A bit of rain landed in Seattle today, and it was seriously welcomed!  I had to water the new fruit trees and roses this week to make sure they make it through their first year.  The roses look great.  The fruit trees look a little stressed.  After todays rain and cooler temperatures, I’m sure they will perk up, however.

We have wrens nesting in a bird box we set on some shelves outside the greenhouse.  Wrens are my favorite city birds.  They are cheerful and spunky and they communicate clearly when they are annoyed.

The hardworking parents are constantly carrying insects to their chicks.

Geranium x cantabrigiense “Biokovo” blooming under a stand of Voodoo Lilies in the Doug fir bed.

Another photo of the white Hesperis matronalis.

One of the throwback lavender Hesperis.

Linaria purpurea “Canon J. Went” growing in a pot near the Doug fir bed.

We have a couple of rhododendrons outside the living room window.  They were the wrong choice for a foundation planting, as this is a tall cultivar.  We trim them so low that they hardly bloom.  The plan is to move them one day and replace them with dwarf hydrangeas.  The flowers, however few, are a nice orchid shade.

I’m not a big fan of hybrid tea roses–they tend to have gorgeous flowers on ugly shrubs.  I’ve had the above plant for years, though, and while it has the usual faults of a hybrid tea, including black spot and other diseases and pests, the flowers are such a vivid shade that I can’t help but smile when it blooms.  This is “Europeana.”

Another view, with the raindrops on the petals.

This is very interesting.  The clematis that I have on the Jeff Tangen arbor usually has small flowers with four petals.  The first flowers this year at the top of the arbor are these amazingly huge, six-petals, and stunning.  I bought the parent of this cutting without a name, but I suspect it might be “Jackmanii.”

More pictures of the Geraneum phaeum hybrid in the driveway bed…this is out of focus a bit, but the color is captured nicely.

If you look closely, you can see the habit of the phaeum hybrid here in contrast to the G. macrorrhizum at its feet.

The standard Linaria purpurea.  These plants are vigorous, but graceful.  They seed about and volunteer a bit, but nothing like their noxious (but beautiful) cousin, Linaria vulgaris.

You get a feel more for the habit of the plant here.  This is a mature one growing in the ground near the driveway.

The arboretum rose seedling behind Leon’s fantastic Pod sculpture.  This rose is blooming really well this year and the fragrance is subtle, but excellent.

Lazy photographer trying to get the picture without kneeling down with the plant!  But I like this picture, anyway–with Jeff Tangen’s sculpture behind and the fantastic fluted petals of the poppy.

A picture from above, showing raindrops on the petals.  This is a seedling from Papaver orientale “Pizzicato.”

Yet another photo.  The surrounding plants are seedlings of a thug plant sold to me as Dracocephalum moldavica.  These do not actually appear to be that plant, nor any other plant I can identify.  I have to shear them back after flowering to keep them from seeding, as they are prolific and filled with wander-lust.

Goumi berries starting to swell.  These grow amazingly fast into ripe berries–should have some fresh eating by the end of June.

The dwarf mulberry that had been planted in the orchard bed for two years got mowed accidentally early on, and subsequently just never really recovered.  I replaced it today with two Honeyberry plants, “Tundra” and “Cinderella.”  These Lonicera caerulea var. edulis cultivars should pollinate each other and be full of fruit starting in the next year or two.

The miniature rose in the orchard garden with raindrops on it.

This poor little penstemon from brother Tim battles the bindweed every year, but manages to survive.  I’ve increased my eradication efforts this year–I pull the rampant vines up every day to try and get them to disappear.

Raindrops on Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) leaves.

Lovely leaves and stems–a fantastic combination of substance and grace.

More raindrops.  And I’m hoping for many, many more raindrops as I don’t have much time right now to water things.