Summer is definitely here in the Pacific Northwest, and the flower gardens show it! I strolled about in some of the local gardens the past few days and here is what I found.

Oriental Lilies

Red Asian Lilies

Flowering Hosta Plant

Orange Asian Lilies

Blue Salvia and Rudbeckia

Monkshood Flowers (Wolfsbane)

Daylilies

Eriginum (Sea Holly)

Astilbe and Japanese Painted Fern

Acanthus

Begonia

White Stargazer Lily

As you can see, many types of lilies are blooming. The Stargazers, in particular, are very fragrant. You can smell them from several feet away and can sometimes be a bit overwhelming if there are a lot of them in one area. They are an Asian Lily hybrid and grow with their blooms pointed skyward.

Lastly, I happened to see this poor Tiger Swallowtail butterfly flitting around with part of a wing missing. I don’t know if it naturally developed this way or lost it due to some unfortunate circumstance. In any case, I felt very sorry for it, although it seemed to be quite capable of flitting around with what wings it had.

All images property of Peggy A Thompson