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: 64 10076 30 7781

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Golden St. John's Wort 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Golden St. John's WortHypericum calycinum 'Brigadoon'(hy-PER-ee-kum) (ka-LEE-kin-um)ClusiaceaeI haven?t grown this one before but have seen it a lot lately. It does have wonderful foliage color and I think it would good combined with some darker foliage plants. It is recommended for containers and as a groundcover. I will have to try some in the garden. It grows up to 16 inches tall and 2 feet wide, so the size is manageable. It really has a funky multicolored appearance. I have found my other adventures in to Hypericum cultivation to be satisfying and rewarding. A lot of bang for not too much maintenance. Here is a plant that I don?t know anything about. It was for sale at a retail nursery and although the tag said hardy to 0 to -10 degrees F, I am not so sure. It is Korean Choice Evergreen Privet (aka the Wax or Japanese Privet). It really has a tropical or at least warmer climate look to it. I would have tried one except of the exorbitant price they were asking. I have been growi ...

Variegated Rock Cotoneaster 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Variegated Rock CotoneasterCotoneaster horizontalis 'Variegatus'(kot-on-ee-ASS-ter) (hor-ih-ZON-tal-is)Rosaceae (ro-ZAY-see-ay)There are only certain types of Cotoneaster that I like and this is one of them. Its delicate habit and colorful leaves are a pleasure to have in the garden. I find a lot of Cotoneasters coarse, prone to insects and maintenance intensive. This one is the complete opposite. Here it is growing with a ground cover I have been using a lot, Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'). I like it but some gardeners could find it a little invasive. I planted some with a red Weeping Japanese Maple and it looks nice but then I am a glutton for color. My Golden Creeping Jenny (aka Golden Moneywort) has a lot of flowers on it this year and that has just added a blast of more color. If you haven?t realized it yet I have an affinity for golden and yellow plants. I have also come to love yellow flowers, which took awhile as they were probably my least favorite w ...

Fuzzy Pride of Rochester (Deutzia scabra ?Pride of Rochester?) 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Fuzzy Pride of RochesterDeutzia scabra ?Pride of Rochester?(DOOT-zee-uh) (SKAY-bruh)Hydrangeaceae (hy-drain-jee-AY-see-ay)Here I was thinking I would use this picture of a plant that I saw blooming at the nursery to make a quick post and move onto to some paperwork and email. But oh no, I found that it is a confusing and often misidentified plant. No matter exactly what it is called this plant was blooming beautifully and I saw it from quite a distance. When I checked the tag I saw it said D. scabra ?Pride of Rochester?. According to Wikipedia: ?Identification can be difficult, and in particular, many of the plants in cultivation sold as D. scabra are actually D. crenata (Huxley 1992). Some species are sometimes known as "Pride-of-Rochester" in cultivation.? And ?Identification of the species is very difficult, requiring often microscopic detail of the leaf hairs and seed capsule structure.? So I give up. Most of the pictures I saw on the net didn?t have that nice pink stripe on the bu ...

Autumn Snakeroot (Actaea simplex 'Hillside Black Beauty' ) 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Autumn SnakerootActaea simplex 'Hillside Black Beauty' (Atropurpurea Group)(ak-TEE-uh) (SIM-plecks)RanunculaceaeThis plant is just stunning in bloom. I have been trying to get a good picture of it for weeks but I really missed the full bloom stage of my little patch. I was happy to see it at the Bartlett Arboretum on Sunday and it was just starting to bloom. The conditions for flower photography kind of stunk as there was a stiff breeze and even though it was one o?clock in the afternoon it was drearily dark out. I tried a couple of settings and ended up using the auto mode of the camera by accident. I have been manually focusing 90% of my macros and I decided to use the auto-focus. It came out fairly well considering I didn?t know what I was doing. The fragrance of the flowers, it was a stand of about 8 plants, was very pleasing. So was the color of the flowers and buds. The foliage, which a lot of people rave about, was a little ratty, just like mine at home. I guess if it gets to ...

Mountain Fleece Flower (Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail') 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Mountain Fleece Flower Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail'(per-sih-KAR-ee-uh) (am-pleks-ih-KAW-liss)PolygonaceaeThis is an interesting perennial that you don?t see very often. Developed by Blooms of Bressingham this hardy plant is a slow spreader. I wouldn?t recommend it for the small garden but a nice patch in the larger garden or border is nice. My experience has been that it grows to about 3 feet and my 6 plants have become about 6 feet across after several years. The flower color is gorgeous, a really nice Crimson Red. It can tolerate part shade but looks better in sun. I have had a little problem with some rusty fungus on the leaves but it only seems to develop when the conditions are just right. There is a new cultivar out called ?Taurus? (Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Taurus'), which looks even better. I had a few appointments this morning and then snuck off to the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford. I am working down the street and will probably try to go at least one more time. Th ...

Winter Gold Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold') 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Winter Gold Winterberry HollyIlex verticillata 'Winter Gold'(EYE-lecks) (ver-ti-si-LAH-tuh)I bought his plant as ?Winter Gold? although my friend swears it is sub-species of Winterberry that I have forgotten the name of. Whatever it is a great plant and adds a little zip to the Winterberry collection at one of the large gardens I take of. This plant is easy to grow and will tolerate moist to wet conditions. Most people?s first guess would not be holly because it is deciduous and spineless. I have been keeping ?Winter Gold? at about 6 feet though it seems to want to get a little taller. There is always a good crop of berries and the foliage remains clean throughout the season. I took pictures of some of the other Winterberry Holly that I will be posting next week. I have to go out and see what last night?s high winds did to the gardens. Hopefully not too much but 50 miles per hour with a leaf load may have been too much. I am not sure why some of the color washes out on Blogger but th ...

Curly Leaf Kale (Brassica oleracea 'Chidori White') 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Curly Leaf KaleBrassica oleracea 'Chidori White'(BRAS-ee-kuh) I was impressed by the amount of different varieties of Ornamental Cabbage and Kale I saw at the farm markets I visited. Each place had 5 or 6 types. Peacock, Emperor and Dynasty were a few of the ones I saw. They also had a nice selection of odd pumpkins and gourds. I guess everything is going to towards having the newest and latest types of plants. This particular Ornamental Kale was nice and compact with distinct areas of white and green. Just a short post as I agonize over the late bulb order I have to place tomorrow. You have to pick out substitutions on almost everything because there are people that are much better organized that have already ordered. I took this picture with my back up, back up camera a Nikon 5400. It is a nice little point and shoot. I like carrying a point and shoot and just firing away on Aperture priority mode. Most people don?t even know you are taking pictures.Synonyms: (Flowering Cabbage, Or ...

Nikon D80 Flower Shots 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Nikon D80 Flower ShotsA couple of Sundays ago I borrowed my wife?s D80 and stopped by work to shoot a few pictures. It was a dreary day and the light wasn?t great but the camera did pretty well with the color. I usually use a D70s and I know what that camera is going do in a given situation so this was a little bit of adventure getting use to the color and auto focus system. This first picture is a small pocket of White Primula that is growing near one of the ponds. Out of several thousand Primrose there were only about 12 white ones and only in this area. The second picture is Wine and Roses Weigela (Weigela florida 'Alexandra'). It is a nice plant that adds beauty not only with its dark reddish/brown foliage but also with its pink flowers. The foliage almost as a metallic appearance when it is new. I use this plant a lot and found it to reliable and interesting. I forget which Japanese Maple that is in the background but it is a beauty and adds a bit a contrast to this photo.This p ...