Bulbs are great. When you find some that are happy where you put them, their return each year is such a gift. These white Dutch irises are such a pretty sight in my May garden.

Simple yellow and white Dutch iris with moisture from a recent shower on its petals

Check out Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Monday Mellow Yellows, Water World Wednesday, Nature’s Footsteps Waters Sunday, and Shadow Shot Sunday 2. I appreciate your visit here. Have a great day!

I love lupines. [Where I used to live in Northern California, the blue ones grew wild on hillsides and they bloomed at the same time as orange California poppies. Unfortunately, if you have CA poppies in your garden, you will never get rid of them, and might be sorry you ever planted them and their resulting millions of offspring. However, in the right spot, it’s a winning combo. But I digress.] These purple ones in my garden make me so happy in the springtime, and return every year. Removing spent flowers really does extend the bloom time for them.

Lavender and purple lupines bloom in Seattle in May

Linking up at Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, and Shadow Shot Sunday 2. Anyone know any purple memes? Do share!

This year my garden is looking good. We didn’t have any hard frosts or unusual amount of rain and the plants are relieved. Purple and red is a fine color combination, in my opinion. The red is geum, a perennial, and the mauvy-purple ball is a kind of allium, a bulb. In the back are white Dutch irises, and in the upper right, the peas are climbing.

Red geum flowers plus purple allium light up this flowerbed in Seattle

Joining in Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Pink Saturday, and Shadow Shot Sunday 2. Glad you are here visiting!

The bees were out and buzzing today. They love some of the flowers, and don’t care so much about others. This perennial blue bachelor button, also called Centaurea montana or Mountain bluet, is almost too vigorous, but what a fabulous, almost-purple color, and on such nice long stems for bouquets.

A bee busily working a perennial blue bachelor button flower

Linking up at Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Ruby Tuesday 2, and Shadow Shot Sunday 2. So glad you could drop by. How about trying a new tag or category, while you’re here? My Garden is a good category to browse, just as a suggestion.

Well, the pasture behind my yard (the between the two fences) has been sold, and a house will be built on it this summer, we are told. Sigh. The horses are gone. Things change. Here is what it looked like from my patio, today.

Backyard garden in Normandy Park, WA, with red and pink flowers

Participating in Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, and Shadow Shot Sunday 2. I so appreciate your dropping by.

Rhododendrons, or rhodies as we call them affectionately, bloom extremely well here in the Pacific Northwest. They reach their peak about now. If you live in the Seattle area, you can probably see ones as tall as houses, here and there. This old one is blooming right in front of my house. Lucky me!

Many shades of pink in this rhododendron blooming in the spring sunshine

Linking up at My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, and Straight out of the Camera Sunday. I do appreciate your visit here. Browse around and see what you find.

I learned the fancy word for what a lilac flower is: a panicle. Seems like a nice, strong word for a flower with such a remarkable shape and fragrance. Unforgettable. The ones in my front yard are finally beginning to bloom. Thank heaven for the garden.

Double lilac flowers decorate the sky.

You might visit My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends,  Skywatch Friday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, and A Piece of Heaven. Thank you so much for visiting and please browse around while you are here.

I love our two columnar apple trees. These are dwarfer than dwarf trees, bred to do well in containers or on patios. These two trees are 7 or 8 years old and have been in the ground a few years. One has red apples and one has yellow, and both are yummy. At this stage, the most important thing you can do for your fruit trees which need pollination is to make like a bee. Unless you have lots of bees and other helpful insects around, go out there with a little dry paintbrush, or a Q-tip, and go back and forth between the blossoms of the two trees. It’s incredible what a huge difference this makes in the amount of fruit that you get. Do it a few times so you get the early blooms and the late ones. Apple crisp, here I come.

Two columnar apple trees blooming in a bed of forget-me-nots

Linking up at My Romantic Home, Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Scenic Weekends, Pink Saturday, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Floral Love and a new meme, Fishtail Cottage Tuesday. Thank you for stopping by here, and happy Spring to you. May your garden flower well for you.

These wonderful leaves were in a planter outside a commercial building in Seattle. What a difference some backlighting makes! The leaves might be a kind of dracena. Stay back!

Yellow and green spiky leaves in sunshine

Participating at Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday and Monday Mellow Yellows. Glad to have you browse around here and thanks for visiting. And check out the “7 Secrets to Better Flower Photos” at right, for free!

The magnolias are gorgeous this year. This tree in our backyard is one of the many dotting the neighborhood right now. And the horses in the pasture adjoining our property just love the fallen petals. They even eat the blooms that they can reach off the tree! No harm seems to be done.

Pink Japanese magnolias against a sunny sky in springtime

Two horses graze magnolia blossoms on a sunny spring day

Visit My Romantic Home, Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Ruby Tuesday 2, Pink Saturday, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Scenic Weekends, Camera Critters and Macro Monday. I appreciate your stopping by here and hope it’s flowering gangbusters where you live.