I love the gold flame honeysuckle that show up later in the spring – so vibrant! Plus they attract hummingbirds and butterflies!
Category Archives for flower photos
Spring Flowers for Fall, part 4
Next we celebrate the columbine. I love that columbine self-seed and pop up all over the yard!
Spring Flowers for Fall, part 3
These tulips were free (in that we dug up dormant bulbs from a side yard and moved them without knowing they would survive). Imagine our surprise at the vivid colors! I am told by my plant pathologist friend that this is due to a virus in the plant – one that people cultivate and patent if they can, apparently. I just got lucky and have gorgeous tulips.
Spring Flowers for Fall, part 1
The cool autumn temperatures and shortening days have me reminiscing about Spring. Spring may be my favorite season – the days are getting longer and all the flowers start to bloom. So, for a few days I’m going to celebrate and remember spring. First up, daffodils!
Pink Butterfly Flower
Another of the hardy bog plants we added to the pond this year. As the name implies, this should also attract butterflies – but again it bloomed rather late so we didn’t see many (I did see a few though). With all the blooms on top it gets a bit heavy and bends over, but perhaps next year it will grow up a bit stronger?
Cardinal Flower
In the mix of “hardy bog plants” was a short stocky thing. It grew slowly most of the summer and was referred to as “the thick-stalk-plant” when we needed a point of reference for a frog sighting because we didn’t know which plant was which until they started blooming.
The thick-stalk-plant suddenly started shooting up in height and is now over 3 feet tall. The upper half has been covered in blooms, and as it grows taller more blooms appear on top. Even though the days (and nights, especially) are getting cooler it is blooming continuously. Butterflies and hummingbirds are supposed to be attracted, but since it started blooming late that hasn’t happened. We are hoping for earlier blooms next year and some excellent hummingbird action. (okay, right now we’re just hoping the plants all survive the winter to be honest).
This photo is blurred, but I really like it because it seems like there is fairy dust involved. So I’m sharing it, too.
Obedient Plant
This year I got a variety of “hardy bog plants” to add to the pond. Once we added the water lilies the barrier was broken. Despite being completely novice in this, I was empowered by the internet. What pond plants were perennial and could handle our growing zone?
Google knew the answer. Google is amazing that way.
So I got a variety pack of “hardy bog plants” and “hardy bog iris” – the iris have grown but not flowered. So, they are the first round losers. However, the real test comes next spring when we find out if “hardy” was true. The gauntlet is down, because I’m not rescuing any plants.
This is the “obedient plant” of the hardy bog plants variety pack. If any plant survives, it had damn well be this one. I Order It to come back. (for the record, this was taken with my phone – that’s how awesome this plant is.)
Red Water Lily
Flowers are more cooperative than frogs, in that they do not dive under the water when I set up the camera. This lily has such lovely variation in color, so I had to share it.
Water Lilies
The frogs are being quite shy lately – and it appears Brave Frog may have already moved out. I went out to shoot some photos of Cave Frog (I think) and I got in only one quick snap before he dove under the water. Since I had the camera out anyway, I decided to take some photos of our water lilies. When we first had the pond and waterfall installed, I didn’t think we would put anything in it. I’m glad my husband pushed for plants (then fish…) because it makes it a lot more interesting to look at when we are outside. There are some new plants I put in this year that should be blooming soon – when they do I will post photos of those. But for now, I really love this close up of a water lily – I didn’t know the damselfly was there playing peekaboo until I transferred the photo to my computer!
As I was moving away I realized the water and sun were collaborating to make a gorgeous reflection – so I took that photo too.
@KellyOSullivan 