The roses look good now. The challenges of the awful black spot and mildew that the endless wet weather created are mostly gone. I try to keep the fallen leaves and petals off the ground, so that means deadheading when the blooms start to get loose, before the petals fall. What a wonderful excuse to wander among the roses, clippers and bucket in hand, happily peering into the heart of each rose and gathering the spent ones. A pleasure, not a chore, to me.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more ruby redness. And click on a new tag or category while you are here, you hear? The latest post can always be found at Sara’s Fave Photos, above.

I was browsing through my archives trying to create a slideshow of flowers for the garden club I belong to and found this image. Neat, isn’t it? But I have no idea what it’s called. Anyone?

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Color Carnival and Today’s Flowers for great sites in blogland. Browse around here while you’re already here, perhaps something like “sunset” or “rose.” And if you’ve landed here via the permalink, an easy way to the latest post is by Sara’s Fave Photos, above.

My ‘Oklahoma’ rosebush has the deepest red roses, which try as I might, I cannot photograph, or even Photoshop, into a closer approximation of reality. The actual color of the flowers is the deepest, darkest, richest, burgundy red, and almost black in the shadows. You’ll just have to imagine.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more ruby redness around the world. And this is also a post for Macro Monday and Blue Monday. Is that sky blue enough? And I like this photo so much I’ve called it my Best Post of the Week.

If you’ve found this post from the permalink, getting to the latest photo post is easy. Just click on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

This lovely lily is probably a ‘Stargazer’ lily, rubrum speciosa, taken on that Federal Way Symphony Garden Tour yesterday. I understand that all lilies like this used to point downwards, and growers managed to develop one whose blooms pointed upwards, thus “star gazer.” Great name, no?

Visit Today’s Flowers for more wonderful blossoms of all kinds, Macro Flowers Saturday and Macro Monday for close ups, Ruby Tuesday for wonderful reds and Color Carnival for brilliant color. Whew!

You might click on the “pink” or “red” tag at left or search for something new as long as you are here. Return to the latest post by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

Godetia is a very under-appreciated annual flower in the home garden. It’s super easy to grow, a great cutting flower, and reseeds well but not too well. Its only drawback, for some, is its lack of scent. But we forgive it that minor shortcoming because we love its crinkly petals in shades of lush red and pink and that neat starburst of buds on top.

This bouquet is from the Pike Place Market, the home of the most amazing (only) locally grown flowers. I love the way they mix and match the most unusual combinations. Here we also see sweetpeas on the right, a bit of stripey alstroemeria tucked in the middle, and peppermint for greenery!

Visit Pink Saturday for more pink visions of all kinds, and Color Carnival for more brilliant color. And you might try clicking on a tag like “pink” or “red” to see something new. Easy to return to the main page here; just click on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

Today’s visit to the flower vendors in Seattle’s Pike Place Market was fabulous, as usual. They have lilies (and sweetpeas) in magnificent quanties, combined in surprising and unique bouquet combinations as always. This one with a lily and a happy jumble of other garden flowers beats out any supermarket bunch any day.

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday for more flower close ups, and Color Carnival for more brilliant color. This one is straight out of the camera, or SOOC, too. And try a new tag or category here while you’re here, returning to the full blog at Sara’s Fave Photos as always.

I find these Double Delight roses irresistable. Their form, their magnificent coloration, their sweet and spicy scent just is perfection in a rose to me. I read that their unusual reddish edging, which is much darker in full sunshine and only a streaky (but still beautiful!) pink when the rose is blooming mostly in shade, was considered a flaw. How about that?

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more ruby redness of all kinds. If you browse around here, be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos when you want to get back to the latest post.

Yesterday the sun peeked out for a bit and the flowerbed near our patio is at its peak, so here’s a photo for you to enjoy. The pink ones in front are Sweet Williams, a perennial, the blue ones are bachelor buttons which reseeded themselves, the spiky red stuff in back is penstemon, the magenta on silver in back is rose campion, the soft pink in back is astilbe, and the white on the left is a volunteer feverfew, great for bouquets. Visit Today’s Flowers for more flowers all around the world.

Yet another rose from the rainy photo session the other day. This ‘Dolly Parton’ rose is one of my favorites, and the photo actually doesn’t do it justice. It’s the most scintillating shade of deep red-orange, wildly fragrant, and of course has that great name.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more magnificent reds, and Color Carnival for more wild color.

You might try a new search term or tag like “red” or “pink” on this blog. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos to get back to the full blog after your wanderings.

I know I posted one of these croton plants not too long ago, but this photo is even cuter than the last one, I think. I love the new growth and its improbable green color. This one, like the last one, lives in Seattle’s Volunteer Park Conservatory, an amazing and inspiring place.

Check out a few new tags or categories here (you can always find your way back to the latest post by clicking Sara’s Fave Photos above), then visit Color Carnival and Ruby Tuesday for more interesting color shots, and try SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. I don’t crop, either, by the way, or hardly at all. Digital photography is such a blessing in that you can take as many photos as your heart desires, for free, so it’s just easier for me to take enough images to get a good one without too much fussing. Or any, like in this case.