A bucket of daisies (and a few stray red geraniums) enjoy the July sunlight outside the Skrufs Glasbruk in Sweden’s Kingdom of Crystal.
(Photo ©2016 by Susan McKee)

Colorful flowers greet visitors to the Bergdala Glasbruk in July.
Bergdala is one of the towns along the KulTuren trail in southeast Sweden that feature workshops of handmade glass.
(Photo ©2016 by Susan McKee)

It’s hard to describe just what Gunillaberg is. Yes, it’s the creation of Tage Andersen, a visionary floral artist. Yes, it’s an historic estate in the rural province of Småland, Sweden. Yes, it includes artwork …

Summer brings lots of sunshine to the northern parts of Sweden.
These wildflowers filled a meadow in Lapland in mid-July.

(Photo ©2016 by Susan McKee)

Stockholm, Sweden, is filled with flowers in the summertime.
These showy geraniums were in bloom last July.

(Photo ©2016 by Susan McKee)

Sunny yellow flowers greet passers-by on a street in Stockholm, Sweden.
The marigolds and petunias were captured in July 2016.
(Photo ©2016 by Susan McKee)

When you’ve got almost 20 hours da day of sunlight, flowers burst forth in excess color.
This shocking pink geranium was spotted in a windowbox on the streets of Stockholm, Sweden, in July 2016.
(Photo ©2016 by …

Stockholm, Sweden, is decked out for summer with boxes of flowers, such as these pink geraniums.
(Photo @2016 bySusan McKee)

A festive bouquet of flowers awaited in my stateroom aboard Holland-America’s Eurodam last week.
For an August cruise starting and ending in Copenhagen and making stops in Norway and Sweden, the sunny orange gerbera daisies were …

Butterflies and flowers naturally go together, the latter tethered to the earth, and the former free to flit, bringing both color and motion to a garden.
Many conservatories host butterfly exhibits. Some are seasonal, others are …