My mom's birthday is at the end of May, and this year it was on a Saturday. It worked out perfectly to take her on her actual birthday to explore the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, right at the peak of the roses blooming. Almost every plant had at least some fully open blooms, and most varieties were filled with beautiful, fragrant flowers. The sky was a patchwork of clear blue and white puffs and the temperature was just right for jeans and a t-shirt. The day could not have been much better.
Being that the gardens are so popular and it was peak season, we had to start pretty early because it gets crowded fast during the peak season, so we arrived around 9:30 and got a parking spot right up front. As we wandered the rows upon rows of roses (ha!), time flew by and the crowds got thicker. We ended up staying for over 3 hours! I think we saw every variety of rose.
Of course I took loads of photos. It's hard to resist when you have such great subjects at your disposal. When editing the photos from the Tulip Festival, I feel like I used a bit of a heavy hand with some of the vibrancy and color saturation adjustments. So with these, I only edited the exposure and nothing else (except removing an occasional speck or something like that). No adjustments to contrasts, vibrancy, or saturation. I really wanted to let the flowers speak for themselves. Here are some photos of my favorites. (Click "Read More..." to see more)
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| It may look like a peony, but it's a rose! |
