Floral

Swirling

Posted January 4, 2022 by Ellie

Swirling

Once again, one of Steven’s beautiful dahlias is the flower of the day. This beauty seems to swirl with red petals, full of life and, no doubt, insect visitors. I love dahlias and peonies as cut flowers, but both have to be carefully cleared of their inhabitants before bringing them into the house. If you don’t, you will find earwigs and potentially bees crawling about the table under the vase. So tenacious are they that, no matter how much you gently tap them upside down against the ground, always losing a few petals as you do so, a stray bug or two will always be found wandering around the kitchen sink or sideboard looking for a way home. Tenaciousness has its downside, at least in this case for insects. In other cases, when it’s not sheer pig-headedness, it can be a really positive quality. So we should hold onto our hopes and dreams as if we were earwigs in a peony. They keep hope alive in us. Flower a Day #479 View all posts on the Home page.

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Changing Hydrangea

Posted January 3, 2022 by Ellie

Changing Hydrangea

The beauty of hydrangeas, and the reason, I think, that most of my viewers said they wanted to see more, is that they have so many beautiful varieties and colours. This was a hydrangea hedge that I took photographs of during many of its changing stages, from opening pale green flowers to finally pinky brown shades. This is a midway stage, taken at the end of August, when the heads are transitioning to a pink, from the original green and through the white. You will see more of this particular variety as I really liked the shape of the heads as well as the different tones. This plant goes through so many changes during its cycle and each one fascinates and intrigues me, rather the way old friends can do. Enjoy your friendships, whatever changes time brings to them, and to you. Flower a Day #478 View all posts on the Home page.

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Chinese Remember Me

Posted January 2, 2022 by Ellie

Chinese Forget-me-not

It’s back to my wild garden today, with one of the plants that scattered itself through the mix with these lovely tiny blue flowers. While I love the big, showy blooms we see in lilies and dahlias, these little ones on the Chinese Forget-me-not have a great appeal, partly because they don’t shout at you. They sit quietly, inviting the close look to really examine what they have to offer. That’s always easier to do from a photograph, when we have the luxury to zoom in beyond what a casual glance normally shows us. We see the different shades of blue leading to the deeper colour just around the centre. They have such a liberal display that they are the ones usually used in floral displays. Unlike the usual ones we know which are biennial, the Chinese variety is an annual. Thankfully it liberally self sows, so I am really looking forward to seeing it again next year. Have a lovely day, friends! Flower a Day #477 View all posts on the Home page.

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Bursting With Light

Posted January 1, 2022 by Ellie

Bursting With Light

The start of another month brings me a fresh new gallery, which means you will only see one flower below, the beautiful Daylily you see above. Regular readers (or viewers) will recognise this as a special daylily given to me by a dear friend, Tony, so we tend to refer to this as ‘Tony’s Daylily’. The light that seems to project from the depths of this dark, rich purple flower has a special quality that looks as if it’s shooting out, brightening everything around it. I hope you have moments of such bright light in your day, to bring you some joy. In the meantime, please take this for your own! Flower a Day #476 View all posts on the Home page.

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