July 5th, 2020
A Few Flowers, Wild and Store Bought
Weather always get a bit iffy after Solstice in Alaska. This year has been no exception to that trend. I have been waiting to get a real good selection of various wild flowers, but will have to settle for the mix of flower shots I have from the 21st of June.
From the parking lot of the Bistro restaurant.
I like pansies in the garden, i love how the next year the seeds will come back in miniature form as violets or violas which ever name you prefer. The large and small (miniature) ones look really good together especially if you are lucky and get the tiny all yellow ones next to the blue and gold large ones.
Globe plants, This is a favorite plant also of mine, I love flowers that you can just put in the dirt and watch grow with out a lot of fuss, when mixed in with silver mound plant these beauties really stand out. They have some silver mound plants in the bed but they are next to a small bench and the full effect of them will not be seen, a shame really because I love the way they mound up and have that silver sheen to them especially in a nice sunny slight breeze.
Well those are two of the flowers at the Bistro parking lot garden, there are many more, it is just that I had the wrong lens for the wrong light for the wrong day, but I did get a couple of nice shots regardless.
The Wet and the Wild Side
The wild Alaska Sitka Rose is a simple rose plant yet very beautiful, while it may not have as many petals as horticultured roses, and may not win any Rose Competitions, they are still a sign of simple beauty. When you run across a Sitka Rose bush full of its delicate flowers they are wonderful to see.
The flower were just beginning to open up back then, now all I need to do is get a shot of a bush in full bloom, before they are done.
The blooming and fading of the petals/flower is not the end of the beauty of the Sitka Rose, because if you have never had Rose Hip Pie before or rose hip jam or jelly, you have missed out on what could quite possibly be known as the 8th and 9th wonders of the world.
My wife's friend down in Homer has a friend who makes the rose hip pie and it is a dream pie. It is one pie I have not tried to make yet, I love my home made apple pie, and my home made lemon meringue pie, but her rose hip pie beat both of them. After the first or second frost is the best time to harvest the rose hips for baking and jam making.
Ah the ever lovely tiny and quite possibly strongest of all palnts in the world, the Alaska Dog Wood plant.
Some info from the Alaska.org people:
When the filaments snap upward they fling pollen out of containers that are hinged to the filaments. This motion takes place in less than half a millisecond and the pollen undergoes 800 times the acceleration that the Space Shuttle does during liftoff.
From such a small and delicate flower, so much power and will to spread itself out and ensure its survival.
That does it for the wild side, now on to the wet side.
As many of you may know I like taking pictures of the water lilies, I haven't seen the white lotus style water lily yet, but when I do I will get some shots of it also, they do grow wild here I just haven't found where yet.
I like how the crop on this one came out, I should have tried to remove the little bit above and to the left of the flower, but I did not want to futz with it to much, although the clone brush would likely have done a decent job of it. If it were the white lotus style of water lily I would have called the image "So as above, so as below"
Well that pretty much concludes my flower show via pictures. I hope some of you have been able to get out and enjoy the flower shows around your homes and neighborhood.
Thank you aprreciated.
Those pansies are a scroll stopper. Such a pretty blue:)
They are, a simply yet easy to grow in Alaska plant that always looks good.
I enjoyed looking at these flower photos.
Thank you we are back in our rainy season, and I still have some wild flowers I want to get pictures of, when the sun and sky cooperate.
A wonderful natural world post. As always the photos are amazing.
Thank you, we have been in the grey skies time since solstice, and today so far rain. Nice sunny weather will return soon, and I hope to get a few more of the wild flowers.