Spring beauty?

Over the weekend we got a hard, pounding rain.  It's unreal how hard the rain came down. I figured that it beat everything to shreds, but when we walked out to look around, I was surprised at how pretty and clean my yard looks.  

The azaleas are just beginning to open. 

The bridal wreaths are sparkling in the shade of some old overgrown trees near the road.

 Even my roses look pretty good for this early in the year.  These are some we planted last year and almost lost to the heat. Badly weakened, somehow they survived, so I'm happy to see that they are looking better.  Maybe they will pick up and look like Knock Out Roses.  

 There's not a lot left of the wisteria except clusters of flowers in a few spots, but they are pretty and smell wonderful.  

This pot in the backyard has white verbena and dusty miller from last year.  The deep, blackish petunia didn't survive the winter. I haven't decided whether to remove some of the dusty miller and add a bit of color.  I guess it's time to make a decision.

Look how pretty the pot was last year.  I cheated, though, by buying a pot all put together and looking really good.  All I really had to do was add the Miracle Gro.  The problem?  It's not cheap!

I've had some of this for years now because it reminds me of my grandmother who always had some in the shady area on the side of her porch.  I now know that it's called bungle weed.  I keep a bit in a bed near the studio.  It's looking really good and green.  The little purple flowers are full.  I cleaned up around it so it can spread since it's a ground cover and needs space.

And that's the yard for now.  Let's see how it looks in a couple of months when the summer sun starts pounding down.  For Louisianans, the summer heat is as damaging as the occasional winter freezes.  Since we got hit with extremes of both in the last year, we'll have to work extra hard to keep things going this year.