Dalmatian Peach Foxglove

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'Dalmatian Peach' Common Foxglove

Digitalis purpurea  

(dig-ee-TAH-liss) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

This Foxglove is part of the ‘Dalmation' series. They are colorful and tall but still a biennial. I used to worry all the time about my Foxglove plantings but have lately taken to letting them find their own balance. All the careful deadheading, staking, pinching never really produced better results then just letting the plants bloom and go to seed. The mother plants will die and even if they live to a second or third year they are not very vigorous by then. If the patch starts to look at little dilapidated adding a few plants to the gene pool can be helpful.

I don’t think that these flowers were quite living up to their color potential on the nursery bench. They should gain better color after being planted.

Chocolate Cosmos

Cosmos atrosanguineus 'Chocamocha'

(KOS-mus) (at-ro-san-GWIN-ee-us)

This is an interesting species of Cosmos that certainly bucks the popular trend of pastels, washed out colors and yellows that seem to be dominating the color space right now. In this climate Cosmos is treated as annual but is a very reliable self seeder. The flowers of this particular species are sterile and the plant is extinct in the wild. All plants are from a single vegetative clone. It has been hanging on that way since 1902.

The slightly fragrant flowers appear in summer and keeps blooming until the frost. Like most Cosmos this species is a native of Mexico.

Sunset on Candlewood Lake

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Sunset on Candlewood Lake

Lately I have been trying to take pictures of anything besides flowers. Just as an experiment to sharpen my skills and take a different look at the things around me. I live close to this lake which is the largest in our state.

As part of my experiment all of the equipment I have been using is my back up kit. A Nikon D70s and the 18-135mm lens. At first I was kind of bummed about taking the back up stuff but then realized that if I can’t do it with that then I probably shouldn’t be doing it. The D70s despite being heavily traveled and used is still a fine camera. It took a few minutes to remember how to run it. The lens is sharp and gives a good overall performance. It has a good range but I like using it wide the best. It came as the kit lens on the D80.

This second shot was a boat driving off into the fog. It seems that I arrived just a minute late but still got a shot in the terrible light.

Here is a shot of my ultra bored photo assistant. It’s hard to believe that Juno is turning 10 this year.

Hardy Water Lily ‘Texas Dawn’

Hardy Water Lily ‘Texas Dawn’

Nymphaea cv.

(NIM-fee-uh)

Little did I know that this flower is actually the Official State Waterlily of Texas. I can see why they picked it. The color is unusually bright and warm. It blooms a lot too.

Texan Kenneth Landon developed this unique cultivar by in 1985. He almost single handily started the International Water lily Collection in San Angelo, Texas.

I took this picture last summer at the pond between the glass houses at the NYBG.