Morning Monochrome

I woke up somewhat early the Saturday morning before our vacation and decided to grab the camera on my way out into the back yard. I was hoping for a few quick snapshots before the rain began to fall. Randy's new camera, a Sony DSC-H50, has some very cool features on it; one of which is an editor that allows you to transform your photos to a monochrome scheme while still on the camera. It even allows you to crop what area you want to remain in color and what you wish to turn into greyscale.

I managed to get quite a few great shots of some of the beauties in bloom right now and then I monochromed them all for quite a dramatic finish!

Black Liriope, also known as monkey grass, is quite interesting as the top of its leaves are dark black and the underside a deep, vibrant shade of green. The blooms are quite intriguing to me; even moreso in monochromatic photography.



Here we have a few shots of our enormous collection of day lillies. This jewel here is called Chorus Line:



And another day lily here called Red Rum:



And one last monochrome day lily for your enjoyment, Apricot Sparkle!



Here we have a shot of 'Oranges and Lemons' Gaillardia with a friendly little bee crawling along its delicate petals:



Here is a close-up macro shot of one of the fourteen 'Razzle Dazzle' Double Knock-Out roses which will eventually create a hedge at the edge of the island bed. I stare at the blooms and the color of the petals reminds me of the rosy-red lips of a delicate china doll:



And here, we have one final monochromatic snapshot for you. The bright cluster of flowers here are from 'Homestead' Purple Trailing Verbena. Gorgeous, are they not?

More Daylilies, Getting Tired of Them Yet?

Good morning everyone! I’m still half asleep so it I have typos please excuse them. Jamie and I will be out the door shortly to go visit Phillip and Michael from Dirt Therapy. I understand the Hydrangeas are looking great up there so we don’t want to miss that. I never tire of visiting Phillip’s Garden.

I thought I would show you some more of our Daylilies, I think at this point we have covered about 2/3 of them. We bought what we believed to be ‘Custard Candy’ a couple of years ago and ended up with some really strange orange daylily. I couldn’t even begin to describe the color to you. Well we saw the real ‘Custard Candy’ a couple of weeks ago and decided since it’s been in our plant inventory for so long we might as well really add it.

'Wild Mustang'

We have had several surprises in the garden when it comes to the daylilies, ‘Strawberry Candy is a good example. It’s one of four lilies we have that were two different colors when we bought them. I’ve made it a point to tie around the different fans so we can divide the colors this fall. I Googled ‘Strawberry Candy’ and both of the colors are listed under that name in just about equal numbers. I guess we’ll call them SC1 and SC2.

If I had to pick a favorite color for the ones we have in our collection right now ‘Grape Ripples’ would be it. It’s such a beautiful color. I wouldn’t mind having an entire bed of nothing but these.

'Sound of Silence'

'Chicago Mist'

'Frances Fay'

When we bought this one is was simply named ‘Violetta’. But I believe is ‘Violetta Mondrian’

'Little Girl'

'Doodlebug'

‘Little Missy’ was the second Daylily I purchased in our collection. So it will always have a special place in my heart. I was just starting to get interested in gardening when I got this.

'Merle Kent'

'Bonanza'

'Irving Hepner'

'Tang'

'Gentle Shepherd'

In the Garden 05.27.09

I haven’t posted any wide shots of the garden lately so I thought I would show you a few pictures. Everything is starting to grow in really well. Next year the Daylilies should be awesome!

Jamie and I have made it back from vacation and we have a lot of pictures to show you from our trip. Today is also our six year anniversary and we intend on spending it doing absolutely nothing but relaxing. Tomorrow is also Jamie’s Birthday; he will be a spry 26 years old. Okay, on with the photos. No commentary just some pictures. Sorry they are so dark; it was very overcast this morning.

Japanese Climbing Hydrangea 'Moonlight'

'Conestoga' Canna and Verbena

Vitex and Coneflower 'Sunset'

'Fairytale Pink'

In the Garden 05.22.09

Happy Friday everyone! I’m particularly excited because after today Jamie and I will be on vacation and I don’t have to return to work until June 2nd! Yay! Anyway, I walked around the garden to see what was blooming and decided to post a few pictures for you.

This first picture is daylily ‘Fragrant Treasure’. She was added to our garden last summer. I love the pale yellow color.

‘Champagne Waltz’ is giving us its first bloom this year.

I was looking through photos online and I saw this iris, I said to myself that’s our ‘Pink Lady’! But they weren’t calling it that so I got on line to look it up. Nope, it’s not her and since I don’t remember what page I was visiting I have no idea what her name is.

'Maudie Malcom'

This is a wild Gladiolus that is native to Alabama. We dug it up in the woods at our friend Carol’s House. It’s called ‘African Parrot’.

'Fairytale Pink'

'Pandora's Box'

'Honeycomb'

'Oranges & Lemons' Gailardia...

This is an un-named Daylily that we got at a tiny nursery in the middle of nowhere. Anyone recognize it?

I love Shasta Daisies and we have three different cultivar. This is ‘Becky’ and ‘Crazy Daisy’. I don't think you could have too many Shastas.

I guess we’ll finish up with a vivid ‘Lollypop Yellow’.