|
Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2010 14:44:11 GMT
That wine and cream rose is yummy!
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2010 16:56:25 GMT
And here's one in the hydrangea family, named after Meriwether Lewis: Philadelphus lewisiiMock Orange, also called Syringia in other parts of the country. This is a wild one, not cultivated. It blooms predictably around the 4th of July, the last of the white-flowered shrubs to bloom, and the blossoms have a very sweet fragrance.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2010 17:03:40 GMT
Campanula rotundafoliaHarebell, one of my favorite local wildflowers. Very hard to photograph as they are small and have very fine leaves and stems.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 8, 2010 17:50:01 GMT
Thanks, Kimby. That rose gives me fits, as it's really quite brightly colored but the colors don't reproduce correctly. That "cream" is a bright yellow! I'm most proud of the guava flower picture, though, as the branch was bobbing in the breeze and I have so little luck photographing white flowers usually.
I just love the mock orange family -- old fashioned and satisfying.
Kimby, does your yard and garden sort of segue into the surrounding landscape? That's the sense I get from your pics here and the streams & stuff you've shown in Image Bank. It's all quite beautiful.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2010 19:18:29 GMT
Kimby, does your yard and garden sort of segue into the surrounding landscape? That's the sense I get from your pics here and the streams & stuff you've shown in Image Bank. It's all quite beautiful. Yes, I guess it does. We built on a wooded lot that had lots of wildflowers and native shrubs along with 60-foot pine trees and douglas-firs. And a little stream at the back lot line. We tried to keep the impact of construction to a very small footprint, and we sodded only the part that was disturbed. Mr. Kimby pampers it outrageously, so we have what may be the "nicest" lawn in the neighborhood. But when the sod was delivered, there was too much of it, so some of the lawn edges pushed right in amongst the native stuff. Beyond the sod, we have only removed weeds, so all the native stuff is thriving. Especially in places where the sprinklers overthrow the lawn into the "rough". That's where the beebalms (Monarda sp.) mutated into 3 glorious non-native shades over the years. Besides traditional foundation plantings (junipers, dogwoods, barberries, interspersed with crocuses and daffodils (and tulips, till the deer ate them) and columbines, I've also fenced around a couple of the trees at the edge of the lawn and planted at their bases a few perennials, which are gradually being overcome by native plants now that the deer are fenced out. It wasn't until Any Port and this thread that I started taking pictures of our wildflowers, though. Is there a thread for overview pictures of our yards/gardens?
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 8, 2010 23:04:11 GMT
|
|
|
Post by dahuffy on Jul 8, 2010 23:19:32 GMT
I'm trying to find something that will kill the grass and weeds in my canna bed without hurting my flowers.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 9, 2010 0:34:47 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2010 1:14:19 GMT
I love that last one in your series Bixa,the white is so gorgeous.I love white flowers so much and love photographing them too. They can be a challenge. I love,love Mock Orange!! However,the ones here,none of them are fragrant as they are touted to be. Then,just tonight I was reading a book on local gardening and it said that the newer specimens sold in the nurseries,same plant,are not fragrant like the older ones are/were. I guess I have to find an old one and take cuttings from and hope for the best. I don't have one in my garden for this very reason,and have always wanted one!!! Lovely,lovely pics Bixa and Kimby! Thank you. I look forward to seeing more of your garden Kimby!
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2010 15:20:26 GMT
Thanks for the encouragement, bixa and casi, but I really don't HAVE a "garden", I have a yard.
There are too many deer and too few frost-free months for me to get serious about gardening. That's why I take so many pictures of wildflowers, which do much better than anything I've tried to plant....though even they take a severe beating from the deer.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 9, 2010 16:52:30 GMT
You could put it that way, Kimby, or you could put it the way I'm envisioning it, as a gentle way of preserving what is around you as "borrowed landscape" for your home. Show us! Show us!
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2010 17:01:48 GMT
So the theme would be yard as primeval garden of eden?
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 17, 2010 16:34:59 GMT
Wild asters are the major bloomers in our "garden" now.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2010 17:40:11 GMT
I love the asters,they are the perfect butterfly nectaring plant,and return so faith fully every year. Ours aren't blooming yet,but, I have a different variety than those shown. Here's one of the spiderworts,they bloom only in the morning then, they close up. I wish I could capture the true blue of them. And the ever faithful Crape Myrtles are in bloom all over the city.(the white being my particular favorite)
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2010 2:24:30 GMT
Opened this week,hands down,my favorite summertime bloom,Hedychium Coronarium,aka,Butterfly Ginger,sweet,sweet fragrance,reliable,nice foliage,does well in part sun,half sun,half shade. A fabulous ,fabulous flower,and also makes a great cut flower,sweetens up the whole house with out being too cloying. I really fretted that the hard freeze would do mine in.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2010 16:52:30 GMT
casi, the blue of the spiderworts tricked me into thinking I was looking at green foliage against a blue sky! What color are they really?
