ranunculus

These are my new favorite flower!  They're so pretty!  

They're not my favorite images, but here they are anyway...

I do love the colors here though:

Whoville...

I think of all photos I've taken of morning glories, these are my favorites.  Especially the purple ones.  I don't think I need or want to photograph any more morning glories.  (Or, any more flowers for that matter!)
Of these, my favorites are the last two.  I can't decide which one I like best.

From September 3, 2011

Abstract Delphiniums

Just a little behind on posting- I made these images about a month ago... when I discovered I could get even closer with my mickey-moused "macro" set up... Still in the process of editing these down...

Macro Delphinium

I just bought these Delphiniums the other day, and I took them home and promptly started shooting some macros!  The color in these are totally natural- from the sunset and just-past sunset light.  The flowers themselves are pretty pale blues and purples...
Still in the process of editing down, some of these are so similar to each other, but I can't decide...

garden upate #11

So, I've decided I'm a little disappointed with all these flowers I started from seed.  They aren't gonna bloom until September at this rate!  I think I got a little ahead of myself because the only other flowers I've grown from seed are morning glories, and those are easy, and they grow FAST...
I've already planned to start next year's seeds on Christmas, in my sister's closed-in porch, which is pretty much like a hot house. :)

Most of the seedlings failed miserably.  At least the remaining ones are perennials, so the time hasn't been totally wasted.  We just won't see them until next year most likely... And speaking of perennials, I've decided from now on, that's the way to go.  So much cheaper that way!

The Chinese Lanterns (perennials, yay!) had a big growth spurt this week.  I also planted some of them in pots, just to spread them out, but those aren't as big as the ones I left here in the tray.  Hmmm...

There's a few Columbines still doing okay.  I'm afraid to do anything with these yet.  I don't want to freak them out.  I really was looking forward to these.  But I doubt they'll bloom this year.  I don't know.  Maybe they will.  But, they're perennials, so next year!!!

The other ones still doing okay are the Cypress vines... These aren't perennials, but that's okay.  Maybe I'll slip them some fertilizer, give them a kick in the butt.

The morning glories are crazy! And they started climbing!  Woo hoo!  This is definitely the earliest I've seen them this big already... Usually this would be the time that I'd be planting the seeds.  And since most of them sprouted up on their own, they've been growing for weeks already. I'm gonna make a prediction right now that they're gonna bring down the shed! haha

These pink flowers are my new favorites.  They're called Nemesia.  They are so cute!  They're kinda like vines, but not really.  And I THINK they're in the snapdragon family.  They remind me of the dragons at Chinese New Year... I've got them in some terra cotta pots with some morning glories on either side of the shed.  They're not perennials, but I LOVE them anyway...  I took a bunch of TTV photos of them the other day and I really like how they came out.  I'll probably post them ALL in a separate post...

I really like these little blue flowers I planted a few weeks ago too:

The roses by the garage have gone a little nuts.  But that's okay.  I like them that way... The morning glories over here aren't quite as big as the others yet, but that's because these are the ones that I planted from seed.

There are actually 2 different roses here.  The red/magenta one, and then there's a pink one.  The buds on the pink one finally showed up:

I finally have the netting up over the strawberries.  What a pain in the ASS this netting was!  It sticks to EVERYTHING.  It's got like little grabbers on it or something.  I don't know, but it was a PAIN.  

I'm pretty confident that the bunnies and birds aren't getting in... I've got it tied down, and then bricks layed on top to hold it down too.  After I finished, I wondered if I'D be able to actually get in!  (But I did and had some with dinner last night.  They were yummy!  And OH MAN do they smell amazing!!!)

Also- after I picked them and they were sitting there in a pile looking so pretty- I OF COURSE did a photo shoot with them!  You'll see those in a later post too! 

Now for the front yard.  I'm pretty sure the last thing I posted about the front yard was that I had one side of the steps dug out... Now it's all planted!  Both sides have Liatris which are perennials.  They'll be tall, 2-3 feet, so they're planted along the back.  

Right now they're still little and a few just sprouting.  Maybe I'm a dork, but it's kinda cool to see them breaking through the dirt... :)

Also, my sister and I used to call them "microphones" because we used to stand behind them and sing into them... dorks.   :)  Since it will be a while until there'll be any flowers I can photograph: here's a photo.

