Category: Pt. Defiance Park

An Unexpected Greeting

Upon visiting the Rose Garden today I was greeted by locked gates and this sign. It reminded me why I don’t grow roses, or anything else that can’t survive with minimal care and an extra dose of water. Do you think it might explain why my small garden has more butterflies than the Rose Garden?

I was disappointed by the closure but not so disappointed that I didn’t visit the nearby Japanese garden, where the pond seemed even more beautiful than usual.

It turned out that the groundskeepers were merely waiting for the pesticides to dry. Do you think all the bees and wasps waited until they dried, too? Or will this turn into a modern-day equivalent of Rappaccinni’s Garden, producing mutant insects?

I could’ve sworn I used a photo exactly like this in my blog last year. If so, I certainly couldn’t find it in August or September’s entries.

Oh well, as I’ve been discovering in my musical studies, beautiful notes bear repeating,

Defining Dahlia

I took it as a high compliment yesterday when Kenju said, “Now that photo defines dahlia!�

It did seem like a classic dahlia, even resembling the picture on the sign that greets the visitor to the dahlia garden.

What first appealed to me about dahlias was the geometric repetition of the petals as they open, a symmetry that’s found in most flowers but is carried to new heights in dahlias.

This white and purple dahlia seemed so delicately perfect in its structure that I couldn’t even imagine a way to enhance its beauty:

I loved this purple and white one just as much, but it seemed to better lend itself to an “artistic� enhancement that emphasizes its symmetry:

I’ll have to admit, though, a definite fondness for this less classical dahlia, one that also seems have a compelling appeal to bees and other insects:

Too Hot To Handle

Considering the kind of weather the rest of the nation has been having, I’m not about to complain about the weather here in the Pacific Northwest, but it reached 90 degrees again today and that’s too hot for me to think of doing much but trying to avoid getting any hotter than absolutely necessary.

So, after taking Skye for an early morning walk I decided to limit myself to taking pictures of the Pt Defiance Rose Garden. I know I said weeks ago that the roses were at their peak, and some early roses were absent flowers, but it’s clear that unlike many flowers here in the PNW, roses like the heat, as they looked radiant today, nearly flawless in their beauty:

Heretic that I am, though, I still spent most of the time photographing everything but roses. Perhaps my favorite flower was this beautiful form of a Tiger Lily

that stood nearly five feet high.

Now that the dahlias are out, though, it’s almost as impossible for me to ignore them as it is for the bees:

Rising to the Occasion

It’s been a tough few weeks here, weatherwise, and the roses in the Point Defiance Rose Garden are a bit under the weather, as you can tell by looking closely at the edges of the petals on many of the roses.

In fact, it’s nearly impossible to find a perfect rose this year, one without a blemish or mold, but luckily the roses are so beautiful that most of the visitors didn’t seem to mind a few blemishes.

If you live near Tacoma, now’s the time to come see the roses because they are at their peak. While newly emerging roses may escape the damage caused by recent rain, many roses will be finished blooming if you wait much longer.