Memorial Day Monday Miscellany

Happy Memorial Day!

Here are some miscellaneous recent pictures of my garden.

View of the front garden -- only 2 years ago this was a large expanse of grass that sloped up to the street

One corner of the front garden recycled concrete wall

Thrift store glass plate flower with cloisonne butterfly

Achillea 'Moonshine'

Hebe 'Quicksilver' with Sedum 'Angelina'

Cardoons

Euphorbia self-sown into gravel

Allium

Iochroma 'Ashcott Red'

Clematis flowers winding through purple smoke bush foliage

Arbutus unedo compacta leaves in low late afternoon sun

Tetrapanax leaf

Hardy Geranium

Patch of multi-colored self-sown Nigella damascena

Pink California poppy

Blue Flax

Peonies laying down on the job

Erysimum, Pacific Coast Iris, California poppies, and way in back, out of focus, Persian cornflower

Clematis

Kniphofia blooming already (I think of them as hot summer flowers)

Ditto lilies

EPCOT's Cactus Road Rally

I just realized I never did get around to sharing my pictures of the Cactus Road Rally Garden at EPCOT, from our trip there last month. This display garden from the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival impressed me with its fabulous specimen plants -- not all cactus, but many succulents as well as some pretty trippy Euphorbias (which are South Africa's ecological equivalent of our American Southwest's cactuses). The big difference -- and it's a big one -- is that true cactus are edible and filled with water, but Euphorbia is poisonous, and filled with a caustic latex-like sap.

Chaotic mix of Aloes, Agaves and Yuccas

Loved those enormous variegated cactus

Opuntia monacantha variegata/Joseph's Coat cactus

Another of the same, in a huge pot

Loved this combo of Agave attenuata with Setcreasea pallida 'Purple Heart' and mother-in-law's tongue

Agave attenuata with bright pink Dianthus and a sea of lime green Sedum

That same sedum with Graptoveria(?)

Fabulously large and thick Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire'

That same lime green Sedum with metallic Dyckia 'Nickel Silver'

Variegated cactus, more mother-in-law's tongue, and Yucca elephantipes (which will one day be really huge and tree-like)

Bunny Ear Cactus/Opuntia microdasys

Eve's Needle cactus/Austrocylindropuntia subulata

Bulbine, Kalanchoe and Yucca

A pretty succulent patchwork

Pachypodiums which may or may not be alive

Flame of Jamaica/Euphorbia punicea

Silver Thicket/Euphorbia stenoclada

Cow's Horn Euphorbia/Euphorbia grandicornis

With that, I'm finally finished posting the photos from my trip. I hope you enjoyed them!

Wednesday Vignette

For today's vignette, I'm sharing a shot of an accidental combo in my garden. Often when I divide my Pacific Coast Irises, I completely lose track of which is which. It was sheer luck that I ended up pairing this blue/purple one with self-sown orange 'Solar Flashback' Calendula.

Anna at Flutter and Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post here.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day -- May 2016

A combination of laziness and feeling like crap has made me late for Bloom Day. It's more work than I'm willing to do to post pictures of everything that's currently blooming, so here are some pics of Alliums, Columbines and Peonies.

This poor thing was face down in the dirt after our weekend of rain

Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Check out her post here.

Hope you have an abundance of flowery riches in your garden!