Tag Archives: Flower

Aug 31 2012

Daffodil-day

 

Every year August 31, is daffodil day. The cancer society sell bunches fresh daffodils  and/or one artificial daffodil when you give money. This is in New Zealand.

 

Trompie looking at a bed of daffodils

To Daffodils

BY ROBERT HERRICK

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
         You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
         Has not attain’d his noon.
                        Stay, stay,
                Until the hasting day
     Has run 

                But to the even-song;
And, having pray’d together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay, as you,
         We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
         As you, or anything.
                        We die
                As your hours do, and dry away
Like to the summer’s rain; 

      Or as the pearls of morning’s dew,
                  Ne’er to be found again.

 

Jul 31 2012

Travel Theme: Flowers

 

I love flowers and the last week was a real flower week for me and it is still flowers for this challenge also.

I love FLOWERS.

The following photos were taken at our annual Fuchsia flower show.

There were so many beauties that I could hardly pick from it.

There were also many begonias.

Hydrangea.

All so colorful.

Then my favourites

ORCHIDS

Cattleya

I took all the photos in 2009 at the show in Lower Hutt,  New Zealand.

Travel theme: Flowers

http://wheresmybackpack.com/

So this week’s travel theme should be a fairly easy, and hopefully joyful one. I can’t wait to see what flowers you have in your part of the world. If you’d like to join in, create your own post, title it “Travel theme: Flowers” and put a link to this page in your post so others can find it. Don’t forget to check back in next Friday for a new travel theme.

Bring on the flowers!

xxx Ailsa

 

Jul 29 2012

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

 

Purple

Etymology and definitions

The word ‘purple’ comes from the Old English word purpul which derives from the Latin purpura, in turn from the Greek πορφύρα (porphura),[5] name of the Tyrian purple dyemanufactured in classical antiquity from a mucus secreted by the spiny dye-murex snail.[6][7]

The first recorded use of the word ‘purple’ in English was in the year AD 975.[8]

My early morning walk gave me a closed purple flower.

The sun was not up that high, they were still in the shade.

Right way up

The other critical ‘condition’ for successful planting is to put the bulb into the ground the right way up. The bulb shoot should be facing up and the roots down. With most bulbs this is easy to determine as they go in pointy side up. As with every rule, there are exceptions. In the case of bulbs the exceptions are anemones and ranunculus, two of the cheapest and most cheerful of spring-flowering bulbs to grow. Anemone and ranunculus have small, oddly shaped bulbs that are a little tricky to manage. Technically the small bulb on these plants is called a corm. Neither of these bulbous plants need a spell in the crisper before planting but they do grow best if replanted from fresh each autumn.

Anemone corms look like chocolate drops. They are planted pointy side down as the point is the root, not the growing tip. If you are in any doubt, plant the corm sideways. Ranunculus grow from claw-shaped corms. The claws are the roots and these go down into the soil.

http://www.homelife.com.au/gardening/plant+guide/bulb+planting+secrets,5545

 

Jul 27 2012

It’s write easy

 

It’s Write Easy

July 27, 2012

Words: rain, difficulty, special day, building, theatre

Special Day

There are  hand full’s of special days in my life.

One special day I remember is when my son was born.

We did not expect to have children because we got married at a mature age. One thing we discussed ,before we got married ,was the possibility of never having children. It was not in our hands. I am so glad it just happened.

My son was born on a Sunday evening   9.30pm. This happened on August 9, 1981. I was so proud to be a mother. My husband called my parents to tell them it was a boy. My mother, who picked up the phone, could not believe that it was a boy. She asked my husband if it was a twin because it was supposed to be a girl!.

Let me quickly explain: my side of the family are all female. My father was the last male in the family. That is why my mother could not believe it is a boy .

The birth of my son is a very special day and I will always remember it.

Then there is also something special connected to the August  9. After the democratic elections in South Africa  some special days were instated. I have to thank Nelson Mandela for taking the 9th of August as a special day for women. Every year on my sons’ birthday everybody could stay home because it was Women’s Day. My son enjoyed the idea of not going to school on his birthday.

Words for quick writing: flowers, embarrassment, summer, place, happiness

FLOWERS

I love to take photos of flowers. The last two months I have been taking photos of my Cymbidium(orchid) I took photos from where the first spike started to come out. Then I kept an eye on it and took photos once a week on a Thursday. Every week I could see how it was growing. Then one evening the first flower opened and I took a photo again. Now all eight flowers are fully open.

I am so glad they all opened because orchids easily throw off their flowers or buds.

There is also a smaller second spike with only three flowers. They are also fully open now. I took a photo again this morning because the sun was shining and the flowers were in the sun inside my room. I usually like to take photos without a flash that is why it was great to have the sunlight shining on them.

