Yesterday Seattle had just incredibly gorgeous weather: delightfully warm, sunny, and calm. Did I mention warm and sunny? It has been so very cold and gray this year, so I treasure these rare bursts of heaven. The irises are gearing up.

My garden and part of my neighbor’s. Bluebells and forget-me-nots, plus irises to come.

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Also called Japanese andromeda, pieris is a stellar shrub that thrives in the Pacific Northwest. And they are fragrant! Little bells of wonderfulness.

Pink pieris, backlit in the late winter sun

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This is what’s commonly called a Christmas cactus, but it’s really a Thanksgiving cactus, or schlumbergera truncata, not a regular cactus. This year, this one is acting more like a Valentine’s Day cactus! When growing them, treat them more like a regular houseplant and don’t let them get super dry, before you soak the soil.

Such showy, iridescent, magenta and white flowers, on this Thanksgiving cactus in bloom.

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Tonight is the year’s longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. In Seattle, today was only eight hours long. But now the light returns! Today is Winter, but we move onwards every day towards the Equinox, and Spring.

The shortest day of the year means the darkest times are behind us.

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This cedar tree in my back yard looks like a regular-sized tree, until you realize the fence is six feet tall and the bench is a regular garden bench. Our guess is that the tree is maybe 300 years old. It is getting ready to drop some needles like it does every fall. It is waiting for rain, like we all are in Western Washington.

Very old cedar tree dwarfs the bench below it.

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Finally spent a little time cleaning up the rose bed. I get to be out there among them, admiring them, and they get all tidied up. My favorite time of day, too.

A spray of Peace roses, backlit in the late afternoon sun

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I love these tiny, lacy flowers within the flowers, within the flowers! that some hydrangeas have. With our acidic soils here in the Pacific Northwest, they are certainly blue!

hydrangea in the garden

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The deeply colored stargazers look good this year, with the red and orange daylilies as a backdrop.

Speckled and glorious stargazer lilies bloom in my garden

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The recent warm weather in Seattle has been beautiful and sunny, true summertime for me.

Cherry tree in late afternoon light

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This year my sweetpeas have done so well. I’ve learned that they really do need loose, fertile soil and a lot of sun. Even in this heatwave (Seattle is having a record-breaking five days over 90), they are blooming so beautifully. They seem to be most fragrant in the late afternoons and early evenings, after the sun has faded.

Garden sweetpeas.

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The glories of the late afternoon sun in the rose garden!

Grasses, lavender and roses in bloom in the late afternoon light

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At the incredible Bayview Nursery in Whidbey Island, WA, the combination of horticultural skill AND beautiful, artful display came together brilliantly in this tall raised basket of starry petunias.

Many colorful petunias displayed in an overhead basket on a standnursery

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