May 31, 2026
Front planter with barberry
The Pugster has become a full green mound in the front planter, with flower buds forming and Orange Rocket barberry giving it a hot red backdrop.
Season notes
This is the cleanest front-planter view of the shrub's late-May mass: healthy foliage, visible bud clusters, and enough contrast behind it to make the green read sharply.
May 25, 2026
Layered with milkweed buds
The Pugster foliage has bulked up into a dense green mass, with the neighboring milkweed in bud and sedum carrying the front edge.
Season notes
This is the bed shifting from spring structure into early-summer fullness: the butterfly bush is broad and leafy, while the milkweed is about to take over the orange bloom moment.
May 14, 2026
Raised bed filling in
The Pugsters have turned the corner from spring recovery into full green mound mode, with the middle of the bed starting to knit together around them.
Season notes
The shrubs on both sides are dense and healthy now, the cut-back winter framework mostly hidden by new foliage. The bright upright perennial growth through the back gives the bed a strong second layer while the center still has room to fill.
April 14, 2026
First new growth
Fresh green pushing back in around the cut-back woody framework.
Season notes
Pugsters get cut back hard in late winter and look rough for a few weeks, then explode with new growth.
April 21, 2026
Filling in
The new growth spreading, starting to obscure the cut-back framework.
April 27, 2026
Looking established
The butterfly bush looking like a proper plant again, full spring push underway.