graphic crocus
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Looking Forward to My Favorite Spring #Flowers

It’s March, and the sun shines a little brighter every day in Eastern Washington, only interrupted by a spring shower or two. We can still expect a little snow as late as mid-April. We seem to live in that dormant time where the snow has melted and the grass is not quite green yet. In addition, the distinct absence of flowers and the promise of spring seem distant.

I intend to hurry spring along a little by sharing my favorite spring flowers this week.

“No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” – English Proverb

I took heart when I saw the delicate lilac bud this week…

Lilac Bud

…which will look like this in May…

Local Lilacs
Lilacs!

Last October I planted several types of early spring flowers: crocus, daffodils, and tulips. The beds are covered with a layer of straw to protect from the frost. These typically bloom here in early April!

purple crocus
crocus
Mountain Daffodil2

While we visited family in Portland, Oregon, in April 2024, we toured the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. The 2025 tour and bloom dates are tentatively listed as March 21-April 27.

Mt Hood and tulip farm
Mt Hood looms in the distance of Woodburn’s Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm (2024)

I purchased these gorgeous tulips on that trip and eagerly await their growth in a few weeks. In the Spokane, Washington area, our growing season begins in mid-April, later than in Portland. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will thrive and bloom on time.

Bright pink Pretty Princess Tulips
Pretty Princess Tulips from Tulip Farm

Planting Flowers for Photography

Partially inspired by Anne’s Lens-Artists’ post this week, I admit photography was and is a driver of some of my hobbies, especially gardening and enjoying the fabulous shows that flowers put on during their seasons. When we lived in Sacramento, I started two garden beds dedicated to sunflowers and even collected interesting varieties of seeds to cultivate.

sunflower garden
Backyard garden
Sunflower Seedlings
Infant Sunflowers

I was gifted this Teddy Bear variety …

Last teddy sunflower of the summer
Teddy Bear Sunflower

… and this red one from a fellow blogger who also lived in Northern California.

Red sunflower
Red sunflower from Sacramento

Although March is here with the promise of spring, I can’t plant summer flowers (seeds or bulbs) until the frost is gone, usually by mid-May. Armed with seeds from my Sacramento garden and a variety pack I purchased, I’m ready to start them in my mini-greenhouse planting kit.

sunflower seed packet

In the meantime, the mountainsides and forest floor will soon be sporting wildflowers such as Arrowleaf Balsamroot sunflowers, which bloom in late April.

Arrowleaf Balsamroot wild sunflower

I can hardly wait.

Groups of wild sunflowers
Arrowleaf Balsamroot Sunflowers

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

Sharing for Cee’s FOTD, Dan’s CFFC–green, Johnbo’s CellPic Sunday, and Lens-Artists: Life’s Changes

Dawn’s Spring Festival begins on March 20th! 🌻🌷

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s FLOWER theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me next week for the Monthly Color Challenge: Shades of Green.

“And just like that…Winter opened cold bleary eyes to the newborn colors of spring.” ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

tulips

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signature purple floral

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135 comments

  8. Terri,

    Your flower pictures gave me a big, warm smile. I have never seen (or heard of) a Teddy Bear sunflower–so unique. I would LOVE to visit a Tulip Farm. Many years ago, I was a young Army officer in Germany and visited Keukenhof Gardens in Holland. It was the only time I’ve ever seen a black tulip. I look forward to the annual Tulip bloom in East Tennessee–usually in early April. Thanks for sharing. Joe

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    • Many thanks, Joe! I learned a lot of fun things over the years due to blogging. So much more interesting to read blogs than magazines. Wow, a black tulip! A fellow blogger who lived in Northern California sent me a variety of his sunflower seeds and boy, did they grow!

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  15. Spring is already in full swing here in Wales, Terri. The snowdrops have already bloomed and gone over, and the daffodils are springing up everywhere. We have many varieties of them that flower between February and May. Some early tulips have flowered, but the majority will flower in April. The trees are still bare, but given we still have frosts, they will wait until warmer weather arrives before budding.
    I love how flowers bloom at different times of the year, depending on your location. Did you know that the daffodil is the national flower of Wales? And the leek is our national vegetable.
    I’m glad you have early signs of spring. After all, your clocks sprung forward last weekend, whereas, in the UK, we do not spring forward until 30 March (Mothering Sunday this year). I’m looking forward to the lighter evenings.

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    • Cold and rainy here, Hugh, and sun up isn’t until 7:20 now that we shifted to daylight saving time. I still ask why. My dog is also a bit confused. Hitting me hard this year 😕 Enjoy your spring! You’re lucky to enjoy it now. I love daffies…I planted bulbs last October and hope to see them next month. Wishing you bright evenings and happy spring!

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  16. These are such pretty pictures of spring flowers! I can’t wait to see your garden.
    The picture of the tulips with the snow-capped mountain is priceless. Wow! What a sight to behold.
    Oh, and those happy sunflowers sure do make us smile! I love all the different colors.
    Thanks for such a delightful post.

