Not a Disney Princess

One of my favorite tulips, 'Princess Irene' has started flowering.

Princess Irene with yarrow and California poppy foliage

With Iris 'Gerald Darby' foliage

I'd like to say I put some thought into this pairing, but I really didn't. The purple base of the Iris foliage goes so well with the colors in the tulip.

Dandelion, Dandelion...

The other day in the front garden, it was like a game of Duck, Duck, Goose, but with dandelions. They're everywhere in my garden this year, partly because I kind of abandoned the garden in the last half of the season last year. I injured my back and shoulders, and was in a bit of a quandary as to priorities.

Anyway, now I have dandelions here, there, and everywhere.

I gave up working on the gravel bed, and dandelions, shotweed, and Mexican feather grass have taken over.

They're in the parking strip out by the street.

They're in the beds.

Of course they're in the "lawn."

This one tried to disguise itself as a California poppy.

And I've got way too many of these already!

But...here's the goose in the game. It's a Calendula, which overwintered in the garden and is already blooming. I spied it through the undergrowth and at first, thought "That's a strange dandelion."

We had such a mild winter temperature-wise, that I have other Calendulas that have leafed out already and will also be flowering soon.

They're not the prettiest plants, but how can I say no to flowers like this?

Calendula 'Solar Flashback'

I posted recently that I thought I had enough dandelions and shotweed to feed a small army (both are edible weeds). There's actually lots more you can do with dandelions. Here's an article with all kinds of ideas -- from using them medicinally to cooking the greens with garlic to making dye.

One good thing about Calendula -- it's edible too! I have a veritable vegetarian feast growing with almost no effort.

Random Friday Back Garden

Here's another random set of Friday shots, from my back garden.

Ribes speciosum

Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'

Euphorbia 'Ruby Glow'

Erythronium 'Pagoda'

Trillium ovatum

Dodecatheon meadia

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'

Epimedium

Wednesday Vignette

For today's Wednesday Vignette, I'm sharing another shot from my visit a few weeks ago to the Bellevue Botanical Garden. I was captivated by the bright red berries on this shrub, but had no clue what it was until Loree at the Plant Lust blog posted about all the great and useful attributes of Aucuba japonica longifolia (you can read her post here).

Isn't it fabulous?

Anna at Flutter and Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette, a great blogging meme for orphan photos. You can read her current post here.

A Few Judicious Wide Shots

As requested, here are a few judicious wide shots of the front garden, of the areas that I've managed to clean up.

The greenhouse from the front door

The orange flowers in those big pots are Tulipa 'Praestans Shogun.'  Last fall when it became obvious that I wasn't going to get them in the ground, I grabbed the pots of used soil that held last summer's tomatoes and plunked them in. When they've finished flowering and the foliage has died back, I'll fish them out and finally plant them. I might do this again deliberately this fall, but I'll use smaller, prettier pots. They would have looked smashing in one of my Talavera pots, I think.

Along the top of the recycled concrete wall

Sedum 'Angelina' and blue-leaved Acaena, in planting pockets in the concrete wall

A look back at the house, with flowering rosemary backing up Daffodil 'British Gamble' and a bicolor Muscari

A curvy spot in the recycled concrete wall

As they say, "Slow and steady wins the race." I'm making steady progress with my cleanup.

Saturday Surprise

Over the weekend I noticed that my lady's slipper that I bought last year was up and flowering. I remember taking note a few weeks ago that it had started to push foliage up, and wondered if it would flower. It's Cypripedium formosanum, and I bought it last spring from Keeping It Green Nursery in Stanwood, WA. It's not one of the rarest or hardest to grow, but I'm still delighted by its elegance.

Random Friday Front Garden

Here's a random grab bag of photos from my front garden. I'm still way behind in my cleanup, so they will all be closeups. You don't want to see the wide shots.

Muscari and Daffodil 'British Gamble'

Tulip 'Praestans Shogun'

Euphorbia rigida still in its nursery pot, flowering in the pot ghetto

This Erysimum smells like candy

I don't remember the name, but it has variegated foliage

Arctostaphylos

I don't remember the name of this cute little pink flower -- in fact, I don't even remember planting it

I remember planting two of these last spring around this time, but the name escapes me

Fritillaria meleagris and Hellebore 'Penny's Pink' (probably)

Trillium choloropetalum 'Duane's Strain' and Euphorbia myrsinites behind, all still in nursery pots

I left the deadheads on my cardoon plant over the winter, and now the fertile seeds have sprouted

So, that's a random look around my front garden today. Hope you enjoyed it!