Humor in the garden

Photographed on a rainy day at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens in Huntsville, Alabama

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

From the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens archives…

Since I didn’t get the photographic bounty I usually do at Kenilworth, I thought I’d repost images I’ve created in past years. Enjoy!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Spent blooms

In past years the Lotus flowers have bloomed just in time for the annual Water Lily Festival and Festival of Lotus and Asian Culture at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on the third Saturday in July. This year the flowers, particularly the white variety, seem to have peaked much earlier than usual. Most are past their prime blooming stage, but there were lots of opportunities to photograph spent petals in those beautiful Lotus leaves! There are plenty of pink blooms that haven’t flowered yet, though, and there are several ponds that are chock full of beautiful magenta-colored water lilies. Click on the panoramic image below to enlarge for full effect!

The place was a flurry of activity this morning, with children on field trips and student volunteers doing everything from garden chores to turtle counting. They caught the turtles in nets, pulled them up, filed a notch in the shells of those that weren’t captured previously, then released them back into the ponds. Michael saw a foot-and-a-half-long snapping turtle pulled to the surface and then released. Before I knew they were doing the turtle counting procedure, I saw a four-inch-long Red-eared slider by the edge of one of the ponds and was able to get the “record shot” at right (definition of a record shot: certainly won’t win any awards, but they’re proof I was there!). We’re pretty sure the dent on his right side wasn’t the work of a turtle counter since Michael said they were making the file marks on the shells near the back of each turtle and the notches were very tiny.

As I was wrapping up my very brief photo session at the park (it was too sunny to shoot any winners; no clouds to help out, either!), I looked behind me on the path and saw something dark, shiny, at least four inches long, with lots of legs. My first thought was “very large spider!” I moved closer and saw it was a crayfish (crawfish or crawdad if you’re a southerner like me!), hanging out on dry land. I got this one (slightly blurry) record shot of him and he skidaddled (slowly and backwards) back into the nearby pond. It was officially my first crayfish/crawfish/crawdad sighting ever!

Lotus petals

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Buttonbush

I photographed this Buttonbush cluster (Cephalanthus occidentalis), also known as Button willow and Honey balls, this morning at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. A native wetland tree, it can grow 10-15 feet tall and spread 15-30 feet. The mid-summer blooms are rich in nectar that attracts butterflies and other insects.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lily and Monarda

Sounds like a law firm name, doesn’t it? Actually, if it were really a law firm’s name, it would go something like: “Good morning. Thank you for calling Lily, Lily, Monarda, Liatris, Shasta, Gallardia, Nepeta, Platycodon and Campion, LLP. This is Rose speaking. How may I direct your call?”

Ah, this takes me back to temping in my younger days when I first moved to the D.C. area. One of my better paying assignments was an $8 per hour job answering the phone at the Copper and Brass Fabricators Council, Inc. I was supposed to answer the phone with, “Good morning, Copper and Brass Fabricators Council. How may I direct your call?” I figured the person on the other end was as annoyed with receiving that lengthy line as I was delivering it. After a few weeks, I got lax and just answered, “Copper and Brass.” What does all this have to do with flowers, you ask? Absolutely nothing.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: White Liatris

White Liatris (Liatris spicata ‘Alba’) photographed against a backdrop of magenta-colored Bee Balm (Monarda)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bumblebee on Purple Coneflower

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Purple Coneflowers

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) photographed against a backdrop of Globe Thistle (Echinops Ritr0). And yes, it appears to be more pink than purple—the petals can actually range from pink to lavender on Purple Coneflowers. I had to share my photography time with quite a number of Bumblebees today (taking care to stay out of their industrious way while crafting my images).

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Lilies

These stamens look like tiny ballet slippers en pointe, don’t they?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Same time, last year: Blue Dasher Dragonfly

Originally posted June 27, 2010

I was fervently hoping to get some shots of the dragonflies yesterday at Kenilworth, but they were very active and rarely settled long enough for me to photograph them. It was getting hotter and I was just about to give up. I set my tripod down to rest and something compelled me to look to my immediate left—a little more than a foot away from my head, at eye level, was a Blue Dasher clinging to a bare branch sticking out of the pond. I moved really, really slowly and was able to fire off about a dozen shots before he dashed away.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Serendipity!

Unidentified bug on unidentified flower photographed in the woodland garden at Brookside Gardens. I shot four images and was about to put the camera away when this bug flew into the scene. Serendipity!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hoverfly on Clemone flower

While I was photographing this Cleome flower at Brookside Gardens, this little Hoverfly (also known as a Flower Fly or Syrphid Fly) flew back and forth to the end of the flower (hence the name, “hover”). I didn’t notice the even tinier little yellow bug (perhaps an aphid or a thrip—or maybe even Hoverfly larvae?) sharing the “tightrope.”

Learn everything you ever wanted to know about this very tiny insect here. In the UK, there is a group called the Hoverfly Recording Scheme (HRS), who keep tabs on more than 150 different species of Hoverflies in Britain.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

I haven’t a clue…

I stumbled across this unusual plant in Brookside Gardens’ woodland garden area. The first identification that came to mind was “loosestrife.” I did a little research and can’t definitively identify it as a type of loosestrife. The plants have solid green leaves except where the flower is—every single plant had this extreme green and white variegation on the top two leaves below the bloom. I welcome any identification!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Against all odds

A packet of beans from Target, purchased with good intention well over a month ago, made it from the shopping bag to the potting bench, then…nothing…forgotten, lost, misplaced, neglected in the flurry of planting flowers and vines and seedlings and bulbs. Hiding behind tools, plant labels, bottles of plant food and garden tschotskes, under a canopy of thriving Concord grapes, the little white beans began their metamorphosis despite the gardener’s inattention, aided by the sun and rain and genetics. They pushed through the envelope (literally!), sprouting in a tumble of green stems, white roots and brown husks, surrounded by fallen leaves and a sundry of bugs passing through. This morning the ashamed gardener discovered them while she was tidying the potting bench, a task obviously long overdue. Visual evidence that where there is a will, there is a way. Now nestled in various pots and plots, they have found their footing and live to tell the tale.

