Strange May

The weather has been more like November than May:  fairly cool, especially at night, and occasional light rains, as if the rainy season were just beginning instead of supposedly over.  No complaints--cool weather in which to garden and six tenths of a inch (15 mm) of rain. 
Except November rarely looks this good.  

The Clematis are blooming.  'Comtesse de Bouchard'

 'Perle d'Azur' is my favorite

 With 'Laguna' climbing rose.  Gloomy weather, so comfortable for gardening, makes for poor photos.  

The lovely rain we got unfortunately made 'Laguna' collapse due to extra weight of water on the leaves and flowers.  

  There's a Jackmanii Clematis in 'Fourth of July' rose, but the rose overwhelms the Clematis. 

 Clematis 'Wisley' on the left always has the most flowers.  I'd buy another but I haven't seen it for sale since I bought the first one about ten years ago. 

Love that there 'Wisley'

While searching for a part to repair a door, I made several big box store trips just before Mother's Day, just when the garden department is stuffed with Pretty Plants To Buy Mom.  The roses were tempting, but I came home with another Jackmanii Clematis, a 2 gallon size with a big healthy root system.  Some Mom missed out.

It got the spot formerly occupied by an 'Endless Summer' hydrangea, moved over winter to a shadier place.  There's also already a  'Burgundy Iceberg' rose, (last year's big box bargain buy) but there was room behind it for the Clematis.  

   'Blekitny Aniol' ('Blue Angel') purchased in 2017 from Joy Creek has quite a few flowers.  Zero or one the first year as it was settling in, two or three last year when our rainy season was 4", better this year.  Clematis in other climates can be huge and spectacular.  Here they are more the icing on the cake than they are the cake. 

 'Blekitny Aniol's color is a very delicate lavender, the tepals crepe-paper crinkled. 

 Purchased at the same time from Joy Creek as 'Blekitny Aniol',  'Venosa Violacea' is also doing well.  

Clematis 'Bourbon' which had done well on the old wooden pergola at the bottom of the garden got moved to the urn fountain area when the wooden pergola crumbled and we replaced it with an aluminum one in the summer of 2017.   'Bourbon' is still recovering from the move, but it is making progress.

'Princess Alexandra Of Kent' has had more flowers this May than it has produced in the past five seven years, since I got it.    

I waited five seven years for these so I'm going to keep on taking pictures of them until I'm satisfied, okay? 

'Apricot Cream' managed to send a flower up through the Tracehlium that has overwhelmed it.  The Trachelium is about to flower. 

The Trachelium is fun to photograph.

 During the long drought of 2012-2016 cuttings of Fuchsias repeatedly failed to root because of endless heat waves and desiccating Santa Ana wind events--long stretches of weather hostile to Fuchsias.  This strange November-like May--every single cutting rooted in a week.  Planted, they began to grow immediately.

Took so long to do this post the sun finally came out, though we have another chance of rain showers tomorrow.  That may be it for the rainy season, but what a rainy season it has been.