Once a year, a certain wildling outside our kitchen window redeems itself with a spectacular show. We inherited this quite old and unruly shrub, and had planned to remove it after completion of the house renovation. The contractors even whacked it back severely. The whacking stopped one spring when I noticed an abundance of white flowers. White! Be still my heart! What have we done to this poor thing? Well, in our defense it does look rather pedestrian when not in bloom. After some research, I learned the shrub is a deutzia. For two weeks each spring, she becomes
my dazzling deutzia!

In addition to the deutzia, these plants are blooming now.

 Ms. Deutzia in full bloom outside our gray kitchen
 I took this photo on a clear blue sky morning
 A portico bench in the potting area next to the deutzia
 
In front, white shrub roses are blooming
 These single white roses will bloom continuously from May to October
 American wisteria vines on the pergola terrace
 
 
 This is mischievous Mocha not wanting to come inside. You all met her brother Panda recently.
     Amsonia “Blue Ice” and alliums blooming in the blue garden