Wild Irish Daisy

Wild Irish Daisy

Taken on our 2006 trip to Ireland.

Irish Boats

Irish Boats
Wordless Wednesday
Click Here for a Larger Version

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Phalaenopsis ‘Taida Smile’
Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Here is a ‘real’ beer from the motherland.

For more pictures of Ireland click here

A Few More Ireland Shots

A Few More Ireland Shots

Please humor me as I sort through my archives. I have so much disk space on my main computer that having extra files doesn’t matter. However, on my Laptop I have an 80 gig Hard Drive and that is getting kind of full so I have to get rid of some photos. These Foxgloves were growing at the end of a long gravel road we decided to drive out on. There were sheep there and up on the hills a man was training a couple of Border Collies. You could hear the barking and whistling even though they were quite far away.

Foxglove is one of our most requested plants for perennial gardens. I have found that it is not quite perennial. It has been a bit frustrating in some aspects to get and keep them going. It is okay if they are growing in kind of a woodland setting as they renew themselves by seeding. This can be a little tricky in a highly maintained and mulched border though (at least to me). I will, of course, keep trying since if you don’t have optimism as a gardener you might as well hang it up.

This is a picture of some horse riders in Ireland. It is a snapshot but I liked the way it came out. It was surprising to see them on the beach and I just raised the camera and fired.


I am looking forward to finishing up a couple of nagging little issues on two different jobs today. That will make me feel better. I am also meeting with a potential new client. That is always interesting as you never know what kind of garden you will be looking at.

Irish Roses

Irish Roses

I am still emotionally and physically drained from the events of the last few days. Working 70 plus hours the last two weeks hasn’t helped. I came home yesterday and just kind of fell into my Ipod. I had it on shuffle and lucky no sad songs played. I have decided to just finish a couple of little loose ends at work and have a few appointments on Saturday and take Sunday completely off. Molly’s doctor has invited us to his farm for a look around and after that I am going to hopefully shoot a few pictures.

Last week I was weeding out my Iphoto library on my Laptop and snagged a few pictures that I had missed. This one is some roses that were outside a roadside pub. I am surprised it came out steady as I had few pints while inside. Ireland was beautiful. The color of the flowers were set off nicely by the green of everything. The roses particularly beautiful. I have posted some other Ireland photos and roses (use the tags if you want to see them) on this blog.

Once again I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of support. This isn’t the first time that we have lost a dog but Molly was so special it seems a little harder. Thanks for the insights and stories of how you got through the loss of your pets. It as made things a little easier

This is picture I took at Dingle Harbor. It is from the same ‘lost’ roll.

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.

mrs nesbitts place
a bit of this a dash of that
Little Rock Daily Photo
strolling through Georgia
kate isis
photography by kml
AVCR8TEUR'S Blog
Salty Dogs
The Modern Goddess
Simply Sage
author blog
kai
Mollitudes
ten forty
Neva
Ackworth born, gone West
katch photo
Mr. Mapper
The Max Files
Watch me, No Watch me
Peter Miller
Lynette
Andrea’s Thought of the Day
Photowannabe
RuneE’s Visual Norway
Happy One
Azure
HPY
cre8tiva
Lilli and Nevada
Bonnie
Outhouse of Canada
imac
Digital Shutter Mania
Dirty Knees
Dragonstar
Veg Plotting
Erin
Gordon
GAWO
arne’s blog
kostas
petunia
postcards from paulie
kim
LanaG!
Ida
Miss Yves
Siani
ellen b
Kuanyin
pernille
JoAnn's-Digital-Eye NL
katney
flassies fila
BumbleV
Creating a Likeness

Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata 'Franz Schubert')

Garden Phlox
Phlox paniculata 'Franz Schubert'
(floks) (pan-ick-yoo-LAY-tuh)

I don’t feel like I have much to say today other than what a week it was. I am glad it is over in so many ways. Yesterday I was tending to the big rose garden and it was really cold. Not mention all the thorns I stuck by, including a deep one right in the knuckle. Just marvelous. I only got about 2/3’s of the roses done and am going back tomorrow for some more punishment.

This Phlox is a beauty. What can you say about such a classic flower as Garden Phlox? There have been several posts of P. paniculata on this site so use the search or click the label if you want to find out a little more about the flowers.


I saw this striped rose in Ireland and it was very interesting. I used to not be crazy about striped roses but I have been liking them more lately, maybe it is an acquired taste.

Wordless Wednesday - Irish Boats

Dingle Harbor.

Irish Roses

Irish Roses

I have been reminiscing about my trip to Ireland last summer. Especially since someone who went with us is ill right now. I have been going over a few photos and found these pictures of Irish roses. The first one is from a hopelessly beautiful garden in front of some modest townhouses (not sure what they call them over there). If I could cultivate a little more of this type of action I would be a rich man (not only monetarily). Some other photos I took during the trip can be found here:
Ireland Album



I have some correspondence to send out today. I have been woefully lax in emailing friends and family. There are a couple of business emails to go too. I have to explain to everyone how far behind I am. The 1 to 2 inches of rain we are expecting from the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry isn’t going to help matters. I guess I can only do what I can do. I have to get the rest of tropicals out of the Conservatory and that sounds easy except they have to lowered to the first floor via the lift inside (try that with a 16 foot Ficus tree). I also have to finish putting the annuals in and planting the container garden. There is a big Garden Party a week from today at the Estate so I have been concentrating my efforts on getting everything ready.

