A May day "basket" of flowers for everyone

"Disneyland" rose in forefront with "Blue Ribbon" peeking its pale purple self from behind
Then going clockwise up and around the bird fountain:
"Our Lady of Guadalupe" rose
"Ronald Reagan"
"Honey Bouquet"
"My Fifi"

I've been in the middle of transitioning to a new computer all day so my intention of posting photos of lots of blooms to wish everyone a happy first of May kind of fell by the wayside until late in the evening. Oh well. Better late than never, right?

When I was young, my mom told me about the old tradition of filling a basket of flowers for the first day of May and giving them to someone special. I have so many people who are special to me (all of you) I can't fill up real baskets for everyone and deliver them in person. But I can share these images instead and we can pretend, okay?

"Blue Ribbon" with a backdrop of fennel, "Disneyland" and our living room windows

The past week, I've been posting a bloom a day in order to share the explosion of color happening in the garden right now (the front garden being the most colorful). Today, I'm sharing some wider shots to illustrate that I'm not exaggerating when I say it is "exploding with color".

Same roses as mentioned above except for the "Abraham Darby" top left and "Parade" to its right

I love when the garden puts on this show. Although most of the roses continue to bloom throughout the summer and fall, there isn't ever quite the same abundance of blooms as there are at this time of the year.  Every time I look out the living room windows, I smile.

"Janice Kellogg" in forefront
"Our Lady of Guadalupe", "Ronald Reagan", and "Honey Bouquet" in background