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One Photo Two Ways

This week’s Lens-Artist’s challenge – to share scenes captured in more than one way – is very welcome. I routinely take several shots of anything that piques my interest and just as regularly am not sure which I prefer. It’s nice not to have to choose.

Rousham doorway with clematis

Take this clematis clad stone wall and doorway at Rousham Gardens.  Is the scene more romantic when your eye isn’t being led away down the path (which would probably have been my choice) or do you prefer to wander? Continue reading “One Photo Two Ways”

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Star Shaped Flowers: Clematis ‘Darius’

Clematis 'Darius' has attractive star-shaped stripes and purple anthers

Clematis ‘Darius’ may not be easy to find, but is certainly a beauty. With flowers as big as my outstretched hand, this is classed as an early, large-flowered clematis.

The flowers seem to have been painted with a star shape formed by a purple-pink stripe down the centre of each petal. Spidery dark purple anthers on creamy-white filaments add their patterns too. Continue reading “Star Shaped Flowers: Clematis ‘Darius’”

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Rosa ‘Bathsheba’, An English Climbing Rose

Bathsheba climbing rose has large, apricot flowers

My sweetheart uses the term ‘mannerly climber’ to describe a rose that will climb rather than swamp any structure provided for it by human carers: if the rose produces a succession of elegant, petal-packed rosettes, that’s so much more courteous of it. Rosa ‘Bathsheba’ is a fine example of a mannerly climbing rose.

Pictures rarely tell the full tale of any plant, particularly not a rose. We miss out on the fragrance (strong, flowery myrrh, since you ask) and find it hard to judge the size of the flowers. These are large ones, with a hint of a button eye that becomes Bathsheba very well.

Rosa Bathsheba

Continue reading “Rosa ‘Bathsheba’, An English Climbing Rose”