This was on a roadside dahlia flower stand, pretty simple operation, gorgeous blooms. I love the way a sort of gray day was transformed into an explosion of light.

Macro Monday, Color Carnival, SOOC (straight out of the camera) and Mellow Yellow Monday are very worthwhile sites to visit. And they’re good categories to check out, too, here at Sara’s Fave Photos blog.

As I mentioned in the post just below, I love going to garden club flower shows to ooh and aah at the “hort” (horticulture or plant displays). This picotee begonia was four or five inches across and it was just gorgeous.

Visit Pink Saturday for more perfect pinkness, Today’s Flower for flowers around the world and SOOC Sunday for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots.

The latest post can always be found here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above. And I always encourage you to try something new here each visit. Perhaps a category like Pink Saturday?

This is the third year for this hanging begonia basket. Doesn’t the recent rain make the petals look even better? Picotee means those pretty edges of color it has, by the way.

I bring it inside in the winter, it dies back, and in the spring I give it fresh soil, feed it some acid fertilizer and voila! This year the weather was so un-summery that it didn’t really bloom until the beginning of September. So much for summer flowering. Well, I’ll enjoy it all fall until the really cold weather when it will come in again.

Visit Flowers for Today for flowers from around the planet and Color Carnival for brilliant color; Macro Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday are also great sites, and SOOC has more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. Such fun!

While you are here, try a search for something like “begonias” to see this plant last year, perhaps. And if you’ve arrived via a link or a search engine, you can always click on Sara’s Fave Photos above for the latest posts.

I know I’ve posted close ups of this kind of lily before, but they are just so showy! And I am so thrilled when something SO exciting blooms in my very own garden. Be careful about the pollen, you know. Florists pull off those pretty pollen things because they can stain your clothes badly. But photos are safe!

Visit Pink Saturday, Color Carnival and Macro Flowers Saturday for great photo browsing, and SOOC has more straight out of the camera shots. And you can always poke around here for something like “pink” or “lily” in the search field. Return to the latest blog post by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

There’s a little bonus at the bottom of the page. Aren’t they cute?

Here’s a bouquet of roses I picked for my cousin Sheila who is visiting. If only you could smell the fragrance! The top dark orange one is Dolly Parton (love that name!), the yellow one is Peace, and the apricot one is Sundowner, I’m pretty sure. One day, I hope in my lifetime, there will be a device attached to your computer which will emit odors. Good smells only, of course. After all, if there’s enough computing power, why not? Fragrance is only molecules wafting towards us. In the meantime, you must imagine.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival and Macro Monday for more of the same, and SOOC has more straight out of the camera shots. And you might try a search for bouquet here, always returning to the full blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

Here is a  magenta and white waterlily for your enjoyment, seen at Hendricks Garden in the Federal Way Garden Tour last month.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Today’s Flowers and SOOC for more great photos. And try clicking on a tag like My Garden, perhaps, for a new photo selection. If you’ve gotten here via the permalink, you can find the latest photos always at Sara’s Fave Photos above.

Sometimes the back of a flower is at least as interesting as the front, don’t you think? This pretty thing was at that dahlia garden in Volunteer Park in Seattle.

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday and Pink Saturday for blog photo fun. While you are here, try a category like Flowers (a big one!) or maybe SOOC, or straight out of the camera, just for fun. You can always find the latest post at Sara’s Fave Photos above.

There was a dance thing at Sculpture Park in Seattle tonight, part of the Dancing til Dusk series the city has put on this summer. If you’d like to see a video of a great waltz demo, you can see it here: Waltz Demo. But the setting overshadowed even the great dancing for awhile, as the sunset turned into one of those red fire ones. This is straight out of the camera, handheld, and no special settings or cropping, either. I’m calling it my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies seen round the world, and Scenic Sunday rocks. Color Carnival and Weekend Reflections are great, too.

Try a new tag or category today. Sunset, perhaps? And you can return to the full blog, if you’ve arrived via a link, by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

There might be a special name for this kind of marking on flower petals, but I don’t know it. If you do, please clue me in. [later: Striated! Thank you!] They aren’t really stripes; more of spots and stripes mixed together. Anyway, I just love the way it looks. I took this in Seattle’s Volunteer Park dahlia garden that I just discovered this week, maintained by the Puget Sound Dahlia Association. Enjoy!

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more ravishing photo redness and SOOC for more straight-out-of-camera shots.

If you got here by clicking on a link, it might not be the latest post—Sara’s Fave Photos above will take you there. Be sure to try a tag or search for “dahlia” and see what you get!

I discovered a gem of a dahila garden in Seattle, in Volunteer Park. If you are leaving the Conservatory at the north end, it is in the big field in front of you to your left. There appear to be maybe a couple of hundred different dahlias blooming, all staked and named and perfectly groomed. I was in heaven. The sign says it is maintained by the Puget Sound Dahlia Association and I say Thank You to them.

Here’s a pretty pink one for Pink Saturday. Also for Macro Flowers Saturday. And visit Color Carnival, too!

While you are here, try clicking on the Dahlia tag for more lovely blooms. And if you’ve arrived by the permalink, you can always get to the latest post and the full blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, above. Thanks for visiting!