Flowers and Plants

Juniper Trunk

Photograph taken on Monday, January 02, 2023 by Henry
Juniper Trunk

Juniper Trunk

Cathy, Dorothy, and I went for a walk at Red Gate Park today. This used to be Red Gate Golf Course but it’s been closed for a while and is now a very nice park with plenty of paved paths (the old cart paths) so you can walk easily even when it’s wet. There is less to photograph in the winter but I took my camera, in any case. I took pictures of a few trees that I think looked interesting. I also ‘processed’ a few of them into black and white images.

I say processed but they are digital, of course, so there’s no processing involved, except for desaturating them. I do my post processing in Corel AfterShot Pro. There are a few annoyances with it but it has the advantage of having versions for both Windows and Linux (and macOS, but that’s not an issue for me). I have both Windows and Linux machines and it’s nice to be able to run this on either one.

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Camellia ‘Winter’s Star’

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 12, 2022 by Henry
Camellia ‘Winter's Star’

Camellia ‘Winter’s Star’

I love camellias of all types and although they are still not very large, I have six in the ground and one more ready to be planted. One that I planted in April, 2020, is a hybrid called ‘Winter’s Star’ that was developed by Dr. William Ackerman and introduced by the U.S. National Arboretum in 1991. This is similar to the Camellia sasanqua ‘Cleopatra’ that my dad had, and which survived better than most in very cold winters. This one is a cross between Camellia oleifera ‘Lu Shan Snow’ (for its cold hardiness) and Camellia hiemalis ‘Showa-no-sakae’ (for its flower form) and is considered to be hardier still. Native from North India to China and Japan south to Northern Indonesia, Java and Sumatra, many are not reliably hardy this far north. Anything that blooms this nicely the second week of November is a winner in my book.

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Trifoliate Orange

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 05, 2022 by Henry
Trifoliate Orange

Trifoliate Orange

Cathy, Dorothy, and I took a trip up to Pennsylvania today to put a few things in the cabin and to take the front steps apart in preparation for replacing them. The stringers have mostly rotted away after over 40 years and it’s time something was done about it. We walked around a little and I took a few pictures including this one of the Trifoliate or Hardy Orange (Poncirus trifoliata) growing at the edge of the woods below the pond. There is a cultivar called ‘Flying Dragon’ that has curved spines and more contorted branches, but this specimen is the species, which is native to China. If you want a hedge that isn’t going to be easy to climb through, this might be a good option.

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Milkweed Pods

Photograph taken on Friday, October 14, 2022 by Henry
Milkweed Pods

Milkweed Pods

We took a nice walk in Redgate Park today. The fall color has started but it isn’t really in full ‘bloom’ yet. I did get some nice photos of Carolina horsenettle (Solanum carolinense), American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) leaves which were a deep purple-red, and some pretty, peeling birch bark. Of course there were a few general scenery photos. We saw a heron at one of the ponds but were not anywhere near close enough to get a worthwhile photo and I wasn’t carrying my new, long lens. I got some photos of non-native and invasive plants, as well. These included the dreaded mile-a-minute vine (Persicaria perfoliata), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), which is found throughout our woods, and porcelain berry (Ampelopsis glandulosa var. brevipedunculata), an Asian vine in the same family as the grape. The milkweed pods in this photo, probably (Asclepias syriaca), were really nice, though, so I thought I’d go with them for the walk’s featured photo.

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Dahlias

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 25, 2022 by Henry
Dahlias

Dahlias

This is my first year growing dahlias. I’ve admired them for a long time but never made the plunge or spent the time getting and planting the tubers. This spring our friend Anna gave us a box of extra tubers that she had. I planted about a dozen of them and also gave some to a neighbor who said he loved dahlias. Years ago I created a small vegetable garden with a fence around it. In more recent years I had some oregano there and it took over the entire plot. So, in the spring I dug out the oregano in a little over half of the bed and put the dahlias there. They did much better than I reasonably expected. The one thing I needed to differently was tie them up in some way because they mostly flopped over. Next year I’ll do that. Most of the plants that I grew have orange blooms, although there were a few purple, as well, but all the remaining flowers are orange, as seen here. Soon I’ll need to dig up the tubers and save them for next year’s planting. I’m definitely hooked.

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Cosmos bipinnatus

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 25, 2022 by Henry
<em>Cosmos bipinnatus</em>

Cosmos bipinnatus

We stopped at Rocklands this afternoon after a fairly long walk on the C&O Canal, starting at Violet’s Lock and heading southeast well past Blockhouse Point. We saw a few herons and a lot of turtles and enjoyed the walk quite a bit. I took pictures there but really like this one of cosmos blooming in the historic garden at Rocklands, which Dorothy is in the process of weeding and renovating. It’s a large garden and there’s a lot to be done, but the flowers that are there are quite spectacular.

