Anna Pavord in Seattle

Spring is in full swing at the Dunn and Miller Gardens. British author Anna Pavord was enchanted with all the bloom; after the coldest winter ever in England, Anna was seeing her first daffodils and flowering cherries of the year here in Seattle.

Tuesday morning I was lucky enough to get in on touring the Dunn and Miller Gardens with Anna, who is tall, regal, quintessentially British, and the author of the bestselling "The Tulip." She stopped briefly in Seattle to lecture on her new book "Bulb" - more on her visit and her beautiful new book in an upcoming Pacific Northwest magazine column. In the meantime, here's a dose of what's in bloom at these gorgeous north Seattle gardens:

(People photos courtesy of Sue Nevler; I took the plant photos with my new camera....)

Layers of white narcissus and cherries at the Dunn Gardens

Exquisite little black lace primroses growing with mondo grass

Anna swooned over the masses of native Erythronium colonizing the lawn

Epimedium flowering in a pot, and our tour group: me, Tanya DeMarsh-Dodson, Anna and U.W. professor Sarah Reichard who organized the day...

On to the Miller Garden, where an intern was cleaning up the mondo grass 

 

We found the ground-hugging peony Paeonia mairei already in bloom

A stand of velvety Trillium ‘Volcano’ in the woodland garden

A trio of great gardeners; Richie Steffen, Anna and Greg Graves, and a trio of dramatic spring pots

 

 

Comments

[philippines flower]

Oh! Those flowers caught my attention. It seems you have a great flower gardens. How I wish I could have a cool garden like yours. Keep it up!

-pia-

[Riz Reyes]

Love her talk, enthusiasm and spirit! Thanks for sharing these pics, Val!

[Sarah Reichard]

That was a fun day! Thanks for posting the photos so I could relive it. Anna's talk was just as lively as you would expect and the book is amazing!

[valerie Easton]

Hi Sarah,
Just got a copy of Anna's book. It's beautiful and so full of her knowledge and enthusiasm....
Val

[Deborah Anderson]

I have a question about Erythronium, which is suddenly everywhere in my garden, including under my old apple trees--a difficult place to garden. I think it looks very pretty! But I'm wondering what it will do as the year progresses. Will it die back and leave the soil bare? Or will the foliage remain until winter? I've checked online and in my books and I can't find an answer to this question. Since I want to plant that shady back bank now, I'm wondering whether I should take them out or leave them.

Thanks for any info you can share!
Deborah