 

 

http://printsensephotography.com/2012/07/26/52-pick-up-flowers/

 This is no 2 of my  52 Pick up – flowers

 

 

Jul 18 2012

More winter flowers

 

Some flowers we associate with winter. As soon as we see them we know  winter is really upon us.

Cyclamen

Last winter I did a scrap boo session at a church.

They ladies thanked my by giving me a Cyclamen.

It did not want to really grow inside so I planted it outside at the back of my deck.

When winter came it gave me the first flowers.

In many areas within the native range, cyclamen populations have been severely depleted by collection from the wild, often illegally, for the horticultural trade; some species are nowendangered as a result. However, in a few areas, plant conservation charities have educated local people to control the harvest carefully at a sustainable level, including sowing seed for future crops, both sustaining the wild populations and producing a reliable long-term income. Many cyclamen are also propagated in nurseries without harm to the wild plants.

Cyclamen (US /ˈsaɪkləmɛn/sy-klə-men or UK /ˈsɪkləmɛn/sik-lə-men) is a genus of 23 species of perennials growing from tubers, valued for their flowers with upswept petals and variably patterned leaves. Cyclamen species are native from Europe and the Mediterranean region east to Iran, with one species in Somalia.

It was traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae but recently has been reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclamen#Cultivation_and_uses

The next flower I also associate with winter.

(I see in the description that there are different types that bloom in different times of the year)

Poker plant/ Kniphofia uvaria/Torch lilly

Just across my drive way there are these “vuurpyle” as we call them in Afrikaans/

This is in New Zealand. Taken Half June 2012

Kniphofia uvaria originates from the Cape Province of South Africa,[1] and has been introduced into many parts of the world, such as North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe as a garden plant. It is hardy in zones 5-10.

In parts of south-eastern Australia, such as the Central and Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and southern Victoria, it has escaped cultivation and become naturalised.[1] It is now regarded as an environmental weed in these locations, spreading from former habitations into natural areas, where it can grow in thick clumps and threaten sensitive ecosystems. Elsewhere in southern Australia it is regarded as a potential environmental weed, and it may have also naturalised in parts of South Australia and California.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kniphofia_uvaria

 

Jun 19 2012

Yellow Poppies

http://printsensephotography.com/2012/06/17/summer-a-haiku/

Sherene had the most beautiful photos of red poppies on her post. You may as well have a look. I told her that we have some yellow popies that are open here in the Council gardens and on the round about.

My biggest problem is that the weather does not want to clear enough so I can take some photos of them.

This morning I decided come rain, come snow I am going to take some photos of the YELLOW poppies.

One patch along the road.

All the heads of the flowers were blown away from me.

I had to turn it facing me so that I could take a better photo.

I had to step onto the curb and nearly into the wet flowerbed to take this photo.

Another photo of the round about. This is only a small one.

There is another round about which is bigger and has more flowers.

Problem is you can’t walk up to the flowers. Cars won’t stop to let you do it!

The Iceland Poppy (Papaver nudicaule syn. Papaver croceum, P. amurense, P. miyabeanum, and P. macounii) is a borealflowering plant. Native to subpolar regions of northern Europe and North America, Iceland poppies are hardy but short-livedperennials, often grown as biennials, that yield large, papery, bowl-shaped, lightly fragrant flowers supported by hairy, one foot, curved stems among feathery blue-green foliage 1-6 inches long. They were first described by botanists in 1759.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_nudicaule

Jun 13 2012

52 Pick up – Tell a story

Tell a story means you have to use a series of photos and then tell what is happening!

Well, my story is about watching my orchid’s  flowers develop into beautiful flowers.

CHAPTER ONE

I saw the flowers developing the first time and took photos on May, 10, 2012

This is the one which is going to have 8 flowers

This one is smaller and came out later than no 1.

CHAPTER TWO

Then I took photos again on May, 17.

 Week later, the flowers were showing their heads.

Big spike with flowers.

Smaller spike.

CHAPTER THREE

I took photos again  June, 07

The warmer weather did the flowers well. The are still developing!

Smaller one is going slowly.

CHAPTER FOUR

The newest photos, taken  yesterday, June 12, 2012 at 5:30pm. The plant is in my one bedroom because it is too cold outside. Snow is expected to fall  tonight. There was snowfall already during the day on the hills.

I really hope the flowers will survive in this weather!

The smaller spike has got only 3 flowers.

This is the end of the second last chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE

The last chapter is going to be when the spikes are in bloom!!!

http://printsensephotography.com/2012/06/10/52-pick-up-week-23-review/