White Poinsettia

White Poinsettia

Euphorbia pulcherrima cv.

(yoo-FOR-bee-uh) (pul-KAIR-ih-muh)

It is a little early but a couple of the nurseries/growers we went last week had Christmas decorations out for sale. My initial reaction was one of dismay but the sales people said a lot of professionals were already looking for stuff. With some creative, popular items you have to act fast these days so I guess I understand.

This poinsettia is from a 4-megapixel camera. It was for its time an amazing device to me. One grower had literally a sea of Poinsettias growing but none were this far advanced. I know they raise a crop of ‘Early Red’ for the early bird crowd. It was a nice sight to see their massive mum crop just coming into color.

The weather here has been terrible, it reminds me of living in England. :lol: Good planting/transplanting weather but that is about it. Since the nights have been getting kind of cool we brought in some of the most tender greenhouse plants yesterday. I think there is going to be a frost warning for interior Connecticut Sunday night and that is just too close for comfort so the rare and really tropical stuff is under glass now.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope all your dreams come true.


Tree is from Lincoln Square in NYC

Pink Poinsettia

Poinsettia
Euphorbia pulcherrima
(yoo-FOR-bee-uh) (pul-KAIR-ih-muh)

It’s a little late for Poinsettias but this the only one we had this year. Since it officially hit the junk pile yesterday I thought it was fitting to post today. It was amazing to me that when we went to buy Poinsettias all of the wholesale places had about 1/10th of the stock that have had in previous years. A sign o’ the times probably, sigh.

This pink Poinsettia was actually a hanging basket and that was nice because it draped over the table it was placed on. Juno the Siberian Husky wouldn’t leave it alone and kept chewing the leaves. The dog never showed any ill effects but I did noticed she wasn’t eating the leaves just chewing them up.

Yesterday I went to the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMa. More about that tomorrow. This picture was taken with the Nikon Coolpix P6000.

Tropical Santa

Daylily
Hemerocallis ‘Try It’
(hem-er-oh-KAL-iss)


Merry Christmas to everyone. This Daylily looked a little bit like the season. It is a red blend that grows to about 26 inches tall and flowers well. It was hybridized in 1972 by the great Daylily breeder Frank Childs. Who among hundreds of other cultivars brought us the beautiful ‘Catherine Woodbery’.

This tropical Santa was spotted in Paia, Maui. He must be hot with that jacket on. I think this is the only Santa I have seen wearing sandals.


Have a good one!

Candy Cane Chair

Candy Cane Chair
Sedona

Ruby Tuesday
See more Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet.

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Monochrome Water Garden Plants
Wordless Wednesday

White Glitter Poinsettia

White Glitter Poinsettia
Euphorbia pulcherrima 'Sonora White Glitter'
(yoo-FOR-bee-uh) (pul-KAIR-ih-muh)


This is one of the 10 or 12 varieties of Pixie Poinsettias we bought this year. The pixie part only refers to its size (3 inch pot). 'White Glitter’ looks a lot like ‘Jingle Bells’ and is considered a novelty Poinsettia. This one is nice since it has all red leaves, all white and the speckled ones, too. We are going to use the pixie Poinsettias as a Christmas table centerpiece and all the different types look good together.

This picture is from the new camera and the 105mm macro lens. Wow, this camera shoots huge pictures! They are roughly 9 by 14 inches right out of the camera. That is sure going to allow a lot of cropping and still end up with a nice size file for enlargements. It is going to take a bit of learning to nail down the D700. I think that new lenses often have a bit of learning curve to them also. There hasn’t been a lot of time to play around with it but so far I am very impressed by the cameras interface and ease of use.

Very deepest wishes for a wonderful Christmas to all. We are going to be getting together tonight with a lot of the family and tomorrow looks quiet (thank heavens).

“Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever."

Bess Streeter Aldrich (1881-1954), American author

Shimmer Surprise Poinsettia

Poinsettia
Euphorbia pulcherrima 'Shimmer Surprise'
(yoo-FOR-bee-uh) (pul-KAIR-ih-muh)
Ruby Tuesday

I was going to post a Red Crabapple for Ruby Tuesday but this is more fun. A small block of ‘Shimmer Surprise’ was nestled in the ocean of beautiful Poinsettias growing at the local wholsesale greenhouse, Valley View .

My spirits couldn’t help but be lifted when I went to the greenhouse and saw all the color. The plants are gorgeous and the prices are good too. We usually end up buying ten 8 inch Poinsettias and a couple of the 14 inch pots.


This Poinsettia was living up to it name. The bract color (remember it is not the flower) is considered the ‘Jingle Bell’ novelty type but the white and pink added more to it than just ‘Jingle Bells’. Looking over the big block of plants you could see everyone was different, which was almost a little hard to take in. This Poinsettia is probably not for everyone but to me it was bold and innovative.

