What’s Blooming
When Laika and I walked out the door this morning, I didn’t have the highest hopes that I’d have anything worth photographing on the homestead. I figured I might find some violets or creeping charlie if I got lucky. Right in the center of the front bed was a sole bleeding heart blossom still holding on despite all of its siblings having fallen in the storms earlier this week. When I moved closer, I small columbine was peeking through the bleeding heart foliage. The first of my native columbine had bloomed. It’s early, and they were planted this year, so the plant still looks a bit scraggly, but it should grow and more should get moving soon.
First Columbine 
Last Bleeding Heart
Around the Neighborhood
Around the neighborhood, things are more impressive. Irises are going strong and some Lilacs have bloomed. Many houses have broken quarantine enough to procure flats of annuals. Begonias and Petunias abound.
Neighbor’s Dwarf Lilac 
Bearded Iris
Next door, a tall flower is blooming. I’ve been struggling to eradicate what is simultaneously beautiful and invasive from my beds since I acquired the house, but I still don’t know what it is. The 4 petaled flowers have me confused. Luckily, the Internet came to my rescue. I posted the picture to reddit and finally got enough information to identify it.
The mystery plant is Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) an aggressive ornamental brassica from Eurasia that has a habit of going invasive.