Flowers and Plants

Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

What a beautiful day it was today. It was warm (or at least relatively warm, probably in the low 50s) and sunny. Early in the afternoon I went out and took some pictures of the Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis) blooming in the front yard. I had a snow drop picture back on February 20 but we’ve had a few snows since then. Of course, for all I know, we aren’t done yet. Today certainly felt much more springlike that it’s been. This time, the flowers are completely open and enjoying the sun right along with us. Here’s hoping and enjoying the flowers.

Geranium Leaves

Technically, these are Pelargonium, not Geranium leaves, but they are so commonly called Geranium that it’s hard to break the habit. Pelargonium species and cultivars are not cold hardy, like the true geraniums and are grown as house plants and in pots here where it gets too cold to grow them outdoors year round. Geraniums (including pelargoniums) often make me think of an old Pogo comic strip, where the Howland Owl and Churchy LaFemme tried to cross a branch from a yew tree with a geranium to get uranium (Yew-Ranium) so they could make a bomb. Classic.

Buddleia Skeleton

The snow is receding in our yard. It’s less than half covered and I thought of posting a picture of the grass showing through the snow. I was out back taking pictures and looked again at these flower heads from on the buddleia that is growing through a crack in our patio. Of course they aren’t fragrant like they are when they are fresh and have bluish purple flowers, which are so attractive to the butterflies, but I think that even as skeletons they are quite beautiful.

Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

I know a lot of people are tired of this winter. I’m actually not, particularly, although all the school days missed and even more so the late openings are a royal pain. I certainly won’t miss those if we don’t have any more this year. It’s become quite lovely the last few days and today Cathy and I met outside my building at work and we walked around it a few times. It was really nice out and although there is still a significant amount of snow on the ground, it’s starting to melt very noticeably. I thought to look in the edge of the woods behind the building, because I knew there are some snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) that bloom there pretty early each spring. Look what I found! They aren’t quite in full bloom yet, but they are certainly coming up and it won’t be long. Spring is definitely on her way.

Ice Coated Rose Stems

We had a bit of an ice storm last night. Our phones woke us up with a text saying Montgomery County had decided to close schools and since our school follows the county, no school for Dorothy, either. I actually don’t think it was all that bad out. I went out back to take some pictures. There was a fair amount of ice on everything. These are multiflora rose stems and hips, with a pretty substantial coating. By that time, though, the rain was cold but not freezing, and before too long the branches were bare again. It was pretty while it lasted, though.

Sweetgum Fruits

If you are looking for a mid-size tree with fabulous fall color, you should seriously consider Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). It turns a most satisfying orange-red or crimson and it’s a nice tree the rest of the year. If you run around in the yard barefoot, however, you might consider the cultivar ‘Rotundiloba’ because it is sterile and does not produce these little balls that will otherwise litter your yard (it also has rounded lobes on the leaves, which explains the name). Personally, I like the fruits, but then, I don’t have them all over my patio, either.

Frasier Fir (Abies fraseri)

This is the end of a branch on our Christmas tree. Last year it came down fairly early but this year we decided we’d leave it up at least until Epiphany (January 6). As you can see by the date this photo was taken, we’ve gone over a little. I expect the tree to come down in the next few days, however. It was a small tree and We went fairly light on the decorations. There were a few strings of lights and we put up about a half dozen ornaments but that was it. The tree has stood up to being in a dry house fairly well. Of course, it was only cut on December 14, so it was pretty fresh.

Silhouetted Against The Snow

I only took a few pictures today, mostly out the back door. These are what’s left of the black-eyed Susan flowers around our patio, silhouetted against the snow. Not all that exciting, I guess. They looked nicer in real life.

Maybe tomorrow will bring something better.

Water Droplet on Rose Branches

We had some rain today, although the rain stopped later. I went outside to take some pictures and liked the look of the water droplets on the rose bush outside our front door. I should have taken the trouble to go back in and picked up my tripod but I didn’t so they are not as sharp as I would like. It’s my own fault, of course. This is better than most of them and I like the hint of a picture as each water droplet acts as a lens.

American Beech Leaves

Cathy, Dorothy, and I went for another walk today. It was a bit cooler but still fairly pleasant (it’s not like I had to wear a jacket, or anything). I took quite a few pictures, including some of ice on a little pond in the woods but since I’ve had a few pictures of ice lately, I decided to post this one of some beech leaves against the bright, blue sky instead. The purple leaved varieties of European or common beech (Fagus sylvatica) are called copper beech because their leaves turn a beautiful copper color in the fall. The American beech (Fagus grandifolia) turns a paler version of the same color. While the bulk of leaves fall in the autumn, there are almost always some left on the tree over winter, which makes them easy to spot (in case their beautiful bark doesn’t give them away).