Here is a link to a page of Poinsettia cultivars. There are many more than this but I noticed a lot of the popular ones here. There is some more information on ‘Shimmer Surprise’ in the novelty section.

Frazier’s Greenhouse/Oneonta, NY

Here is another site with a lot of Poinsettia cultivars:
Alabama Cooperative Extension/Chazz Hesselein

More Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet

Wordless Wednesday - Santa has Gone Fishin'

Santa is ready for a much deserved vacation. Hope he was nice to you!

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! "
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Let the children have their night of fun and laughter, let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures"
Sir Winston Churchill

Wordless Wednesday - Wide Angle Santa

Another Rockefeller Christmas Tree Shot

Another Rockefeller Christmas Tree Shot

I noticed the compression and Blogger washed out the colors of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree that were previously posted so I wanted to post another picture that showed a little of the color of the lights (still doesn't show much, argh). Just to keep real and to follow along with the title of this blog Digital Flower Pictures dot com I am posting this picture of some cut Mums I saw at the Union Square Christmas Market. These were actually from the Greenmarket, which is what we call here a farmer’s market. It is always fun to see all the interesting stuff they sell at the NYC farmer’s markets. I think if I lived in Manhattan I would do a lot of my shopping there. The Mums were $5.50 a bunch with the tax included. They really had an interesting selection of wreaths but the 50mm lens just wasn't capturing them.



This final picture is of a beautiful child I saw riding a float in a Christmas Parade that I stumbled upon in Chinatown. It was an interesting parade because it had a combination of Little Italy and Chinese themed floats. There were a couple of marching bands and the Boy Scouts in between the floats. I wished I got the picture of when this girl waved at me, it was heart warming but it just came out a little blurry.

I spent most of this morning getting the trucks and car unfrozen and chipping the ice of the sidewalk. We only got a couple of inches of snow, a lot of freezing drizzle and some rain. I am not complaining because it wasn’t as bad as predicted. I don’t like ice storms because of the damage they do in the garden especially to the evergreens. I am bored already and winter doesn’t start until Friday!

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

We decided to cancel our trip to Longwood Gardens since the weather is so bad. We have been having a lot of freezing rain and drizzle. That really stinks as we had so much fun last year when we went. Things are going to be too busy to try and fit going in the next couple of weeks *sigh*. I decided to go to Manhattan and I took the train in yesterday afternoon. I had quite a day. I am nursing two very bruised elbows and a hurt knee from a fall I took in the subway. Not sure what really happened but I almost caught myself but then fell down completely, just glad I didn’t tumble down the stairs also. I fell right on my camera which amazingly enough still worked. The lens didn’t break either which was astounding to me. A couple of nice New Yorkers helped my up and asked if I needed medical attention (dusted me off, too). I had the wind knocked out of me but managed to make it out of the station and after sitting for awhile decided to carry on.


I visited the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and despite the crowds got right up to the fence and was able to get a clear view of the tree. Since I had a nice view people were getting their pictures taken right next to me. That leads to me this next photo. I have been gathering a collection of photos of people that were posing for other photographers. I got about 10 or 12 shots this year. This was such a nice family that I snapped their picture while they posed for someone to take a shot with their camera phone. I ended up taking pictures of about 20 people who asked me to use their cameras. I really don’t mind and I got to check out a lot of different cameras. For some reason I get asked to do this all the time.


The tree was beautiful and even though the area was a total mob scene I enjoyed my visit. I didn’t try and enter from 5th Avenue where you can see the skaters I kind of went around the back. This years tree is a 84-foot tall Norway Spruce from Shelton, Connecticut. According to The Accidental Environmentalist the Rock Center Tree is much more eco-friendly with solar powered LED lights. I read the tree is recycled into 3 tons of mulch nad donated to the Boy Scouts.


In case anyone is interested I shot these photos with my Sigma 17-70mm/2.8-4.5 lens. Hand held at 17mm/2.8. I almost didn't take this lens with me but was glad I did because the 50mm would have never gotten the whole tree in. Also the Sigma seems pretty tough and I was glad it was on the camera when I fell. It is the second major impact it has had and it still works fine.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Poinsettias at Longwood Gardens

Just a quick post. I have been running around trying to get the house ready for Christmas. I put the tree up and put the lights on. I also did some outside lights this year. It sure didn’t feel like December out there today. The Poinsettia picture is ‘White Christmas’, even though it seems to have a distinctive yellow cast. I loved the really dark green foliage contrasting with the white, the other picture is the collection of Poinsettias that they had at Longwood Gardens. It is not the sharpest picture I have ever taken but all the colors sure were neat.




The last picture is the small fountains at Longwood. The water follows the music. It is a quite nice effect with the colored lights. Sorry about the angle of this picture I didn’t want to include the people’s heads in the foreground.