This pink pieris japonica shrub, or andromeda, is growing at my driveway and just coming into bloom. It has a sweet, delicate fragrance. It is also called lily of the valley shrub.

Pieris, or andromeda, begins to bloom in late February in Seattle

Joining up at Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Blooming Friday, Pink Saturday, Seasonal Sundays, Ruby Tuesday 2, Our World Tuesday, Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday, Outdoor Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, My Romantic Home and Saturday Show Off. I appreciate your dropping by here first.

It finally stopped raining and I went for a walk. The cherry tree in a neighbor’s yard is ready to flower!

Pink cherry blossoms, still in bud

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Clerodendrum quadriloculare Verbenceae or “Fireworks Flower” is blooming at Seattle’s Volunteer Park Conservatory, and it’s a great way to start the year off!

Fireworks flower blooms in January at the Volunteer Park Conservatory

Participating in Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday, Floral Friday, Today’s Flowers, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Pink Saturday, and Saturday Show Off.  Thanks for visiting here, and don’t forget to click on Sara’s Fave Photos Blog above for more pretty pictures.

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

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I know I’m rushing the season, but coming across these pinkish lavender lilacs I just had to post them. They bloomed in April in 2010 and maybe we’ll see lilacs in April this year, too. Right now that seems impossibly far away. Breathe that scent deep, now!

Old fashioned lilacs blooming in April 2010

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This pretty Camelot rose in my front garden is such a sweet and fragrant flower. It does have a little habit of dropping its petals almost as soon as it becomes fully open, but you just can’t have everything. I do like to keep the beds picked up (leaves and petals) to try to minimize black spot, but aside from looking neater, I don’t know that it really makes a difference. But such is gardening life.

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This rose, which I believe is called Simplicity, is growing in a neighbor’s yard. It’s very healthy and seems to get no care at all. I’d like to have a rose garden with only tough, healthy roses like this, but how can you really tell in the nursery? Does “disease resistant” really mean anything? And don’t mention Knockout roses, because they still don’t have fragrance. Why bother with roses without fragrance?

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This may be my new favorite rosebush in the garden. Growing roses in the Pacific Northwest is tough with our damp climate. I have 18 different rosebushes in front of my house and after three years, ‘Proud Land’ seems to be the star. It’s huge, disease resistant, and just covered with dark red, fragrant flowers. Very satisfying. I’m calling this my Best Post of the Week.

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OK, enough with the peonies, for a little while at least. Feast your eyes on these fuchsias. What an explosion of form and color. I took these at the VPC not too long ago, and if you have a chance, you should definitely check out their displays. So many kinds, and all so graceful. Little ballerinas, perhaps?

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Sometimes I like the bud stage almost more than the fully blooming stage. All the possibilities! Like the peony buds in the post below, this scene in my front yard feels so full of life to me. Behind the dianthus budding up a storm in front, there is pink sea thrift and white alyssum blooming in back. The shadows on the rocks make me happy, too, especially in this typically gray Seattle weather.

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