Showing posts with label ABC Wednesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABC Wednesday. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Painted Daisy for ABC Wednesday


Painted Daisy
Tanacetum coccineum 'Robinson's Mix'
(TAN-uh-SEE-tum) (kok-SIN-ee-um)
Synonyms: Pyrethrum roseum, Chrysanthemum coccineum

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post. That is a ‘T’ also. Trollius chinensis ‘Golden Queen’ or Golden Globe Flower.

The Painted Daisy is an old fashioned and fun plant to have in the garden. It is perennial and hardy. The flowers grow to about 18 inches and the finely cut foliage is an added attraction. I deadhead the spent flowers and have divided them in both the spring and fall. Pretty much a carefree plant that will grow in a wide range of soil conditions and full sun to partial shade.

To visit the home of ABC Wednesday click here .
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Scarlet Begonias and Sunflower Abstract



ABC Wednesday and
Wordless Wednesday
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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

ABC Wednesday - Purple Leaf Plum



ABC Wednesday - P
Purple Leaf Plum
Prunus cerasifera 'Krauter Vesuvius'
(PROO-nus) (ke-ra-SEE-fer-uh)
Synonyms: Purple Cherry Plum

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday scroll down to the next post.

This one has ‘P’s a lot of P’s. The Genus Prunus is an important one in ornamental horticulture. It contains the Almonds, Cherries and Plums and Peaches so they are important for fruit production, also. There are over 400 species in Prunus.

This cultivar of Purple Leaf Plum is nice since has a final height of 8-10 feet and it has what is considered the darkest foliage. More often than not in most gardens it seems a smaller tree is better. It beats having to try and minimize everything several years down the line.

Prunus cerasifera 'Thundercloud'

This is a much taller (30 feet) version of the tree pictured above. It has an upright vase shape and seems very hardy and is a reliable flowerer. It is one of the first blooming flowering trees in this area, which alone makes it worth planting.

For a list of ABC Wednesday blogs visit:

Mrs. Nesbitt’s Place
Posted by at 10:14 PM 16 comments
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

ABC Wednesday - Cape Tulip

ABC Wednesday
Cape Tulip
Moraea ochroleuca
(mor-ah-EE-uh) (ock-roh-LEW-kuh)

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday skip down to the next post. Thanks for visiting.

Last week I was in no shape to post for ABC Wednesday. It snapped a streak of posts that started with the first ‘A’. I am participating again today with some ‘O’range pictures.

This first flower is a beauty. I shot this at Wave Hill Gardens in the Bronx a few weeks ago and was originally going to use it for my ‘M’ post. It fits in ‘O’ since the species name is ochroleuca and it is orange colored. It is native of South Africa and is known as the South African Iris or Cape Tulip. You will have to grow it in pots unless you are in a frost-free location.

Speaking of frost we are under a frost warning * rolleyes * here in Connecticut for tonight and tomorrow night. I am sick of that. I want to start planting.

These are some orange Tulips I saw on Sunday when I was buying some trees. They were a nice shape and color. There aren’t too many houses I garden at that I can plant Tulips because of the deer so I am always admiring other peoples.


Finally for ‘O’ here is an Oxalis flower. Normally grown for its foliage I think the flowers are pretty too.

Posted by at 5:43 AM 15 comments
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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

ABC Wednesday – Magnolia

ABC Wednesday – Magnolia

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post. Thanks for stopping by.

With perfect timing the Magnolia flower arrived this week just in time for an ‘M’ post. This first picture is a yellow form (which you don’t see that often) called ‘Butterflies’. I actually took this picture at the local wholesale nursery because the ‘Butterflies’ I have been growing for the last 20 years has never flowered. It is in too much shade and is probably too big to move now because of its location. I still hope to see a flower on it someday.


These other two photos were a something I have been experimenting with lately. Trying to get one flower in focus with a blurred background of many of the same flower. The first one is actually a double ‘M’ since it is a ‘Merrill’ Magnolia. You can see the difference of the two photos as the first one was shot on a cloudy, flat, grey day and the second was a sunny clear day.


The second photo is a different species called a Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata). These are usually one of the first flowers out around here and I think they are a tad later than usual this year. They grow as a shrubby tree and are nice for the garden since they grow slowly.

