Everyone loves to grow tomatoes but not everyone knows how to make sure there are lots of tomatoes on the vines. With bees experiencing serious decline for unknown reasons (although I seem to see more this year than last year in my own garden), pollination can be a problem.

The solution? You! Assisted flower sex is the answer, and you get tomatoes for your trouble. Unless you are a farmer with acres of tomatoes, for a few backyard plants you can make a big difference in yield by going around your plants with a child’s little paintbrush, or even a cotton swab, and brushing each little yellow flower in turn. Do this every few days to catch as many flowers as possible, and you will be amazed at the results. And it’s fun!

Visit Think Green Thursday for more takes on the meaning of green.

Oh, let’s try a new meme. After all, there are plenty of yellow flowers in the garden, so why not? The name of this one is Broadway. Pop on over to Mellow Yellow Monday for more kinds of yellow seen by people with cameras around the planet.

And since it’s a close up, let’s check out Macro Monday as well. Two for one!

The little plants I showed you a week or so ago are going gangbusters. Sweetpeas like to be picked, you know, so I must pick bouquets with fragrance like no other to enchant me and give away. What else can I do?

Here’s how to raise great sweetpeas: 1) You must nick the seed with nail scissors, then soak overnight in a dish of water before planting. The seeds are big and pretty easy to handle and it really doesn’t take long. You will see that the nicked ones swell and are ready to go and the ones that didn’t get the outside casing pierced sit there, small and hard.

2) Plant as directed, indoors in early spring if you want.

3) When planting outdoors, put them in a place where heat will not be a problem if possible. An eastern exposure like these have helps. But the big thing is, sweetpeas love manure. When planting, dig a double handful of bagged steer manure into the soil around each one. Then wait patiently for heaven in a flower to appear.

For more floriferous photos, visit Flowers For Today. Everyone likes flowers!

And hello to the Color Carnival crew. We all love bright colors; such a happy feeling.

I love roses. I grow them, smell them, photograph them, as much as I can. This one was in a Federal Way garden. The owner said it’s a David Austin rose, and that’s all I know. The big old bush was loaded with them, but this one was perfect.

Visit Pink Saturday for more pink perfection.

It’s still June, so how can you resist roses? Here’s one for you to wish you could inhale off the computer screen. Some day, I am sure, it will happen.

For more rubiness of all kinds, visit Ruby Tuesday, here.

It wasn’t much rain, but it was enough to glisten up this exquisite daylily I found on my walk the other day. It has a ruby throat and so can post for Ruby Tuesday, and the water droplets will have to qualify for Watery Wednesday. I apologize for all the flowers I’ve been posting lately, but they are blooming everywhere, so what can I do?

This clematis just knocked my socks off. And the rain didn’t hurt the photo either. For more marvellous macros, visit Macro Monday.

These are also called digitalis, and I love them. They bloom in shade or, up here in Seattle, in sun also; they reseed, and they are so showy! These are from seedlings I brought from the other house. They bloom the second year, like most perennials started from seed, but if you know in advance, that’s fine, as their leaves make a lovely rosette pattern all by themselves. Actually the foliage looks a bit more gray-green than in this photo, but I just liked the photo the way the camera saw it.

For more photos from around the world, visit Today’s Flower in Brazil.

We’re planting a big rose garden out in front. What a lot of work! But it will be worth it, absolutely. This is one of the 18 roses waiting in pots, named Broadway. In a rare burst of sunshine, it created this shadow, almost like another petal form. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more fascinating shadows.

Peonies are some of my favorite flowers. Their mysterious depths, the petals like angel feathers, the indescribable fragrance—plus when peonies bloom, summer is not far behind. This one bloomed the other day in my garden; such a welcome sight.

For more Pink of all types, shapes and sizes, visit Pink Saturday.