Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Geranium phaeum commonly has dark blooms as its folk name, dusky cranesbill, implies and the dark splashed foliage that can be glimpsed in the foreground. Jazzier varieties include Geranium phaeum ‘Alec’s Pink’, Geranium phaeum ‘Kora’ and Geranium phaeum ‘Lavender Pinwheel’ – this looks like a mix of all three. I photographed it under the close direction of John Bent in his private garden, Weeping Ash, a few years ago. Continue reading “Sunshine’s Macro Monday: Geranium Phaeum”
I’m sharing this picture of monarda in a flower border as part of Becky’s SquareTops since one flower is growing out of the top of another. I love the bold contrast of the pinky-red with the dark purple. Continue reading “Square Tops: Monarda”
These trilliums are from RHS Harlow Carr’s beautiful Spring woodland garden on the hillside behind the stone building used for exhibitions. It’s a little out of the way and I wonder how many visitors have discovered it – I only stumbled on it by mistake. It struck me as being fairly newly planted but if so, they’ve done a great job.
RHS gardens are rightly closed to help protect us, but of all the gardens that are out of reach, this is the one that calls me most plaintively. Continue reading “Trilliums At Harlow Carr Garden (Mainly)”
The geranium has slipped a flower and bud above the fern’s patterns making it seem as if the flower is wearing a shawl of green lace. The radial lines of the flower are decorative too.
I’m not sure the geranium will be 100% happy living so close to a fern, but visually it’s one of those happy accidents nature presents. Continue reading “Hardy Geranium With Fern Shawl”
I loved these petals with their soft, complimentary colours and mix of light and shade. I took the picture at Farmer’s Branch, Texas a couple of years ago and know that someone is going to ask me which rose it is, which gives me a problem. The form reminds me of Rosa ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’, and the colour of Rosa ‘Jubilee Celebration’, but I believe it’s Rosa ‘Lady Of Shalott’, which was looking so good during our visit that I later persuaded my sweetheart to plant one in his garden. Continue reading “Sheeny Petals”
Fritillaria imperialis are very attractive in flower, although they are decidedly pongy when grown in a big group. Folk names for them include Crown imperial and imperial fritillary.
Walking around a woodland garden last spring, my nose picked up something foxy in the air. I thought I knew what it was, but not where it was coming from. By following my nose, I eventually tracked down this clump of flowering bulbs, a bit deeper in the woodland. Continue reading “Fritillaria Imperialis – The Crown Imperial Fritillary”
My sweetheart calls Azaleas ‘party girls’, because they burst into flower, divert our attention from everything around them, drop their flowers and then leave things looking a bit boring. His words, not mine! But while they last… Continue reading “Azaleas In Flower”
Susan Rushton 