Gardener 0, Mother Nature 14

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Cleome

Spider Flower (Cleome hassleriana), photographed at Brookside Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

How’s this for some eye-poppin’ color?

‘Kim’s Knee High’ Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) against a backdrop of False Cypress (possibly Gold Thread or maybe Lemon Thread?). It was just too much color to resist!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

White Wild Indigo

White Wild Indigo (Baptisia alba), photographed at Brookside Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Honeybee on White Allium

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Sweet Laura’ Peruvian Lily

‘Sweet Laura’ Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria), photographed at Brookside Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Cool an’ green an’ shady

Excerpted from Cool and Green and Shady, by John Denver

August skies, lullabies, promises to keep
Dandelions and twisting vines, clover at your feet
memories of aspen leaves trembling in the wind
honey bees and fantasies, where to start again
someplace cool an’ green an’ shady

Photo © Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Daylily

Daylily (Hemerocallis); I think this might be the ‘Black Eyed Stella’ cultivar; photographed at Brookside Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-puff

Love-in-a-puff (Cardiospermum halicacabum), photographed in the Children’s Garden in Brookside Gardens

Also known as Tropical Balloon Vine and Heartseed, this fast growing vine will reach up to 10 feet in one season. It forms a three-sided balloon that stays inflated even when it turns from green to brown in the fall. Inside each pod are three seeds, each with a white heart appearing where the pod was attached to the vine. Native to the U.S., it can become invasive if allowed to reseed without control. The vine flowers in midsummer and its seeds ripen in the fall.

© Cindy Dyer. All right reserved.

Nasturtium

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) photographed in the Children’s Garden at Brookside Gardens in Maryland

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lacecap Hydrangea

Here’s another shot of a Lacecap Hydrangea bloom—and yes, it really was that intensely (and multi) colored!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lacecap Hydrangea

Lacecap Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla normalis), photographed at Green Spring Gardens this afternoon

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Ornamental Onion

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens this afternoon

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Mexican Butterfly Weed

Mexican Butterfly Weed (Asclepias curassavica), also known as Blood-flower, Scarlet Milkweed or Tropical Milkweed, is an evergreen perennial plant and a favorite food source for Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The caterpillars eat the leaves and the adult butterfly sips its nectar. Milkweed contains a toxin that saves the butterfly from predators because of the bitter taste!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bumblebee on White Coneflower

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Globe Thistle

Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Sea Holly

Sea Holly (Eryngium planum)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: White Coneflower Echinacea

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Liatris spicata

Liatris spicata, also known as Blazing Star, Gayfeather and Button snakeroot

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lilies by the fence

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

My own Lilytopia

While my Lily bounty (five varieties with 67 flowers in bloom this morning!) pales in comparison to Longwood Gardens’ Lilytopia exhibit (more than 10,000 cut flowers), it is no less lovely and no less loved.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Asiatic Lily

Asiatic Lily (hybrid unknown)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Silhouette

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bumblebee on Bee Balm

Bee Balm (Monarda), also called wild bergamot, Oswego tea and horsemint, is an herbaceous perennial that attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and other nectar-seeking creatures. Bee Balm flower colors include red, pink, white and lavender. Blooming early to late summer in full sun, Bee Balm grows two to four feet tall, multiplies readily and is easy to care for.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Petals

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Campanula punctata ‘Bowl of Cherries’

Campanula punctata ‘Bowl of Cherries’, a type of Bellflower, is a hardy perennial that grows well in sun or partial shade and spreads in a compact mound. Regular deadheading ensures continuous blooming from May to August. (Speaking of which, I need to deadhead that darker red bloom in the back, don’t I?)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Coneflowers

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and White Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea alba)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: first ‘Heavenly Blue’ Morning Glory of the season

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Queen Fabiola’

Queen Fabiola (Triteleia laxa); common name—Ithuriel’s Spear; photographed at Green Spring Gardens. Perennial in zones 7-10, prefers full sun for most prolific blooming, drought tolerant, 10-20 elongated Agapanthus-like flowers per stem, blooms in late spring to early summer, grown from bulbs.

It has such a long name for such a tiny and delicate flower. The real Queen Fabiola is Dona Fabiola María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón (now that is a long name!), a member of the Belgian Royal Family. She is called Her Majesty Queen Fabiola of the Belgians.

Learn more about this flower here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Knautia macedonica

I think this might be the ‘Egyptian Rose’ cultivar, although the label at Green Spring Gardens didn’t identify it as such. Because it is closely related to the Scabiosa, it has been called Macedonian Scabious or Scarlet Pincushion Flower. This herbaceous perennial wildflower begins blooming in late spring and if deadheaded regularly, it can bloom until frost. Knautia prefers full sun but will bloom in light shade and may self-seed and naturalize.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Daylily ‘Stella d’Oro’ Hemerocallis + bonus bug

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Kniphofia ‘Sally’s Comet’ aka Yellow Hot Poker

Perennial bulb, drought tolerant, attracts hummingbirds, thrives in full sun, grows 36″ tall

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.