This is one of the simple, old fashioned roses, still so perfect in its way. Visit Pink Saturday for more visions of pinkness.

And Shadow Shot Sunday has great shadows, too!

Begonias bloom and bloom, with no removal of spent flowers (deadheading) needed, and they are happy to bloom in the shade for you. I try to overwinter them in my garden by adding a lot of mulch, which sometimes actually works, or take them indoors if I can. The colors of the flowers and the leaves are so varied. This one is just red, but what a red!

For more ruby visions, visit Ruby Tuesday. And for those fans of super bright colors, visit Color Carnival.

This plant is poisonous, but so very beautiful. I had seen white ones, but never this peach shade or the pale yellow. For more close ups, visit Macro Monday. And for those who adore yellow, try Mellow Yellow Monday for more flashy color.

So many dahlias in these last brilliant days of summer. Here’s a pink one for your delectation, just for Pink Saturday.

I am trying out a new meme called Thursday Challenge, and the theme this week is “Fresh.” This here is one fresh flower! I sure love dahlias, in their infinite colorations and forms, and the way they truly embody the word “fresh” as they open their petals to our view.

We had a heavy rain recently and dahlias stems can be quite brittle. This one bent over very far but thankfully didn’t break. Somehow the back of it looked even better to me than the front. At least this way you can get an idea of the border beyond it that I’ve worked on so hard. I love to garden, that’s for sure, so it’s not truly work.

For more pinkness, visit Pink Saturday. Delightful.

Even with the warm weather we had this summer, it’s not too easy to ripen tomatoes in Seattle. But of course, I must try. The small ones seem to have the best shot at it, but I’m still learning with tomatoes, as with so many things. These are Husky cherry tomatoes, and the plant is particularly strong and sturdy. The tomatoes aren’t bad, either. I slice them on a sandwich, even the small ones, for flavor that can’t be beat.

Interesting fact: See the little star-shaped caps at the stems? There are five points. Fruits (and tomatoes are fruits, I think actually berries) that have patterns of fives, like an apple’s seeds if you cut it crosswise, are USUALLY safe to eat and not poisonous.

Visit Think Green Thursdays for more ways to live lightly on the earth, besides food gardening, that is.

This is another horticultural specimen from the Chinook District flower show last week. I do not know the name, sorry. But it was something to see; a deep, dark red that just pulled you into itself. For more ideas of red, visit Ruby Tuesday. And post your own; it’s too much fun.

I love the macro setting on my little point-and-shoot Canon. It lets us really look at something in a way we rarely think to do. These three small pansy blossoms from my garden (from a volunteer plant!), each less than an inch and a half (4 cm) wide show us their perfection. Visit Macro Monday for other interesting close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday for other photos with some interesting yellow components.

The best part of the district garden club meetings held every three months is the horticulture they show. You can see the lovely things people grow and be inspired. Here is a blossom of Japanese Anemone, a late-summer perennial. You can see more pink things of all kinds at Pink Saturday.