Ornamental Onion

 The ornamental onions are blooming giving the little green bees something to feed on.  Although they prefer full sun, I have some onions growing in part-shade and even some in shade. Because the bulbs are overcrowded, these flowers, at 4" across, aren't as big as they can get. They are a really easy plant to grow and they fill in the blooming gap between the other spring bulbs and most perennials.  Deer don't normally eat them so that's another plus. Colours are restricted to purple, pink and white . Very hardy -zone 2.

 A purple verbascum (related to our wild mullen).  I would say it is a somewhat disappointing plant in that the stems are very floppy.  It would do best in full sun with loamy soil- neither of which this plant is getting because  I don't like it enough to give it prime real estate in my garden. But in spite of the neglect, it keeps coming back so it's pretty tough.  It's a biennial.

 The center is quite interesting to look at though with its fuzzy black and yellow stamens.

 The first iris of the season.

 A tree peony just beginning to open.  It is borderline hardy here (zone 4) and can only manage to grow to about 2 1/2 ' high.  The few flowers that it produces are quite beautiful when they open, but, if the weather is hot, they quickly wilt.  Right now it's pretty warm outside so the flowers may not last long this year.

Lots of cloud shapes after the rain we had last night.  We needed the rain so that was good, but now the mosquitoes are out in full force.  They should moderate in a few days.