Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Translucent Flower......


This is the last view of this particular iris. It is the last iris on the stem. It has given out some good blooms this spring. It is its first year in my garden and I hope to see more foliage and stems of blooms from it next year. The line design markings on falls of  this iris reminds me so much of the same lines on my old fashioned iris. This is not a large hybrid because of its medium size but it certainly looks like it was cross bred to be have these two different colors.

Photography information for these two is that the sunlight was very bright in early morning.  It seemed to make the petals show off how translucent the petals can be with the light shining through those standards.

Monday, May 30, 2016

Early Morning in Iowa.......


My first day of the summer in which I don''t have to work.  The little dog has me up early and I get rewarded with this view.


The sky was decorated with clouds for a long distance in the vertical.   It helps for me to get a good shot even with my foreground below all this being very undesirable. This could be a sky on the North Shore of Minnesota as I remember them well. The balsam pine tree represents the state as there are so many of these pines everywhere. My neighbors row of trees on the right of the photo makes it look like we are in a forest.

I was up early enough to get my flag hung on the front porch.  When you get up early you have extra trime to remember to get it up on Memorial Day.  I will leave it up all summer.  Photos will be following in a few days.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Contemplation of a Beauty.....



I drugged the garbage bin pass the peonies and I ended up rolling over this white bloom. I picked it then and brought it inside to go with an iris that also had a accident. The peonies are really starting to bloom out quickly by variety.  Some are still budded and don't look like they will open for a few more days.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Mock Orange.....


I am taking a day off from showing another iris shot.  I do have plenty that I can share but these blooms from my mock orange shrub are just now blooming. The fragrance is so wonderful. The shrub isn't really in full bloom yet but the flowers have started opening a few days ago.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Two New Blooms........


I am up early with the dog and the sun shines brightly giving me a strong light on this new iris. The iPhone picture is adequate but not my best work.  I bought this iris last summer and planted it so as to give it time to establish itself. I don't always succeed in getting them to bloom the next spring but it did this time. I guess it does make sense to get as much growth out of them even if they are new.  I know normally an iris planted in the fall will never bloom in the spring.

Another first time new bloom for me is this reddish one.  This iris doesn't weather well in the rain as you can see the standards, vertical parts, collapsed in the rain. I have one more bud that may give me a chance to get a perfect shot of a bloom in good shape. The above iris is more in the open and the rain didn't effect it at all. I suppose the random cross breeding doesn't mean they all get the best traits.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Natural Sculptural Work.........



There is no perfect angle in which to take a shot of a flag iris bloom.  The three falls and other petals never line up well with the camera.

The blue is so striking and the white markings on the side petals fit the design of the flower.  The nice thing about flag iris is that they do not seem to be effected by rain.  I don't like their short bloom time but they are still one of my favorites.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

William Baffin, the Rose.........


I had noticed a week ago that a rose was opened on the bush.  I didn't really remember to go visit it until yesterday.  The rose is doing well. It grows on the back side corner of my garden shed and I don't visit that area much except to mow grass.  I will be going out regularly and visit the rose now with my camera.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Sunrise in Living Color.......




A horizon shot should be horizontal but I found that it can work both ways.  With our small dog getting me up so early I just grab the cell phone just in case there might be a good sky. I generally carry him out to the end of the patio so I get to see the full effects of the morning sunrise. As you can see it is a lot of color.  Because of the way the earth is tilting the sun now shows up way to the left of this photo.  I can only get sky and not the sun involved with it.  I guess if the sun was up that maybe the colors in the  clouds would be this great.

The camper and the truck that sits across the street are not at the camping grounds so I can get a pretty good foreground that looks natural.  The flag does show up in the top photo hinting at the human footprint.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

The First Bloom........


While out working in the yard I watched this flag iris unfurl.  The one front petal was out when I started work out there and by in a few hours it was all unfolded.  The color actually was darker as it opened but then lightened in color by afternoon.  I at first thought it was my dark blue variety.  I am going to have many blooms on this plant as you can see the buds on the stems.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

It Blooms Again.......


I was surprised to see this open up a couple of days ago.  This old fashion iris was among the iris that were being destroyed by the iris borer.  I did move some of it but it took two years to revive.  The place where it originally had grown has no iris plants there now.

I remember the iris with brown falls when they really are almost purple in color.  I guess I have remembered them wrong and the light that they are growing in shows the blue purple color.  When this iris was blooming in its full glory years ago I could take group shots of it in a row of vast flowers. Maybe that will happen again next year.  It is truly an old cemetery iris with its size being small and the proportions of the falls being equal in size to the top of the flower.


Friday, May 20, 2016

Accidental Shooting......


It wasn't a planned photo.  I was disgusted because the iris was blooming on such a short stem.  I leaned way over almost sideways and it happened.  The basement door entrance was in the way and I just took a chance.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Wild Rose......


