Each year, just as the new season’s roses are appearing, I set out to take pictures of rose buds for the readers who love them (you know who you are). I never do as well as I hope.
It isn’t good to be too critical of your own photography, so I’m offering these up as part of my latest series of posts on roses.
Feathered buds always appeal to me more than the plain ones. The one above is an old rose in Whitehall Park, Darwen.
I’ve written before about the way roses photobomb each other. Just-opening blooms, which I consider to be nobbut buds, are particularly good at photobombing. Their colour draws the eye even when they are not the intended subject of the picture.
Try as I might, I can’t quite capture their magic. Perhaps that’s because, for me, the magic of a rose bud is the flower it will release.
Shared for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Susan Rushton 
Beautiful rosebuds beautifully gathered. I think a big part of magic is in the anticipation, as you have captured well in this series.
I experiment with pictures of the green, unbroken buds, but they lack atmosphere, somehow.
There’s quite enough beauty here to satisfy this simple soul.
Thanks, Margaret.
Beautiful.
Thanks, Timothy.
Full of promise and beautiful, every one.
I ought really to try for a post of moth-eaten beauties next, but that would take a seismic shift in my approach.
I love the concept of roses photobombing each other…all looking for attention they’re going to get anyway.
Your comment made me smile. They certainly have something of the ‘Me! Me! Me!’ about them. A tumbling cluster I ended up not sharing had exactly that quality.
Of course this beautiful post brought to mind Herrick’s advice to gather rosebuds while we may.
Although Herrick’s mind was but fleetingly on the actual rosebuds.
These are so beautiful, Susan. I wish I had the patience to grow roses.
Luckily admiring them requires very little patience – that’s in the main what I do.
Buds = anticipation. Almost better than the actual blooming. I’m a fan of buds in general: rosebuds, delphinium buds, lily buds, etc.
Peony buds are probably my favourites. It seems so very unlikely a peony will unfurl from those tightly stretched spheres, especially when they are pea-sized. I agree with you about anticipation in general, although the roses I admire most are those generous ones that are better in the blooming.
They are magical enough for me. So beautiful.
Thanks for your reassurance.
A promising focus on rosebuds
I do feel excited when I see a rose covered in tight, green buds, but a single bud, less so. It seems I am greedy for roses!
Smelling salts, please! Given how beautiful these images are, I am bewildered by your thinking they are not as good as you hoped they’d be, though I suppose that is understandable from one who loves flowers. Capturing a real flower in any portrait is like capturing a person: we can but come close. I still felt as though I could touch these and get thorned. What wonders! The first three in particular had me lingering. Thank you for starting my week with beauty!
My pleasure. I do like these the best of the ones I’ve taken and I enjoy trying each year, so thanks for inspiring me.