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Dahlias

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 22, 2022 by Henry
Dahlias

Dahlias

We were at Anna’s house for another worship night and I took some photos of everyone singing but I sort of feel those are for private use. I took a few photos of the dahlias on the mantle, though, so I figure I can share those. The colors aren’t as vibrant in this as they were in real life, with the natural lighting, which is a little harsh, but dahlias are so nice I thought you might like them anyway. I certainly do. Thank you, Anna, for sharing a box of dahlia tubers with us this spring. We have them blooming in our back yard for the first time, and that’s really a treat.

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Sunflower

Photograph taken on Friday, August 26, 2022 by Henry
Sunflower

Sunflower

We took another visit to the Ag. History Farm Park today and Dorothy was there with us. I took more butterfly pictures, including a few of a black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). I decided, though, that I’d post this photo of a sunflower, instead. It was a lovely day with a beautiful, blue sky and the combination of yellow and blue is so nice, I just can’t get enough of it. We missed the sunflowers at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area this year, so it was nice to get a small taste of them here.

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 13, 2022 by Henry
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Cathy and I went to the Montgomery County Agricultural History Farm Park this afternoon and enjoyed the butterflies on the flowers. After being really overgrown during ‘the summer of covid’ it’s back in good shape this year and really lovely now. There were lots of skippers and I saw what I suspect was a fritillary but I really didn’t get a good enough look at it. It was the right color and size, though. There were both ‘standard’ and the dark-morph females. There was also a monarch flitting around but never let me get very close. The sulphurs and whites were likewise fairly skittish. So, I was pleased to get this one.

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Our Garden

Photograph taken on Sunday, July 24, 2022 by Henry
Cathy in Our Back Garden

Cathy in Our Back Garden

I’m posting this more than a month after it was taken. As you can see, we have a little bit of black-eyed Susan in our back garden. If you don’t like yellow you might not like our garden in late July. Thankfully, we’re happy with that color and the difficulty is keeping it under control rather than keeping it alive. It does have a tendency to move about on its own and we’ve even started pulling it out in a few places. This photo has a single tiger lily in the center. That’s nice but the big clump of them in the front yard it really the way this should be grown. It’s quite amazing for about three weeks in late July. We’ve also had a pretty successful summer with our elephant ear. Last year’s didn’t really do anything but I’m happy with this one and hopefully can keep it alive for the years ahead.

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Flowers for Renee

Photograph taken on Saturday, July 09, 2022 by Henry

Flowers for Renee

The plan was that Cathy and I would drive up to the north shore today, meeting Dorothy who was already there. We’d go to Renee and Daniel’s wedding tomorrow and then drive home on Monday. We’ll, with Cathy’s mom in the hospital, plans had to change. Dorothy was already in Massachusetts and Cathy suggested that I fly up today instead of driving by myself. Having a second car would come in handy, but would also cost (in gas and tolls) about what my one-way flight cost, even with the additional charge for baggage. When I got there this afternoon, Dorothy was pretty much finished with the bridal party’s bouquets, which are shown here. The flowers were a mix of bought flowers and foraged flowers and greens. Included in the foraged materials were some blueberry stems with fruit on them, which I think was a really nice touch. Renee’s bouquet, which was especially nice, is the larger one with the day lilies in it.

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Rose ‘Dr. W. VanFleet‘

Photograph taken on Sunday, June 05, 2022 by Henry
Rose ‘Dr. W. VanFleet‘

Rose ‘Dr. W. VanFleet‘

A few years ago my cousin Lyn rooted a rose that’s been growing in his yard for many, many years. It grows and blooms prolifically and it’s become established on our back fence. We had a few flowers on it last year and more this year. Although it looks like ‘New Dawn‘ it only blooms once, so I’m guessing that it is ‘Dr. W. VanFleet‘, of which ‘New Dawn‘ is a repeat flowering sport. ‘New Dawn‘ has the distinction of having plant patent number 1 (October, 1931) and it shares with ‘Dr. W. VanFleet‘ very shiny, disease resistant foliage and lovely, pale pink flowers.

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Gotelli Conifer Collection

Photograph taken on Saturday, May 28, 2022 by Henry
Gotelli Conifer Collection, U. S. National Arboretum

Gotelli Conifer Collection, U. S. National Arboretum

I have always enjoyed the U. S. National Arboretum at New York Ave (US 50) and Bladensburg Rd (US 1) in Northeast Washington. Probably my second favorite parts, after the rose garden in bloom, is the Gotelli Conifer Collection. William Gotelli collected more than 1,500 plants from around the world for his South Orange, N.J. garden. He donated his collection to the Arboretum in 1962. I can attest to the fact that it has changed considerably over the years as the various plants have matured. I’m sure there have been losses, replacements, and additions. Nevertheless, it’s a testament to what one person can do if they have a passion. We often are too tired by the time we get to this part of the Arboretum, so I asked specifically if we could make that one of our stops this trip.

