Digital Flower Pictures.com Almost daily informative blog about plants, gardening and photography. Written by a professional Estate Gardener from Connecticut. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 40 10076 1 7752

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Hybrid Tea Rose ‘Signature’ 2007-08-21 05:22:00 Hybrid Tea Rose ‘Signature’Synonyms: JACnorLike yesterday this is a rose bred by another famous American rose breeder, William A. Warriner. Bear Creek Gardens, Inc introduced this Hybrid Tea in 1998. It has large flowers with some interesting color variations. It looked like a good one for long stemmed cut flowers. It had a nice light fragrance and a good petal count.Parentage: Honor × First Federal's Renaissance ... Hybrid

Floribunda Rose ‘Chesapeake Sunset’ 2007-08-20 05:10:00 Floribunda Rose ‘Chesapeake Sunset’Get ready for some Rose photos. I got some good pictures at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose garden in the Bronx. I tried mainly to shoot roses that I don’t already have pictures of. The garden itself was in fine form with thousands of rose bushes producing, I guessing here, tens of thousands flowers. I actually ran out of memory having only brought a 1 GB card with me and I went to the rose garden last. I had to manage my memory a bit which I am not used to doing as I have several cards but only brought one with me.Here is a blurb about the garden from:Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden“Surround yourself with fragrance, color, and beauty each spring (beginning in late May) and fall (beginning in early September) in the award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Originally designed in 1916, completed in 1988, and beautifully renovated in 2006–2007, this stunning garden now displays more than 3,000 rose plants, from exquisite antique roses to modern h ...

NYBG Water Garden 2007-08-19 18:03:00 NYBG Water GardenI went down to the New York Botanical Garden today. I saw some unusual flowers and learned a couple of new plants. It was a quick tour with my main goal of hitting the Rose Garden. These are a couple of shots of the Water Garden that is outside the Conservatory. It was in bloom with a good collection of Lotus and Water Lilies. Lighting wasn’t optimal and it felt like it was going to rain at any minute.I will probably be living on the photos I took today for a while. My upcoming week doesn’t really have a lot of flowers forecast. I wanted to get my ‘E’ picture for ABC Wednesday. I have a couple to choose from now. I kept my eye out for plants that start with the letter e. That was kind of fun.I probably won’t be providing a lot of commentary with the pictures that I post for a spell. I have revived a project that I was working on a few years back. I wrote a book on the history of the Premier Gold Mine, which was along the Alaskan/BC Border. A couple of my cous ...

From Long Island 2007-08-18 16:43:00 Golden Japanese Forest GrassHakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’hah-koe-neh-KLOE-uh MAY-kruhEastern Purple ConeflowerEchinacea purpureaek-in-AY-shee-a pur-PUR-ee-uh ...

White Dahlia 2007-08-17 05:03:00 White DahliaThis is another Dahlia portrait. It is actually a white Dahlia but it has a little yellow in it, which seems amplified in these pictures. I took it at the farm where the roses are growing. I spent all day yesterday removing the spent flowers and getting rid of the diseased foliage and stems. Karen had to help me for half a day to get it finished. I am cleaning up all the weeds and dead leaves, which is a job in itself. I can then evaluate the individual rose bushes themselves. Some are actually the rootstock growing around the dead grafted top. The flowers on these are kind of nice however the plant itself is much to wild growing. I am going to remove them this fall. There are also some varieties that just aren’t making it. I will have to replace them in the spring. I will be able to add some of my favorite types then. I spent last night studying up on rose diseases. I have them all over there. I am going to have to do something. They have someone spraying them but it has ...

'Summer Sun' False Sunflower 2007-08-16 05:29:00 False SunflowerHeliopsis helianthoides var. scabra 'Summer Sun'Synonyms: Rough Heliopsis, Orange Sunflower, Ox-Eye, Heliopsis minorThis is a cheerful flower to have in your garden. It is a tall perennial that doesn’t need staking. It does seed so you might consider deadheading. I guess what I like about it is it gives a good show without a lot of fuss, something I look for more and more these days.I started the task of pruning all the roses in the new rose garden am I caring for. Removing literally hundreds of spent blooms. I going to have to remember my gloves today as I was acting like a human pin-cushion. Once I get all the bushes pruned it should be a lot easier to keep them that way.Another Kenny Loggins picture. This is the keyboard player, Scott Sheriff and Chad Jeffers playing the Dobro. ...