Clivia Berries

Over a year ago (September, 2012) our clivia bloomed. Fifteen months later, the fruit (which are berries) are still on the plant and adequately ripe. This is one slow plant to reproduce. The fruit are quite beautiful, though, so I have hesitated to take them off. Now that they are starting to fall off naturally, I’ll see if I can get them to germinate and grow. It will likely be six or seven years before any that do grow are ready to bloom, but if all goes well, I may have a few that I can give away sometime in the spring.

Ice on Rose Hips

After yesterday’s snow, there was talk of delayed opening of school today. I wasn’t convinced until I heard that there was supposed to be freezing rain in the morning. Sure enough, it was coming down when I got up and I found that schools were closed here. There was a light, freezing rain pretty much all day and it covered everything with a coating of ice. I took pictures of leaves, black-eyed Susan stalks, and various other things. This is my favorite, multiflora rose hips covered with ice.

Purple Grass

This is the second picture of a purple plant I took today. When we brought Julia back to her dorm, we walked around to the dorm lobby with her. There was a bed with this ornamental grass growing around the perimeter and I liked the purple haze effect. This picture doesn’t quite capture the airiness of it, but perhaps you can get the idea. This was late in the day and it was starting to get dark, so it’s the best I could do.

Callicarpa americana (American Beautyberry)

We went to visit Julia at college this afternoon and as we waited for her to come down from her dorm, I took a few pictures of the purple berries on the Callicarpa americana growing in a bed next to the parking lot. These are bit more purple than I’m used to seeing, but not a lot more. The bush was absolutely covered with them and looked quite lovely. It was the first of two purple plant pictures I took today.

Holly Leaves

The American holly, Ilex opaca, is endemic to the eastern United States. It is a broadleaved, evergreen tree growing to as much as 65 feet tall. As do many hollies, the leaves of the American holly have spines around their rim. The consensus is that they are a deterrent to herbivores (predominately ungulates). One paper by J. R. Obeso in 1996 concludes that the absence of browsing ungulates during a one year period significantly decreased the spinescence of leaves in the subsequent year. I like the word “spinescence.”

Japanese Maple Leaves

Most of the leaves are down from most of the trees but there are still some that are holding out against the approach of winter. This Japanese maple is in Cathy’s mom’s yard and it’s got quite a bit of color yet. I took quite a few pictures of leaves from various angles and with various aperture for a range of depths of field.

I like the combination of orange and red in this picture, as well as the out of focus background.

Oak Leaves

There is nothing special about oak leaves. There are hundreds of thousands of them falling this week from trees throughout our area. And yet, each one of them is amazingly beautiful. Here are just a few, with the late afternoon sun shining through them. There are many beautiful things in this world and sometimes we don’t have to travel far to see them. The simple beauty of golden brown leaves against a darkening blue sky astounds me.

Fallen Maple Leaves

When I was very young (no, wait, that’s A. A. Milne)…

When I was young, we used to listen to a record by The Limeliters called Through Children’s Eyes. Interestingly, it’s one record that both Cathy’s family and ours listened to, so we both know the songs on it. One is called Lollipop Tree and it’s about having a tree grown from a lollipop stick. Naturally the fruit of the lollipop tree is lollipops. In my mind, this is sort of what the ground under my lollipop tree would look like. Of course it would be much stickier than this, and there would probably be ants all over it, but that’s a problem not addressed by the song.

Zelkova Tunnel

If the scene in yesterday’s first post was Autumn’s Cathedral then I think today’s is Autumn’s Chapel. It’s smaller and more intimate. Of course, it’s a fairly busy road, so in that sense, the title is totally wrong. Theze are Zelkova trees and they are beautiful this time of year. They are a good choice for a street tree and a good replacement, in some ways, for the American elm. They don’t get as big, but that could be considered an advantage, actually.

I really like this stretch of road. On a sunny day, it’s nice to drive into this tunnel and enjoy the deep shade the trees make. Of course, on a dark and stormy day, it can be like driving into night. Still, it makes me happy and I’m glad they have more planted, which are growing into similar tunnels at other spots along the road.