Spring will get here, I am certain of it, but the wait is difficult. Here are some true spring flowers for you. I think those are forget-me-nots in the background of the second photo.

Do you prefer the super close macro shot, or the one with more flowers showing?

Visit Macro Monday, Blue Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday and Color Carnival for more neat photos with a theme. Or click around here a bit if you have a minute.

When I was in Northern California recently, this camellia plant was beginning to come into bloom. In January! When I lived there I had an old shrub of just this kind of pink flower outside of my house. These grow to at least 10 or 12 feet tall (3-4 meters)! No scent, but such flower perfection.

Visit Pink Saturday, Today’s Flower and Macro Flowers Saturday for more great photos, and if you have a minute, do click on Free Photos “next door” for an additional selection of pretty flower and scenic photos.

Spring Lake, in Santa Rosa, California, just a week or so ago was so scenic! Even in the depth of winter, Northern California Wine Country just doesn’t get too dreary. The duck likes it, anyway!

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday for more neat photos, and Scenic Sunday, SOOC (straight out of the camera) and Weekend Reflections have great stuff too. I invite you to view a tag like Water or Scenic (to the right) while you are here. Thank you for visiting, and it would be so appreciated if you left a comment and shared how you felt about what you see here.

These anthurium flowers aren’t really flowers, just like some bromeliads and pointsettias, with their colored leaves (bracts) looking for all the world like a flower. I just love the way the shine on them lights up in photos. Very photogenic plant. Did you know that some flowers are far easier to photograph than others? During the summertime at the Volunteer Park Conservatory when they had their fabulous display of brugmansia, or Angel Trumpets, I tried with so many photos to capture their magnificent presence. So lovely and graceful in person, and so frequently awkward and charmless in a photo. I do love anthuriums for their good looks in photos, if for no other reason.

Visit Ruby Tuesday and Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival, Macro Friday, SOOC and Macro Flowers Saturday for more photos with a theme idea. And check out a new tag or category here if you have a minute, or you might see what’s new at Free Photos next door. If there’s only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the rest of them.

And even though I do like the two scenic photos above very much, I’m choosing this one for my Best Post of the Week. If you don’t see any above, just click on Sara’s Fave Photos and they will appear.

When the petals are not just one flat row, the flowers are called doubles. The edge of a different color around the petals is called picotee. These azaleas with maidenhair ferns on the side from the Volunteer Park Conservatory are pretty special for both reasons, and you probably won’t find too many like this in your neighbor’s front yard. I think they are so sweet and cheerful!

Visit Pink Saturday, Color Carnival, Macro Friday, SOOC Sunday, Today’s Flower and Macro Flowers Saturday for more photos with a theme. Be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos if there is only one photo below. Thanks for visiting!

Santa Rosa in Northern California gets almost no freezing weather and so the geraniums live from year to year. This sunlit leaf was photographed on a cold January day.

I am entering the Gardening Gone Wild Picture This Photo Contest for macros taken with point and shoot cameras. I can’t wait to see the other entries using the special camera on a jar technique suggested. Also Macro Friday has lots of neat close ups.

Do browse around here, perhaps the tag “close up”? or at Free Photos next door. New photos coming soon!

Bromeliads are fun. They are pretty like flowers but the center part is only colored leaves (called bracts, I believe). This kind likes to get watered from above and collect water in the center. My mother used to grow different kinds in Florida where they can grow outdoors, and she had quite a collection. This one is in the Volunteer Park Conservatory here in Seattle, where they certainly cannot grow outdoors, or at least not in January.

Visit Macro Monday, Color Carnival, Cactus Monday and Ruby Tuesday for more cool photos with a theme. And do poke around here before you go!

Visiting my friend in Santa Rosa, California, I was so pleased to see her geranium plant blooming, in January! This orchid color is a beauty, isn’t it? Here in Seattle, now that I’m home again, not much happening out there in the garden, but soon, we hope.

Visit Flowers For Today for more flowers from around the world and Macro Monday for more close ups. And if there is only one photo here, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the full blog.

I grew these paperwhites and did the vodka-and-water technique I read about on the internet and it worked great. They did not fall over and are doing their festive thing for us. Don’t they look cool in front of our tree? Let’s call this the Best Post of the Week, too.

Happy Christmas and New Year to all!

Visit Today’s Flowers for more flowers from the entire planet and Color Carnival for more bright colors, Macro Monday for close ups and SOOC for straight-out-of-the-camera shots. Check out Free Photos for more flower and scenic photos, while you’re at it, too.

Thought I’d share a gift of a springtime dream of color and fragrance with you this Christmas morning. Sometimes I think I like the bud stage more than the fully opened flower. Such energy and promise!

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday , Blue Monday and SOOC Sunday when you have time. If only one photo here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos, and for even more photo browsing fun, click on Free Photos. Have a wonderful holiday!