Dahlia for ABC Wednesday 2007-08-15 05:07:00 Today is ABC Wednesday, once again. Seems hard to believe that we are already on ‘D’. Today was a bit of a conflict for me as I enjoyed the couple of Wordless Wednesdays I did and it is also Garden Bloggers Bloom Day over at Carol’s Place, everything seems to be happening on Wednesday. Wordless Wednesday is pretty self-explanatory and Bloom Day is where a bunch of Bloggers take pictures of what’s blooming in their garden and write a post about them. The garden I am working in right now doesn’t have too many flowers during this season and it is the same at the Estate. Everybody is at their beach houses so it doesn’t make sense to do a lot for summer.‘D’ is for Dahlia, of course. It is one of my favorite flowers and kind of an aristocrat of the summer garden season. This is one of the ‘mixed’ Dahlias I ordered and I am quite happy with it. I was a little tired yesterday after going to the Kenny Loggins concert and doing the stonework all day. I was determined to finis ...

Twin Butterflies 2007-08-14 04:36:00 Twin ButterfliesThis picture is of two butterflies on the same patch of Coneflower. I thought they lined up kind of nice. Has any else had a lot of butterflies this year? I distinctly remember saying last year that we had “hardly any butterflies” and this year there have been clouds of them. Go figure. I am almost finished with the overgrown garden I pruned out. Quite a bit of the granite terrace around the pool had sunk so I have been relaying that, then some planting and mulch and its time to move on.I went to the Kenny Loggins concert last night. My wife really wanted to go and I was again able to score some front row tickets. I had a better time than I expected. The music was also more interesting than I thought it would be. ...

Polygonum bistorta 'Superbum' 2007-08-13 05:10:00 Polygonum bistorta 'Superbum'(pol-LIG-go-num) (bis-TOR-tuh)Synonyms: Adderwort, Dragonwort, Easter giant, Snakeweed, Easter LedgesI saw this plant growing and blooming at Wave Hill a couple of weeks ago. It kind of looked like a weedy perennial but the flowers made up for that. The number and shape of the flowers was interesting. The color was not fantastic but it was not unattractive. The foliage is a nice color green. It looks like this plant would make a good ground cover in a rough area. The family, Polygonaceae, has some noxious weeds included in it but also a few plants that I enjoy. Mountain Fleece (Persicaria amplexicaulis) and Himalayan Fleece Flower (Persicaria affinis 'Border Jewel') are two good ones. ...

Hybrid Tea Rose ‘Sunset Celebration’ 2007-08-11 05:25:00 Hybrid Tea ‘Sunset Celebration’Synonyms: Chantoli, Exotic ®, FRYxotic, Jolie Môme ®. Warm WishesHere are couple of more from the ‘new’ rose garden I will be taking care of.‘Sunset Celebration’Hybrid Tea, Large Flowered (5 inches)Height: 3 to 6 feetFragrance: Mild, fruityParentage: Pollen: Seedling × Cheshire Life. Seed: Pot o GoldPetal Count: 35Breeder: Gareth Fryer. 1994Introduced in the US: Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower, Inc. Celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Sunset MagazineI am looking forward to growing this one as it has won numerous international rose awards. It has a lot of delicate undertones. Here is another rose. It is the David Austin Rose ‘Graham Thomas’ which I featured in it’s own post here.I am going out to get some pictures today. ... Hybrid

