flower photography – Page 12 – Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature

Frost and After

December 17, 2023December 11, 2023 Ann Mackay11 Comments

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Last year’s hoar frost made icy little sculptures out of many of my garden plants. The one you see here is Gaura lindheimeri. (Now known as Oenothera lindheimeri, but I still call it by it’s old name. There are too many plant name-changes to keep up with these days!) This plant carries on flowering until late in the year, so frequently ends up covered in frost.

The area where the gaura is growing stays in the shade for much of the day in winter, so the frost lasts here for a long time. That gives me plenty of opportunities for taking photographs, but means that the sun doesn’t reach the frost to make it sparkle. So photography here is a bit of a compromise. Perhaps I should consider the effect of sun on frost when planting!

Eventually the frost will go, changing the look of the flower again. This time the petals are likely to be left translucent and looking very fragile indeed. (They usually wilt quickly after being frosted.) The drops of melted frost give an interesting texture to the flower – you can see right through the petals to the drops that are actually on the other side. ❄

Another (Almost) Silent Sunday

November 26, 2023November 25, 2023 Ann Mackay14 Comments

It’s a re-post of an image from near the start of my blog (in 2018) for this week. We’re just getting back to normal here after having our new heating system installed and it’s good to be warm again. With a bit of luck I’ll be back to my garden and photography in the next few days. 🙂

(Almost) Silent Sunday: Cosmos

November 19, 2023November 19, 2023 Ann Mackay16 Comments

It’s a post-and-run this week because we’re getting ready for work to start tomorrow to install our new heating system. There’s a slight feeling of chaos around here right now – hopefully it will be replaced by a good feeling of warmth soon! 🙂 (And the flower is Cosmos ‘Seashells’.)

Tranquillity Remembered: Wild Carrot in Autumn

November 12, 2023November 9, 2023 Ann Mackay12 Comments

Daucus carota (wild carrot) in evening light in autumn

Here’s a quick look back to wild carrot (Daucus carota) seed heads in early autumn, photographed in the light of a sunny evening.

Evening is a time I love in the garden, especially early on, while the sun is still out. It’s quiet and peaceful once the traffic of workers going home has gone, with just the occasional sounds made by a foraging bird. The light makes everything look better at this time of day.

Now the evenings are darker and those seed heads are gone. But there will be more new wild carrot plants in spring and sunny evenings will return. For now though, I’m very busy with preparations for a new central heating system being installed, so I haven’t had much time for the garden or photography. Our home has been in a state of disruption and reorganisation while we moved things around to allow the work to be done. Hopefully, all will be settled again soon and we will be warm this winter!

A Remnant of Summer

October 29, 2023October 27, 2023 Ann Mackay27 Comments

Scabiosa 'Kudo White' flower with variegated sage

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After Storm Babet passed by, there was not a lot left in flower in the garden. The asters which had provided some late colour have mostly gone over, and the last purple-blue ones that hang on now look tattered and disheveled after all the rain.

The white scabious flower pictured above is one of the flowers that remain and it even has buds yet to open. I find that the scabious and related knautia plants do continue to produce a few flowers until late in the year if I remember to deadhead them. At this stage, any colour that remains in my garden is a bonus. If it’s something that bees and other pollinators like, it’s an even bigger bonus. Scabious is very popular with insects, so it is proving its value here.

The white-flowered plant is Scabiosa ‘Kudo White’ and the dark red one below is Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Chile Black’. I hope that the white one will self-seed as readily as the dark scabious has. They are so attractive and long-flowering (right from the middle of summer) that I’d be happy to give them quite a bit of space in the borders.

Hmm…for some reason ‘Scabiosa’ sounds to me like something Hermione from the ‘Harry Potter’ books would say, with a deft flick of her wand. Maybe it’s a spell for filling a garden with flowers… 🙂

Flower of a red Scabious with a hoverfly — Scabious with hoverfly

Daisy Days

October 15, 2023October 13, 2023 Ann Mackay12 Comments

Autumn means that there are few flowers left in the garden here, but there is at least a splash of colour still from the asters. The bright pink one above (name unknown because it came from a friend’s garden) is almost over now. It was glorious while it lasted, but now the softer shades of pink and blue have taken over.