Magnolias date back 95 million years.

For a complete list of ABC Wednesday Blogs visit:
mrs. nesbitts place
Posted by at 5:54 AM 14 comments
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Moroccan Daisy


ABC Wednesday
Moroccan Daisy
Leucanthemum hosmariense 'Spring Silver'
(lew-KANTH-ih-mum)


If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post and thanks for visiting.

This plant was a mystery to me until I looked it up after taking this picture. I had trouble finding an L picture. We are right in between the seasons here. It is no longer winter but it really hasn’t been very spring-like either. We are just starting to get some flowers. This plant is an annual for this area of Connecticut, actually most of the US. It blooms much earlier than its hardy cousin the Shasta Daisy, which is a perennial.

Here is another L picture. It is the bark of a Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia fauriei 'Townhouse'). This one doesn’t grow in Connecticut either, well maybe extreme southern areas along Long Island Sound. A plant like this can add a lot of winter interest to the garden. This was taken in the Bronx, New York.


Just a note that work is becoming a little crazy right now, which is a good thing. I will try and visit everyone for ABC but I am not sure how many I get too. I am also not publishing my ABC Blogroll this week since so many of the blogs have stopped posting ABC posts. If you want to see who is posting in this weeks ABC Wednesday see Mrs. Nesbitt’s Comment section.
Mrs. Nesbitt’s Comment section.
Posted by at 6:47 AM 13 comments
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

ABC Wednesday - Kousa Dogwood


ABC Wednesday - K
Kousa Dogwood
Cornus kousa ‘Ed Mezitt’

Oriental or Japanese Dogwood is one of my favorite trees. Not only is it beautiful it has almost none of the cultural problems associated with our native Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida. There are many cultivars of Kousa each with it special attributes but all have wonderful flowers, unusual fruit, exfoliating bark and good fall color. There seems to a little confusion on some of the cultivars as they maybe from the same gene pool.

This particular cultivar, ‘Ed Mezitt’, is named after the founder of Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton, Mass. The flowers are a little bigger than the species and the new growth emerges with a purplish tinge to it. It is a stately tree that grows with a beautiful shape. I have had one in the Estate’s Kousa collection since 1995 and it was fairly large to begin with. Pink Kousa Dogwood was the very first flower picture featured on Digital Flower Pictures.com.


The fruit of the Kousa Dogwood is a show onto itself. It is edible but I find it both the taste and texture to be unpalatable. The birds seem to relish it and by the end of fall it is usually all gone. Here is a picture that I took last fall of some Kousa berries .


This plant is a garden type of a native flowering shrub called Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia). Banded Mountain Laurel is quite a treat to have in the garden. It is fairly easy to grow if it is sited right. I think a lot of people give Mountain Laurel too much shade and are disappointed by the results. It can take several hours of strong light, especially the cultivars.

Here is the ABC Wednesday Blogroll. The participation in ABC has grown so much that I am sure I don’t have everyone. If you want to get on this Blogroll please leave a comment and I will add you. For a more complete list of ABC blogs head over to Mrs. Nesbitt’s Place, which is the first link.

Here is the ABC Blogroll:

Posted by at 7:17 AM 25 comments
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

ABC Wednesday - J

Buddha Belly Plant
Jatropha podagrica
(JAT-roh-fuh) (pod-AG-ree-kuh)
Synonym: Bottleplant Shrub, Goutystalk Nettlespurge

J is for Jatropha this week. Some of the plants in this genus are being studied for use in producing biodiesel. I don’t think this particular species is, it is primarily grown as an ornamental. It has a most unusual trunk that grows in the shape of a bottle. Unfortunately, when reviewing my pictures the one of the trunk didn’t come out. So here is a link if you want to see it.

They are easy to grow but must be grown in a container in all but the warmest of gardens (USDA Zone 10). I find the color of the flowers to be attractive but some might find them a bit garish, that is how bright they are. One of the nice things about this plant is can flower throughout the year. This native of Central America grows to about 4 feet and has leaves that are 10 inches across.


‘J’ is for Jade Plant (Crassula), too.