Hybrid Tea Rose ‘Spellbound’ 2007-08-10 05:42:00 Hybrid Tea Rose ‘Spellbound’Synonym: JACpribeI can’t give any personal experience on growing this rose. I must say that the color and form was captivating. I forgot to smell it although I was rushing around when I snapped this photo. It is from a rose garden that I am officially going to be caring for now. It has 160 plants in it, with many types and colors. There are only about 20 or 30 repeat varieties so it really covers a broad spectrum. I am looking forward to the challenge of keeping it up.'Spellbound' had the most ‘clean’ flowers in the garden, although one of my new favorites ‘Strike it Rich’ was a close second. This rose was bred by Dr. Keith Zary and introduced in 2006 by Jackson & Perkins and was named their 2006 ‘Rose of the Year’. Dr. Zary started work at J & P in 1985 as only the fourth breeder in the company’s long history.SpellboundType: Large Flowered Hybrid TeaParentage: Ingrid Bergman × Pristine (hybrid tea, Warriner 1978)Petal Count: 30Fr ... Hybrid

Two Orchids 2007-08-09 05:10:00 Two OrchidsThis Orchid was blooming at work. I was surprised to see it . I took all the Orchids out of the conservatory and just tucked them in among the tropical foliage plants that I put on the terrace. I usually don’t bother with the Orchids as they seem to be getting enough light and water. The tag that was in the pot had faded away and I couldn't tell what the name is.I have been going over some old files from Florida in February of 2006. I saw this orange Orchid blooming at Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden. I read a lot of complaints about the condition of the garden and the admission price but I found it a lot of fun with a good mix of botanical stuff. Not bad at all for an ‘in-town’ type of garden. I uploaded several new pictures to my Florida Keys webpage if anyone is interested. There a few good pictures but in some respects represent an extra culling of all of the files. Florida Keys/West Palm Album ...

Red Canna Lily for ABC Wednesday 2007-08-08 05:27:00 Red Canna LilyI ordered some mixed Cannas for the container garden this year. I usually try and order named varieties but got off to a late start. This particular Canna seems to be dwarf with green foliage. What is unusual to me is the little white part in the flower. It is probably a common occurrence but I don’t remember seeing it before. The flowers on this plant are relatively small compared to most Cannas. The color is vivid red and I the camera had just a touch of trouble handling it. Another feature I like about this flower is the very thin yellow edge to some petals. You probably wouldn’t notice this if you didn’t look closely.I think I may have a few virused Cannas (link: Canna Virus) and I will take a picture of them to post later. Just one more thing to worry about I guess. I don’t save the roots from year to year due to a lack of a suitable storage area but I may stop growing them all together if they are going to look like some of the ones I have grown this year. T ...

Bloodflower (Asclepias curassavica) 2007-08-07 04:53:00 BloodflowerAsclepias curassavica(ass-KLE-pee-us) (ku-ra-SAV-ik-uh)Asclepiadaceae (ass-kle-pee-ad-AY-see-ay)Synonyms: Swallow-wort, Butterfly Weed, Mexican Milkweed, Scarlet MilkweedThis is the first year I have grown Scarlet Milkweed. I picked up three at a plant sale and they have done great. Not quite up to the advertised height of 3 to 4 feet they have been blooming for awhile now and seem to keep going. Since it is rated for USDA Zone 8 and above so I am growing it as an annual. I hope to collect some seeds or have a few drop as it has been a nice addition to the garden. I have found it difficult to photograph and this has been my best effort so far. At least it shows the color! My Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) didn’t come back this year so I will have to replace that. That is a perennial in my area.Here is another picture of an Asclepias. I think it is Rose or Swamp Milkweed (A. incarnata). It seems a little taller than the other two species I mentioned. Which must just be ...

Indian Summer Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta 'Indian Summer') 2007-08-06 04:54:00 Indian Summer Black-eyed SusanRudbeckia hirta 'Indian Summer'(rud-BEK-ee-a) (HER-tuh)This is a Black-eyed Susan that has huge flowers. They are up to several inches across. It is sometimes listed as an annual, biennial or perennial. My plants are on their second year so the jury is still out on that. I have a lot of seedlings so even if they die out this year I will have something. It gets quite tall (3 to 4 feet) and has a spread of about 18 inches.It is named after one of my favorite times of year, Indian Summer. ...