Three Sacred Lotus

 

Sacred Lotus

Nelumbo nucifera cultivars

(nee-LUM-bo) (noo-SIFF-er-uh)

This picture is from a summer trip down to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The Lily Pool Terrace area is always a highlight for me. The long pools feature many different Lotus and Waterlily plants as well as a great fountain. There is also easy access to the Palm House and Garden Café. The long Perennial Borders flanking the side usually feature some interesting plants. On one side of pools there is a large featured border of annuals that is loaded with spring bulbs, very colorful!

Although the trip to the BBG is a little more difficult for us it always seems to be worth it. This was shot with Karen's D80 with an old style 24-70mm Nikon lens.

Dragon Fly and Lotus Bud

Dragon Fly and Lotus Bud

(Anisoptera) (Nelumbo nucifera)

Wordless Wednesday

Lotus Bud

Lotus Bud

Nelumbo nucifera

Scared Lotus Bud and Flower

Lotus

Nelumbo cultivar

(nee-LUM-bo)

This cherry red Lotus flower was spotted earlier this summer. I liked being able to catch both the bud and flower. Shot with the 80-200mm/2,8 lens. The lens is a very good one even though it was bought “used”. It really came to me in mint condition and kind of proves that old lenses and new digital cameras do mix well.

From what I can tell the 80-200 was manufactured in the early 1990’s. It features the old Nikon push-pull zoom system, which is a little weird since I am really used to the two ring modern system on the other lenses I own. It is really a minor thing and easy to use once you get the hang of it. One thing about the lens that is a little hard to deal with its physical size. It is huge and heavy but hand holding it for a good shot isn’t too bad but I wouldn’t want to do it all day long. People often do a double take when you are out in public and that is against my incognito policy for picture taking.

Lotus Flower

Lotus
Nelumbo cultivar
(nee-LUM-bo)

Here is the 80-200mm/2.8 lens exhibiting great sharpness and color rending on a very sunny day. Even though this lens is almost 20 years old (new for me at Xmas) it is still amazing to me. As someone who truly loves prime (fixed focal range) lenses this zoom lens has been a bit of a blessing. I wasn’t the guy, for a change, hanging over the lotus pool tying to get a shot with a 60mm lens. I was able to step back and enjoy the flowers!!

Tonight is going to be special as we are going to meet and see in concert my favorite pop star Selena Gomez. I can’t believe the day is finally here after the long wait from March when the tickets went on sale.

Here is a link to Selena’s latest platinum (over 1 million sold) single Who Says.

.
Partially inspired by the wave of hate that flowed Selena’s way after she hooked up with Justin Beiber. I read that she didn’t really want to walk barefoot in downtown LA but did it anyway.

Here is another Sel video from the album before last called A Year without Rain. It took me awhile to fall in love with the CD but I have. This is a mixed Spanish and English version. Probably my favorite TV performance by Selena and she is on TV a lot.

"
A Year Without Rain from George Lopez Tonight.

Lotus

Lotus
Nelumbo 'Charles Thomas'
(nee-LUM-bo)

One of the highlights of a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden is seeing the Lily Pool Terrace. It is a couple of long rectangular pools with a smaller round one in the middle. The round pool has a big but slow fountain that drips down the sides. Both sides of the area are filled with various flower gardens with annuals, perennials and bulbs. The Café and the entrance to the Conservatory are there also.

It was nice not to have to be the guy hanging over the side of the water trying to focus on the flowers with a short lens. The 200mm was perfect for getting shots of the few Lotus and the large amount of water lilies blooming. Seeing the Koi swimming among the flowers was nice too.

Lotus flowers always seem special to me. I am not sure if it is the fact they are blooming out of murky water or it’s their shape and structure. The colors are usually muted although ‘Charles Thomas’ had a nice kind of cherry red shading to it. According to research on the subject the flowers bloom pink and then fade to light pink as it ages. ‘Charles Thomas’ was the first Lotus ever granted a patent in the Unite States and is named after the former president of Lilypons Water Gardens. It was introduced in 1984.

Lotus Flower

Nelumbo nucifera

Lotus Bud

Lotus Bud

This was growing in a small Koi pond I saw at a nursery. It was nice because the buds were right along the edge of the display and easy to photograph. This is a link to a Wikipedia article on Lotus.

It really is a fascinating plant.

If you don’t have a water garden to grow a Lotus plant in you could always get your dog a Lotus chew toy.

That red carp looks cool too.