Here is the ABC Blogroll:

Posted by at 6:06 AM 25 comments
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

ABC Wednesday - I is for Ivy

English Ivy
Hedera helix
(HED-er-uh) (HEE-licks)

It is ABC Wednesday again and today’s entry is ‘I’ for Ivy. I know a lot of people consider this plant to be a weed but we are lucky here in Connecticut because the winter often slows down the growth and spread of this plant. If the winter is bad enough it outright kills it. I have been places, like the US Pacific Northwest, where I could definitely see where it could be considered a weed.

Some Ivy covered Linden Trees I saw in Long Island last weekend.

English Ivy can form dense carpets in shady areas that not much else will grow. It can also climb trees, up to 80 feet tall. I have heard varying reports that this damages the tree but it hasn’t seem to have bothered the trees at the Estate. It will also climb and attach itself on masonry and wood structures. I like the looks of an ivy-clad building but it can eventually damage the building. Ivy is on NASA’s list of air purifying plants and can withstand urban pollution and poor soils.

There are close to 400 different varieties of English Ivy in cultivation. There are many shades of green, gold, purple and pink available. Most have two different types of foliage, the juvenile leaves, which are more lobed and the adult leaves, which have less lobes. The leaves exhibit various streaking, marbling and veining to keep it interesting. I have been using them in the Conservatory and outdoor containers for many years with good results. English Ivy flowers in the fall and can be a center of activity for bees and other insects. I don’t think I have ever seen the plants growing as ground cover flower but the vines growing upright seem to be prolific. They produce small black berries that some people consider toxic to humans, the birds seem to love them.

Since it is St. Patrick’s Day week I thought I would post two photos from Ireland. These are both from Southwest Ireland and the Dingle Peninsula.

Looking out toward the Blasket Islands

The joke about the Blasket Islands is that on a clear day you can see Boston Harbor, it is however, never clear.

Late Afternoon boats in Dingle Harbor.


Here is the ABC Blogroll. Have fun exploring all the different ‘I’ posts. I took off a couple of the people that haven’t posted in weeks. If you would like to be included let me know.

Posted by at 8:48 AM 17 comments
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

ABC Wednesday - Hardy Cyclamen


If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down one post.

It is once again time for ABC Wednesday. I finally got back out in the garden and took a couple of pictures. ‘H’ is for Hardy Cyclamen. Which I featured on this post last year:
Hardy Cyclamen

I am glad to see that I shot it a little different this year. I see that the flower is blooming earlier than last year, which is a good thing. Originally when I started this blog I decided not to post the same plant again but found that to be self-limiting. I also wanted to take the pictures the week of the post but I have found I have been archive dipping quite a bit. I did take these first three yesterday which was a good thing. There is hardly anything blooming in the garden right now but plenty of things on the verge of blooming.

Hardy Cyclamen is a fun plant to have in the garden but you have to be patient. This is the spring blooming type, Cyclamen coum, which has smaller flowers than the fall blooming types. I had to get down on the ground to take this picture. It is still pretty cold and wet!


H is helper and Half Pint. This is my little friend, Lily; she makes sure nothing bothers me at work. She is a funny dog and is seen here standing on a 4-foot high stonewall. She goes everywhere on the Estate and is quite a trooper. It is kind of funny to see the two of us together. I am 6 foot 6 inches and she is about 5 inches. She thinks she is much bigger than that. Please excuse the condition of the garden behind Lily. I have a lot of work to do cleaning up.


Continuing my day at work I would have to call this a ‘H’azardous tree. It blew over a few weeks ago and the tree company is coming to take it down. It is about 50 feet tall and completely jammed into the top of a live tree (sorry not a wide enough lens to show the top). They going to climb up the live tree and cut out the dead one. I thought this better left to someone crazier than me. :lol:


Here is a picture that I took last fall of a Hoover fly (Toxomerus geminatus) on a Korean Chrysanthemum. I almost nailed it but feel the DOF could have been better.

I had a couple more ‘H’ pictures. Maybe I will post them later in the week.


Posted by at 9:42 PM 26 comments
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

ABC Wednesday – G is for Green

ABC Wednesday – G is for Green

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post.

