Flowers that return each year, or politely reseed or spread, are big faves of mine. Old fashioned sweet williams have the added bonus of brilliant colors and longish stems so they can go in bouquets. These are on my patio right now. The peach flowers behind them are nasturtiums with variegated leaves, a new plant for me.

Magenta and white sweet williams in front of peach nasturtiums on my patio

Participating in Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Thursday Challenge (Flowers), Garden Tuesday and Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Let’s try Orange You Glad It’s Friday, too. If there’s only this one photo here, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos on top to see the rest of ’em.

This is one of those things that you just don’t know until you grow something. When you have a grapevine, in the late spring it gets these cute little sprigs with tiny balls on them that you figure are tiny grapes. But no! They are grape flower buds, which open to nondescript, fluffy blossoms, and then soon are the real grapes, round as you’d expect. Cool, huh?

A grapevine blossoms, with red campion in the background

This post is linked to Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Garden Tuesday and Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Take a quick browse around here first, OK?

It’s raining hard right now (the garden is grateful) but this afternoon before it began I got some photos of the flowers on my patio. I have never had such a display. Finally, luck, a little experience, and decent weather have come together in a symphony of color. Wish you could come over and enjoy this with me.

Colorful flowers bloom in pots and around a Seattle patio in late June

Linking up at Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Weekends, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Garden Tuesday, Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home and Today’s Flowers. Have a great day and come back soon, hear?

In Seattle the other day, I saw these raised planters in front of a big building downtown. They are TALL. No problem with people picking the flowers on these babies.

Raised metal planters adorn a commercial building in Seattle, Washington

You might visit Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Weekends, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, and Today’s Flowers. Thank you so much for visiting here and please come back soon.

Flowers are so lovely, but so ephemeral, their fleeting beauty one of the reasons we respond so emotionally to them. These peonies, roses and snapdragons from my garden are on their way out, but still so worthy of contemplation.

Bouquet with peonies, roses and snapdragons begins to fade

Linking up at Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Garden Tuesday and Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Do browse around here. “Bouquet” is a fine choice for the search bar at the upper right for some very fine images, if I do say so myself.

This is a banner year for roses, I can tell. One of my top fave roses is Double Delight with its strong, sweet and spicy fragrance. This elegant rose bud in the late-day light poses with some Proud Land red roses blooming their heads off behind.

Double Delight rose bud begins to open

Please visit Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Thursday Challenge (Outdoors), Garden Tuesday and a new one, Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Don’t forget that you can download some great tips for better flower photos with no fancy equipment in the sidebar at the right.

Oh, the peonies. I picked a huge bunch of them, just for me.

Pink peony opening in a bouquet

Participating in Pink Saturday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday and Garden Tuesday. Trying a new meme, Pink Home, this week. I appreciate your visit here and hope you return soon.

My next door neighbor has a Chinese dogwood tree planted on our common property line, and we are lucky to enjoy the blossoms every spring. This tree is getting pretty big already and I’ve read that they can get to 30 feet tall. Whew.

White Chinese dogwood tree blossoms in close up, about 3″ or 10 cm. across

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday and Garden Tuesday. Thanks for your visit here and do come again soon.

This year the roses in front of my house are doing very well indeed. I fertilized them at the right time and it made all the difference. The sweet alyssum border reseeded itself very vigorously and just adds to the general fragrance. Wish you could come to my house and I’d pick some for you.

Roses blooming in a Seattle front yard garden

Please visit Scenic Weekends, Outdoor Wednesday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, and Garden Tuesday. Thank you for your visit here and please come again soon.

A young friend is graduating high school and I am so happy with how my roses are coming along that I went and cut these for her as a gift. There are lots and lots more out there for more bouquets very soon. Cut your roses and enjoy them!

Many colors in a rose bouquet, with a Double Delight in the middle; yellow with magenta edges

Linking to Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday and Garden Tuesday. It’s great you stopped by here and I hope you enjoyed your visit.