#SeattleSpring
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carolannie.bsky.social
Spring refreshment: native rhododendrons (Rhododendron macrophyllum) flopping about in the undergrowth at Ravenna Park along the woodsy trails
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #RavennaPark #SeattleParks #SeattleOlmstedParks #BloomScrolling #NativePlants
A couple of trusses of pink rhododendron blossoms peek through the Oregon grape and thimbleberry leaves in the upper right quadrant of this photo. The soft pink trumpet-shaped flowers form a pompom of blossoms, a small bouquet. The rhodie leaves which surround the trusses are oval, long and smooth. The Oregon grape leaves are glossy and relatively small, the thimbleberry leaves are large and palmate. There is an abundance of texture contrasts giving a cheerful effect.
July 8, 2025 at 9:57 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Osoberries (Oemleria cerasiformis) in varying stages of ripeness. They turn dark purple when fully ripe. They are edible but don't have much flesh on the pit.
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleParks #SeattleOlmstedParks #NativePlantsOfThePNW #NativePlants #RavennaPark
A branch of an osoberry shrub is has several stems of osoberries hanging like cherries below the green oval leaves. Their color varies from greenish yellow to apricot yellow to peach pink. They look like miniature apricots at the end of the red stems, which seem even brighter red when the berries turn purple.
June 7, 2025 at 2:18 AM
carolannie.bsky.social
Cluster rose or swamp rose (Rosa pisocarpa ) in Ravenna Park. I missed the Nootka rose bloom 😔
##BloomScrolling #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #NativePlants #RavennaPark #SeattleOlmstedParks #SeattleSummer #PNWNativePlants
A couple of five petaled pink roses bloom among the green compound leaves of the cluster rose. The shrubs flourish in the dappled shade along the trail. These are sometimes hard to distinguish from the Nootka rose, but the clusters of buds and flowers are typical, whereas the Nootka has mostly solitary flowers. The stems of cluster roses tend to arch more, the Nootka grows fairly straight for several feet before arching.
June 6, 2025 at 5:11 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
A visit to the P-Patch: pink wheelbarrows! New potatoes? Some gardeners can't help themselves! And beauty across the street.
#SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #PicardoFarmPPatch #SeattleParks #Photography
Two wheelbarrows, painted bright pink with "Picardo P-Patch* stenciled on the side, are leaned against a wooden garden box. The Picardo Gardeners voted to paint all the wheelbarrows we finagled after our other ones were stolen. Next time, the thieves will have to repaint them if they want to escape detection! Potato plants are blooming with white flowers. The petals are curved back and the anthers are fused into a golden tube, with the pistil barely showing. The leaves are compound, green, and abundant. When the blooms fade, the lucky gardener will be able to enjoy baby potatoes! A gardener turned a corner of their patch into a pretty little flower bed. At the back tall lilac iris tower over the mix of brunnera and dead nettle, with a border of ferns. Scattered throughout there are pansies, johnny-jump-ups and forget-me-nots. The border is contained by a wall of upside-down terracotta pots. A house across the street from the community garden entrance is hedged by rhododendron bushes full of pale to dark pink flowers.The left and right sides are framed by large, green, straight-trunked tulips trees. The house itself is barely visible as a gray roof and a bit of sage green siding. The sidewalk below the hedging is slanted uphill to the right.
June 5, 2025 at 9:26 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Common ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius "Summer Wine") backlit by the setting sun
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling
Light pink flowers bloom on a ninebark shrub with dark purple leaves. The sun is setting, and the light catches the leaves, creating splotches of amber and yellow. One leaf is backlit so that its veins glow yellow and red against its dark color. The effect is both dark and cheerful because of the puffs of flowers. The flowers are in tight clusters of many five-petaled blossoms, and the exserted anthers give the clusters a slightly fuzzy look.
June 4, 2025 at 5:46 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Roses open in an intense shade of apricot, then, as they age, fade to cream touched with pink
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling
Five roses are the close-up attraction in this photograph of a rose bush. At the top right, three are newly open, showing off petals of an intense apricot color. The next two roses down to the left are older and faded to a luscious cream color with pink tinging the edges of the petals. The bush is in full bloom, with faded and new roses scattered throughout.
June 4, 2025 at 3:32 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Soon to be blue
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring (still) #OurGarden #FruitScrolling
Unripe blueberries are clustered at the tip of a leafy branch. The berries are green but showing signs of turning dark blue, with shades of turquoise on their rounded skins. Dark purple spreads down from the ring of sepal remnants, forming a multicolored crown at the top of the fruit. Some of the green leaves below the fruit are edged with red. The whole image highlights shades of green contrasting with purple blushes on the fruit
June 3, 2025 at 5:46 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Look up
Ravenna Park footbridge over the ravine
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #RavennaPark #SeattleOlmstedParks
A well trodden foot trail ambles along the wooded side of the Ravenna Creek ravine, with long afternoon shadows streaked across it. The trees, a mix of big leaf maples and redcedar, are tall and slender, covered with moss that glows in the mid afternoon sun. The underbrush is mostly ferns and horsetails, with a few buttercups dotted here and there. If you look up through the trees, you can see half the iron blue footbridge that spans the ravine, the rest on the right hidden by the trees. You can see part of the spanning arch with its many crosslinks. The arch and footbridge are also mostly hidden by the trees on the right side of the trail. The whole scene is cast in a green light filtered through the dense leaves overhead.