This is a Fan Palm frond I saw at the Orchid Show. Whilst everyone else was snapping pictures of the flowers I liked the way the light and shadows played on this leaf. It was taken with my Sigma 17-70mm lens (38 mm, F/5, 1/100 sec, for those interested), and the Nikon D70s.

I have a special love affair with Palm Trees. Maybe because they represent far off locales and tropical scenes or maybe it is their structure and geometry. Either way I find them fascinating. In the Conservatory at work there are several nice specimens of different Palms and some are quite large but it is a poor second to see these beauties in their natural habitat.

Green is an interesting color. It is said to have a calming effect on the mind and the body and it is considered to be a healing color. It has become a buzzword of the environmental movement and if something is said to be ‘green’ in that sense it is thought to be environmentally friendly. Of course for Americans it is the color of money.


This was an assignment from a Photoshop class I took awhile back. The topic was selective coloring and I picked green as my color. The first picture was boat I saw in Padstow, Cornwall. I converted the background to Black and White (which was fitting since it was a dreary day) and left the boat green. The boat’s name was ‘Diadem’ which means “a royal headband or something that adorns like a crown”.


This second picture is from our local train museum and the train was actually grey before the conversion. This locomotive and cars is from the old New Haven Central Line. It’s a EMD E-9A Diesel Electric Locomotive for you train buffs.

ABC Blogroll

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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

ABC Wednesday F is For Fern

ABC Wednesday F is For Fern
Tasmanian Tree Fern
Dicksonia Antarctica
(dik-so-nee-uh)

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post. Thanks for visiting.

Tree Fern is one of my favorite plants. They are graceful, easy to cultivate and beautiful. I took this photo with a 5 MP Nikon Coolpix 5400. This photo underwent a little photoshop work to help bring out the color.


This is a ‘f’ace sculpture I took down in Florida. I don’t think I would have one in my garden but it looked good in the tropical setting. I do know not to underestimate what a little bit of whimsy can bring to the garden. It is sometimes just what is needed. This piece was actually very intricate and well put together.

Here is my ABC Blogroll. If you want to be included please leave a comment to that effect. This project has grown exponentially and it is tough to keep up.

Posted by at 6:52 AM 36 comments
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

ABC Wednesday - Dahlia 'Edinburgh'



Formal Decorative Dahlia
Dahlia 'Edinburgh'(DAHL-ya)

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post. Thanks for visiting.

This Dahlia was a good performer last year often blooming in great flushes. The flowers seemed to be slightly variable between the different plants but all were very handsome. It was first propagated in the UK in 1950, so I guess it is a ‘classic’ by now. There are over 40,000 Dahlia cultivars to choose from and I usually grow about 10-15 different ones each year.

Dahlias are grouped into 10 classes, which you can see by clicking here . There are also 13 color classifications.

This one is a film scan from a trip to England I took a couple of years ago. I am pretty sure that was the last black and white film I have shot. So for an extra E here is the London Eye.


Here is my ABC Blogroll. If you want to be included please leave a comment to that effect. This project has grown exponentially and it is tough to keep up. For a complete list go to mrsnesbitt's place blog.

Posted by at 8:24 AM 28 comments
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

ABC Wednesday - Dolphin




ABC Wednesday – D is for Dolphin

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday scroll down one post, please.

Short post toady. These are some Dolphin photos I took in Las Vegas in 2006. Here is a link to the best photo of the bunch. I swear this particular Dolphin knew I had a camera.

D is also for dog. Last night one of my dogs had to have her spleen removed since there was bleeding tumor on it. Of course last night was one of the worst weather nights we have had around here all winter. After deciding on doing the surgery we needed to have some blood for a transfusion and couldn’t get any. Lucky Molly’s sister is a healthy 70 pound Border Collie and was able to give enough blood to have the operation. They aren’t really sisters but do lover each other deeply so it was nice to see Ruby helping her out. The surgery went well but there is still a good chance she may die. We had to transfer her to the emergency vet (so there someone watching her all night) for observation at 10 o’clock last night in the blowing snow and freezing rain. I have to bring back to the regular vet today at 8 am and we will have a better idea of what is going on. I am on my way now, of course it is raining cats and dogs. I hoping for the best but have steeled myself for the worse also.



