If you’re ever in the Portland, Oregon area in the springtime, this place is a must-see. Enormous, magnificent, and brilliantly conceived and tended, it just knocked my socks off. Rain or shine, a scenic wonderland. Please see Free Photos “next door” (link below the header above) for more from that locale. You can search there for Japanese garden if that series is no longer at the top.

I love this photo and have called it my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Pink Saturday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Scenic Sunday, Today’s Flowers, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Ruby Tuesday, Weekend Reflections, and Watery Wednesday for more intriguing photos. Browse around here first, perhaps by visiting the category for “Weekend Reflections”? Remember, always see the latest photos here by clicking on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner.

Meadow rue is a great perennial plant in the flower garden. I believe that its flowers come in yellow and lavender at least; this one is a lavender. The leaves actually look very much like columbine, but this plant gets much taller, maybe 4 or 5 feet (1.5 meters). It’s getting ready to have puffy, hairy sort of flowers, kind of like ageratum. Doesn’t sound pretty, but it is. I’ll show a photo when it’s blooming, which should be in a week or two. I like tall flowering plants as they just feel so abundant, plus of course the flowers are closer to my eye level.

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This is a new kind of daffodil for me. So sweet and romantic! They were in a nursery display potted up for folks and I almost bought some. But the rain we’ve been having would probably have ruined them outside. I heard that Seattle has had the coldest spring on record, so I feel a teensy bit justified in my complaining.

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At the Skagit Tulip Festival on my birthday earlier this week, of course I took many photos. Naturally! The light was quite overcast, which is not my favorite for photographing flowers, no matter what the experts say. They just seem so much more exuberant in the sunshine, or maybe I’m projecting. But you do get lots of detail in the color. I admit I needed to tweak this one a bit to bring up the liveliness of it. Hope you like it.

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Yet another study of rain on leaves. This from a couple of days ago. Tulip leaves bead the water so beautifully. Don’t water tulips where they are planted in the summer, however, or they won’t come back.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Macro Friday, and for that little reflection of more tulip leaves in the water drop, Weekend Reflections. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or above, to see the whole blog.

Took this in the ever-present rain a couple of weeks ago. I like the jewel tones of the colors and think I might do something like this in my garden next year. Doesn’t the daffodil look like it’s holding its arms up?

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Finally a weekend day with sunshine! Yesterday I had such a happy half hour down there with the camera and the flowers blooming; these days it’s mostly too wet to even see them up close. Photo tip: Put your camera on its flower setting and get down there to get some background in that will be blurry. Simple but effective.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Scenic Sunday,  Today’s Flowers, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Macro Friday and Macro Monday for more intriguing photos. Browse around here first, why don’t you, by clicking on a new taq or category. Try the “close up” tag, at the lower right? Or the “My Garden” category might be fun.

This year I think it’s even too cold for the slugs. The lupines are coming up all unmolested, although maybe it’s my campaign with the clippers last year that’s having an effect. Last week the sun peeked through and sparkled in water caught in these lupine leaves.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Macro Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Macro Friday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) if you have time. While you’re here, check out more photos in this blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

There’s a garden meme called Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and each month on the fifteenth people post what’s blooming in their garden that day. It encouraged me to go outside just now, because the rain actually did stop. For now. Aren’t these tiny bells cute?

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I have no idea what kind of flower this is. It was blooming recently in the Volunteer Park Conservatory, and I was taken aback by its perfect beauty. Any of our blog readers from Singapore, the Phillipines or Malaysia, perhaps, know its name? [Thank you, Flitterkit of California, telling us it’s a red passion flower!]

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more photos with some red. Macro Monday, Color Carnival, Macro Friday, Today’s Flowers, SOOC Sunday are all great places in blogland as well. Click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above to show the full blog here.