Flowers and Plants

Cathy’s Patio

In addition to the profusion of black-eyed Susans around our patio, Cathy has potted plants along much of the edge. Some of these are perennials that she doesn’t have to do much with, but others are changed each year, planted with annuals. This year, Cathy took a lot of sedum out of a large pot, because that pot could be better utilized by something a little more striking. She planted these purple flowers (a variety of Angelonia), a sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas), and some orange zinnias. The purple flowers and the dark leaves of the Ipomoea, in particular, are really set off by the bright orange/yellow of the black-eyed Susans.

Black-eyed Susan

The black-eyed Susan is by far the most prominent flower in our back garden throughout most of the summer. There is a large patch of them in the central garden, where there used to be two large maple trees. There are more around the patio and outside the dining room window. They are scattered in other places, as well. While there is still a lot more green than any other color, the orange-yellow of the black-eyed Susan is clearly in second place.

Lotus Plants, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

As I mentioned in my previous post, Cathy and I went to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens today. We especially enjoyed the Lotus, which were blooming quite profusely. We also enjoyed the greens. Lotus, growing in shallow ponds, have such beautiful, green leaves and I wanted to capture the various shades produced by the shadows. I think this picture does a pretty good job of it, although you’ll have to imagine the swaying of the leaves.

Nelumbo nucifera (Indian Lotus)

We took Dorothy to the airport today and she flew up to Boston. From the airport, we decided to pay a visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on the Anacostia River in northeast Washington. The lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) was past peak, according to the ranger on duty, but they were still blooming pretty freely. The water lilies were a little more past, but there were quite a few even of them. We also got a good view of a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) wading in one of the ponds. It was a beautiful day, not too hot and with a wonderful breeze.

Queen Anne’s Lace Seeds

I had a close-up of Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) flowers a few weeks ago (Wednesday, July 08, 2015). The flowers are mostly finished now, with a few late blooms still doing well. The earlier flowers have started to go to seed. The flat flower-heads curl up on themselves and, where each tiny, individual flower was in the compound flower there is now a seed.

Lilium lancifolium (Tiger Lily)

The tiger lilies are in full bloom. They bloom much later than the Asiatic lilies, which are also on much shorter stems. Actually, Lilium lancifolium is an Asiatic species, but are different to the plants usually called Asiatic, which have upward facing flowers. The tiger lily, as you can see here, has downward facing flowers. There are quite a few flowers on each plant, which stands a good seven or eight feet in height.

The similar species, Lilium superbum, is a native to the eastern United States and its common names include Turk’s cap lily and American tiger lily. It generally has fewer flowers per plant and isn’t quite so tall, but the petals of the flowers are similar in being orange with black spots and which recurve forming a very festive, Turk’s cap shape. L. lancifolium also has little bulbils in the leaf axils that can be planted and which are the easiest way to spread the plant around the yard.

Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)

We don’t have any crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) in our yard but every year about this time I think about getting one or two. I particularly like the really red varieties. The purple and white are fine but it’s the red that really get my attention.

Today, on the way down to Bethesda I took a picture of one even redder than this one, but the picture didn’t turn out well enough to use. This one is on Gude Drive and I stopped on the way home to take a few pictures. It isn’t as pure a red, but it’s still nice and I think one like this or the other red one are really great. I should do some shopping and put one in this fall. We have two places that will need small trees and this would be good for one of those two spots.

Cathy’s Front Garden

The garden that Cathy planted in the front, where there had been a tree, had started to fill in nicely. This picture is mostly marigolds but there are also zinnias, lantana, and verbena, sedum, and alyssum. This is really our only “annual” garden, the rest of the yard is pretty much either perennials or self-seeding annuals. I like the blue of the bucket along with the yellows and oranges of the flowers. Cathy may have done that on purpose.

Coreopsis

I was out back taking pictures this evening at about 7:30 and noticed these little flowers. They are Coreopsis (tickseed) of some kind and I didn’t remember seeing them before. Apparently they are something new (to us, anyway) that Cathy planted earlier this year (or maybe it was late last year). Anyway, they are quite cheery and with the amount of orange in the yard right now, they really stand out. Hopefully they will thrive and cover a little more ground in the years ahead.

