Having spent the afternoon on my hands and knees fighting the perennial weeds, its lovely to see the spring flowers starting to bloom as well as the weeds. The image left is a  Caltha palustris,  common name Marsh Marigold. As the name suggests, this plant likes boggy damp growing conditions and is suitable for growing alongside a stream where it looks very attractive. It will often self seed along banks creating a mass of yellow flowers. There is also a giant variety common name Kingcup which is taller with larger flowers.

Another lovely spring flower is Primula veris, common name Cowslip  which is an evergreen or semi evergreen perennial.  The flowers are often fragrant and always yellow on this variety. Primulas are a very large genus with about 400 species including Candelabra, Auricula and Polyanthus groups. This variety will grow in sun or partial shade, the one on the right is growing in the semi shade on a bank, again in moist conditions, just a stones throw from the Marsh Marigolds. 

Such bright cheerful plants are lovely to see when fighting the couch grass and creeping buttercup which I consider a weed, but it is a member of the same family as the Marsh Marigold, Ranunculaceae. I suspect there are a few plants in my garden some people would consider weeds, but after this afternoons efforts at least there are less of what I consider to be weeds.