The third cycle of dogwoods is now flowering, following natives (Cornus florida) the second week of April and hybrids in early May. The large flowered ‘Venus’ remains in bloom as leaves of Chinese dogwoods (Cornus kousa, below) are now obscured by flowers. All dogwoods are excellent choices, with the timing of flowers the primary consideration in choosing.

Happily, flowers of the pink flowered Chinese dogwood, ‘Satomi’ are mostly pink after weeks of cool temperatures. While the earlier flowering ‘Stellar Pink’ displayed no more than it’s typical slight blush of pink, I can count this as an unusual spring when ‘Satomi’ shows its true color. Unfortunately, lower branches of ‘Satomi’ have become too shaded, so the flowers are few and scattered.

The front walk is littered with leaves from the overhanging ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maple that were damaged in the recent freezes. Leaves remain on several other maples, but these will also drop soon and in a few weeks the freeze will be forgotten. We are then likely to be concerned about heat or drought, neither of which will pose a serious threat.

While a number of terrestrial orchids (above) suffered some damage from the cold, most did not. All will be okay, but a few blooms were lost and some foliage is brown.

The lower half of the rear garden has been replanted with native shrubs and perennials that are tolerant of constantly moist soils that caused long established plantings to fail a few years ago. The first of Siberian (Iris sibirica, above) and Japanese irises (Iris ensata) planted in the damp ground are flowering.

In drier ground, a vigorous, yellow flowered baptisia makes quite a show. In an obviously ideal situation it grows taller and fuller that its blue flowered cousins in less sun.