The power of red blossoms radiating in the garden.
Crimson petals briefly unfold, reaching towards a cloudless sky
And the memory of their fire burns deep within your soul.
The power of red blossoms: SS & Sijo poem
Flowers
Special flowers: LAPC
Today I’ll share a few stories related to special flowers in my life.
Roses
Whenever I see roses, I think of a funny thing that happened to me when I was in my early twenties. I had just started dating a guy who checked parking passes where I worked. I invited him to my cozy little A-frame house on Puget Sound in Washington state. When we got to my house, I pulled open the screen door and there was a bouquet of roses tucked next to the main door. I grinned and asked if they were from him. “No,” he said sheepishly. He pulled a bouquet of roses from behind his back. Oops. The flowers in my door were from a different admirer. Awkward!
I took these photos on the High Desert Garden Tour this summer. The tour takes place in different Central Oregon locations, from sprawling rural ranches to tiny city yards. This year the featured gardens were in Bend.
Hibiscus
Continue readingAbundance of flowers: Friday Flowers
There are an abundance of flowers growing along the path near the Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon. I always look forward to walking there in the late summer and early fall months. Can you see why?
Hibiscus photo & drawings: First Friday Art
For this First Friday Art post, I’m sharing a hibiscus photo and a few drawings. I took this picture of a Spin the Bottle Hibiscus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon. I’m not sure who came up with the common name, but it’s a funny one!
I’m sharing a quick pen-and-ink drawing I did of Hibiscus flowers. I’m participating in Inktober, a challenge where you make a drawing a day for a month based on prompts.
I tend to fuss over my artwork a lot, so for this challenge, I’m trying to draw fast. You create a different kind of artwork when working quickly. Is it perfect? No, but it’s a freeing experience. The goal is to capture the essence of your subject.
You can interpret the prompts any way you want to. Here was my interpretation of ‘bouquet’ from the October 5 prompt.
Begonia framed in blue : Macro Monday
Trailing petunias up close: Macro Monday
I saw these multi-colored trailing petunias in a hanging basket in downtown Bend. Since they produce so many flowers, another common name for this plant is ‘million bells.’
These perennials are hybrids from plants originally grown in South America. They bloom from spring through first frost and they’re easy to grow. They make a perfect addition to hanging baskets.
A white poppy up close: Macro Monday
A white poppy up close growing in our garden last year. Poppies come in a variety of colors, but they’re also pretty in white.
Focus on what is important: LAPC
Focus on what is important and blur the distractions.
Magnify the delicacy of Nature’s architecture.
Find subjects that stand out from the herd and capture their strength.
Focus on the palette of colors used to create distant masterpieces.
Memories of summer at Old Mill: Friday Flowers
This photo of memories of summer at Old Mill shows one of the many colorful plantings bordering the trails. This border is located along the Mill A Loop trail, one of my favorites in Bend, Oregon.
Blanket flowers up close: Macro Monday
Here’s a photo of blanket flowers up close that I took last summer. These perennial flowers are big and showy. Their contrasting colors make them stand out as a star in any garden. These easy to grow plants are also drought tolerant. They attract butterflies and birds.
Marigolds up close: Macro Monday
I saw these marigolds up close in a park at the end of July. These vignettes show orange, yellow, and white flowers that were growing in a border planting. Marigolds are an easy to grow annual that blooms for weeks during the summer months.
Milkweed seedpod up close: Macro Monday
Here are three photos of a milkweed seedpod up close. As you may know, milkweed flowers are a favorite of monarch butterflies. North American populations of this butterfly have been rapidly declining.
I got a packet of seeds for free from Deschutes Land Trust, one of our local conservation nonprofits. To find milkweed seeds near you, use the Milkweed Seed Finder courtesy of the Xerces Society.
We planted milkweed starts in our garden this year, but they fried during a week of unusually hot weather. 🙁
My friend, Suzy, planted hers last year and had greater success. This seedpod she gave me measures 4 inches in length. A couple of days ago it split along a seam. Each seed is attached to a little wispy fluff known as coma.
Does this milkweed seedpod remind anyone else out there of the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
Poppies & honeybee up close: Macro Monday
Poppies & honeybee up close in our garden this spring. This bee has full pollen baskets on its hind legs. Did you know these pollen pellets can account for 30% of a bee’s weight?
Fading hibiscus up close: Macro Monday
I saw these fading hibiscus flowers at a local garden center in early June. The petals are past their prime, but the flowers still have a style all their own.
Daisies Three Ways: One-to-three & Friday Flowers
Here are pictures of daisies three ways I took on the Mill A Loop trail in Bend, Oregon. I used Corel PaintShop Pro 2021 to do the photo processing.
The first two show the original photo compared to a soft focus adjustment. I think it works well for these soft flowers.
The second two show the original photo compared to a colored edges effect. I like to draw and this effect created a work of art, minus all the erasing I usually do. 😉
Continue readingArtichoke blooming up close: Macro Monday
We planted a couple artichoke plants in our garden this year and assumed they died after a week of extreme heat. Several leaves on both plants turned brown from the sun, but the plants survived. Here are their purple blossoms up close. Artichokes are pretty and tasty!
Flowers flowers everywhere!: Friday Flowers & FOTD
I saw flowers, flowers everywhere while walking the riverside trail in the Old Mill District of Bend this morning. This is my favorite time of year to walk by the plantings near the amphitheater. Can you see why?
