I learned the fancy word for what a lilac flower is: a panicle. Seems like a nice, strong word for a flower with such a remarkable shape and fragrance. Unforgettable. The ones in my front yard are finally beginning to bloom. Thank heaven for the garden.

Double lilac flowers decorate the sky.

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I was at the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle not too long ago and saw this rosette of a succulent in the Cactus House. Did you know they are having later hours for the summer? I’m so excited to hear that. Their new space with the tile floor is so beautiful (see below). Don’t you want to just sit there and read a book?

Rosette of hen-and-chicks sedum succulent at the Volunteer Park Conservatory

Seasonal House at the Volunteer Park Conservatory after remodel

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These red and white striped tulips were in a vase on a desk. I need to have some of these in my garden, absolutely. They look so antique and so totally modern, both.

Red and white striped tulips bouquet

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I love our two columnar apple trees. These are dwarfer than dwarf trees, bred to do well in containers or on patios. These two trees are 7 or 8 years old and have been in the ground a few years. One has red apples and one has yellow, and both are yummy. At this stage, the most important thing you can do for your fruit trees which need pollination is to make like a bee. Unless you have lots of bees and other helpful insects around, go out there with a little dry paintbrush, or a Q-tip, and go back and forth between the blossoms of the two trees. It’s incredible what a huge difference this makes in the amount of fruit that you get. Do it a few times so you get the early blooms and the late ones. Apple crisp, here I come.

Two columnar apple trees blooming in a bed of forget-me-nots

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The color of these primrose flowers is hard to photograph properly. It’s a wonderful blend of purple and magenta and red, with bright yellow centers to set it all off. And those healthy, crinkly leaves. I want some!

Purple, magenta and red primroses with their deeply textured leaves

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My BFF and I went to the new Chihuly museum in the city center in Seattle. I wasn’t expecting to like it all that much, but it was wonderful. This photo is a tourist being blown away by the remarkable glass sculpture ceiling, filled with sea-creature-and-flower-like forms. I like the light shadows on the walls almost as much as the sculptures.

The glass ceiling of colorful blown glass forms at the Chihuly Museum in Seattle.

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The magnolias are gorgeous this year. This tree in our backyard is one of the many dotting the neighborhood right now. And the horses in the pasture adjoining our property just love the fallen petals. They even eat the blooms that they can reach off the tree! No harm seems to be done.

Pink Japanese magnolias against a sunny sky in springtime

Two horses graze magnolia blossoms on a sunny spring day

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These red fritillaria, or checkered tulips, decorating my garden this week just float my boat. Both this kind and the other more purple-and-cream color a few posts below are doing so well in my garden. I love things that just come up and bloom, all by themselves. Those are grape hyacinths in the background, also easy and fun, and so welcome in springtime.

Dark red checkered tulips, or fritillaria, in the garden

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It’s raining. Yesterday there were a couple of breaks from the wet; today not so much. Here is a tulip out in front of my house taken on a weekend afternoon in Seattle.

Raindrops on dark pink and orange tulip petals

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These sweet and strange fritillaria bulbs have been coming up in my garden like champs. The checkered patterns on the sides are so extraordinary that when I first saw a drawing of them, I thought it was a joke. Now that I can grow them in my garden, I love the tops like paper lanterns and their lovely, nodding stems. So shy, so strange.

Frittilaria (checkered tulips) nod their heads, in a rainy flowerbed

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