Yet another photo from the Bronx Botanical Garden and my recent New York City trip. This was taken in the beginning of May, and the peonies were ALMOST ready to pop. For more ruby redness of all kinds, go to Ruby Tuesday, a fine place in blogland if ever there was one.

This a a top fave flower photo of mine, again from New York’s Bronx Botanical Garden. These little pansies were at their peak, and perfection in a modest little flower, to my mind. For more heavenly flowers around the world, visit Today’s Flowers.

This tree was blooming so intensely in my recent trip to the Bronx (New York)  Botanical Garden. On Wednesdays you can walk through the grounds for free. Such a deal! I’ll post a photo every now and then from that amazing trip; must save some for the long Seattle winter of no flowers. Hope you like it.

I found out about a Pink Saturday photo meme, and it looks delightful. This ought to qualify!

These tulips were part of the bulb marathon we planted last fall. Nothing on the package said they were more than twice the size of a normal tulip. If you look at the photo of my garden a few posts down, they are quite tall and you can see a couple behind the left vegetable bed. I have never seen anything like the size of these flowers. And they are beautiful as well!

For more flowers around the world, click HERE.

I realized it’s been just a year since we moved in. We dug up lawn and planted bulbs, dug the vegetable beds, and in general dove in to a very neglected situation. Today the sun peeked out and this is what it looks like out there. Not as good as it will look next year, but such an improvement over last year!

I know I should save some faves for when there is nothing blooming, but I can’t resist. The first, top one is rhododendron branches I forced from completely closed buds. I was having a party for my birthday (do not ask how many years; a shocking number) and wanted a big bouquet. They took about a week to get from completely closed to this. I put them in very warm water, almost hot, to begin with and it really gets them going.

Then I had to post this checkered lily, Fritillaria meleagris, that came up in my garden. Awfully cute, don’t you think? But it looks more like a tulip than a lily to me.

And finally, this is from my next door neighbor Ele’s garden. The hostas and I think snowdrops (bluebells?) looked so pretty with the sun lighting them up.

And if you still crave more beautiful flowers around the world, click HERE for the greatest photo meme, Flowers for Today.

Spring is so wonderful. Here’s a perfect red camellia for Ruby Tuesday, from the huge old shrub in my backyard. No fragrance, but their almost mandala-like circle of petals is hypnotic to me. And they bloom early!

For more rubiness around the world, click HERE.

This daffodil created flower lust in me. I don’t know why its frilly pale looks appealed to me so much when I saw them last week. I’ll have to find some like this and find a spot in the yard for them for next year. A gardener always looks ahead hopefully. For more flowers around the world, click HERE.

Usually it’s quite gray around here (I know I repeat myself) so when we have sunny skies it’s an event. This week we had a couple of days of glorious weather, so here’s a look at a sky from Wednesday for you. For more fascinating skies around the world, click HERE.

There is a beautiful old-fashioned glass building in northeast Seattle called the Volunteer Park Conservatory. A remarkable collection of exquisitely cared for plants and flowers, a must see, especially on a rainy day. Do you see the gardenia tree in the top one? The whole place smelled heavenly.

For more flowers around the world, click HERE.

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