Spring is Popping at the BBG

It was Saturday morning of what promises to be a beautiful weekend. The Northwest Perennial Alliance was having a March Madness plant sale at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. We decided that was where we would spend our Saturday morning.

It's hellebore time and this garden has lots of them. Here they are teamed up with witch hazel in the entry garden. 

 We browsed the plant sale but were not inspired, so we set out to explore the garden. The gunnera are bursting out of their protective mounds of compost. 

 Everything was neat and tidy, all of the winter clean up completed. We're still working on that at home. 

 This double hellebore was especially wonderful. 

 This pair are wonderful too, my garden blogging buddies Alison and Peter. We run into them in the best places. 

 So many things emerging. 

 Daphne odora smells heavenly. 

 Dark hellebores

 and darker. 

 Camellias. 

 Hardy cyclamen 

 Pulmonaria blooming while hardly out of the ground

 Spring eruption

 Fuzzy rosette of mullien. 

 After touring the border garden we followed the path into the nature preserve. 

 Indian plum is in bloom. 

 We didn't ask what this construction is, but we'll have to come back to see it completed. 

 Wild plum, or perhaps once part of a domesticated orchard?

 The bridge over The Ravine. 

 Licorice fern grows on maple trunks. 

 This tree had a bad case of warts - actually burls. 

 Native Oregon Grape. 

 Alder catkins against a blue sky. Allergy season has begun. 

 Flowering currant ready to pop open. 

 The bog. 

 Not much going on yet in the Yao Garden. 

 More hellebores.

 I forgot what this is called. 

 Whatever this is, it is part of what's popping out at the BBG.