Please meet the rest of my yard

First off, my garden plan is fixed and should be legible now.

Nothing doing in my SFGs so far, so I thought you might like to see other parts of my (unmowed!) yard. 

The first denizen is the Sage Tree.  It's all budded out and just about to bloom.  It grows huge every year, and as big as it looks below, it is only about half the size it can actually reach -- I gifted a friend with several armfuls of boughs last year, so to my eyes it's looking a bit puny.

Just to the right of the sage is a plant I was given a few years ago.  It is hiding under the day lilies.  I planted it there between the sage and the lilies because I was told it prefers shade.  I can't remember what it is called, but I think it is at least semi-rare; the person who gave it to me was trying to spread it around to increase its chances of survival.  I think it might be wild ginger?  I'll try to find out. It spreads very slowly underground, and has an easily overlooked but beautiful purple-brown flower (thimble-shaped and -sized) which seems to come up straight from the ground by the central stem.  Really neat.


Here's a closer shot of whatever-it-is:

This is Kaleidoscope (R) hydrangea 'Homigo' (H. macrophylla 'Homigo'), mail ordered from Spring Hill in 2004.  I don't think they offer it anymore.  Its flowers start out blue, then go green, then red.  The foliage and stems turn mostly rust-colored in the late summer/fall, too.  The catalog says it often displays all three colors at once but to date I've not seen that happen.

It should be much bigger but it has had some bad years of burst-stem.  I also transplanted it from its original location (between Jeff and the Sage Tree) as it seemed to be getting too much sun and crowded.  It is much happier by the front step.

The chives in their prevent-the-chive-invasion container.  They are in a brand new location by the gas meter, replacing a shrub (sweet broom) which didn't survive winter.  I have been trying to cover that meter for years now and still no luck, but the chives' spilling-over-mess seems at home there.

Below are Mutt and Jeff, my roses, named after the cartoon characters.  Mutt ('Brandy') is there on the left.  Jeff is a single-petal white rose (name, I can't remember, something-Spice??  The tag is gone.)  Both J&P and planted in 2001.  Jeff is extremely robust and regularly whups the sage tree for size and breadth if I let him.  Mutt is more delicate; slender and tall.  I think they suffered from the deep snow this year... both are trying to bloom already. 

Off by the front is my bee garden.  I am very leery / anxious about bees, but I've also always felt it important to plant for them.  There is purple salvia, just starting to bloom, and Bee Balm, as well as some Siberian iris, an errant crocus, and Mutt off there to the right.  The Bee Balm didn't do well last year and has never bloomed, but this spring it's already bigger than ever before.  I have hopes!