We planted so many bulbs last fall, some tried and true, other new ones to take some chances. This is one of the ones I’d never heard of. And it’s fragrant, like most white flowers, a bonus! So amazingly graceful. And for other close ups, visit Macro Monday and take a look around.

Visit the new site of Think Green Thursday. I know that posts do not have to be green color, but photos of green are some of my faves, so that is what I am submitting.

These are hostas and the leaves are several inches big, actually not in my garden, but I wish they were. Slugs love hostas, but slugs also love beer in a tunafish can even more, and crawl in and drown a happy death. Thus we can have hostas, irises, and other slug attracting plants. The slugs seem to prefer Trader Joe’s very cheap import beers, quite good for people also.

I don’t usually like flower photos with insects, but I’m making an exception for this bee working the red rose. But then again, the non-bee one is pretty nice, too. Which do you prefer?

For more lovely flowers around the world, visit Today’s Flowers.

It’s Pink Saturday, so here’s a rose for you in that delectable hue! Who can argue with pink?

I belong to a garden club, and my favorite part is that every three months, people get together and bring things they’ve grown that are beautiful. I find them irresistable to photograph. Here’s a sprig of azaleas, oops, now I see they are rhododendrons!, a peachy pink color that I am in love with. And if you’d like more pink, hie on over to Pink Saturday.

This rhodie photo is one of my absolute faves, so I think I’ll include it for Shadow Shot Sunday and Flowers for Today, and what the heck, let’s go for Macro Monday while we’re on a roll. All those meme sites have super participation from talented photographers, so take a look.

Yet another photo from the Bronx Botanical Garden and my recent New York City trip. This was taken in the beginning of May, and the peonies were ALMOST ready to pop. For more ruby redness of all kinds, go to Ruby Tuesday, a fine place in blogland if ever there was one.

I’m trying out yet another photo meme, Macro Monday. Seems like a fine photo idea to me.

Here are some succulent sedums, or hen-and-chicks, from my recent trip to the Bronx Botanical Garden in New York City. There are a million kinds of them (OK, maybe that’s a teensy exaggeration), but this hairy one is a bit more unusual. Sedums are so pretty, many like little flowers, and tough and easy to grow as well.

I took this photo at the Steidhardt Garden tour in Mt. Kisco, NY on my visit recently. This incredible place is 55 acres of exquisite plants AND animals, open to the public two days a year. It was drizzly, but hailing from Seattle these days, I’m used to it. This low-growing plant is grown for just how pretty it looks in the rain.

For more photos of water in all its many manifestations, click HERE.

I know I should save some faves for when there is nothing blooming, but I can’t resist. The first, top one is rhododendron branches I forced from completely closed buds. I was having a party for my birthday (do not ask how many years; a shocking number) and wanted a big bouquet. They took about a week to get from completely closed to this. I put them in very warm water, almost hot, to begin with and it really gets them going.

Then I had to post this checkered lily, Fritillaria meleagris, that came up in my garden. Awfully cute, don’t you think? But it looks more like a tulip than a lily to me.

And finally, this is from my next door neighbor Ele’s garden. The hostas and I think snowdrops (bluebells?) looked so pretty with the sun lighting them up.

And if you still crave more beautiful flowers around the world, click HERE for the greatest photo meme, Flowers for Today.

This daffodil created flower lust in me. I don’t know why its frilly pale looks appealed to me so much when I saw them last week. I’ll have to find some like this and find a spot in the yard for them for next year. A gardener always looks ahead hopefully. For more flowers around the world, click HERE.