Friday, November 3, 2017

Flowers on Friday: Roses and Camellias, Straight Out of the Camera

I don't use my Nikon D70 DSLR very often anymore.  I like the in-the-moment convenience of my iPhone, which is always in my pocket when I'm outside.  Earlier this week, the light was lovely, and I took my trusty Nikon outside to see what I could capture.  Photos in this post are almost exactly as they were when they downloaded from the camera .... all I did to them was reduce the size, sharpen them a tad, and apply the watermark.  

'Paul Ecke, Jr.'  This color is SO difficult to photograph accurately.


'Tagalong'  Miniature rose.


Today is November 3, and most of the garden is feeling the autumn chill and preparing for its winter sleep.  Still, there are a LOT of flowers out there.  Many of the repeat-blooming roses have flowers.  Even a few of the spring-blooming roses have a produced surprise out-of-season flowers.  

'Morey's Pink'  Shrub rose.


'Perle d'Or'  Polyantha.  One of my favorites.


'Irish Elegance'  Three perfect flowers, all in a line.


As the roses put out their final flowers of the year, the Camellias are just getting started.

Camellia oliefera


'Winter's Star'


'Autumn Moon'


I love camellias!  They are a perfect evergreen transition from sunny to shady areas of the garden.  For me, the fall/winter blooming Sasanqua camellias perform better than the spring-blooming Japonicas, whose buds are eaten by squirrels and flowers are usually damaged by spring freezes. 

'Winter's Interlude'


Lost the tag on this one.


'Yuletide'


I found a wonderful surprise in the garden by the pavilion ... a little clump of Saffron Crocus flowers!



I brought these home from my 2015 visit to the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas.  The little bulbs grew leaves but didn't flower in 2016.  Last winter, voles tunneled through this garden and ate every single bulb in it, or so I thought.  This clump was spared ... probably because it is slightly away from where the others were and surrounded by Hellebores.





I had already harvested the Saffron threads from the flowers before I took these photos.  They're drying now.  There's not many of them, three threads per flower.  I will have to carefully decide what I want to cook to use them.

Today is a beautiful, sunny day here in Virginia, and I will be outside soon.  How is it where you are?

9 comments:

  1. Such beautiful photos! I too use my cellphone more then my big girl camera but I see I need to use it more often also. Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! No wonder good saffron is so expensive! You took some great photos. I use my iPhone almost all the time now, too. xo Diana

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Connie, I love Perle D'Or too! I have 3 of them and they are in bloom almost all year round in Georgia. Your roses are always so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Connie, I am always appreciative of how nice your photos are. Flowers especially show your abilities as the subject is so close.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The photos are exquisite. What a treat on this November morning. I also love the look of the Perle D'Or. I cannot get over your camellias. My aunts yard in Richmond is surrounded by them. They were my grandmother's pride and joy dating back to the 1950's. I didn't know they grew so far north. Would love to have one of my grandmother's camellias in my yard. As always Connie, you have knock it out of the park. Happy November gardening!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your photos are very sharp and show the flowers beautifully. I had thought of harvesting saffron and you are actually doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That first photo is incredible! It's lovely here, in Nottoway County, and I'm loving living in southside VA!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dry and cold here. No more blooms for me, I think. I agree about the convenience of the iPhone!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by and reading what I share. Comments are welcome and very much appreciated. Spam and trolls are not!

Related Posts with Thumbnails