Sunflower

Here’s a second photo from our brief visit to Rocklands Farm in Poolesville. Many of the sunflowers have passed their peak and were starting to dry up but a few were still in fine form. Dorothy and I particularly liked this one, with the red added to the petals. Photographing sunflowers can sometimes be tricky because the are so tall. You often end up with very bright sky behind them. In this case, I moved around until there were at least a few trees behind the flower to put a little something in the background.

Verbesina alternifolia (Wingstem or Yellow Ironweed)

In the past, particularly in my first year of taking a picture every day (2011), I often went out into the “empty” lot next to my building. I put empty in quotes because it is only empty in the sense that there is no building on it. It’s full of other things, like trees, herbaceous and woody perennials, and annuals. There is a stream that cuts across it, as well. Anyway, I went out this afternoon and looked around for something to photograph. This time of year isn’t all that interesting, photographically. The plants are mostly starting to turn brown, flowers are mostly finished but seeds have not yet developed. This plant is an exception. It is, I believe, commonly known as wingstem or yellow ironweed (Verbesina alternifolia). If not, it is a closely related species. Anyway, it’s quite pretty, especially at this otherwise drab time in the woods. The two difficulties photographing this are that it’s relatively dark where they are growing, under a canopy of trees, and they are mostly about eight feet tall, making them a bit hard to see from a good angle.

Gartenmeister Fuchsia

I didn’t take many photos today but went out front after getting home from work. These are flowers on a fuchsia growing in a small container on our front steps. The flowers are pretty, even though the plant could be heathier—it’s just a small thing.

I try to write enough to at least fill the space besind each photograph I post. This time, I just don’t have much to say (so I’ll write about not having anything to write).

Rose ‘Perle d’Or’

This rose, just outside our front door, has done reasonably well this year, all things considered. I had to cut it back pretty hard after the cold winter we had so it’s not nearly as pretty this year as last, but it’s had flowers on it most of the summer. They are not big, bold flowers but small and quietly pretty. One area where it is assertive is the fragrance. On a warm, humid summer morning, when you open the door, its aroma fills the air and it’s lovely. Rose ‘Perle d’Or’ is a China rose, bred by Joseph Rambaux in France, 1884.

Zinnia Flower Detail

Zinnia flowers are interesting. As members of the aster or sunflower family (Asteraceae or Compositae), they have composite flowers—flowers made up of many little flowers. There are actually two different types of flowers on each ‬single” zinnia flower. Around the outside are ray flowers which have, in the case of the flower shown here, a single petal. Sometimes they have multiple petals, making the overall compound flower “double.” Then, in the center of the compound flower are disk flowers. In the picture here, these disk flowers have orange in their corolla lobes. The little question mark filaments at the base of the ray flowers are their stigmata.

White Coneflower (Echinacea species)

We’ve had an amazing summer. After a rather cold and gloomy winter, which ran over into spring, we’ve had a particularly mild summer. There have been a few hot spells into the 90s, but for the most part it has been quite lovely.

Normally by this time of the summer, the grass in the lawn would be partially brown and the flowers, even the black-eyed Susans and coneflower (Echinacea species), would be bug eaten and starting to dry up. This week, leading up to the middle of August, has been particularly spectacular. The high temperatures have been in the mid 80s and it has been relatively dry, in terms of humidity. And, we’ve had plenty of rain. In extreme years we go most or even all of July and August without a shower.