The wild rose is Iowa's state flower.  I had a large patch of these in the back yard and for some reason the majority of it died out.  I didn't study the weather patterns enough to know what caused it. I do know that it is hard to kill so I was surprised.  Anyway, I have about three stray outcroppings of it that is healthy.  I am going to get to see and photograph many blooms of the wild rose this year. This rose grows wild in Iowa as well as Minnesota.  I have seen it growing along the shores of the Atlantic ocean near Bar Harbor, Maine. The variety in Maine seemed a little more rugged as it was on a cliff above the ocean.  I  expect it has some really rough winters to survive and that makes it a tougher plant.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Looking Up.......


The sky was showing off the clouds on a sunny day.  It has warmed up a bit but their seems to be a chill in the air.


I try hard to get a sky shot that doesn't show man made structures.  If I crop them out then I don't have all of the great looking sky in the photo.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

All in a Row......


I shared my doubts that I wasn't going to get much of a show from this plant. I did get to see this one strand of bleeding hearts develop and it does make a good show for the one branch.  It is the only branch that I have on the plant though.  Maybe next year I can have two strands of them.

Monday, May 16, 2016

The Rose Futures........


The sun helped to cause a yellow green glow behind the rose bush. This muli flora rose starts blooming early in spring and is the last to put out blooms in the fall.  They are small roses but have perfect color and shape.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Spirea........


Spirea bushes are doing well this spring in Iowa.  They grow during a drought but when there is plenty of moisture they really have abundant blooms.

This shrub had to cut all the way to the ground a few years back and today it acts like a healthy bush again.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Up Close and Fancy.....





When I have iris like this I have to share them.  If you get bored with them just click me away from your sight.  I wil try to make as many different  creative shots that I can for the sake of variety. The illusion that the photo gives is that the iris looks like a large hybrid.  It really isn't a large iris at all. It just has good bones and I have taken the photo as close as possible.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Bleeding Heart.....


As things turn out with plants each spring I never know how the early spring weather will effect the blooms.  This plant has a few small blooms but this really is the one and only true good sized bleeding heart.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

White as Snow.......


This seems to be a shorter variety of my two white iris.  I have another one that is a tall stemmed variety.  It isn't blooming yet.  This plant took two years to get itself established.  I think there are two more buds yet to bloom on this plant. I am glad I caught this shot before the rains hit in the afternoon that I took the photo.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Back on Duty.......


The angel spent the winter in the basement.  i looked down while moving geraniums to the outside and there he lay on the floor. I didn't plan the glow of light behind the angel but it really is a nice effect.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Fading Away..........


As the last tulip stands tall in the orchard it shows that it has aged in the weather.  It really has held itself together in spite of the rain and the wind that we have had for a few weeks.



br /> As it matures the colors change.  Some parts are fading and other parts are deepening in color.  The curling of the first petal indicates its is about to be done for the year.



The tulips have a wonderful design to them with the overlapping curved leaves.  At the end the leaves all just flop open and fall off the stem. The leaves are busy nourishing the bulb for the next year.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Sunday's Lily of the Valley.....


There is ample rain for the flowers and this plant seems to look healthy.  The lily of the valley seems to mature by opening its white bell flowers at the bottom first and then move up the stem to open the rest.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Spring Flower......



It is never a perfect photo when you want one. The best shot of the iris is one that has the top chopped off.  The heat of the day was hard on them along with a mild wind.  The iris petals are flimsy and most of the ones open had at least one part of it bent awkwardly.


The earliest variety that blooms is the old fashion iris. They are smaller that the special hybrids. I call them cemetery iris as that is where most of them still grow freely in our state. I am thinking I took a start of it many years ago and now I am moving it around to different areas of the property.

Friday, May 6, 2016

The Grand Opening......


I have been sharing the bud for days  and yesterday the warm weather made one of them open. It can almost look like a poppy flower but its petals overlap a little more than a poppy.

I will share a second photo of another plant where they are also opening.  It is a sure thing that spring is here when this flower blooms.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Perfect Shots........Great Lighting.





When the sun started to shine after many cloudy days I could tell I was going to get great shots. The sun was in the west and when that first macro looked this great, I knew I was going to get a bunch of good shots. The camera liked the amount of light it was reading from the flowers. It is always a challenge when the light is not perfect.  This tulip has been long standing by itself right outside my door.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Two of a Different Kind...........


River birch continues to shed its bark as it grows bigger.  It is so different that the white birch in bark growth.



The white birch is actually older than the river birch.  The size of the trunk and the height of it would show that if I placed them side by side for comparison.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Tells its Own Story


The only part of the story that isn't shown here is that the new neighbor decided to chopped every single white lilac down to a stubby stem.  One lone stem refused to be treated so badly that it still put out leaves and some blooms. This is the one and only bloom left after the chopper process was done.

A bonus shot of the lilac blooms across the alley where nothing has been trimmed back for years.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Back and Front.......



The back view of the apple tree blossoms seem to be a great photo with good contrast. The branches seem to be the most important element in the photos. Line design with shapes of color on the line structure.

I took it because I didn't think I was going to be able to get a good front view of the blooms. This apple tree seems to be the only one of my three that still has blooms.

Blurry Blue Cup Day.....

 It is Monday and I am a little blurry eyed today. It is fitting then my blue cup is blurred a little because it is in low light. I was too ...