Frosted hibiscus seed-pod

Frosted Seed-Heads

Posted on by Ann Mackay

After last week’s snow-capped anemone seed-head, today we have seed-heads that are covered in frost. In the middle of winter I’m really glad to find anything to photograph in the garden, so I’m grateful that these are here.

On a frosty morning, these seed-heads create a focal point and some interesting textures in the garden. They become like miniature natural sculptures when their details are picked out by frost crystals. I find that seeing the patterns of frost encourages me to look more closely at the plant’s own structure. That allows me to see possible photographs where I may not have noticed them before.

frosted honesty seed pods
The remains of honesty seed-pods sparkle in the sunshine.

Mind you, sometimes there’s very little left of the seed-heads, as you can see with the honesty above. These are pretty-well wrecked by now but, given a bit of sunshine to make the frost sparkle, still manage to look interesting. Of course, on a dull but mild day, with no frost or sunshine, they don’t look at all pretty at this stage. So it’s amazing what the right weather can do.

Amongst the best of the seed-heads for frost photography are the umbellifers. There are usually quite a lot of self-sown bronze fennel seedlings around the garden and these really sparkle on a frosty morning. I never cut these down until spring, because the seeds can provide food for hungry birds. (As well as starting lots more plants.) The delicate decorations that they become is a delightful winter bonus.

frosted fennel seed head
Fennel seeds look at their best with a thick coating of frost.

Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

21 thoughts on “Frosted Seed-Heads”

    1. The fennel does look good in the garden at any time of year – and edible. 🙂 I haven’t tried eating the fennel yet, but if there’s enough of it this year, I might just give it a try. The leaves look pretty when they’re frosted too. (The youngest plants still have a few leaves.)

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    1. Thank you Indira! It’s frosty again this morning, so I may just have to get back out into the garden with my camera again… 🙂

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      3. I hope you are right – we are having problems getting the vaccine distributed here so it will probably be while until that is up to date for everyone. At least we now have one!

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