Lotus Pool at The New York Botanical Garden

Lotus Pool at The New York Botanical Garden
Skywatch Friday

Been awhile since I posted a Skywatch Friday but I have been enjoying other people’s creative ways to show the sky. This is one of the outdoor water gardens that are inside the courtyard of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the Bronx. It is considered the largest Victorian glasshouse in the United States (it is huge). It is easy to get some nice Lotus and Water Lily photos, even with a short lens since many of the plants are growing close to the edge of the pools.

Here is a closer shot of the Lotus flowers in the foreground. I used my 17-70mm Sigma lens with a circular polarizer.


I am working up in Hyde Park today and have to leave early since it is a long drive. The garden and the surrounding farm are worth the trip. Have a nice Friday.

For other Skywatchers check:
The Sky Watch Team

Scared Lotus Bud and Flower

Scared Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera 'Pekinensis Rubra'
(nee-LUM-bo) (noo-SIFF-er-uh)

Lotus Flowers

Here are two Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) flowers from this August. My archiving has reached late summer. Use this Wikipedia link to learn more about the Lotus ( click here). It is a flower I would really like to try and grow someday. There have been a few other Lotus posts on this blog and if you click the label you can find them.

Short post as I need to get back to digging out from the storm we had. Final total was about 10 inches of snow and a nice crust of ice in between. I shoveled everything once yesterday but it was a little too early and several inches of snow fell after. It is spitting a little snow today and I hope it doesn’t add up to much.


I keep quietly repeating to myself, spring is not that far away.

NYBG Water Garden

NYBG Water Garden

I went down to the New York Botanical Garden today. I saw some unusual flowers and learned a couple of new plants. It was a quick tour with my main goal of hitting the Rose Garden. These are a couple of shots of the Water Garden that is outside the Conservatory. It was in bloom with a good collection of Lotus and Water Lilies. Lighting wasn’t optimal and it felt like it was going to rain at any minute.



I will probably be living on the photos I took today for a while. My upcoming week doesn’t really have a lot of flowers forecast. I wanted to get my ‘E’ picture for ABC Wednesday. I have a couple to choose from now. I kept my eye out for plants that start with the letter e. That was kind of fun.

I probably won’t be providing a lot of commentary with the pictures that I post for a spell. I have revived a project that I was working on a few years back. I wrote a book on the history of the Premier Gold Mine, which was along the Alaskan/BC Border. A couple of my cousins worked there. I had a deal to publish it but it didn’t work out. I have recently been researching self-publishing the book on the internet. It still needs a bit of work (bit of an understatement) and I have literally hundreds of historical photographs to wade through, again. This blog has always been mostly about the pictures so It probably won’t be a bad thing.

Dwarf French Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pia')

Dwarf French Hydrangea
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pia'
(hy-DRAIN-juh) (mak-roh-FIL-uh)
Hydrangeaceae (hy-drain-jee-AY-see-ay)
Synonyms: 'Piamina', 'Comet', 'Winning Edge', 'Pink Elf’

This is from the Brooklyn Botanical Hydrangea collection. The collection itself wasn’t that big nut it had some interesting members. I hadn’t seen this dwarf before and I thought the flower color was outstanding. Some research revealed some problems with this plant including reverting to a tall type and leaf spot. I still would try anyway as the size and color make it look like a worthwhile garden denizen.





This Variegated Hydrangea was marked ‘Lemon Wave’ but it wasn’t as yellow as some of them I have seen. I liked the flower color which was a nice pale lavender. The little splotches of yellow on the teeth of the leaves was interesting. You might miss it if you didn’t look closely. The plant itself was also compact.



This is a shot of the Lotus Pool. The pool and the garden surrounding it was my favorite part of the garden. I shot this with my Point and shoot camera. It is a
Nikon Coolpix E8400.



I hadn’t had it out in awhile but Karen was using her D80. I have the 8400 set to a 3:2 aspect ratio (instead of it’s normal 4:3) which I like a lot better.

Double Rose Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera ‘Rosea Plena’)

Double Rose Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera ‘Rosea Plena’
(nee-LUM-bo) (noo-SIFF-er-uh)

These are some Lotus photos from the BBG. Overall they have a world class collection it was however not presented the best it could have been. That is all I am going to say about it. I got in free because we have a membership at the New York Botanical Garden and it was $12 to park. Afterwards I noticed that there was some free on street parking available.



This is a different cultivar of Lotus and it was quite pretty also.



Even the buds looked good.



”You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it!”
Sai Baba

Here is a link to an article on the spiritual meaning of the Lotus flower at
CosmicLotus.org