Carla Z. Mudry is a frequent GPOD contributor of beautiful images from her garden in Malvern, Pennsylvania. If you want to look back on how it looked during winter, you can start here: End of the Year at Carla’s. Today, however, we’re celebrating how it looks in spring.

Welcome back to my garden! Daffodils, narcissus, bluebells, and fritillaria have stepped aside for azaleas, red rhododendrons, and tree peonies. I have started planting up my pots. I also temporarily opened the fern farm to rehome the giant ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris, Zones 3–7) I have. They are VERY happy, so I needed to thin some out. My friends were happy beneficiaries! Next to open will be the first flush of roses. I gave all of them a late February pruning, and now they are raring to go. Happy gardening!

Small hostas (Hosta hybrids, Zones 4–9) open up their leaves in a container backed by an enormous stand of ostrich ferns. This fern can spread a little aggressively, especially in moist conditions, but who could mind having lots of these beautiful plants?

Hostas grow happily in pots, and this can be a great way to show them off.

In the transition from early spring, daffodils have faded, as have some of the azaleas, while the tree peony (Paeonia hybrid, Zones 4–8) on the right is coming into full bloom and the roses are putting out new growth before their time to shine.

Though called tree peonies, these plants are more shrubs, with woody stems and enormous flowers in the spring. Tree peonies bloom earlier than their herbaceous relatives and are a little more tolerant of light shade.

The tree peony flowers are simply breathtaking.

I’d love to sit at the table next to that azalea in full bloom and just drink in the spring beauty.

The woodland garden is filled with graceful ostrich ferns.

Deer love to snack on hosta leaves at this unfurling stage, so Carla applies a repellent spray to keep them untouched.

This unusual rhododendron (Rhododendron hybrid, Zones 5–9) has rich, dark red flowers.

With nearly white flowers delicately edged with pink, this clematis (Clematis, early large-flowered group, Zones 4–8) is so perfect I can’t stop staring at the photo!

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