The town of Burien in Washington State, south of Seattle, has a great old downtown section. They do a wonderful flower basket decoration on the old lightpoles every year.

Baskets of colorful flowers decorate the “Olde Burien” section of downtown Burien, WA

Joining up at Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Saturday Show Off, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Fishtail Cottage Thursday, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, Thursday Floral Love, Ruby Tuesday 2, and Pink Saturday. Thanks for stopping by here!

I’m going to be on vacay for a bit so I’ll schedule posts of a few photos from a recent visit to my favorite flower haunt, Seattle’s Volunteer Park Conservatory and link to the various photo memes I love so much when I return.

This agapanthus or Lily of the Nile is almost more beautiful in bud than in flower.

Dark blue Lily of the Nile in the growing beds outside Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle

Linking (eventually) to Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Thursday Floral Love, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Weekends and Straight out of the Camera Sunday. Thanks for visiting and please come back soon.

Sometimes petunias in the garden get leggy, and the only thing to do is cut off the long stems, feed the plant, and hope you get a second flush of blooms. I brought in the cut stems and figured I might as well put them in a vase. I was surprised to find how fragrant they were.

A petunia bouquet shows color, form and texture

You might check out Pink Saturday, Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Thursday Floral Love, My Romantic Home, Garden Tuesday, Fishtail Cottage Thursday, Outdoor Wednesday and Saturday Show Off. If there is only this one petunia photo here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos at the top to see several others. Thanks!

We have a very young cherry tree with five different kinds of cherries grafted onto a dwarf rootstock. This is its second year and it actually had some cherries. I put some old sheer curtains around the fruiting branches and attached it with clothespins, which I had read about online, and it did work to protect them from the birds, even if it looked ugly in the yard. So here are the bing-type black ones that I picked a week or so ago, and they did taste as wonderful as I had hoped.

Do you see that the cherries are so shiny that they are like little mirrors, and they are reflecting my backyard with the tall trees and the blue sky? The trees to the left in the reflection are still in the sunlight and the others are now in shade. Fun!

Shiny black cherries, just picked

Visit Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Outdoor Wednesday, Weekend Reflections, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, My Romantic Home, Garden Tuesday, Fishtail Cottage Thursday and Straight out of the Camera Sunday. Have a great day and please come back soon. While you are here you might try a new tag or category. Vegetables/Fruits, perhaps?

Was at Seattle’s beloved Volunteer Park Conservatory yesterday and was just gaga at how gorgeous the outside beds are this season. What colors, and this photo does not do it justice. The purple stuff is heliotrope and sometimes it has a heady fragrance.

An update about the Conservatory: It’s now out of the woods financially, due to the fundraising efforts of many dedicated folks, and if you go you’ll pay a big $4 admission, but you can get an annual pass for unlimited admissions, and still free parking! Closed Mondays.

Flowerbeds outside of the Volunteer Park Conservatory with purple heliotrope

More neat photos at Outdoor Wednesday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Thursday Floral Love and Scenic Weekends. Thanks for visiting here and please come back soon. Sign up for email notifications at upper right so you don’t miss even one pretty picture.

I’ve been picking some of the lavender and put some nails in the carport so I could hang up the bunches, tied in rough twine. And before the mint goes to flowers, why don’t you cut some and dry that, too? Mint tea is wonderful.

Peppermint leaves and lavender drying in a breezy, shaded area

Check out Outdoor Wednesday, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Garden Tuesday, My Romantic Home, Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday and Fishtail Cottage Thursday. Thank you so much for visiting here, and hope you come back soon.

I’m excited about being in the Alki Art Fair tomorrow, West Seattle’s great music and crafts event on the beach. It runs all weekend, but I will be there in Booth 19 just on Saturday, 10 to 6pm. The music goes to 9pm. It’s going to be warm and beautiful, so be sure to wear a hat and come on by. I’ll have lots of new designs of the sparkling Glass Tile Jewelry (sorry, jewelry not available online yet) that my daughter Lila and I make from the pages of my book, “Flowers of Volunteer Park Conservatory.”

The story of the jewelry: We were at a craft fair selling my books as a holiday gift item. Daughter Lila noticed all the traffic at jewelry booths nearby and said we could make jewelry from one of my books we had with a damaged cover. Me: “Excuse me???” Lila: “I saw it on Pinterest.” Next thing I know, we are in the jewelry business.

Glass Tile Jewelry pansy necklace with heavily plated silver finding on silky black cord

Linking to Monday Mellow Yellows, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, My Romantic Home, Macro Monday, I Heart Macro Saturday and Fishtail Cottage Thursday. Hope to see you at Alki Beach on Saturday, July 20th!

At friends’ garden for their wedding today, a glorious experience. Here are some purple/lavender clematis flowers (about the size of my hand), climbing up a wall.

Purple clematis blooming in a Seattle garden in July

Joining up at Outdoor Wednesday, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, and Garden Tuesday. Thank you for visiting here, and please come back soon.

This little hen-and-chicks sedum on my patio is only maybe 1.5″ or 4 cm. across, but it has an amazing flower (see 2nd photo below). I like these succulents because the circular leaf pattern looks like a flower, and then it HAS flowers. The individual pink flower is half an inch or so across.

Today’s Flowers is showing a couple of my photos this weekend. Be sure to visit as many of the participants as you can, and leave a comment so they will know you visited.

Little green and purple hen-and-chicks sedum rosette

Small pink sedum flowers with yellow centers

Joining the fun at Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, and Garden Tuesday. Please browse around here and come back soon!

Flowers that return each year, or politely reseed or spread, are big faves of mine. Old fashioned sweet williams have the added bonus of brilliant colors and longish stems so they can go in bouquets. These are on my patio right now. The peach flowers behind them are nasturtiums with variegated leaves, a new plant for me.

Magenta and white sweet williams in front of peach nasturtiums on my patio

Participating in Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Thursday Challenge (Flowers), Garden Tuesday and Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Let’s try Orange You Glad It’s Friday, too. If there’s only this one photo here, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos on top to see the rest of ’em.