 

Since the front yard isn't symmetrical anyway, I didn't plant the same things on both sides.  Both sides have the "microphones", our side has blue and purple pansies, and my uncle's side has pink dianthus.  Both sides also have Gaura plants.  They're pretty cool looking... there's a Passionate Blush Gaura on each side right by the steps.  

 

That monstrosity on the right (above my name) is a Yucca plant.  It's in pretty rough shape.  When I dug up this side of the steps, I ripped out all the dead brown leaves from underneath this thing.  I swear, it's half the size.  I planted some morning glories in front of it.  Hoping they'll climb up it and make it pretty.  You can barely see it in this photo, but there's two tall stalks(?) sticking out of it, and there are little white bell-like flowers that bloom on them.   When we were little, my grandmother had one of these, and we would take the flowers and float them in puddles in her driveway... :)

And to balance out the Yucca plant, I put the one larger Gaura plant, a Pink Fountain Gaura, on our side.  I don't think it will get as large though... I really like these- the branches are long and delicate and flowy.  Here's a close-up of the little pale pink flowers:

That's all for now.  Please click here for all the garden updates!

garden update #10

Not a ton going on garden-wise since my last garden update... some of the seedlings have died, and more are dying... not having very good luck.  But then I had grand ideas of having too many plants to know what to do with because I was convinced that every single one of the seeds I planted was going to sprout! Ha! Not exactly...

Not much going on, but I sure have a lot of pictures here! Enjoy! :)

May 15th:
In one corner of my backyard, there's a bunch of Lillies of the Valley growing under a big ugly blue spruce.  They don't like it under there.  The sap gets all over the leaves and you can never see the flowers, (it's like the leaves are protecting them from the sap) so I picked a bunch of them.  Most of them actually.  There's also wild raspberries growing in the middle of the flowers, so I was on my hands and knees and sometimes my belly, getting attacked by the raspberry vines, and this is what I got:

You wouldn't believe how STINKY a small bouquet of these stinkers are!  Didn't realize it until after I brought them in the house... they spent the next afternoon outside...

This image available on fineartamerica.com

May 16th:
I took on my "Strawberry patch" today.... I weeded and expanded it, hopefully it helps them out a bit... There are already a few that are starting to look like strawberries!

May 17th:
This was the one busy day... and on no sleep!

First, a trip to Lowe's with my sister.  I wanted to get some protective netting for the strawberries.  I ended up with pink dahlias for my mom, and some more perennials.  I've decided that since I've kinda been having bad luck with some of the seeds, that I need to plant perennials, because it's cheaper in the long run!

These are pretty cool.  I had never seen or heard of them before.  They're both ground covers...
I liked the bright blue flowers on this one, and the kinda fuzzy leaves.  This is a pretty close up shot of the flowers, but they're really small- about the size of a dime, if that.
It's called Grace Ward Lithodora:

THIS one, is crazy.  The flowers are okay.  But the coolest part of this one is the "leaves".  They're squishy and rubbery, and according to my sister, feels like a lizard tongue... haha.
It's called Starburst Ice Plant.  If you see one, you gotta feel it! haha

We left Lowe's and stopped at the cemetery to plant the dahlias, and took home the pansies that were still doing okay... I planted those by the shed after digging up at least 100 of those crazy rogue morning glories.  (I'm going to give some to my neighbor, and I still have tons more if anyone's interested!)

Then, I started digging up the front yard. Got one side of the steps done:

Even though some of the seedlings aren't doing so hot, the rest are doing pretty well!
The Columbine finally sprouted the other day:

And the Chinese Lanterns sprouted a few days before that:

The Black-eyed Susan vines are doing pretty well:

And here's the pink Cypress vine sprout from a couple weeks ago.  I'm glad they're finally doing something because I really want to see what they turn out like.

A couple weeks ago I planted the California Poppies since they were getting kinda straggly looking- I didn't know what else to do for them to give them more space.  However, a couple of them were casualties of the cat attack, and I'm sure just plain old not surviving.  Some are okay:

I planted a few pots with some morning glories- one with some marigolds, one with some dianthus, one with some fuzzy blueish/purple puffball flowers that I don't know the name of... all complete with trellis-type contraptions:

The wild roses have some buds!  I can't take credit for these though- I had nothing to do with planting them, and they do what they want!  But, I'm glad that the yard is starting to get some more color, especially since it was so gray and yucky today!

And finally, I leave you with a cheesy daisy photo!  Complete with water drops! :)

This image available on fineartamerica.com

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