The bean harvest

Behold—the fruits vegetables of my labor!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Green Spring Gardens portfolio

I just updated my Green Spring Gardens-only portfolio on my Zenfolio site. Green Spring Gardens is an endless source of photographic inspiration to me, so I’ve dedicated a folder exclusively to images shot there. Check out that gallery here.

As we’re heading into fall, there are still a few plants left to photograph in my own garden, such as the tiny Speckled Miyazaki Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta ‘Miyazaki’), Autumn Joy Sedum (Sedum telephium) and Shasta Daisies (Chrysanthemum maximum) that are blooming in the front yard. Even my Globe Thistle (Echinops Ritro) has started putting out blooms again, which I find odd at this point in the gardening season—I suppose it has something to do with the inordinate amount of rain and consistently temperate days we’ve had here in Northern Virginia. Beginning a week ago, the Heavenly Blue Morning Glory vines in the front yard have produced a single, bedazzingly blue bloom each morning, mingling with the garish red and yellow combo of the Butterly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) plants nearby. The Morning Glory vines reseed each year with no assistance from me, so I stopped planting new seeds a few years ago!

Although the three vines have been stretching along the grape arbor, I still see no signs of blooms from my new Passionflower plants, but I still hold out that hope that all gardeners learn to cultivate. I planted two Passionflower plants in one pot to trail up the grape arbor outside my patio doors and one in another pot with a trellis near the edge of the patio. Sharing the trellis are at least three green bean vines—unexpected sprouts from a neglected seed packet discovered on my potting bench. (Read my posting about that discovery in “Against all odds” here.) I have since harvested a dozen green beans from those tenacious little sprouts (which translates to “don’t quit your day job to become a green bean farmer”). A photo of my meager bean harvest is to come…

Learn “How to Grow Your Garden Photography Skills” in my recent photo feature for Nikon’s Learn & Explore section here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hairy Alumroot

Hairy Alumroot (Heuchera villosa), photographed at Green Spring Gardens; also called Rock Alumroot

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Zowie’ Zinnia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Zowie’ Zinnia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Purple Muhly Grass

The feathery and ethereal Purple Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) is a Virginia native and is also known as Gulf Muhly or Pink Hairgrass. A North American native ornamental grass, it has blue-green needle-like foliage and can grow 3-4 feet high with a 2-3 foot spread. In the fall, the grass looks like a soft purple cloud from a distance. This sun-loving plant will grow in both drought and wet conditions. Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All right reserved.

Bumblebee on Turtlehead bloom

The Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua), is a hardy herbaceous perennial wildflower in the Figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). The flowers are cross-pollinated primarily by Bumblebees and I can attest to that because this bank of blooms was swarming with very busy bees. The plant is aptly named because the flowers resemble the head of a turtle. In fact, the botanical name Chelone (rhymes with baloney, Dad) means “tortoise” in Greek. Photographed in the children’s garden at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Sedum and Lantana with Bumblebee

Can you spot the tiny “bonus” bug in this photo? Photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Wildflowers in Damariscotta, Maine

Originally posted 8.26.2010

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Sunset in Victoria Harbour, B.C.

Originally posted 9.21.2008

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Ah, that September light

Originally posted September 15, 2010

Every fall, I am sadly aware that there will be less and less flowers blooming for me to capture (and in case you hadn’t noticed, it is a passion for me), but the light is always exquisite when I do find a subject to immortalize in pixels. I was drawn to this Mallow flower mostly because of the light behind it, which with a large aperture, morphed into this dreamy soft background with lovely bursts of chartreuse and the rusty browns that fall brings. I’m sure this flower is in the Mallow/Hibiscus family; I just don’t know what variety it is. The flowers are considerably smaller than a “standard” hibiscus, if that helps. Anyone?

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Revisiting Nikon Learn & Explore

Nikon is still promoting the article/interview/my photos about photographing your garden. If you missed it, check it out here!

Edgar Egglant waves goodbye to summer…

Karen bought this “eggplant with an appendage” for me at a local farmer’s market near the lakehouse in Lake Land’Or a few weekends ago. She thought I would be inspired by it and as you can see, I certainly was. Does she know me or what?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hosta bloom

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Learn how to grow your garden photography skills in my profile by Nikon here.

See more of my botanical images on my zenfolio site here.

Re-post: Bluer than blue

Originally posted 2.2.2009

Remember that 1978 hit song, Bluer than Blue, by Michael Johnson? Check out the video on youtube. Kinda low budget video, isn’t it? Ah, well, it’s the song that matters, right? Another song of his that I love is, “The Moon is Still Over Her Shoulder.”

