Three Plants for a Desert Island

I was visiting gardening blogs this morning and came across an interesting idea on ShirlsGardenWatch: choose the three plants of all the plants in the world that you would take with you if you were stranded on a desert island.
Looking at the beautiful posts answering this challenge with their wonderful rare and often exotic choices I thought this would be very difficult, if not impossible. How to choose just three plants from all the plants I love?
But it turned out to be fairly easy. First I knew my plants would have to be flowers. I love foliage in my garden but I could not live without flowers, everyday all year long. And the queen of all flowers for me is the peony, I don't think I could live in a place where I could not have peonies. Don't ask me to choose a particular cultivar however, I love them all.
And I must have irises, irises in every form, bearded iris, Dutch iris (like in the picture here), Siberian iris, Japanese iris, the little bulbous irises of early spring. I want them all.
My third choice was more difficult. Tulips or poppies? They are both so extraordinarily beautiful. but I finally decided on tulips which come in such an endless variety of colors and styles.
As you can see I have some of these flowers with me even in the dead of winter. Along with seed and bulb catalogues and beads they get me through til the spring.

Please visit Shirls blog to see all of the wonderful ideas from other gardeners.

Find of the Day:

Wahoo, since this is a day for spring and summer flowers, this shimmery chartreuse skirt shouts sunny days. Young and fresh as a day in May without the black flies.

The skirt is handmade by VigilanteLabs in Brooklyn and is available on Etsy.