June 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Tamed wild iris growing in the pollinator gardens at the Picardo P-Patch (Iris douglasii)
I love the frilly edges on those long petals
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #SeattleParks #PicardoFarmPPatch #NativePlantsOfThePNW #NativePlants
A small clump of Douglas iris graces the pollinator garden. The flowers are violet, blue and white, with small yellow beards at the base of the three tubular petals. The petals are veined in dark purple. There are several buds spiraling around the flower spike, which open in succession. The green leaves are long and strappy.
June 1, 2025 at 9:44 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Really scarlet poppies caught my eye in the community garden as we walked by
#Photography #PicardoFarmPPatch #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling
Brilliantly scarlet, these lovely poppies caught my eye as we walked by. They have yellow pistils and their black anthers are topped by yellow pollen sacs. There are plenty of buds next to the flowers amid an array of compound green leaves.
May 31, 2025 at 9:04 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
OK, there are ants helping amy peonies to open. The little one on the right wouldn't stop moving. The one at the top left is buried in the flower, valiantly trying to push that petal open.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring ##OurGarden
A closed peony bud is barely starting to open, showing shades of green and red in the sepals, and greenish white in the tightly curled petals. An ant is scurrying on the bud at the bottom right, and you can see the butt of another one that has buried itself under a petal.
May 31, 2025 at 5:15 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Some pretty crested iris in the P-Patch
#SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #CommunityGardens #PicardoFarmPPatch
Some bronze and yellow crested iris splash out in front of some in shades of deep blue in the dappled sunlight along the community garden path.
May 31, 2025 at 12:07 AM
carolannie.bsky.social
This lovely European elderberry is growing in our community pollinator gardens. It provides great shade! Too bad it isn't one of the PNW natives. Our pollinator gardens are a curious mix of natives and non-natives. 🤷
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #Bloomscrolling #CommunityGardens
A corymb of tiny white and pink elderberry flowers entices our hives' honeybees. Several other corymbs of unopened buds surround it, promising a few more weeks of five-petaled blooms. The exserted anthers give the flower cluster a somewhat fuzzy look. The compound leaves below the flowers are blue-green with five or more oval dentate leaflets.
May 29, 2025 at 2:42 AM
carolannie.bsky.social
I went to the P-Patch, with the canine companion, to take my turn watering the pollinator gardens. I was glum last week because the gardens looked so tatty. What a difference a week makes: most plots are cleared, planted, and ready.
#photography #PicardoFarmPPatch #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring
The Children's Garden has plots with flowers, lettuce, peas, cabbages, and other veggies. The pole structures are for the scarlet runner beans and so.e type of squash, to make a shady nook. The paths are well mulched. Off to the right, you can see garden chairs and child sized garden carts. Looking out to Ravenna Blvd, ypu can see a wall of greenery enclosing the garden on one end. There are garden plots in various stages of clean up and planting. Some plots have mini greenhouses to accelerate the growth of tomatoes and peppers. The foreground of the photo has a set of garden chairs, a plot with several red wire tomato cages and plots with young green plants. The paths are mulched. Today, we have a blue sky and a hot sun to help the produce along. There are a couple of wooden structures near this end in a couple of plots. They look like extremely weathered tentative trellis supports? Monty sploots in the shade next to a P-Patch flower border under an apple tree.Everything is very green, with yellow and purple flowers giving a nice spot of color. The main path is graveled, which is great when you haul wheelbarrows full of soil or mulch.
May 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Small-flowered penstemon (P. procerus) is common throughout the Western United States. Here, it's reestablishing in the Puget grassland restoration in Maple Leaf Park. #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #NativePlantsOfThePNW #NativePlants
It's also called littleflower or pincushion penstemon
Blue-purple tubular flowers arranged in whorls on bare stems peek out of the grasses in the park. Typical penstemon flowers, the tubular corolla ends with two semi-fused petals on top and three smaller ones on the bottom. The leaves lower on the stem are opposite and lanceolate.
May 28, 2025 at 2:41 AM
carolannie.bsky.social
Our wild, eclectic, messy backyard, shabby chic as it were.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring ##OurGarden
Our wild, messy, eclectic garden. The lawn is growing smaller, although you can see that from here. There are new vegetable beds off to the right behind the garage. Monty isn't sure what to make of them. Laurie spent four thankless years taking care of her father after he had a stroke. The garden was in a holding pattern. He died last year, and it took her a year to recover. But now she's putting all that energy into wilding and taming the backyard, as it were. So much energy. Those fireweeds and foxgloves are over 6 feet high ( about 2m). Such an exuberant year!