Yesterday I had to go the garden with a chainsaw. I am guilty of often trying to nurse plants back to health but a few just had to go. Among the victims were a Albizia julibrissin 'Ernest Wilson', which is a tree I have vowed never to try and grow in Connecticut again. A large Kousa Dogwood on the island had to go as the top completely died. I had several plants killed by sapsuckers. Here is a photo of some of the damage on the Leatherleaf Viburnum.



Actually the plant is sprouting from below this damage but I had to cut away 75% of the 12-foot high shrub. The Sapsuckers completely ravaged a planting of San Jose Holly that were about 25 feet tall and 20 years old. I am not sure what to do about them; maybe I should buy a shotgun. I don’t mind sharing the garden with wildlife, that is all part of it, but these birds are way too destructive. A few Mountain Laurel cultivars had to go as they just didn’t come back after the winter.





^These are some 'new' Rose pictures from Ireland.

Red Irish Rose

I have been going through some pictures from the trip to Ireland I took this summer. It was a real luxury to be able to go during the height of the season. Usually when I go to Europe it is winter. I spent my time around Dingle in the Southwest of Ireland. It is a lovely area for sightseeing. The gardens and flowers were truly amazing. Everything seems to grow very lushly. We were lucky as there was virtually no rain while we were there. This picture is from a pub we stopped at for lunch. It had several types of bush and climbing roses outside. You’ll forgive me if the picture isn’t that steady because I had a couple of pints with lunch (lucky I wasn’t driving). I have updated my Ireland pages over at my other website: Digital Flower Pictures.com. Since the airfare wasn’t too bad for the top of the season we may try and sneak away again to Ireland next summer.

I am getting ready to go to Longwood Gardens for the weekend. They do some nice Christmas lights and the Conservatory is always nice this time of year. I am meeting my brother down there. Just a quick one-day getaway, which is fine for this time of year. I will be happy to get my Nikon Coolpix 8400 back today. I am stopping in Manhattan to pick it up. It turned out the place I took it to get fixed had to send it to Nikon, as they were not ‘factory-authorized’ to repair the 8400. That slightly pissed me off but it was the same price and I guess they got it back from Nikon a lot faster than if I sent it to them. I have missed not having a point and shoot camera. I hope they fixed it properly.

Today’s flower is from Ireland. It was growing in a small cottage garden with some daisies, sage, tall Goat’s beard, and roses. This flower was the star of this particular garden, although they had window boxes with lovely red Geraniums mixed with blue Lobelia that were also fantastic. This was probably one of the most beautiful flowers I have seen. My camera battery had died 10 minutes before I stumbled on this beauty, and I had to use my backup camera. At the time I was so disappointed, but later realized my backup is a very good camera and I am lucky to have it (it is a Coolpix 8400, by the way). It did a nice job capturing this beauty under tough conditions. It was kind of a misty twilight.

I am not sure what flower this is. That is probably a little of the attraction for me. I have grown a plant similar to this called Striped Mallow. It looks to me like it is in that family but the flower was larger and more refined. I think I have narrowed it down to Lavatera trimestris or Malope trifida. You can see the green calyx through the petals so that would point to Malope. I am going to try and keep researching it; if anyone knows, please share your knowledge. If I find out, I will edit this post and a few new plants will have to go in the garden next year.

Giant Rhubarb
Gunnera manicata
(guh-NER-uh mah-nuh-KAH-tuh)

Bunratty Castle
Co. Clare, Ireland

I have never grown the plant behind the boat. I would dearly love to give it a try. I hope I have the right species listed here. The tropical genus contains over forty different species. They vary enormously in leaf size. The tenderness range is to about 10 deg. F, so it would make it in Connecticut if it had sheltered area and perhaps some extra protection. The giant leaves are a bold foliage statement that need the room to arch out. This plant likes moist-boggy conditions as you can see from the picture.

Bunratty Castle is a must see for the gardens alone. The Folk Park recreates Irish life in the 19th century. The place was stunning to me. The walled garden was amazing. The level of gardening was extraordinary. Around each corner there was something to be seen. The Castle was built in the early 1400’s. Just a 15 minute taxi ride from Shannon Airport.

Japanese Iris (Iris ensata)

I am back from Ireland; we had a great time. The wildflowers alone were worth the trip. I hopefully will be posting a few pictures from the trip in a couple of days. I hope to update this blog at least 2 or 3 times a week. If you would like to subscribe please email me at digitalflowerpictures@yahoo.com. You will have to cut and paste the address as I haven't figured out how to place a link in these entries. If you would like to see some of my other photography my website is http://digitalflowerpictures.com or click on the link at on the right side of the page.

Featured today is one of my favorite perennials. Japanese Iris have the largest flower of any of the Iris. I have seen them 6-7" across! One garden I work in has a nice collection of Japanese Iris. They are breathtaking in the height of the season, which is the end of June. They are native to Eastern Asia and are very hardy. The plant has been in cultivation for ages and has been the focus of subjective breeding for many years. The modern cultivars are the most dramatic, with their Japanese names and seemingly endless variation. Their culture is easy on moist, well drained, acid soil. They grow well on the edge of the pond.