I am awake way too early this morning .. we didn't have the rain as predicted, which I was hoping for of course ! and I have had a huge memory lapse from a planting I did last year and have no recollection of doing it !
Has this ever happened to you ? is this a "getting old" thing happening ?
Look at the top of this picture a little to the left .. you will see a purple Iris flower ..
THAT is
Cherry Garden (albeit with just one flower from the planting.
This is what it looks like
However .. in the other side are some remarkable blue iris (Siberian) ... that I do NOT remember planting ... I thought I had two patches of Cherry Garden on either side of the heuchera.
I know it was me who planted it of course .. no one but me is the gardener in my oasis .. but how I lost complete track of what happened is a total mystery to me .. at least it is a pretty mystery ?
Next .. for wow ! on colour impact.
Norther Lights azalea , specifically
Mandarin Lights in a spectacular ORANGE .. I know, not for everyone .. but I am a Halloween freak so this is right up my ally .. even in late May.
Vibrant orange is difficult to photograph .. the wrong lighting can ruin the colour of the flower if it is not soft enough .. it can glare at you , over enhance the natural beauty, making it look artificial.
This is what my camera picked up on it's own.
Another difficult flower is pure white, as with this
anemone sylvestris "Snowdrop"
I took pictures in the shade and just gambled they would look as pretty as possible.
Light mixed with shade in the right proportions can make plants look magical
Dre's Dagger fern contrasted with this primula , with a background of Solomon's Seal is wonderful.
Then add complete opposite colour and texture and another wow factor is incorporated.
Japanese maple and ostrich fern.
These are "overcast" photos but it is only to illustrate how quickly the garden leaps forward and the panic is instigated ... yes .. PANIC !!!
These are just a few sections of the gardens ... I often wonder, how am I going to keep this up?
I think I should follow the example of this dove .... and just take a nap !
8 comments:
Yes, that getting old thing is here.
I wander the yard, go to the front to do something, get distracted, and forget what I was going to do!
Love this post Joy. You have expressed many of the same things I think as I go through the garden. Most difficult to photograph whites and blues in the garden for me. White especially. This time of year in my garden the weeds are going rampant. Can I keep up?? Maybe while it is still fairly cool but when it gets hot the weeds take over. SIGH~~ Fun times ahead.
Oh...I always forget what I've planted, I often think it's down to wildlife, why do labels disappear?. Your garden is immaculate, mine is a jungle of invasive weeds!Your photos are
simply beautiful! Wherever they where planted, the two species of iris are gorgeous.xxx
Hi Jen ... how true is that exercise in forgetfulness ! so much of our lives now is wondering what the heck were we doing ?
I do that in the house as well ... how do we survive ourselves ? LOL
Hello Lisa and thank you ! .. white is almost a nightmare to get just right .. which is almost NEVER in the end eh ? I have bags of much in the shed .. which would help keep the weeds at bay ... but do you think I ever get to actually laying it down ?
Yes .. although we are in a cool phase right now .. that is so ready to turn on us soon and then the FUN begins is right ;-)
Snowbird, thank you ! .. I just saw a spot where I transplanted an astilbe .. and now something is growing right against it .. that I know is not a weed but I have no idea what the plant might be and why I didn't haphazardly kill it while planting the first plant .. I am going to try and separate the two for yet another transplanting adventure and see if the piggyback one survives to show me it's true nature ? LOL
I’m not going to blame it on age. I think sometimes plants either “revert” to their origins or they were flat out mislabeled. I always marvel at how orderly your garden is, I know you told me before that you often prune them for size. And maybe it’s partly your climate. It’s cooler there, so maybe it keeps them from growing as crazy big? It’s a theory!
Hi Robin ... I think a lot of Americans misunderstand our weather .. we can get into "jungle" like conditions with heat and humidity .. in fact we are bracing ourselves for it to arrive within 10 days if not sooner. It is so bad that I have to garden very early morning then hide in the house for the rest of the day (I have to be very careful not to get dehydrated)
Yes .. I do prune back a lot of plants to either thicken them up or keep their energy from wasting (such as lamb's ears as my front border) .. so plants absolutely grow to gigantic sprawling proportions here, especially since we are on Lake Ontario .. it can be smothering !
So I scramble like mad to do as much as possible early on to set up for the "jungle" LOL
I forget about plants and where I planted them ALL THE TIME. Keeps the garden full of surprises. White flowers are hard to photograph, I do them only in indirect sun.
Hi Jason .. ah yes .. the forgetful club ? LOL ... another yes about photographing white .. I never do it in direct light .. cloudy days help .. and half shadows .. it takes some imagination doesn't it ?
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