YUM! I am looking forward to eating this but

I'm hoping we grow more then just one! 

Look at that little ladybug working hard.

Do you know what this is?

I saw this growing in the woods

near Seattle. The leaf sucked me in and 

made me take a closer look. 

It is quite pretty but I have no idea

what it is. I included a photo

of the whole plant so you can see it's growth

habit. Not all of the leaves have

this pretty speckling look to them.

I've never seen it before and now am totally

curious. It was growing in 

heavy shade with some filtered sun -

great info but I still don't know what it is!

 

Cyclamen, my dollar find of the spring. Sadly these

blooms are already fading, this photo is a few weeks old.

I've never had good luck growing these, I don't really know

what they need. Are they houseplants and is that why they

never make it for me? I've always just popped them in

the ground but these I put in a larger plastic pot then the one

they came in. What would you do with them?

A couple of photos of the foam flower, I moved it to it's current location last fall and hoped it would do well here. In it's last space it would have disappeared by now, covered by other plants.

 

The red in this - cyclamen were $1.00 at a box store! The dead looking

stuff next to the foam flower isn't a weed for once but 

daffodil foliage finishing off it's season.

A beautiful iris that I am thankful is flowering.

The flower bed it resides in has become overtaken

by weeds, I hate to admit to that but it is true.

There are some excuses for all the weeds, really there 

are some decent excuses; last summer we were painting

the house - by hand, by ourselves, there have also

been summers when depression took over and no 

flower bed was weeded

See, I have lots to be thankful for!

Knatuia Macedonia is a star in the garden, funny

thing is I think all my flowers are stars!

It's so easy to grow, plant it and forget it, yes it does spread

and self sow but they are so easy to pull and

they grow in all the right places. It can get quite

tall so those flower stalks peek through taller plants.

Today's post is a bit late ~ I'm really tired!
Yesterday was spent exploring 

along parts of the North Cascade Highway.

This little beauty is one of our native wildflowers;

Dwarf Fireweed growing on the banks of a stream.
Some great info can be found here.

A few weeks back I was at a big box store 

when a sea of orange caught my eye (eyes?).

I had to have it!

There is this shady spot with very little color,

well it HAD very little color.

Golden Queen Globeflower is a beauty don't ya think?

Oh and this photo was taken with my new camera which I am

very happy about. My old one had some spots and since it was

 a few years old this new camera is a bit better.

I took this photo a few weeks back and promptly

forgot about it. Monty was sniffing the freshly disturbed soil.

While there are not many flowers left on the 

Mourning Widow Geranium the bumble 

is still finding them.
The white all over the leaves is mildew and

as soon as the flowers are done I will

be cutting the plants back.

 

I never get bored with the lupine, obviously!

 

 The bumbles appear to LOVE the weigela.

I cannot blame them, the jumble of pink

flowers all over the little bush and just a slight

 fragrance. Ahhh the flowers!

For the last 7 years a beautiful evergreen clematis has graced

our front fence. The last year or 2 though there hasn't been much flowering

and this year there was just death. Dead leaves and vines, no flowers.
I felt sadness but knew it had to be removed from the fence,

imagine my relief to see this little nub of a plant.

The clematis will live again, hopefully to flower for years to come.

Don't abandon your boots at my house.

Chives putting on a beautiful show, do you think the sage

feels left out? Hardly as I love the sage year round while the

chives I will admit to a short term love affair. 

Something different today!
My garden spider made for me by

a dear friend.
Isn't he cool?!

Lupines are another of my favorite garden flowers.
I'm always excited about the amazing photos I

can get of the Lupine. 

I haven't always lived in the cool weather of the PNW,

for almost 20 years I lived in MI and learned to 

garden there. Growing tomatoes in MI is quite

honestly a breeze as the weather is so warm

the tomatoes produce like crazy.

Growing tomatoes here is not so easy as our nights

are quite cool and tomatoes prefer a bit

warmer temperatures. I could grow just the

varieties that grow best here (early girl, early wonder)

and are easy to find. I don't want to grow just those easy tomatoes

I want the big flavor of those big hot summer tomatoes.

I'm hoping growing in these black pots will help.

We shall see.

Last fall my son came upon a garden center throwing

out a Mission Fig. Guess who now owns a Misson

Fig and couldn't be happier about it? 

Yup, it's me! I've always wanted a fig and this

is a beauty. Do you see baby fig or 2? 

I can hardly wait!

 I love this little orchid. It is one that given to me and

it's been kind enough to re-flower a few times.

I had to take it outside to get the color just right.

Our native blackberry grows through our 

rhododendron. I didn't plant either and cannot

take credit for any of the beauty of this scene

and while I see it every spring it amazes me each time.

By the way I thought last week was spring, this week not so much.

Golden Chain tree is in bloom right this very second,

planning on dropping all those seeds all over the place soon.

It is quite beautiful actually and while I don't enjoy

the seedlings I do enjoy the flowers.
I haven't decided if the flowers

are enough to make up for the all the seeds.

By the way I have no idea how to use the new blogger format
to set up my posts to auto publish at the right time.
I thought I had it figured out but apparently NOT.

Our native blackberry is just now flowering. It is growing

through one of our rhododendrons, I'd like to locate it where

I can care for it and harvest it! Such a taste little berry.

Not a bully like the other blackberry that grows here, for that

I am thankful!

This is absolutely one of my favorite little plantings.

The little wood thing in there is a piece of wood that 

looks like a little cap on a stick. I dig it!

I'm running late on posting this, so beautiful outside!
Hope you all are having nice weather where you are.

 

I love the way this bud group looks!

This rhododendron is 1 of 2 that resides in our yard,

our spring is running late so we just now are seeing these

starting to open.

I've shown you my little Japanese Maple mostly

without leaves in the late fall ~ here though it's in it's full glory.
I love this little maple that came home

as a twig. I'm enjoying watching it grow.

Japanese maples are quite striking although I 

do get a bit bored with them in the landscape.

The leaves on this one caught my eye though!

This white rhododendron was also growing in

downtown Everett, WA. I feel lucky to have seen this one

as the white doesn't seem to be very common.

Our rains aren't kind to many white flowers

and it is back to rain today!