Day Lily

This dark but rather simple day lily is growing in the front of our house. I don’t remember where we got it but I like it a lot. This is the time of year when orange and orange-yellow predominates in our yard but frankly, I don’t mind. The color works in the heat and it really lights up in the morning and evening. This shot was taken at about 6:30 in the evening. There are so many nice day lilies available that I tend to look past them for something unique. That’s probably a mistake. They’re lovely.

Raspberries

I had a meeting over in the next building early this afternoon so I brought my camera and took a few pictures as I walked by the woods between buildings. There are raspberries ripe and starting to look quite good. I didn’t have time to pick many, but I took a picture of a few before pulling them off and munching on them as I finished my walk. Wild raspberries are one of the best things about the woods around here. Delicious.

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)

We have a Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota), otherwise known as wild carrot, growing at the corner of the garage. It isn’t doing any harm in terms of overrunning our garden, at least not so far, and we decided to let it stay at least as long as it’s in bloom. This is close-up of one small cluster of flowers in one of the large clusters that make up the flowering head of the plant.

The family to which Queen Anne’s Lace belongs (Apiaceae, the celery, carrot or parsley family) contains quite a few plants familiar to cooks for root vegetables (carrot, parsnip), stems and leaves (celery, parsley, coriander/cilantro) or seeds (anise, caraway, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, etc.). The family also contains some dangerous plants, like the giant hogweed, the sap from which can cause severe burns through phytophotodermatitis, and hemlock, with its cocktail of poisonous alkaloids and of Socrates-killing fame.

Calla Lily

Sometimes our days don’t go according to plan. Sometimes I think we should be more surprised when they do go according to plan. We expected to go to watch fireworks this evening. It’s a pretty simple plan and fairly common for July 4 in the good, old U.S. of A. Didn’t happen.

Without giving too much personal information (because anyone who needs to know the details already knows them), we spent the afternoon and evening in the ICU in Bethesda. Also, although we did not get word until tomorrow (in our time zone), so it wouldn’t have kept us home anyway, Cathy’s sister passed away late today. This calla lily is in honor and memory of her.

Echinacea (Coneflower) (continued)

Five days ago, on the 17th of June, I posted a picture of a green coneflower (Echinacea). It was green both in terms of being not ripe and being green in color. This is the same flower, five days later, showing the more familiar colors of the flower. I like coneflowers but the petals tend to get eaten and even this flower is showing signs of insect action, with the petal on the upper right being gone.

Rosa setigera (Prairie Rose)

I went up to our family’s Pennsylvania property today to do some work on the brush growing on the dam. The pictures I took of that are more documentary than photographically interesting. Also, I’ll spare you the photo of the bloody gash on my arm from when I slipped and caught myself on a rose bush. When I was done, I rested a while enjoying the dragonflies that were in abundance. I tried to get some photographs but none of them really turned out, particularly those of the dragonflies on the wing. Just before I left, I took some pictures of the Rosa setigera (Prairie Rose) that I planted in April of 2005. It is fairly large and doing very well, blooming quite profusely.

Common Daisy (Bellis perennis)

Cathy and I went over to her mom’s house after work this evening. Well, I went after work, Cathy went earlier and spent a good while there. She planted some annuals in the pots at the top of her driveway. When I got there, I didn’t actually do much except move some heavy boxes of things that she was going to take to a shredding event tomorrow. I took a few pictures around the yard, but mostly of the daisies growing near where the sidewalk meets the driveway.

Asclepias Tuberosa (Butterfly Weed)

Cathy bought two new Butterfly Weed (Asclepias Tuberosa) plants last week. Generally this has orange flowers but we have one with bright yellow flowers. She wanted more of that, so that’s what the two new plants are. They were conveniently sitting on the table out on the back patio, which made my job of photographing them that much easier. Rather than lying on the ground or squatting down for a picture, I could sit in a chair. Nice. There were ants crawling all over the flowers but that didn’t bother me much. I considered posting one of the pictures that included some ants but I decided I liked this one better.

Echinacea (Coneflower)

The coneflowers (Echinacea) are starting to come into bloom in our back yard. This one is opening up but hasn’t begun to get the orange colors that characterize the flowers when fully open. Each of the little rods in this flower head, forming the wonderful spirals that characterize many of this sort of flower, is actually a separate flower bud. The flowers themselves are quite small and the petals around the outside have only just started to grow in this flower head but will soon begin to turn a light purplish pink.