Let’s see—I’ve received three requests in response to my “what color collage next” question. One requested a collage showing variegation. One was a request for the color teal. Uh…thanks for the challenge, gals! And the third one was for blue, which just happened to be the color I was working on! (Janof the Thanks for Today blog and I were on the same wavelength.) I’ll work on those first two (more challenging) requests, but in the interim, here’s a collage of nothin’ but blue. Blue isn’t a really common color in the garden, yet I was surprised I had enough images in that color to create this collage. I would love to be able to grow the extra-heat-sensitive-needs-cool-rainy-summers (which we don’t have in Northern Virginia) lovely sky-blue Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia), a native of southeastern Tibet.

Other blue flowers include:

Statice
Sea holly (Eryngium-–which I grow in my garden—and it is a beauty)
Hydrangea
Delphiniums
Chicory (shown below)
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella—shown below)
Cornflower
‘Heavenly Blue’ Morning Glory (shown below)
Forget-me-not
Bearded iris
Himalayan blue poppy (there are other shades of blue poppies as well)
Scabiosa (beautiful pale blue; I’ve grown them but they flop over too soon!)
Scilla
Veronica Speedwell
Globe thistle (Echinops)—I have several of these in my front garden
Muscari (grape hyacinth—some varieties lean more toward blue than deep purple)
Pride of Madeira (leans toward purple-blue—unbelievably beautiful plant—wish it would grow in our area)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Nursery Web Spider on Japanese White Anemone

The late afternoon light illuminating this Japanese White Anemone bloom is what first caught my eye. Then I noticed the spider. At first glance, I thought, “what an unusual spider with extra antennae and a striped head.” It wasn’t until I looked through my macro lens that I saw what it really was—a Nursery Web Spider (I’m fairly confident with the i.d.) consuming a Hoverfly for dinner! Alas, poor Hoverfly. (Of course, spiders have to eat, too). Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lycoris radiata (Red Spider Lily)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lycoris radiata (Red Spider Lily)

This lovely perennial, also known as Spider Lily and Naked Lily, is a member of the Amaryllis family and was introduced to the U.S. in 1854 by Captain William Roberts with just three bulbs he acquired in Japan. I photographed this bloom this afternoon at Green Spring Gardens.

Learn “How to Grow Your Garden Photography Skills” in my recent profile with Nikon here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

When I’m not photographing gardens…

…I’m up to other stuff. Head on over to my main blog and see what’s new!

http://www.cindydyer.wordpress.com

Fresh and fading in the afternoon sun

New and old blooms of a ‘Rozanne’ Geranium, photographed in the Demonstration Garden at the Spooner Agricultural Research Station in Spooner, Wisconsin

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

I always feel like somebody’s watchin’ me…

I photographed this preening mourning dove through my kitchen window last week.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Er, um, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt!

Unknown amorous bugs on an unknown flower (sorry, that’s the best I can do at this juncture). The female was trying to gather pollen but the male had other ideas! Photographed in the Demonstration Garden at the Spooner Agricultural Research Station in Spooner, Wisconsin

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

The elusive Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis)

I photographed this type of moth in my own garden years ago (here), and the image was what I call a “record shot,” just like this one is. A “record shot” won’t win any prizes—it is simply captured to record its existence and uniqueness, no matter the technical quality or stellar composition.

I wanted to share this shot anyway, since this creature is so elusive, very quick and hard to photograph. I photographed this Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis) frantically feasting on the blooms of a ‘Franz Schubert’ Phlox (Phlox paniculata) at the Spooner Agricultural Research Station in Spooner, Wisconsin.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Moss-covered trail (and mosquitos!)

It certainly looks inviting, doesn’t it? Mary Ellen and I had just stepped onto this walking trail near Spooner when we were ambushed by a huge swarm of mosquitos. And I do mean ambushed. We ran through the woods back to the car, screaming like little girls the entire way. (I still got the shot, of course.)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Pollen gathering + bonus bug

I photographed this (unidentified) little bee (fly?) on an Aster bloom at Green Spring Gardens yesterday. It wasn’t until I opened the raw file in Photoshop that I saw the tiny white spider tucked into the petals. Love me some bonus bugs!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Japanese Anemone

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Green Stink Bug on Gomphrena globosa

Green Stink Bug on Gomphrena globosa (Globe amaranth, Bachelor’s Buttons), photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Asters

Tiny Aster blooms photographed this afternoon at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Unidentified beetle on Japanese Anemone flower

I photographed this little bug while it was munching on fallen pollen “chips” from this Japanese Anemone flower in the Demonstration Garden of the Spooner Agricultural Research Station in Spooner, Wisconsin. I’ve made an attempt to identify it but haven’t been successful (yet).

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.