Honeybee on Michaelmas daisies — Honeybees were frequent visitors to these Michaelmas daisies.

The lavender-blue aster flowers have been especially popular with bees and hoverflies in the last week or so. We had a very hot and sunny spell, so the bees were out in force, making the most of the chance to find pollen and nectar before the flowers disappear. Every time I passed by these daisies, they seemed to be buzzing…a sound to make me happy!

Honeybee on pink Michaelmas daisies — This pink daisy seems less popular than the blue one, but still has its visitors.

It was interesting to see that there were fewer bees attracted to the pale pink asters. (I know the name of this one – Symphyotrichum laeve ‘Les Moutiers’. But I have to admit that I did a cut and paste for the name, rather than try to spell it!) Some time ago, I read that bees prefer blue and purple-blue flowers. That was probably the reason why they didn’t bother with this pink one as much.

I noticed too, that there were a lot more honeybees than bumblebees, but that won’t be surprising if there’s a hive not very far away. There were also what appeared to be a couple of tiny dark-coloured bees, but they were too quick for me to get a good look at them. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that this hasn’t been a good year for insects in the garden, so it was a pleasure to see these late flowers so busy with pollinators. Let’s hope they’re even busier next year!

Hoverfly on Michaelmas daisies — A hoverfly settles for a quick snack.

(Almost) Silent Sunday: Pale and Pretty

October 8, 2023October 7, 2023 Ann Mackay18 Comments

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It’s the last bit of glorious weather here, so I am doing a post-and-run so that I can spend the time outside. Astrantia is still flowering in October. Its pale colours are a contrast with the dark astrantia flowers of this post.

Late Arrivals

October 1, 2023September 30, 2023 Ann Mackay28 Comments

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This year was a worrying one as far as tiny visitors to the garden went. In spring and early summer it definitely felt as if there were fewer bees and other pollinators around. Butterflies, too, seemed scarcer this year. Things improved in the later part of the summer and there were days when there were a fair number of insects around, but not as good as previous years.

Last winter was a very cold one, with much harder frosts than we usually get. Presumably, this must have made it harder for hibernating insects to make it through to spring. I’ve also read that last year’s drought didn’t help insect numbers. Hopefully the wetter summer this year will have produced an improvement.

It was a relief to see bees and butterflies appearing as the summer progressed. But there were some things that I didn’t see here, such as the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly in the photo below.

Peacock butterflies were a rare sight here too, but Red Admirals appeared in good numbers. (They are the commonest butterflies in my garden, along with the Cabbage Whites.) The largest number I saw was on a particularly sunny day, when about a dozen Red Admirals and a solitary Peacock were feasting on a buddleia. For a few warm days there were enough of them around to swirl past me whenever I walked along the path and brushed against our butterfly bushes.

Small tortoiseshell butterfly — Small Tortoiseshell butterfly photographed in a previous summer

There was an increase in dragonflies visiting – they have obviously become more aware of our pond. It was amusing to watch these fairly heavy creatures try to settle on the nearby stems of evening primrose, which quickly bent and swayed under their weight. To give them better lookout posts, I pushed some big birch twigs into the pots of a couple of the pond plants. I hope they appreciated them!

Although this appeared to be a poor year for insects, there are some signs of hope in the attitudes towards their welfare. I’ve noticed a lot more wild plants and food plants for bees and butterflies in garden centres and nurseries, a response to the growing interest in gardening for wildlife. And, much to my delight, our local council stopped mowing many grassy areas. This means that the green that runs in front of the houses here is being allowed to become wilder. I’m hoping that in a few years we’ll have a decent little wildlife meadow out there!

