echeveria pulidonis :-

 

Here is my Oxalis triangularis purpurea which lives outside ...

 

I think it wasn't available when I was looking to buy @CarolineL. I got a similar one [can't recall the name] but the slugs trashed every stem which had buds, and there were a lot. The one big advantage of this year's very dry spring here has been the amount of buds still present on all my Irises. Fingers crossed they all open! I have a few newer ones that are looking promising too. Colonel Mustard and Purpleicious. Some plant names are ludicrous though, aren't they!
G. Ann Folkard is a favourite of mine @Plantminded but I don't have it in this garden.
I must take some photos - maybe tomorrow when it's dry.

Remembered the Iris name - Dreaming Yellow.

 

I moved one of mine into a sunnier location a couple of months ago and it has gone mad! I like the contrast with the fresh green leaves. It's good to see you back @fairygirl .

 

This is curious... A few years apart I got Alpine Garden Society seed of lilium pumilum. This year the 2 separate sets of bulbs have overlapped in flowering. The flowers are identical, but one is tall, lots of buds but "sloppy" foliage. The other is more compact, with lovely neat foliage edged with grey hairs (I think - not variegated), and makes a great rosette when it first emerges. They probably came from very different sites.

Tall one

Neat one

Both sets in flower

 

2 years ago, I bought a Calla lily and it did well. I left it outside in the cold, cold winter and last year... up it popped again. I left it outside in the wet, wet winter and... up it's popping and spreading. OK, it's not quite photo worthy yet, but still, it's looking good!

 

Acer Shaina.

 

A surprise sellf-seeded Ballsamina and first blooms of Plumbago peeking through Iochroma ...

 

The first lupin flower. What a lovely colour.


Camassias



Yellow flag iris


Bee working the white iris. Looks like a leaf cutter bee.


Bee completely coated in foxglove pollen


Sisyrinchium


Red Valerian. This grows as a pavement weed all around me, but I had to buy seed to get it in my garden!

 

A young Weigela 'Rubidor' grown from a cutting but will need some pruning/reshaping later in the year.





Lonicera Nitida 'Baggesen's Gold'




Two Geraniums. Much more vivid than they look in these pics.




Osteospermum - pale lilac in colour. It doesn't look as if it is, but the pic is the right way up.


Hosta