red flowering currant

The ones against the house that I moved that year are getting very little sun, but already showing some pink. The one I thought was a goner has the biggest leaves yet. The one next to the pacific wax myrtle has small leaves like these but no flowers yet.

Huckleberries are putting on new growth. Bunchberry are starting to look a tiny bit less pathetic. Some of the astilbe are six inches tall already. Many crocus fall over on bloom; dunno if that's normal or not. The dog crushed tulips and daffodils in places; moved stakes to deter sitting in sensitive spots. Giant bumblebees (or something that looks and sounds like them) are out.  Brunnera are barely emerged and flowering a tiny bit.  Hardy geraniums are out. Vancouveria is emerging, barely, well behind brunnera and geraniums. The snowdrops under the back rhodie didn't come back well, but all newly planted ones are very nice.

Next year, more crocus and snowdrops along front edges of border. Many more, and mixed together. Iris reticulata too!

 

The three big pieris moved to the back corner behind the patio have the tiny white pieris flowers, a few of them, but they get pretty much no sun back there, so nothing dramatic. Just a nice couple of bushes.  They have some holes, though, and aren't all that attractive. I don't know if I should keep them or not. Maybe give them the year, and see if they fill in.

 

I think at least two more red flower currants, probably three, should go along the west fence. Behind the vine maple, and the moved brunnera, and replacing the small evergreen huckleberry that should go live somewhere else. I think they'll tie that side of things together a bit, and they'll look nice and interesting a lot longer than alliums and crocosmia, which could still grow in front of them. I'd want them pruned up a little bit so the moved brunera can still shine right there in front of it.  Wonder how much wider the pacific wax myrtle will get? Little odd to have a giant narrow shrub so tall right there -- I really could not picture the size it would get, and so quickly, but it's doing the job of blocking the sun in July at a certain angle that made it impossible to sit outside when it's nice out in the late afternoon. Birds like the shelter underneath it, too. I like it well enough to keep it; just want the additional RFC to even things up a bit. (I wonder if I'm the only person who thinks that the very natural, native, almost wild-looking red flowering currant will NEATEN the look of a garden. Probably.)