This old fashioned hydrangea is so easy to grow. I had some hydrangea flowers at my wedding, years ago.

As long as it is kept moist (“hydra” is a clue!) with nice humus-y soil,  it will be happy even in full sun up here in Seattle, but I think it is easier to keep happy in shade or part shade, where it still blooms nicely. Another neat thing about them is that prunings made in the spring are extremely easy to root. Just push the stems into the shaded soil, keep moist, and soon you will have new hydrangeas!

For more lovely flower photos, visit Flowers for Today, now entering its second floriferous year!

This is a newer variety of coneflower, or echinacea. It’s more pink than mauve and the petals don’t recurve too much, and it’s not too tall, either. More like a pink daisy, really. Here it is, blooming in my garden, with geraniums I overwintered downstairs and some peach-colored impatiens behind it.

Next year I think I’ll try doing impatiens from seed, as I hear they aren’t too hard and grow easily, plus I could use a lot of them. I read that with extremely fine seed, the thing to do is get a little clean sand and mix the fine seeds well into it; then you can handle a pinch of the sand fairly easily and not get a jillion seeds at a time.

Visit Pink Saturday for more pinkness of all kinds. Such nice people, such sweet pink photos!

And the Color Carnival folks like bright pink, too, ideally combined with red and peach! If you like color, you’ll LOVE Color Carnival.

So now I have this new rose garden, with 18 new rose bushes. It was so much work to create it, but the rewards are immense. I love to go out and clip the fading flowers so the petals don’t strew around in the wind. Sometimes I get a little over-enthusiastic in my deadheading and then I have fullblown roses looking at me soulfully in the clippings bucket. I rescued five of these and put them in a bowl of water.

For more ruby redness in photos, visit Ruby Tuesday.

It’s Macro Monday time. This Black-eyed Susan or rudbeckia plant is a real winner to me because it blooms midsummer and later in sun or shade and survives really tough conditions. This lovely blossom was in my friend Eileen’s garden. And happy Mellow Yellow Monday!

Today (Sunday) is the first anniversary of one of my favorite memes in the blogosphere, Flowers For Today. This idea was created by Luiz Santilli Junior one year ago today, and I am honored to be Guest Friend on this special day. Thank you, Luiz! It’s so true that everyone loves flowers.

Below is my photo which is posted on their site today. It was taken just a few days ago on my patio here in Seattle, and I grew many of the plants from seeds. Dusty, our cat who is posing so nicely, is the kind of kitty who loves everyone. If you visit, she will love you, too. She is an inspiration to me.

I thought I’d post a couple of extra flower pictures today, in honor of this special day. Below are flowers from my friend Cindy’s amazing deck and garden, and one of her dahlias. Enjoy this happy day.

This little bouquet photo is a companion one to a post a few weeks ago featuring a red dahlia, which you can see to the left. I try to post only one when there are two similar images I like, but I am making an exception for this lovely. Flowers just float my boat, is all. Happy Pink Saturday to you!

And welcome to the Color Carnival meme and visitors. I think this one is bright enough!

Flowers, flowers, flowers. I can’t understand why some Seattlites say that Seattle only does Spring well, in the garden. Hogwash. There are so many lovelies blooming! Here’s a sweet begonia, about four inches across. I took the hanging basket in over the winter, and here it is again. How easy is that?

It’s a close-up, so fits the Macro Monday meme, and the splash of yellow qualifies it for Mellow Yellow Monday. Both excellent and exciting memes, filled with creativity. Visit or better yet, participate!

This was taken on a HOT day this week at Pike Place Market, world-famous tourist mecca that rightly deserves a must-see if in Seattle. I love the way they have flowers on that roof. Note that the building on the right is not Pike Market proper, but the flowers roof the entrance to the actual market.

Visit Flowers for Today (their One Year Anniversary is next week, and I am honored to be posting as Guest Friend on that special day!) for more fabulous flowers, and Scenic Sunday for more scenic wonders.

The tender color of these daylilies from my friend Eileen’s garden is just so beautiful to me.

I can’t get over how many daylily forms and colors are available. These are so different looking than the orange ones I posted recently. I also like daylilies because they bloom well in part shade, which is very useful in most gardens.

One more thing about daylilies: I’ve read that they are very good interplanted with daffodils, as the daffs are dying down as the daylilies are coming up. I like continuous bloom, or succession planting, whenever possible.

For more things pink, visit Pink Saturday, a meme with a really great group of dedicated bloggers who post amazing photos.

A week or so ago I went on a local garden tour and one place had bouquets of flowers on tables. This one dahlia looks more like an illustration than a photo! But I think it qualifies for Ruby Tuesday. Take a look there for more red seen everywhere. And while you’re at it, visit Macro Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday, too! I love memes.