Saw these tulips the other day at Pike Place Market in Seattle. The displays were mind-bogglingly beautiful. I love, love, love this photo and have tagged it Best Post of the Week.

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I bought this bouquet of a dozen tulips and daffodils, EACH, at Pike Place Market. I was surprised to see the tulips open into this starry shape. The bouquet even had lilacs in it!

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This is one of the 150 or 200 tulips we planted in our garden last fall, photographed the other day after the soft rain stopped. I totally love them.

They take a lot of work to plant, you know. In the fall in a spot with excellent drainage, you have to dig quite deep, a good foot. Fill back half way, improve the soil with compost and a couple of handfuls of bone meal, then place the bulbs (a few inches apart) on that, about six inches from the top surface, pointed end up. Fill the hole with more good soil, and wait eagerly for spring.

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I have been tulip happy lately and I hope you aren’t tired of them yet. This is yet another Skagit Valley tulip for your enjoyment.

Visit Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday and Color Carnival after you sojourn here. And rememeber, you can always get back to the full blog with everything on it by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos on top.

This one gets my vote for Best Post of the Week, too.

Here’s the thing about apples: they must have cross pollination to set fruit. And even if there is another apple tree nearby, if the bees aren’t out doing their thing, you may have to help nature along. Here in Seattle where sunshine is an occasional thing (“sun breaks,” anyone?) it will definitely increase your harvest to get out there and help.

How? Take a clean, dry, soft artist’s paintbrush, or even a Q-tip, and brush the pollen carefully on a bunch of flowers on Tree A. Then go to Tree B (a different apple variety) and brush some more. Back and forth a few times should do it. Of course for a big tree, you can only do so much, but for dwarf backyard trees, you will make a huge difference.

We have two trees of the “columnar” type. They’re a super skinny, super dwarf size, good in containers, and both can be hand pollinated in just a few minutes. Go back in a few days when more blossoms have opened and do it again. You’ll be glad you did.

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Still in a rose mood, longing for warm, sunny weather. This is my favorite rose, Double Delight. I read that it was a sport and almost not pursued. The petals get stronger color in more intense sunlight. This is one of the ones I planted last summer. The 18 bushes are leafing out well, but it’s just too rainy to get a photo to show you right now. I do have high hopes for later in the year.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday for more cheerful splashes of yellow, and Ruby Tuesday for more ruby redness. Color Carnival has the brilliant color combos. Try them all! Click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the full blog with my latest post on top.

This gray, gray, rainy and cold weather Seattle has been having has me longing for summer. Or spring! Seems like we are back in winter again, somehow. So it’s time to delve in the archives for a breath of warmth. This photo is from a truly halycon day at the end of July last year. I have no idea of the name of the rose as it was in someone else’s garden. Wish I had one like it!

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A recent visit on a rainy day to the Volunteer Park Conservatory was filled with Spring flowers, and also these tropical beauties, Anthuriums. Exciting, aren’t they? My mom used to grow them in South Florida, so I’m always partial to them.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more red visions, Color Carnival for more brilliant color, Window Wednesday for windows and doors, and SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots.

This hydrangea was taken at the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle just this week. A greenhouse plant, of course it’s rushing the season, but it’s a vision of summer flowers to come.

For more flowers around the planet, visit Flowers For Today. Try Macro Flowers Saturday and Macro Monday, and Blue Monday also. Color Carnival has lots of brilliant color creatively seen, too.

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Years ago I used to shoot TriX film. I learned to develop my own film, make contact sheets, and print enlargements in the darkroom with a red light. Shooting black-and-white film was a great exercise in learning to “see.” I chose better subjects and composed the frame better when I wasn’t distracted by the color.

Now any photo can become black and white, but which ones are actually improved by removing the color? I’ve sifted through the archives a bit and chosen three that seem interesting. But I really want your opinion. Would these be better in the regular, real and colorful way, or does this create a mood that is worth doing?

Visit Thursday Challenge (“Black and White”) for more visions of that theme.

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