Sorry if this slightly incoherent. Molly is awake and doing okay for now! I am going to try and visit at least a few ABCer's today but probably won't get to everybody.

ABC Blogroll

Posted by at 7:04 AM 25 comments
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

ABC Wednesday – C is for Camellia

Camellia japonica 'Debutante'

ABC Wednesday – C is for Camellia

If you’re here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post.

These pictures are from the Camellia House at Planting Fields Arboretum. I think it is one of the largest collections of Camellias under glass (about 300 plants) in the world. The plants, which are mostly Camellia japonica are planted in the ground and maintained to a high standard. C. sinencis, C. sasanqua and C. reticulata are also represented in the collection.



Two of the most prominent firms in American Landscape Architecture designed the house (A. Robeson Sargent and the Olmstead Brothers), which housed the Camellia plants the owner brought back from the Isle of Guernsey in 1917.


Camellias like to grow in cool conditions and this thermometer shows that the temperature was 48 degrees F (9 C) inside. I call this a Minimum/Maximum thermometer, although there is probably a more technical term for it. It shows the same current temperature on both sides. The small lines indicate the lowest temperature since the last reset on the left side and the highest on the right side. For instance when I looked at the thermometer at work the other day, which I hadn’t reset in a few months, it read that we had a high temperature of 63 F (17 C) and a low of 6 F (-14 C). Quite a range and illustrative of the winter roller coaster we have been riding here. Back to the Camellia House thermometer, it shows a high temperature of 59 F (15 C) and a low of 41 F (5 C).

Growing Camellias is about keeping them cool and imitating their native Korean, Japanese, and Chinese mountain habitat. They must be kept cool to bloom properly. Too much heat and the buds will fall off. They do best in a North or East window or some shade outside as they can get sunburned. There are several more hardy varieties coming to market for Zone 7 gardeners and I saw that Planting Fields had numerous ones planted outside. Maybe they will make a Zone 6 plant soon.


I saw these cracked clay pots and couldn’t resist the double ‘c’.


Here is the ABC Wednesday Blogroll. I have added some new blogs at the end. It seems to be growing and I hope I have time to visit everyone.


Posted by at 7:53 AM 34 comments
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bougainvillea -ABC Wednesday




Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea x buttiana ‘Enid Lancaster’
(boo-gan-VIL-lee-uh)
Nyctaginaceae (nyk-taj-i-NAY-see-ay)

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post.

If you are here for ABC Wednesday ‘B’ is for one of my favorite tropical plants, Bougainvillea. This one was blooming at the New York Botanical Garden last week. I loved the color, not having seen one in that shade before. An Internet search revealed literally hundreds of hybrids and cultivars and a rainbow of colors. This plant is a hybrid (remember from the ‘X’ post) of Bougainvillea glabra x B. peruviana. This cross has produced a lot of different cultivars, which are vigorous and colorful. They often can grow to 40 feet long which is larger than either of the parent plants.

All Bougainvillea are native to South America but have spread across the world. In non-tropical areas gardeners can enjoy them as houseplants, although you need to keep them cut back. If you are growing them indoors it is important to let the plant dry out in between waterings, and I would suggest not fertilizing them. The roots liked to be crowded and don’t be alarmed if the leaves drop off, it is natural (if they don’t come back, that’s a problem).

One from my Florida archives.

Bougainvillea grows as a vine although I have seen it trained into a small tree and a loose shrub. It is thorny and can be used as a colorful living fence. The flowers are the little buds and white trumpet in the center. The real show is the colorful three paper-like bracts that surround the flowers.


This is a ‘b’uilding I took a picture of in Manhattan. It is way downtown. I have a friend who is a brilliant architectural photographer and this is my (kind of sad) attempt to be like him. He tries to shoot flowers from time to time :lol:

Shot with a Sigma 17-70mm @ 29mm
1/200 sec/F 7.1
Ev comp.: -1.0
Circular Polarizer


Here is the ABC Wednesday Blogroll. I have added some new blogs at the end. It seems to be growing and I hope I have time to visit everyone.





Almost forgot this Bougainvillea I saw blooming at Wave Hill. It had variegated bracts which added to the overall dramatic color.
Posted by at 8:29 AM 32 comments
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