May 27, 2025 at 5:38 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Out in the early morning garden
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling
A bright pink rose is unfurling next to the wall. The petals are still mostly closed, but the opening spiral can be seen, delineated by the alternating shades of lighted and shadowed pink. The outer petals are touched with bright reflected light. The interior is more darkly shaded. A small cluster of shiny green leaves looks like a ruffled collar.
May 27, 2025 at 5:22 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Natural fireworks: A purple Japanese maple with bright green samaras begs for fiddling
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #Artsy
Dark purple Japanese maple leaves hang down in front of bright green samaras. A little processing makes the leaves glow in shades of blue, red and purple, making the yellow green seeds look like sparks Dark purple Japanese maple leaves hang down in front of bright green samaras. A little processing makes the leaves glow in shades of blue, red and purple, making the yellow green seeds look like sparks
May 26, 2025 at 4:24 AM
carolannie.bsky.social
A photo of a white iris struck by a ray of sunlight for #LightAndShadow on the #BlueskyArtShow
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling
A white Japanese iris is struck by a ray of light breaking through a shadow-darkened fence. The light sparks off the iris' yellow beard. The fence has some late day sunlight showing between its boards. The curvy forms of three white calla lilies can be dimly seen against the dark fence.
May 24, 2025 at 2:51 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Pacific ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus) blooms along the park trails. #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling #RavennaPark #NativePlants #SeattleOlmstedParks
Tightly packed clusters of 5 petaled white flowers grow among the bushes' dark green palmate leaves. The flowers are small and have lots of exserted stamens, which give the clusters a slightly fuzzy look. The anthers are initially pink but are dull brown after the pollen is gone. The leaves have 3 or more lobes and resemble maple leaves.
May 24, 2025 at 1:43 AM
carolannie.bsky.social
This mining bee (Andrena spp) was busily investigating every corner of this dewberry ( Rubus ursinus) flowers, as if there weren't hundreds of freshly opened ones nearby.
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #RavennaPark #NativePlants #NativeWildBees
A small black shiny bee with a yellow fuzzy thorax burrows into the nectaries in a dewberry flower. The bee's wings are dark with an iridescent shee. The flower is one of several in the woods understory, growing among the ferns. Another angle: A small black shiny bee with a yellow fuzzy thorax burrows into the nectaries in a dewberry flower. The bee's wings are dark with an iridescent shee. The flower is one of several in the woods understory, growing among the ferns.
May 23, 2025 at 11:25 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Weigela in the park
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #BloomScrolling #MapleLeafPark
Bushes full of pink and white weigela flower corymbs line the path through the park. The 5 petaled tubular flowers have stamens fused to the corolla and a pistil with a white tip. The ovate and strongly veiled green leaves make a nice backdrop to the flowers. Some weigela species are scented like their honeysuckle cousins, but these are not.
May 22, 2025 at 4:53 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
A bee covered in purple pollen is an unusual sight
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling
A trio of bright orange poppies, with rumpled shiny petals, is visited by bees in the mild spring sun. The poppy on the bottom left has a European honey bee wallowing in the purple pollen covering the top of the furry pistil and powdering the inside of the corolla and the base of the petals. The rows of purple-black poppy anthers surrounding the fat ovary look as if they've dumped all their pollen at once. The glowing flowers are nicely offset by their green lobed leaves and a few unopened fuzzy buds.
May 21, 2025 at 11:39 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
Pretty in pink, an Oregon checkermallow grows among lupins and grasses in a grassy patch in Maple Leaf Park.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #NativePlants #SeattleParks
A pink Oregon checkermallow grows in a field full of grasses and river lupin. The checkermallow flowers glow in tender shades of pink on their stalk. The flowers have 5 translucent petals with faint, darker pink stripes. The white anthers are clustered together with the 5 tips of the pink pistil curling out at the top. Although the grasses hide most of the leaves and stem, you can see one palmate, deeply lobed leaf between the grass blades. The pink of the flowers contrasts artistically with the blue and white of the lupin flowers.
May 21, 2025 at 5:57 PM
carolannie.bsky.social
I took the dog for a walk in the park. I can't recall such a gorgeous spring. Here's a snapshot of a splendid madrone (arbutus or madrona depending on your USDA zone, Latin name, Arbutus menziesii) in Maple Leaf Park
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #MapleLeafPark
A snapshot of a Pacific madrone tree full of flowers in a neighborhood park. The tree has a rounded crown, branches covered with reddish bark, abundant large, oval, leathery dark green leaves, and panicles of sweet scented white flowers. The tree is flanked by a couple of other trees, and stands tall above a hill covered with an understory of laurels, small pine trees full of leaf candles, and other shrubs. The foot of the hill is edged by a lawn, with a small gray shih tzu iz sniffing the grass prior to giving himself a full body stinky roll.
May 20, 2025 at 10:08 PM