Bit late, but here's three.

Favourite spring plant: primulas.
Favourite summer plant: phlox.
Favourite fall plant: New England asters.

They're all very pretty, very hardy here, provide lots of colour, bloom a long time and are easy to maintain.

My most favourite of all: garden phlox.
(Shortwood, Bright Eyes, Düsterlohe (Nicky) and a red I got from another garden: July 30, 12)

Nice selections, Charlie.

I've been checking to see if my primulas from last year made it, but I haven't seen a sign of them, so probably not.

Do you have pictures of yours to share?

Charlie: That is one festive spot.

Is that Verbena hastata in the background?
right side.

Thanks Jo Ann.
I like all flower colours in a garden, but I really like the colour range of phlox.

I have a number of pictures, Chelle.
Am relatively new to ATP, so learning.
Very recently put several primulas into the Plant Database and will add more.
Happy to add pictures here.

Looking at primula pictures last year
(it's way too early for primulas here this year)
seem to have mostly individual plants, so here's a couple of primula combos from our garden (2011-05-18).

I love the picture of the yellow primula and the mertensia together. So striking.

I do as well Sue.

The blue certainly does look like mertensia, but is Pulmonaria angustifolia (blue lungbane).
I get a lot more mileage here from lungbanes/lungworts than I do from mertensia.

Those are so beautiful, Charlie. Thank you!

SunnyBorders said:I do as well Sue.

The blue certainly does look like mertensia, but is Pulmonaria angustifolia (blue lungbane).
I get a lot more mileage here from lungbanes/lungworts than I do from mertensia.

It is a beautiful intense blue! Does it bloom longer than the Mertensia, and does the foliage stay nice?
There is always kind of a hole where my mertensia fades away but I love the color. If I could find
something with the same blue and better habits I would love it!

Thanks Chelle, Sue.
I too like the blue that comes after the pink buds.

Pulmonaria angustifolia does not die down, like Mertensia virginica, but the new green leaves grow over the old.
I don't tend to notice it, in our garden, in June, July and August, because it's largely screened by taller perennials that bloom after it,
e.g. irises and phlox.

I have more experience growing lungbanes than M. virginica, but I'd say lungbanes flower for as long a time, or some certainly longer, than Mertensia.

It seems that the plant sold as P. angustifolia is not the plant originally assigned that species name.
More to the point in purchasing it now, there is apparently horticultural confusion between the species and cultivars of the species.

Couldn't get rid of the large empty space at the end of this entry, so added a P. angustifolia picture!

Thanks for the info Charlie, I'll have to look around and see if I can find one. I have several pulmonaria put they all have splotched leaves and are more pink.

I really like your blue.

I never used to be big on perennials with variegated leaves, but my friend David Tomlinson was.
David and wife, Dierdre, have a 3/4 acre garden in Aurora with about 2000 different perennials in it.

David's point was that since many perennials only bloom for two or three weeks, you need variegated leaves to add interest.
Actually, how he sold me on them was his second reason for their use; which is, that they are usually not as vigorous
as the non-variegated forms, which, in turn, contributes to easier maintenance of mixed perennial beds.

I now love a number of variegated forms and also now feel, among other things, that they show off other plants.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Dawson's White':



Phlox paniculata 'Norah Leigh':



For me, the more space, the more 'Norah Leigh'.
This is "my garden" in the sense of a garden I installed and maintained.

Early July combinations:

Very nice
I am in the same zone (hard to believe)
So what is blooming now? Just trying to get an idea the timing of your garden?

Or you still getting snow ? Some of the northern states had 10+ inches just the other day.

Thanks Cinda,
(two are a garden I installed and maintained in our town and the last is our own garden).

Put our garden spring bulbs (pictures to date) on Northern Garden forum: Spring Bulbs (2013)
and just started putting same for perennials on Northern Garden forum: Spring Perennials (2013).
There's several of us on those threads with more northerly climates.

Like you interested to see what's happening with fellow perennial gardeners with similar climate challenges (and opportunities).

Our own garden is bulb-wise at the stage of species tulips and daffodils
and perennial-wise at the beginning, with the earliest lungbanes, brunnera, primula, etc., blooming.

Our Hardiness Zone is 5a, Toronto, just south of us is 5b (as yours) and is a bit more advanced than us.

Very happy to say we haven't had snow since early April (though late spring for us).
Other folk on above threads haven't been so lucky.
Now worried about a two week potential dry spell.

Be interested to hear where your garden is at this time.

Charlie

Went over to the Northern Garden forum and saw your threads , nice flowers.
Looks like I am a bit ahead of your spring , I'm seeing full bloom on bluebells ,dogwood and bleeding hearts.

Well I guess I'' use to be'' in the same zone ,they changed things a year or so , I still think as myself as a 5a (slow to come around to change)

I tried to send a photo but the upload isn't working so well today. We live way out and our internet is very bad
I have a cubit that I post blooming perennials by month to keep track from year to year.

Cinda

Not sure, Cinda, but this year you're certainly ahead of us.
(e.g. saw your dwarf irises in full bloom).

Last year here, the first bloom appeared on the dwarf iris on April 21.
This year, today, the buds are only minimally formed.

Thanks for info.
Just visited and will continue to visit your cubit.
Interesting comparisons.

Early morning today, after the rain.

Lot of nice color there
My tulips are gone and the TB iris are stealing the show


I noticed in the more northern areas you have some combinations that I just don't get .
I guess there is one advantage to a compressed blooming season.

Charlie looks like you don't have to get worried about those empty spaces anymore! It looks lovely.