Our friends with the gorgeous deck (see post just below) got married on Sunday, and I got to make some bouquets for their backyard ceremony. They have lovely flowers there but it would have been a shame to pick them, and I have so many. Our friends are also neighbors so they strolled over and chose what they wanted, brought the “vases,” and I had fun creating six matching bouquets in a rainbow of bright colors.

Garden flowers getting ready for wedding centerpieces using blue mason jars

See Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Thursday Challenge (Abundance), Water World Wednesday, and Garden Tuesday. Thanks for your visit here!

In a break after the rain began the other day, I went out front and cut all the roses that were opened. They just get yucky if they stay wet for any length of time, so they might as well come inside and dry off. I usually don’t do such a big cutting of  roses, preferring to keep them in the garden for everyone’s enjoyment, but since much rain was predicted, what else could I do?

Participating in My Romantic Home, Today’s Flowers, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, Pink Saturday, and Ruby Tuesday 2. As always, if there is only the one, lonely photo below, clicking on the curly letters of Sara’s Fave Photos Blog above will bring up the other recent photos for your enjoyment.

On that visit to Trudy’s Floral Design a couple of days ago, I spotted a perfect pink rose in a little vase. Let us all admire the perfection of a rose. Why does it continue to fascinate us so much?

Visit Macro Monday, Macro Friday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers, and Weekend Flowers, if you have a minute for photo fun. You might click on a new tag or category while you are here first. And if you like what you see here, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos for more pretty pictures.

I know this is not my usual kind of subject, but heck, gotta go with these things sometimes. This was a bouquet of roses given to a friend (my roses!) and I just loved how the water and stems looked on her desk. I hope you enjoy the photo. [Note: see the August 22 post, three above this one, for the roses!]

Watery Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) and Macro Monday are all neat blogs and memes, well worth a visit. If there is only one photo below, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the others.

My peonies are beginning to bloom. Here are the first two I picked from my yard. This year there are dozens of those wonderful spherical buds out there, all plump with possibilities. I love peonies!

Visit Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Flowers Saturday, and Macro Monday for more great images with a theme. Do click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, to see the latest photos here. Thanks for visiting!

Here is a bouquet I picked last week. The sun came out strong and before I took them to a cooler location, of COURSE I took this photo.

For more shadows of all types and descriptions, visit Shadow Shot Sunday.

Here’s a photo with reflections for you. I’ve heard about a new meme called Weekend Reflections and I thought I’d participate. And this one, like most photos I show here, is straight out of the camera, or SOOC.

I was lucky enough to be given a gift of a green Depression glass vase. I am thrilled! The green is my favorite color, and it’s in perfect condition. Here it is with a bouquet of dahlias, picked after the big rain last week toppled a tall, brittle stem that was covered with blossoms. Sometimes I find it hard to cut as many flowers as I want, but if they’re down already, I am exonerated of all guilt.

For more flowers of all kinds, visit Today’s Flower.

As I said below, the quarterly Chinook District meeting of the local garden clubs is just great. The best part for me, besides seeing people who have become friends, is the opportunity to photograph flowers, and great specimens at that. The dark red dahlia below was grown by yours truly and almost won best in show! Only almost, but still.

For more beautiful flowers around the world, visit Flowers For Today.

These tulips were part of the bulb marathon we planted last fall. Nothing on the package said they were more than twice the size of a normal tulip. If you look at the photo of my garden a few posts down, they are quite tall and you can see a couple behind the left vegetable bed. I have never seen anything like the size of these flowers. And they are beautiful as well!

For more flowers around the world, click HERE.