California

I have been saving this rose for a couple of weeks now. I took this photo of it in Lowe’s Garden while we were there getting some stuff for the yard and patio.

We’re getting ready to plant the squash and melons. The tomatoes and green beans are planted already.

Click on the thumbnail picture for a close-up of this pretty rose.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writing in the voice of his “greatest detective” character, Sherlock Holmes, presented a tribute to this magnificent natural beauty (read below the photo).

During a brief lull in a criminal investigation (“The Adventure of the Naval Treaty”), Sherlock Holmes took a moment to smell a red rose. The flower, he remarked to his friend Dr, Watson, clearly was evidence of divine beneficence. “Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers,” proclaimed the world’s greatest detective. “All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again we have much to hope from the flowers.”

Verna currently has “Freedom Roses” on our table. This picture is from a previous batch, but I assure you they are just as nice.

This is an Asian Lily spotted today in the garden shop at Lowe’s. We were there for some potting soil and to get some rat control products (the little vermin have been spotted in the back yard from time to time). While we were there we also got some marigolds, a zucchini starter sprout and a couple of other garden supplies.

I love the lighting on this lily. Click on the picture for a larger view.

The Plant Answers garden website says the pansy is a delicate looking flower often with a “face.” The pansy is quite durable and a “flower for all seasons.” Pansies are growing in gardens during the winter in the South or Southwest and during the summer in the North. The fragrant and edible blooms are desirable in gardens. Pansy popularity increases possible due to its ease of growing. Whether grown from seed or bedding plants, pansies are relatively disease and pest free blooming prolifically for the gardener’s enjoyment.

“Blue Pansy” is also the common name of an oriental butterfly. I took this last weekend at Lowe’s garden shop. Click for a bigger view.

This photo of an Easter Lily is unretouched other than cropping and resizing. A sunbeam coming through the window over the staircase hit this flower at just the right angle and place to make it look as though the inside of the flower was producing the light.