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  18. I can’t wait for spring either. Last week, when the weather was warmer and sunny, my crocuses popped out overnight, but this week it’s rainy and cold again. We had frost on our cars this morning. Oh well…

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  19. You brightened my day Terri, and I thank you for that:)

    We still have a long way until the spring arrives here, but it’s shorter with every day, so I’m soo looking forward too, to the day I’ll see the first buds and snowdrops🥰

    Have a lovely one!

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  36. Lovely flower photos Terri, and although you have some time to wait (mid-May until frost goes?), it will be worth it all I’m sure and in the meantime you know they’re growing under the soil, ready to pop out. I love that you plant some flowers for photography purposes (well that’s how I read it anyway) 🙂

    As you know, we’re going into autumn but have lots of summer colour still, amid the dry grass of our lawn, and it was lovely to look back on my favourite flower shots for Sunday Stills this week. We’re still having temps in the high 20s and early 30s but mornings are a tad cooler than they were a while ago. Out altitude is over 700mtrs (above sea level) so we have a great climate for cool-climate flowers and trees.

    My post is here where I analysed my media library to see my top photographed flowers – there were a lot of photos!!!

    https://debs-world.com/2025/03/09/my-top-three-favourite-flowers-for-sundaystills/

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    • Thank you, Debbie! So sorry, this comment sat in my pending file and I can only see them when I’m on my actual computer. I admit to planting flowers for photography, but the bees like them and the flowers are easy on the eyes 🙂 Off to read yours!

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  38. Loads of snow here. My thoughts don’t really turn to spring flowers until late April. I hope all your planted ones come up and brighten up your yard early on. I did know there are cultured crocii but for me spring starts when the native prairie is alive with crocuses in every direction.

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  41. They are all beautiful flowers Terri and how nice to anticipate new flowers from the beginning of Spring through the Fall as your sunflowers continue to thrive well into September. That is a large blooming timeframe for the tulips at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. Last year for Holland, Michigan’s Tulip Festival it was very hot before the Festival began and the tulips bloomed early – yikes! They have tourists coming by the busload to see the Festival’s many types of tulips and saw only stalks. You can view and photograph your flowers at your own leisure though, so no issues there.

    I may have mentioned before that my father sent away for some Dutch tulip bulbs and planted them the first Fall we lived here. In the Spring when he was doing yard clean-up, he found all but one tulip bulb scattered around the yard with bite marks in them. We have a lot of squirrels and they apparently dug them all up, That one lowly tulip planted beneath the Birch tree bloomed for years, until the Birch tree got a disease and had to be removed (along with that tulip bulb).

    My favorite flowers are wildflowers and the last part of my post will mention wildflowers and show a few, although I have scattered photos of wildflowers throughout the post.

    Takin’ a walk on the wild(flower) side.

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    • The weather must be perfect in Portland for those tulips, Linda. Last year they bloomed a bit early but we we were lucky to see them when we were there. Now that we have a good sized property, I can have more flower beds. That’s crazy about the Dutch bulbs your father planted. At least you could enjoy them while they lasted.

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      • The weather might be warmer there in early Spring – I know lots of people were disappointed in Holland, Michigan’s showing last year. That’s something that could happen to me, like this misadventure: about 30 years ago I told my mom I’d take a week’s vacation at “peak week” for viewing the Fall colors in northern Michigan. Well “peak week” was not when predicted and the trees were still green when we were there.

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      • You were very lucky. It’s difficult to plan around the weather. Michigan’s Pure Michigan campaign gurus always predict the Northern Michigan colors for each week in Fall as their colors begin to turn right after Labor Day, especially in the Upper Peninsula.

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  46. Those tulips are spectacular, Terri. I hope they bloom as promised. And I love the red sunflower. Spring seems to have come and gone early here this year and we’re in a sunshine and showers holding pattern. With more rain than we often have in a year, which has to be good news, unless you’re here on holiday. Have a wonderful week, hon!

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  47. It feels and looks like Spring here now, although we’re to have some frost this week. I could see some of myself in this post, Terri. Gardening and photography also go hand in hand with me 🙂

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  52. What a beautiful subject and wonderful examples Terri – a breath of spring!! I can’t believe you have to wait until MAY to plant!!! I suppose the short season makes the blooms that much more precious. Loved your post

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  59. The tulip feild with the snowy mountain backdrop is spectacular! And who knew there were so many sunflower colours…not me! I’ll definitely be looking out for the red ones this year. We’re beginning to see shoots and a little colour, I’m so looking forward to summer. Hope your week is a good one, Terri.

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  61. The tulip feild with the snowy mountain backdrop is spectacular! And who knew there were so many sunflower colours…not me! I’ll definitely be looking out for the red ones this year. We’re beginning to see shoots and a little colour, I’m so looking forward to summer. Hope your week is a good one, Terri.

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  62. The tulip field with the snowy mountain backdrop looks spectacular, Terri! And who knew there were so many sunflower colours! I’ll definitely be looking out for the red ones this year. I’m beginning to see shoots and a little colour now, I’m really looking forward to summer. Have a great week!

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