This rose is the only one of the 18 we planted whose name I do not know. All the others had tags, but this one had only a lovely pink rose to choose by. I took it. If anyone knows its proper name, that would be great. The flowers are unusually large, and it’s fragrant!

For more flowers from all over the world, visit Today’s Flowers.

This dahlia, from Cindy’s amazing garden in Kent, WA, looks almost like a lotus or a peony. Enjoy for Pink Saturday!

This old fashioned hydrangea is so easy to grow. I had some hydrangea flowers at my wedding, years ago.

As long as it is kept moist (“hydra” is a clue!) with nice humus-y soil,  it will be happy even in full sun up here in Seattle, but I think it is easier to keep happy in shade or part shade, where it still blooms nicely. Another neat thing about them is that prunings made in the spring are extremely easy to root. Just push the stems into the shaded soil, keep moist, and soon you will have new hydrangeas!

For more lovely flower photos, visit Flowers for Today, now entering its second floriferous year!

This is a newer variety of coneflower, or echinacea. It’s more pink than mauve and the petals don’t recurve too much, and it’s not too tall, either. More like a pink daisy, really. Here it is, blooming in my garden, with geraniums I overwintered downstairs and some peach-colored impatiens behind it.

Next year I think I’ll try doing impatiens from seed, as I hear they aren’t too hard and grow easily, plus I could use a lot of them. I read that with extremely fine seed, the thing to do is get a little clean sand and mix the fine seeds well into it; then you can handle a pinch of the sand fairly easily and not get a jillion seeds at a time.

Visit Pink Saturday for more pinkness of all kinds. Such nice people, such sweet pink photos!

And the Color Carnival folks like bright pink, too, ideally combined with red and peach! If you like color, you’ll LOVE Color Carnival.

It’s Macro Monday time. This Black-eyed Susan or rudbeckia plant is a real winner to me because it blooms midsummer and later in sun or shade and survives really tough conditions. This lovely blossom was in my friend Eileen’s garden. And happy Mellow Yellow Monday!

Flowers, flowers, flowers. I can’t understand why some Seattlites say that Seattle only does Spring well, in the garden. Hogwash. There are so many lovelies blooming! Here’s a sweet begonia, about four inches across. I took the hanging basket in over the winter, and here it is again. How easy is that?

It’s a close-up, so fits the Macro Monday meme, and the splash of yellow qualifies it for Mellow Yellow Monday. Both excellent and exciting memes, filled with creativity. Visit or better yet, participate!

These fancy daylilies are really something. The colors, the ruffles, the extra petals. The hybridizers have been busy! This was in a friend’s garden and I wish I had some. They do OK in part shade, you know.

Sometimes when I am taking a photo of a flower whose petals are in direct sun, the background blacks out and I get this exciting chiaroscuro effect, straight off the memory card. Isn’t it something?

For more flowers seen around the world, visit Flowers for Today. And for more brilliant color, visit Color Carnival, two great memes.

I wish it was easier to find out the name of flowers you don’t know. This one is an oldie; my mom grew it when I was a kid in Queens, New York, in her beautiful garden. It grows well up here in Seattle and reseeds itself. It’s two or three feet tall, and kind of hard to photograph, with deep, brilliant magenta flowers and silvery foliage. I figure magenta is a kind of pink, so I’m including it for Pink Saturday.

Does anyone know the name? I’d be so grateful.

These shasta daisies are a yellow color that I haven’t seen before. I saw then on a walk in the neighborhood the other day. Nothing like seeing what grows in your neighbors’ yards for ideas about what to plant. I’ll have to try these, I think.

For more close up shots of everything imaginable, visit Macro Monday, and for more golden goodness, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And have fun, hear?

Oh, let’s try a new meme. After all, there are plenty of yellow flowers in the garden, so why not? The name of this one is Broadway. Pop on over to Mellow Yellow Monday for more kinds of yellow seen by people with cameras around the planet.

And since it’s a close up, let’s check out Macro Monday as well. Two for one!