Yellow & white iris up close: Macro Monday
I saw this yellow & white iris in bloom in mid June. When you see them blooming, summer is on the way. The golden colors in this blossom mirror the warmth of summer days to come.
Wonderful colors inspired by a song: LAPC
This week I’m featuring pictures of green, red, blue, and white. These are colors in What a Wonderful World, a song that brings back a special memory. Many years ago, I helped a kindergartner class with an art project related to the song. I assigned each student a color and let them paint anything they wanted. It was a “wonderful” experience!
Here’s my take on the colors from the song.
This picture shows the vibrancy of green foliage surrounding a great blue heron in Troutdale.
Here’s a picture featuring the power of red in an up close portrait of a hibiscus.
Pink flowers in my yard: Sunday Stills
Today I’m featuring portraits of pink flowers in my Bend, Oregon yard. All of these plants are drought tolerant, once established.
The first photo is an ice plant. This groundcover has cheerful starburst flowers and succulent leaves. The leaves turn a bronze color in winter. We had an escapee take root in another part of our yard and it survived without watering.
The second plant is a Woods’ rose. This native 2-5 foot tall shrub attracts bees, butterflies, and birds. Red rose hips develop once the flowers lose their petals.
Within a small seed – 4 haiku: LAPC
within a small seed
a tiny new life slumbers
awakened by sun
emerald limbs stretch
stems lengthen and reach skyward
embraced by springtime
A colorful corner in Bend: Friday Flowers
Here’s a colorful corner filled with blooming summer flowers. This planting includes: hollyhocks, foxglove, blanket flowers, ‘orange blaze’ red hot poker, black-eyed Susan, pansies, and more. I’m looking forward to seeing them again in a few months.
See more photos of flowers in bloom at Flower Border at Old Mill and A peninsula of flowers.
A white coneflower up close: Macro Monday
Here’s a white coneflower up close in my garden. I usually see pink or purple coneflowers, but they’re also pretty in this color. Their scientific name, Echinacea, comes from the Latin word for ‘sea urchin’ and the Ancient Greek word for ‘hedgehog.’ The spiny cone-shaped central disk resembles some type of prickly creature.
Showy layers of a poppy up close: Macro Monday
Showy layers of crepe paper-like red petals encircle a yellow melon-shaped ovary. Golden-anthered stamens stand guard over the precious seeds within.
Monday Macros
A blooming cosmos up close: Macro Monday
A blooming cosmos is one of my favorite sights to see in a garden. We had several colors of cosmos in our garden this summer, but this magenta-colored flower was my favorite. I love how the color contrasts with the bright yellow center. The bees appreciated them as well.
Macro Monday
Goldflame honeysuckle up close: Macro Monday
These colorful flowers are on a goldflame honeysuckle plant. Hummingbirds frequently visit this vine’s gorgeous flowers. In North America and Eurasia, 180 species of honeysuckle have been identified.
Macro Monday
Sweet alyssum up close: Macro Monday
This delicate beauty is sweet alyssum. Sweet to see and sweet to smell. Most common as a white flower, this dwarf variety has lavender purple blossoms.
Macro Monday
A peninsula of flowers: Friday Flowers
This peninsula of flowers was seen in the Old Mill district of Bend, Oregon. The gardeners do a great job maintaining these picturesque flowerbeds. They brighten up even the darkest of days.
Friday Flowers
Nasturtium blossoms up close: Macro Monday
Bright nasturtium blossoms up close in our High Desert garden. These flowers look pretty and they taste good. They have a distinctive spicy flavor.
Macro Monday
Bachelor buttons up close: Macro Monday
Bachelor buttons up close in our garden. I never knew they had so many colors. This flower has such an interesting structure – like a bouquet of tiny trumpets.
Macro Monday
A garden of plenty: Homegrown Harvest Photo Challenge
Last year we started to create a new garden space in our backyard. After a lot of work, it’s looking like a garden of plenty now.
This is how it looked several years ago when we bought the place. The house included a fenced dog run with a heated doghouse.
Some of the beds in our newly-created garden are bordered by rocks collected on our property, and others are store bought. Smaller rocks we collected on our rock hounding adventures decorate the edges of the raised beds. See the obsidian from Glass Buttes?
A coneflower up close: Macro Monday
Macro Monday
A mixed flower border: Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
Yellow flowers with petals radiating -Tanka: LAPC
A single flower
With petals radiating
Captures warm sunlight
To share on overcast days
Illuminating us all
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – One single flower
Chive Blossom up close: Macro Monday
Here’s a view of a chive blossom up close in my garden. We have a bumper crop this year!
Macro Monday
Rainbow of soft colors in my garden: LAPC
Right now I have a rainbow of soft colors in my garden. Many plants are blooming in the high desert.
This lupine has delicate shades of purple and peach on the same plant.
My purple sage shrub started blooming last week. This plant is a member of the mint family. If you crush the leaves you’ll get what some refer to as a “mildly intoxicating minty aroma.”
This a sweet little carnation with dusty green foliage and small blossoms in varying shades of pink.
Cypress spurge up close: SMM
This pretty plant is the first to bloom in my garden in the spring. The tiny flower of cypress spurge is framed by bright yellow bracts.
Views from the Cosmos: Friday Flowers
White petunias by the river: Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
A sweet little onion in bloom: SMM
Sunshine’s Macro Monday (SMM)