Not quite Chelsea...

The Chelsea Flower Show opens today. Hooray for one of the highlights of the horticultural season! However, I have a miniature flower show happening in my very own back garden, so I'm not sure I'll make the trek down to the Royal Hospital. Everything at home is so blooming marvelous! For some reason I have an overload of purple flowers this year. The pink roses are juuuuuust beginning to open (they are still green buds in these photos), and the peonies (white and pink) are taking their own sweet time, so I don't think we'll ever see them in bloom! In any case, look at how my garden grows! Pretty, pretty!

The herb garden (lettuce, basil, rosemary, cilantro, chocolate mint, chervil, lemon verbena, carrots, sage, violets, lavender, chives, oregano, thyme, Isabelle).

Flowering chives and some of the ornamental onions (I actually have 150 on the go-- pink roses in the background)

My pale purple bearded iris opened last night! It's a shame the slugs ate the dark purple one. Ah well... There are also a clutch of hot pink Sweet Williams just off camera. It's looking good out there!