Macro Flower from last spring

One way to escape the wintertime blahs is to visit Macro Flower Saturday, where Maia gathers the most beautiful floral images.   After seeing her photos of a kalanchoe, I will never look that that rather odd plant the same way again!  Of course, the variety she photographed is different from any that I've seen.

My own flower shot was taken last spring, which seems so very long ago!  A new round of snow and temperatures down to zero and below have pushed the hope of spring farther away, it seems.  Only last week, I was considering buying a bare root rose bush to replace one that I'm sure didn't survive our long winter. That plan will have to wait!

Spring rain on lilacs --- it's an image that brings good memories, and promises of what will come again, eventually.

The fascinating Sea Holly

After finding this fascinating plant in the landscape of a local custom construction company, I ordered some for myself---to arrive this spring! (I must admit they are quite ugly when they finish blooming!)
  Sea Holly:  
Eryngium maritimum is a perennial wildflower found along European seacoasts, and although its natural habitat is widespread, it is an endangered species. The flowers of E. maritimum are hermaphrodite, so the plant is self-fertile. It is also pollinated by bees, flies, beetles.  (The bee in this photo is having a feast!)


I'm linking up to Macro Flowers Saturday with this photo from my flower archives. 

White in winter

Once again, it's Macro Flowers Saturday, a wonderful opportunity to see beautiful flowers....even for those of us  who are surrounded by the cold of winter.  I bought some simple white carnations at a grocery store last week, and spent some time doing a 'white study.'  

A rainbow of alstromeria

When my oldest son sent a huge bouquet of Peruvian lilies for my birthday, the flowers were just buds. Each day, more blossoms open...to my great delight.    Alstromeria is the botanical name of these delightful flowers; in a bunch, they are impressive! I'm linking with Macro Flowers Saturday.

Christmas Zygo

Maia has a 'snowy' Christmas cactus in her Macro Flowers Saturday post, and I just happen to have 3 Zygo cactus plants blooming this week.  I put the red plant in a west-facing window on a gray day and shot with tungsten white balance.  That's the reason for the bluish cast.  The frosty frame is a Picnik addition.

Entering a season without flowers

The flowers are oh-so-beautiful on Macro Flower Saturday each week, and the orchids photographed by Maia are unbelievably beautiful.  However, in my part of the world, the flowers are few and far between.  Winter has come early, so I would need to find 'hothouse' flowers as my subjects.  However, this past week, I honored my lavender floribunda rose with two photographs after a sub-zero night and day. The rose is in a large wooden planter on my back porch to keep it from the foraging deer which have taken up residence in our small town.    Here are my frozen roses.

Lots of Flowers for Saturday's Macro

I did it!  I bought flowers just to have some subjects for Macro Flower Saturday.  I picked the bouquet because of the lime-green "spidery" mum, but the carnations and daisies were pretty, too.   And in the center were these tall deep purple leaves...or something.   I'm assuming that they were dyed to achieve that color, but they were  pretty, nonetheless.

A dearth of subjects for Macro Flower Saturday

It's Macro Flower Saturday again, and I'm growing desperate for subjects!

November...but a fairly mild one, so far.  Flowers?  They are few and far between.  Today, I found two subjects for my camera, and I'm celebrating both.  From now on, it will have to be purchased flowers for me.

The little purple 'daisies' are a late-summer bloomer, noticeable only because they grow in 'bunches.'  The flower is only 1- 2 inches wide. (Thanks to Maia T for identifying these as asters!)

And there's that tough little petunia; as long as it has some protection from the cold, it will continue to bloom.  

Delicate pink billows

I'm not certain 'billows' is the correct term for cyclamen petals, but to me they seem to sweep and flare, ever so delicately, maybe like the wings of butterflies??   I'm linking my cyclamen photos to Macro Flowers Saturday where the most beautiful floral images are posted each week. (All photos are straight out of the camera; I do better cropping in-camera when I'm working in macro.)   Click for closer views.

My macro version of a rose

I was really happy with this peachy rose from a bouquet that I photographed in the window of a little gift shop.....and then I saw the ROSES at Macro Flower Pictures!    I think I've run out of flowers to photograph, now that the cold fall nights have set in. Do artificial flowers count??

Macro Flowers Saturday....a promise of a rose

Today is Saturday, and that means "Macro Flowers Saturday."

It's nearing mid-October, so I find it unusual that one of my potted rose bushes has 7 buds on it.  After all, it's fall, and we've had some recent night temperatures in the 30's.  But my roses are protected on my back porch--where they've been all spring and summer-- because the deer love to eat them.   It was exciting to see the rose buds and to anticipate another blooming.   It's a lavender floribunda variety of rose.    ( The water drops were extra! You can see them more clearly by clicking the photo.)