Hoverfly on potentilla flower — Hoverfly on potentilla

Dainty and Delightful: Small-Flowered Clematis

September 17, 2023September 16, 2023 Ann Mackay21 Comments

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Clematis are amongst my favourite flowers – probably pretty close to the top of the list. The large-flowered varieties are sumptuous, with rich colours and beautiful flower forms. I’m always tempted to grow more of these wonderful plants. But the smaller-flowered cultivars are just as appealing. They may also be easier to fit into a wide variety of garden styles.

The large-flowered clematis can sometimes feel too showy for a more naturalistic planting style, or in a wilder part of a garden. Here the smaller-flowered clematis may be easier to use, sitting more comfortably with simpler, less highly-bred flowers. I can easily imagine the lovely little clematis in my top photograph growing through shrubs in my own garden. (I’d need to find out what it is first. This is a plant I saw in a garden I visited this year, as is the pink clematis below.)

Pink clematis flower — A stunning pink – possibly Clematis texensis ‘Princess Diana’

The pink clematis would need a bit of thought about positioning because it is such an eye-catching colour. It is very elegant, though, and wouldn’t look out of place in an informal planting. The deep blue/purple clematis below would probably look good almost anywhere. This one is ‘Sapphire Indigo’, bought many years ago at a plant fair. I haven’t seen it for sale anywhere since (although it is available online), which surprises me. It’s a lovely plant which sprawls rather than climbs, so I prop it up by leaning it against the branches of nearby shrubs. I should try to propagate it because I’d love to have more of it around the garden.

Clematis 'Sapphire Indigo' — Clematis ‘Sapphire Indigo’ in my own garden

The last clematis in this little gathering is ‘Lansdowne Gem’, which flowers in wintertime. It got thoroughly frosted last winter, which worried me a bit because I wasn’t sure if it would be hardy enough to cope with a long cold period. It does appear to have survived though, because I can see some new shoots appearing now. (Mine goes dormant in the heat of summer, so only starts to show signs of life around this time.) This is a pretty clematis, with dark red, occasionally speckled, flowers that are like little bells hanging down from the shrubs it climbs. Its flowers are something cheering to look forward to in the depths of winter.

(You can see more pictures in my post about ‘Lansdowne Gem’ here.)

Frosted flowers of Clematis 'Lansdowne Gem' — Frosted flowers of Clematis ‘Lansdowne Gem’

Late Sunshine

September 10, 2023September 9, 2023 Ann Mackay22 Comments

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Officially it’s autumn, but summer is determined to cling on here. Temperatures are breaking records for this time of year (over 30C for several days). So it feels appropriate to post a collection of bold yellows this week, a colour that makes me think of a child’s drawing of the sun.

The yellow lily demanded my attention as it gleamed in the sunlight and flaunted its brilliant colour against a dark background. It, and most of the other flowers here, were photographed during garden visits. (This spectacular lily was photographed at Fullers Mill, which I have posted about several times: here, another here, and again here.)

Left: evening primrose Right: yellow helenium — Left: evening primrose, right: helenium (sneezeweed)

The helenium (above, right) and the Anthemis daisies (below) were also photographed in other people’s gardens. I’ve visited a lot of gardens this year, making up for previous years when Covid caused the cancellation of many garden-openings. It has been a lot of fun and a great way to see plants I don’t grow here, many new to me.

The evening primrose shown above is the one flower here that was photographed in my own garden. It is Oenothera macrocarpa (Missouri evening primrose, bigfruit evening primrose), a low-growing perennial that sprawls happily in the dry soil here. The flowers of this evening primrose are a bit darker and a more lemony yellow than the taller evening primroses that also grow well here. Their flowers are larger too, opening in the afternoon and persisting well into the next morning before fading.

The last plant in this post, Anthemis tinctoria, is one that also grows in my own garden. Mine, however, is ‘E.C. Buxton’, which has much paler petals (actually ray florets). I don’t know what the cultivar in the photo here is, but I was impressed by the richness of its colour. Just the thing for a post inspired by sunshine!