Flowers and Plants

Turning Maple Leaf

It’s that time of the year and the leaves are starting to turn all the bright colors of autumn. This maple leaf was sitting on the prostrate juniper in the back of our yard. I love this time of year, don’t you?

Mushroom

It’s mushroom time in the yard again. These clumps came up last year for the first time and since we lost a tree a little before that, I have to assume they are growing on the rotting roots of that tree. At least, that’s what I hope. I certainly don’t want them to be growing on the rotting roots of trees that are still ready to fall on our house. Last year they came up and were all over the yard for a few days. Then they turned to mush and were filled with fly larva, which I assume we’ll see again this year. Lovely.

Orange Mums

Cathy and I went to Johnson’s Garden Center west of Olney early this afternoon. Cathy wanted to buy a few more asters for her mom’s front garden. There were a lot of asters (polyaster?) and mums, as is normal this time of year and I carried my camera around and took a few pictures. I like this orange mum, which is a nice autumnal orange. We also looked at hydrangeas but didn’t actually buy any.

Iris domestica (Blackberry Lily)

Back on July 5 of this year I posted a photo of Iris domestica in bloom. This is the same plant after it’s gone to seed. The seeds look (if you don’t look to carefully) like huge blackberries, which gives the plant its common name, blackberry lily. I think they’re as pretty, if not as colorful, as the flowers. In a few weeks I’ll pull these off and spread them around the garden in the hope that I’ll have more in years to come.

Mushroom

As promised in my last post, here is another photo of the mushroom in my back yard, without any flying menace distracting from the fungal beauty. The mushroom appeared a few days ago and this morning it was lying on its side, exposing the gills on the underside.

Cornus kousa

The kousa dogwood is a nice alternative to our native flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) for a number of reasons. One is that it is less susceptible to dogwood anthracnose (Discula destructiva). On the other hand, it flowers later and there are not as many good pink flowered varieties. When it comes to fruit, I think the kousa wins, though. This is a tree in our neighborhood and it is absolutely covered with fruit. I marvel at it every time I drive by. The fruit are edible, by the way, in case you are in the woods and need something nutritious and don’t care if it has no real flavour.

Honeysuckle

Flowers of one of the prettier ornamental honeysuckle vines. This one is growing in my brother’s back yard and, I suspect, drawing hummingbirds.

Turk’s Cap Lily

Yes, I know, I posted a picture of a Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum) only eight days ago (Sunday, July 08, 2012) but they are so pretty and I decided to post another. At least this is a different plant in a different part of the yard.

Butterfly Weed Seeds

I generally think of this as a winter type picture. Back on May 22 I posted a picture of Asclepias curassavica (Mexican Butterfly Weed) flowers. Now, seven weeks later, it has gone to seed. This isn’t a particularly good picture but I think the seeds themselves, with their fine tufts of gossamer, are very pretty.

Turk’s Cap Lily (Lilium superbum)

One interesting thing about Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum) is that they form little mini-bulbs called bulbils in their leaf axils. These can be taken off and planted and will grow into new bulbs. That makes them one of the easiest of perennials to divide and spread throughout your garden. Cathy collected bulbils from lilies my dad planted in his garden and planted them here. Now they are large enough to have their own bulbils and are doing very well, growing about six feet tall with lots of flowers. Oh, and the flowers are quite lovely.

Iris domestica

I still think of this as Belamcanda chinensis, as it was called until 2005 when DNA evidence proved it to be an iris. In any case, the common name, blackberry lily, while less accurate, is still fairly allowed. I brought some seeds of this home about ten years ago and have had it in the garden ever since. We brought it to this house in 2006 and this particular plant is a seedling from that one. It’s doing very well and is certainly cheerful this time of year. The blooms are very interesting in that when they are finished, the petals curl up into little spirals before they drop off. The seeds are large and black and form in fruits that (not surprisingly) look like the seed pods of other irises.

Onion Flowers

I grow a number of different allium species in my garden and their flowers vary, ranging from purple through blue to yellow and dark pink. These white flowers, though, are from a red onion being grown for eating. I planted a bunch of seeds last year but dealing with sun chokes (Helianthus tuberosus) from the previous year made it practically impossible to grow anything else. There are still a few chokes coming up this year but not so many that it’s a huge problem. This is one of a few onions that survived last year.

Redbud Leaves

I’ve said before that I love all the various shades of green in spring and summer tree leaves. Although it was pretty hot, I decided I would go out and take a few pictures early this afternoon. I had hoped for pictures of raspberries which are coming on to ripeness. Actually, I was a bit surprised that there were not more. There were nearly ripe berries last week but I think birds are eating them as fast as they are ripening.

This picture was taken looking up into the leaves of a redbud tree.

Redbud Seed Pods

Although it’s continued to be busy at work I decided to take the time to go out and take a few pictures early this afternoon. In the empty lot beside my office are a bunch of redbud trees and they are now covered with seed pods, which make for a pretty, green picture. I also noticed the raspberries are nearly ripe (I found a couple that were ready to be eaten, so I ate them). I’ll definitely need to go out next week, as there should be a lot of them.

Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’

On Tuesday, May 22, 2012 I posted a photo of Asclepias curassavica (Mexican Butterfly Weed) which I initially labeled incorrectly as Asclepias tuberosa. It has a beautiful bi-color flower with orange corollas and yellow corona lobes. It is really something beautiful. That’s not to say that Asclepias tuberosa isn’t worth having, as well.

In general it’s flowers are a sort of mottled orange with the same color on both corollas and corona lobes. This variety is called ‘Hello Yellow’ and as you can see, is a bright yellow version.

Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’

We have both this and the standard orange version in our back border and they are doing very well. I particularly like this yellow version, though.

I think at some point I’ll get very close and take a few pictures of individual flowers or parts of flowers. The problem with doing that outside is that the slightest breeze makes it nearly impossible to get it into focus long enough for a good picture.

Also, I need to figure out how to get the color temperature set right when I take pictures of predominately one, bright color. Pictures of a blue sky with only sky and clouds tend to come out an unnaturally intense blue. Pictures of bright yellow flowers also shift the auto-white balance unnaturally.

Lysimachia clethroides

Lysimachia clethroides, better known as gooseneck loosestrife, is described in one plant catalog as “vigorous to the point of invasiveness.” That’s actually a little bit of an understatement. At our old house we had this and St. John’s wort growing together just outside our front gate. Cathy thought it would be interesting to see which would do better. I was constantly pulling this up to give good old St. John a fighting chance. We have it in a few places in out new yard. Cathy actually dug some up this year, not to replant it but to make room for something else. It doesn’t like to share its space and will basically choke out anything and everything else. But it does have these elegant little flower spikes.

Water on Day Lily Petals

Here’s a second rain-related picture for today. As I mentioned, we had a good bit of rain today, although I hardly noticed. It’s been very busy at work and I’ve been struggling with a particularly tricky bit of code. It’s working now and I took some time after work to stop and smell the roses, metaphorically speaking. This is a day lily growing just outside our back door. It’s a pretty flower on its own but the water droplets add to it’s beauty, I think. A man once said that if there is any magic in the world, it’s contained in water.

Landscape Roses

In general, I don’t see the point of growing roses that don’t have any fragrance. If nothing else, how do you stop and smell the roses if they don’t have any smell? On the other hand, azaleas and camellias don’t have any noticeable smell and we grow those. Also, if you have a lot of different roses, having a few that are fragrance free is fine, I suppose, just as you might grow some that bloom only once rather than all summer long.

These rose flowers, which are almost too red for the sensor of my camera, are at my mother-in-law’s house. I have to admit that they are quite beautiful, particularly when they are covered with flowers. They are “in between” flushes right now, but they will come back and bloom again and again until it gets too cold, probably well into October or possibly even November. It’s hard not to like a plant that blooms so well, even without the fragrance. And what a red.

Campanula Flowers

I posted a picture of a syrphid fly on a campanula stamen but thought it might be nice for you to see the flowers as well as the flies that they attract. Cathy got these from Janis last year or the year before and they are doing well in a spot under a large silver maple in our back yard. It’s in open shade and gets a fair amount of light although not a lot of direct sun. This was taken this morning before the shade of the tree fell on them and I think they look lovely against the blue of the sky. Fortunately the grass wasn’t too wet, as I got down on my back to take this.

Campanula Flowers

The plants are about four feet tall and don’t seem to need any staking. From our kitchen window they are seen against the grayish brown trunk of the maple, which helps them show up, particularly in the early morning and late afternoon when the slanting rays of the sun hit them.

So, if you are looking for something to brighten up your garden, you could do a lot worse than getting some campanula. I’ve even grown it from seed in the past, which is about the easiest and cheapest way to grow anything (short of having someone else give you the plants and put them in the ground for you, of course).

Cathy with her Flowers

As you can see, Cathy is fond of them.

Mulberry Leaves

I love the color of leaves when the light is coming through them. I could sit or lie on the ground for a long time and just look up at the leaves against the sky. They are only more beautiful in the fall when they turn all different colors but even when they are all green they are such a huge collection of colors that it’s spectacular. In this case, I was sitting at a little picnic table outside my office looking up through mulberry leaves. They were not in full sun, so the shadows were not sharp edged and the brightness range was manageable.

Hydrangea quercifolia (Oakleaf Hydrangea)

A couple years ago I planted an oakleaf hydrangea in a reasonably shady spot in our front yard. It’s doing well and has been blooming for a little over a week now. The flowers are an antique white sort of color and are in large panicles about a foot long. This shrub is only about four feet tall but it’s growing nicely and should fill in over time. I particularly like the fall color of the leaves, which is a rich, deep, claret color.

Lilies

As everything else this spring, the lilies are ahead of their normal schedule. Our first two flowers are officially open in May. While I can’t say I’ve kept careful records over the years, I’m pretty sure that’s unusual. These are relatively short plants growing in a container on our back patio. Cathy picked off little bulbils from some my dad planted in his yard and these grew from that. Bulbils are little bulblets that grow in the leaf axils of some lilies.

Rose ‘Playboy”

Every year I look forward to visiting Nick’s garden when he opens it to the public. It’s very interesting how different it is from year to year. Last spring the roses were early. This year they were earlier still. Many rose bushes had completely finished blooming. Of course, there are some that typically bloom later and it was a rare treat to see those in bloom this time. There were enough still fresh that I was able to get a few good pictures. This one is a floribunda called ‘Playboy’ Bred by Alec Cocker (Scotland, 1976). Alas, I was only able to stay for a little while, but I was happy to have that. Thank you Nick and Roseanne!

Asclepias curassavica (Mexican Butterfly Weed)

I really like Asclepias (butterfly weed) species and we bought a little more this spring to go with what we already have. It’s still in its pot, sitting on our driveway, which seems to always have plants waiting to be planted.

Update: I labeled this Asclepias tuberosa without really thinking. We have a few of that plant growing and I just assumed this was more of the same. It isn’t. This is Asclepias curassavica instead. It’s still a butterfly weed but now, more specifically Mexican Butterfly Weed. I have changed the title and the photo caption.