“November Rose”
Heatherwood, Fall
The buttery yellow of a November rose brings a little sunshine to our rose garden. Most of the garden’s roses are spent and hanging down. Just a few of our yellow floribunda remain. Even these are on their last hurrah. Leaves are wilting and falling off. Rose hips are forming. It is time for the roses to go to sleep for the winter and get their rest for a bright June bloom.
Yellow Rose
Heatherwood Rose Garden
Our rose garden is still full of color. However, most of the blooms are past their prime and are a little tattered. It is hard to find a full crisp fresh rose without a few defects in the petals. So with my macros, my focus is on color, shape, and lines. I am continuing to work with creating “softness” with some of my rose images. I combined two images, one in focus, and one out of focus and blended them together to achieve the above result.
So here’s a little brightness for your day! There is always something in the world to celebrate.
“Ouch”
Yakima Arboretum, Washington
“When you see red, shoot” … especially in the garden. The leathery red leaves of this Oregon grape popped out from the background. The Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) is a multi-season star of the garden. Its dark green leaves provide a strong contrast with its bright yellow spring blooms. These turn into blue berries in the late summer/fall. In the winter, the leaves turn to various shades of orange, burgundy, and red.
We have planted several mahonia among the pines and spruces of our conifer grove to provided a multi-season complimentary contrast.
Pine and Spruce Needles
Yakima Arboretum, Washington
Oakleaf Hydrangea
Yakima Arboretum, Washington
The glow of this back/side lit expired hydrangea bloom stopped me in my tracks. It was like if it was a bright red stop sign signaling me to stop and pay attention to what it had to offer. Each fall, I face a hard decision to deadhead the spent blooms for a better bloom next year, or let them be to provide special winter interest. We solved the problem this spring by planting several additional plants in the lower part of the garden.
“Interesting”
Yakima Arboretum, Washington
The textured pattern of this tree trunk also caught my eye. I do not know what it is … yet. It is time for another trip to the Arboretum to see if I can locate this tree and find out what it is. Maybe I can add it to the Heatherwood Arboretum.
Paperbark Maple
Yakima Arboretum, Washington
This post will start a series of images depicting nature’s little wonders. These images are from a photo excursion I took in the Yakima Arboretum over a year ago. From time to time, I give myself an assignment to practice a specific type of photography. This trip I focused on looking for little things that caught my eye whatever they might be. Some were abstracts, others were macro details of pieces of nature.
Interesting bark was one of the things that caught my eye. The texture and color contrasts of the peeling bark of a paperbark maple (Acer griseum) creates a beautiful abstract that highlights a winter scene. We have planted two acer griseums in our yard, one at the entry of our Japanese garden and one in the middle of our front lawn. They are striking in the summer and gorgeous in the winter, especially covered with a little snow.
“Past, Present, & Future”
Cherokee Dogwood
Heatherwood Autumn
This is another example of “Isolation.” My mission for this photo excursion was to collect isolated macro images that represent the early autumn of our Japanese Garden. I am in the process of preparing annual image collections of how our Heatherwood Garden changes from season to season throughout the year. For this specific photo shoot, I walked around the Garden and tried to collect compelling images that would represent the details of our autumn garden.
The uniqueness of this image is that is illustrates the yearly life cycle of a dogwood tree bloom. The yellow protrusions are the remnants of the spring blossom sepals; the leaves are turning to their autumn color before they fall for the winter; the red berry is the fruit for the wintering birds, and the purplish bud is the future blossom for next spring. The dew drop adds additional interest while the tips and edges of the leaves draw the viewers eye to the subject.
Pinus cembra ‘Algonquin Pillar’
Heatherwood Spring
Today’s post is for my friends in the Northeast. From what I see in the news your are being hit with an Arctic blast with some temperatures below freezing and maybe even a little snow. It’s the first week of May … this is not suppose to happen. Today in Eastern Washington, we expect to see temperatures in the high 70’s. So I thought you would appreciate a little brightness and warmth.
This image is the tip of one of our speciality pine tree branches breaking out in new needles and cones. We have selected several non-common pine and spruce species to create a little evergreen grove on the southeast corner of our property. This little guy is showing off its spring glory. I look forward to watching as it matures through the season.
Remember back in a previous post (March 22) I presented a viburnum that was just getting ready to bloom? I thought it would burst open the next day. I kept going out every day checking for its progress. Leaves started to come out, but nothing seemed to be happening with the blossom buds. Then last week, all of a sudden the whole plant burst open in bloom. Well it took almost 4 weeks for the viburnum to reach its full bloom. Patience pays off! One week later, most of the blooms have been blown off the plant. Oh well … It was beautiful!