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Hosta Garden

Photograph taken on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 by Henry
Hosta Garden

Hosta Garden

This basin has been outside our front door since we moved here. Up until a couple weeks ago it has an hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’) in it. I recently took that out and put it in the ground out front and we reused the container for some small plants. As you can see, there are two varieties of miniature Hosta (one of them is ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ but I’m not sure what the other is), some mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus), and a few other things. I think the green malachite stones go very well with it.

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Patio Garden

Photograph taken on Saturday, May 21, 2022 by Henry
Patio Garden

Patio Garden

This is the corner of our patio, looking pretty good, if I say so myself. In the barrel is a David Austin rose called ‘Gabriel Oak’ that should have its first flush of blooms in the next week or two. In front of that is a Portland rose called ‘Rose de Rescht’ that I thought had died but which was hanging on. I repotted it and it seems to be thriving. I’m going to try to take better care of it, now. Both of these roses have really strong fragrance. In another half-barrel I planted another David Austin rose called ‘Lady of Shalott’ which is growing taller but with fewer buds, so far. Of course these are new and will be much better next year, but even in their first year, they should be nice. And they are supposed to repeat very well.

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Peony

Photograph taken on Wednesday, May 18, 2022 by Henry
Peony

Peony

Cathy and I went up to Seneca Creek State Park this evening to see the Schwartz Peony Garden. It’s perhaps not quite at peak as of today but there were plenty of blooms. There’s a bit of variety in peony flowers and lately I’ve been drawn to the simpler, single flowers, particularly the pale colors. Of course I also like some of the extremely dark and vibrant colors, so it’s not just one or the other. This one, especially in the light we saw it, really caught my eye. The petals look to me as though they were expertly fashioned out of porcelain. It’s just absolutely lovely. Lovely and fleeting.

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Flower Arrangement

Photograph taken on Monday, May 16, 2022 by Henry
Flower Arrangement

Flower Arrangement

Margaret had a visitor today who brought her this lovely flower arrangement. Writing this now over a month after the fact, the arrangement is gone, of course, but it lasted a surprisingly long time and was on the table next to Margaret for all that time. It was such a thoughtful thing to bring and of course, the visit was a blessing, as well. If anyone wants to visit her, don’t hesitate to give her a call. You don’t have to bring flowers, naturally, but we’re not going to turn them down if you do.

Sometimes Margaret will tell us to put them in the kitchen or dining room where we can see them but lately we’ve been ignoring her and leaving them in her room. They were brought for her, after all, and she really should get the benefit of them. We’re in that part of the year when things are blooming in the yard, so we’re not short of flowers ourselves, anyway. I have three new roses this year and the first of those is starting to bloom, which is really nice.

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Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxsterbloom Azalea)

Photograph taken on Tuesday, May 03, 2022 by Henry
Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxsterbloom Azalea)

Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxsterbloom Azalea)

After work Cathy and I went for a walk on the northwest branch of Rock Creek. The wild pinxsterbloom azaleas (Rhododendron periclymenoides) are in bloom. That’s what’s shown here. Unlike the Glenn Dale hybrid azaleas, which is what most people think of in terms of Azaleas, at least in our area, none of our native azaleas are evergreen. The flowers are also a bit different, but that’s not a bad thing, either. I think native as well as other non-evergreen azaleas should be used more than they are. I’ve got two Exbury azaleas and if I had more space, I’d have more.

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Susanna Farm Nursery

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 30, 2022 by Henry
Susanna Farm Nursery

Susanna Farm Nursery

After stopping at the Beallsville Cemetery, we drove around a while and eventually made our way to Susanna Farm Nursery. They specialize in Japanese maples and unusual conifers, although they do have a few other things. It’s a beautiful place with a lot of nice specimens growing as well as the trees and other plants they have for sale. Next to the parking area is this old pickup truck that has been turned into an occasion for a garden. I really like it and think it’s a great way to incorporate what would otherwise be an unsightly heap of rusting metal into the landscape.

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Apple Blossoms

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 24, 2022 by Henry
Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms

As mentioned in my preview post, we wanted to be outdoors today because it was so nice. We went to the Agricultural History Farm Park and after going through the woodland garden and the Master Garder’s Demonstration Garden, we walked around one of the fields adjacent to the central part of the farm. Between two fields there is a line of a dozen or so apple trees and they were in bloom, which was a really nice bonus. I don’t know how much car these trees get but it appears to be the right amount, at least in terms of their flowering. They were absolutely lovely and the bees and other pollinators were a buzz.

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