Geranium albanum...one of the plants Stefan brought back from Azerbaijan

It was evergreen through the winter, its first in the ground, about 5" high and almost 2' in diameter. This is a tidy controlled plant at this point; after spending it's first winter in a warmish greenhouse and flowering in late winter, this plant produced some vigorous long growths.

I'm monitoring the other Azerbaijani plants in China Valley (they had to go somewhere) and the Anchusa that produced huge hairy sculptural rosettes last year is heavily budded. It has not flowered before; Stefan raved about the purity of their blue color. They are growing in the top bed, just below the road, and near the grassy cut-through.

Continue on the CV path past the cut-through and on your left there is a small gravel rock-garden bed containing a few more plants from that trip. The Wallflower is still flowering, the Helianthemum is alive and obviously healthy, and I see life from the Dianthus. The Eryngium sp. is budding up and will  flower within the next couple weeks.

Way down the Valley on a sterile sandy slope the  Atraphaxix spinosa, a woody Polygonaceae, and one of the more interesting plants came through the winter frighteningly well and are growing vigorously. This is a plant we will be watching closely for invasive tendencies. It seeds heavily.