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2010 22:24:04 GMT
Monarda sp.The first of many wild bee balms to bloom in my yard.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 18, 2010 22:32:00 GMT
That's a wild monarda?! *envy envy envy envy envy* Great photo by the way.
I am so impressed by the way all of Casimira's white flowers came out -- so hard to photograph.
My dinky crape myrtle doesn't have a sign of a bud. I don't think it really likes it here.
I don't have wild asters, but do have the garden variety that are very close kin. The flowers are the same, but they bloom on a very long-lasting spire. It's fully budded right now.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2010 22:39:16 GMT
Yes, the bee balms grow wild in this color. And some have mutated in my yard to magenta and to hot pink. For a couple years I even had a couple red ones. I have no idea what caused the mutation as there are no cultivated Monarda around that I know of. It IS in an area that gets extra water though, from the sprinkler system overthrowing the lawn. When they bloom I'll post more pics.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2010 23:00:41 GMT
Kimby,the spiderworts are blue,but,are a much more vivid blue than the digital picks up,plus,upon closer inspection,I didn't focus real clearly in on them. Back in the 35mm days,I got turned on to a film that Fuji made,called,REALA,a fellow gardener told me about it,and it really did capture the true blues in many flowers. I haven't seen it duplicated with digitals and need to learn more about that whole process.
I love photographing white flowers,and do find it challenging,thanks for the compliment Bixa and for noticing. Much of it has to do with the lighting I think. Many of my pictures of flowers are taken in the early morning or early evening when the light is not quite so bright.I think it makes a huge difference with the whites and pastels in particular.
I love,love the monardas Kimby!! I have a pink one,and I have seen the reddish one,never a lavender. Another fabulous butterfly flower. Keep 'em coming!! Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2010 23:33:44 GMT
I found pictures I took last year of the "mutants": (the lavendar ones on the right are the natives, the magenta are the mutants) the magenta ones start blooming a couple weeks after the native lavendar ones... and the hot pink, about two weeks after the magenta... Unfortunately, I never took pictures of the fire engine red ones, not realizing they would only come up two years, then fade away...
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 19, 2010 7:14:30 GMT
Wild Lupine, now passing its peak in our yard. It too has mutated. There are a very few pale pink versions on our property:
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 19, 2010 7:16:36 GMT
Another blue bloomer: Penstemon sp.We also have wild larkspurs ( Delphinium sp.) but I didn't get a very good picture of them.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 19, 2010 7:19:52 GMT
Another buttercup species, this is Tall Buttercup. It grows along the stream.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jul 19, 2010 7:46:05 GMT
And finally some white ones: Death Camas (this one can kill you, and its bulbs look just like an edible blue-flowered plant also called Camas, but of a different genus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camassia. ) Mariposa, a wild lily family member. Cow Parsnip, a large creek-side plant.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 19, 2010 16:07:18 GMT
Kimby, you seem reluctant to do a photo-thread on your garden/yard/personal paradise. However, you have so many good pictures of wild flowers. Equally important, you actually know what they are and are so good at describing their habits, locale, seasons, etc.
Won't you think about consolidating the pictures and knowledge into one thread? I for one might never learn about these uncultivated beauties otherwise and it's obvious other people are equally interested.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2010 16:34:47 GMT
What Bixa said!! Just do it Kimby...you already have a couple dozen gorgeous photos and the names of,all flowers that are not featured anywhere on this board and are wonderful specimens of wildflowers uniquely indigenous to the US. Please?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2010 17:56:51 GMT
In the Avignon area at the moment, one flower dominates all the others: oleander -- red, pink, white. I also see quite a bit of orange trumpet vine on sunny walls.
|
|
|
Post by imec on Jul 19, 2010 22:30:24 GMT
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 20, 2010 2:53:34 GMT
Ooooo ~ an explosion of summer splendor. Lovely, Imec. I particularly love the last picture.
Yesterday a neighbor gave me three roses that look just like the one in your pictures. They smell spicy, like carnations!
|
|