A long weekend away; plant shopping and gardening

A view looking out across mom's garden. Most of the plants we bought went into containers on the back deck, where I'm standing when I took this photo...
Spokane is a little behind Portland as far as spring plant development, so I got to see my mom's shredded umbrella plants (Syneilesis aconitifolia) in their fuzzy state, whereas mine are all grown up and green now. 
This ginormous, beautiful green monster is a climbing hydrangea (no clue of its name), there is a trellis under there, somewhere. Mom says it blooms white, I don't remember seeing the flowers but I must have.
I'm sure I take multiple photos of this Rheum palmatum every time I visit, it's just so good!
We bought our plants at the same time (way back in 2011), mine is long gone—I wanted the space for sun loving plants that need less water—but mom's just keeps on keeping on.
So here's our haul photo from the day's shopping. We were both a little bummed at the selection on offer at our favorite stops (here for example) as we didn't find many of he unusual offerings we had in the past. Were we shopping too early in the season? Are there less plants to be had this year? Dunno, thankfully we managed to buy a few things.
Lots of Phormium 'Mat's Merlot', which went into multiple containers around the garden. Funny thing, she paid $16.95, $5.95 and $9.49 for these at different nurseries, plant prices do vary!
Dahlias (dark foliage at the back), lemon grass, Uncinia rubra 'Belinda's Find', red begonia and a striped cordyline.
I practically twisted her arm to get this orange blooming abutilon which will be an annual in Spokane. I pray it continues to pump out blooms all summer long.
Potato vine, wire vine, lobelia, asst. succulents, and a coleus round out our container-filling haul.
I was so tired and dirty after I got everything planted I took a shower and forgot to take "after" photos! (there may have been a glass of wine and a delicious bbq dinner to distract me)
Here are the two (only two!) plants I came home with...
Hosta 'Rainbow's End', cause I loved that variegation...
And a coleus (!), I haven't grown coleus for many, many years—but look at how dark it is with that thin green outline, I had to have it (mom got one too). It's part of something called the "Main Street Coleus" series that is bred to work in sun and shade, this one is Lombard Street. Other famous street names in the series include Ashbury, Bourbon Street, Rodeo Drive, and Alligator Alley. Can you imagine the meetings where these names were thought up? 

Four days away from the garden in early May is hard—there's so much to do and things are changing fast—plus my time away coincided with a mini-heat wave here at home (two days over 90 bracketed by days in the 80's) so I was a little concerned what I'd find on my return. Thankfully the heat came after a very wet week (1.78" of rain!), so my plants did fine, even the ones in containers that I took steps to protect.

A few new blooms greeted me, like this Lewisia rediviva, aka bitterroot. Its succulent leaves are already going dormant, I think the flower looks a lot like a cactus bloom.

The Salvia africana-lutea I overwintered in a container (it's not hardy here) is blooming it's rusty-colored flowers.
And the replacement passiflora I bought already budded (winter killed the two I had) is starting to bloom, P. 'Star of Surbiton'...

And it's akebia time! Akebia longeracemosa 'Victor's Secret' that is...ain't spring grand?