The other day there was some rain (what a surprise) and then the sun came out. This was taken at my friend’s garden, with orange alstroemeria in the background. Can you see the tiny flowers upside down in the raindrops?

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday for more wet and fresh air shots. And Weekend Reflections has really cool reflection photos.

If you like, you can click on a tag or category and see some previous photos. Returning to the latest post is easy: click on Sara’s Fave Photos.

I snuck out of the office yesterday and wandered a bit around the Woodland Park Rose Garden in Seattle. I could have spent hours there. It’s huge, two and a half acres, 280 kinds of roses, all kinds of goodies like a gazebo for weddings, a reflecting pool with water lilies, the works. It’s so much fun to see big beds of ones I recognize. I’ll be sharing a few nice shots I took there, which is one of the best parts of blogging. On with the roses!

Try searching for “rose” or perhaps “tulip” while you’re here. And returning to the latest post is easy: click on Sara’s Fave Photos above. Visit Scenic Sunday for more interesting and beautiful sights around the world and Color Carnival for more great color.

The rain has been wreaking havoc on the rose bushes, but a couple of dry-ish days allowed a few flowers to open to their potential magnificence—just to get rained on yet again. In the brief window of opportunity that a break in the wet allowed, I went outside and caught this beautiful apricot Sundowner rose, with such an appropriate name.

Visit Flowers for Today to see more blossoms around the planet, and Color Carnival for more brilliant color. SOOC has more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. But why not type in “rose” in the search field here and see what comes up? You can always return to the full blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

One of the very best things about the Pike Place Market flower vendors is their complete disregard for typical florist combinations. No one told them that bouquets are not supposed to be made with regular old garden flowers. Since they must sell only what they grow, the combinations that result are not seen anywhere else. Below is a bouquet with a Shirley poppy (I think), lupine or bluebonnet in the back, and Dutch iris.

Visit Macro Monday, Blue Monday, Color Carnival and Mellow Yellow Monday for more of the same idea. And do check out a new tag or category on each visit here, just for fun. Return to the full blog by clicking Sara’s Fave Photos in the header.

My sister and I went on an architectural tour in Seattle on a cloudy day after a rain and all I could photograph was a flower. No, that’s not exactly true, but that’s sure what I am attracted to. Here’s a lovely early rose in some lucky person’s garden.

Visit Macro Monday for more things seen close up, and Color Carnival for more brilliant color. Find the latest post here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

These tulips at Pike Place Market are all ready to present as a gift, wrapped and ready. I love how the clear wrapping softens the light on them.

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday, Flowers for Today, and SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera photos. Be sure to wander around the tags and archives here first, and click on Sara’s Fave Photos above any time you’d like to return to today’s post.

I like this photo very much. I’m tagging it Best Post of the Week.

Saw these tulips the other day at Pike Place Market in Seattle. The displays were mind-bogglingly beautiful. I love, love, love this photo and have tagged it Best Post of the Week.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Color Carnival and SOOC, or straight out of the camera, after browsing around here. If you’d like to get back to the latest post, just click Sara’s Fave Photos, above.

The top photo shows the tulips around the rosebed in front of the house, with our neighbor’s house behind them. It was a good idea to plant them there as the roses haven’t got going yet. This year the roses will be early and have set buds already, at least some of them.

The next one is taken from near that neighbor’s house, looking towards the side and backyard of our house, showing that big old cedar tree. Don’t those old rhodies look good? If they had fragrance I’d love them even more.

Visit Outdoor Wednesday after visiting here. And remember, you can always get back to the latest post by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos on top.

This is one of the 150 or 200 tulips we planted in our garden last fall, photographed the other day after the soft rain stopped. I totally love them.

They take a lot of work to plant, you know. In the fall in a spot with excellent drainage, you have to dig quite deep, a good foot. Fill back half way, improve the soil with compost and a couple of handfuls of bone meal, then place the bulbs (a few inches apart) on that, about six inches from the top surface, pointed end up. Fill the hole with more good soil, and wait eagerly for spring.

Visit Watery Wednesday after your visit here for more water photos of all kinds. To return to the full blog with my latest post on top, click on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

This display of tulips outside of Roozengaarde in the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival was the ultimate for me. I just couldn’t get over it. The enormous planting outside their gate was filled with the most spectacular displays of tulips I ever saw. Yes, the $4 admission to the totally magnificent displays inside was well worth the money, but this group of brilliant colors was the most amazing sight of the whole day, for me.

Photo note: For some reason, the technology of reproducing flower color isn’t always perfect, especially blue/purple tones. These purple tulips were the purest true purple in the world, but they look a little mauve-y or magenta here. Sorry, I tried.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more red magnificence, and Color Carnival for more spectacular colors. And click on Sara’s Fave Photos to go back to the top of the blog.