Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
In the world of home decor, magnolia is a best-selling colour that outlasts every new craze because it is so easy to live with, but its biggest fan would not call it exciting. On the inside of the loose, cup shaped flowers held on a magnolia tree, the sheeny colour has all the allure you could hope for, especially when backed with pink, as here. Continue reading “Magnolia x soulangeana”
It snowed again overnight. Flakes falling silently outside my window as I write make the world look enchanted, but I’m more inclined to keep warm with a cup of coffee than to venture out. Instead, I’ve dug out these pictures from the first snowfall we had at the start of winter, before the hydrangea flowers all gave up the ghost and turned brown.
The blue hydrangea is for Becky’s SquareUp as the snow is trying to cover up the mopheads. Continue reading “Hydrangeas In Winter”
I wanted to share something cheery for Becky’s January Squares. Goodness knows we’re in need of it. These erigerons are all looking up, providing a flat landing spot for pollinators. I wonder if insects spend any time wondering which to land on first or just plop down on the nearest? They often seem to circle before making their choice. Continue reading “Uplifting Erigeron”
Shared for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
I’ve found myself in the middle of a series of posts about flowers that change colour as they open. Though I don’t have pictures to prove it, people who grow Rosa ‘Dream Come True’ say as the petals gradually redden, the yellow pales to creamy white. Continue reading “Rosa ‘Dream Come True’”
I’m not sure of the surprise in this series of dahlias, but I can imagine a few people being taken aback when the pink picotee dahlia they bought appears to be cream.
Dahlia ‘Louise’ is another of those chameleon plants bearing flowers that change from one colour to an entirely different one. Continue reading “Dahlia ‘Louise’ (Dahlietta Surprise Series)”
Hibiscus mutabilis is a very striking mallow that produces huge flowers, similar in form to a double rose or peony. As ‘mutabilis’ (changeable) suggests, the flowers mature from white through pink to red, displaying flowers of all three colours on the same shrub. Well, that’s what Wikipedia says.
We found this plant growing in a cemetery in South Mississippi. In stature, it was as magnificent as its flowers: considerably taller than me, and nearly as wide as it was tall. It seemed to be fending for itself in the full sun with no ill effects other than slightly droopy leaves.
Call me a nitpicker, but this is a ‘plain’ pink double form. It’s the same colour in the bud as in the open flower, as shown here – just one shade of pink. An immutable mutabilis, we might say. Continue reading “Hibiscus mutabilis (Cotton Rosemallow)”
