I have been trying to get things caught up in the gardens during the past few weeks. I love my gardens and flowers, but this year has had it’s challenges….
Daffodil Opening in Snow Glories
After a warmer than usual winter, many flowers began to bloom earlier than usual. We had a very warm spell in March followed by very hard freezes…. not a good combination.
Wisteria Buds
The Wisteria was covered in fat, beautiful flower buds…. until the hard freeze… every bud froze… Amazingly nearly 4 months later, there are new flower buds forming just in time for the onslaught of Japanese beetles… Yikes!
Pulmonaria Mrs. Moon
Pulmonaria Mrs Moon bloomed beautifully, along with most of the usual early Spring flowers…
- Double Trillium Pair
The Trilliums bloomed nicely, especially the double ones… They have not multiplied yet, but keep blooming each year.
Dewy White Daffodil
Many dewy, damp mornings made for great photos of dewdrops on the flowers such as this Ice Follies Daffodil…
Pink Luau Day One
Amazingly, I was able to have gobs of Peony flowers even after the plants started growing too early and we had the super hard freeze. My mulching things with hay for the freeze did keep the Peony flowers.
First Iris Flower of 2012
It looked as if the Iris would not have flowers, but even though the buds looked papery and dry, the flowers still bloomed nicely 🙂
Tradescantia Macro
Some photos I took were nice surprises, like this macro shot of a Tradescantia flower showing the fluffy detail of the flower’s center.
Raindrops on Alyssum
More rainy, wet mornings gave more interesting photos like this one of tiny Alyssum flowers dripping with water reflecting the house windows.
Wild Daisy Clump
Even the wild Daisies put up some full clumps of flowers… This photo was taken of one large clump of flowers and gives the impression of flowers going on for a long way.
Pink Lily Detail
I even found some of the Lilies that were lost last year, coming up to bloom this year. This is a macro shot of one of the bright pink ones.
Portulaca with Dew
I have not been feeling too creative in the studio with my quilting, so I have begun to play with some of the flower photos like this portulaca flower above.
In the middle of the strange garden season, I ended up falling and hurting my back in a new place…. I really didn’t need that! I fell hard while trying to hurry to get some garden work done before a rain storm that was forecast. In addition to landing me in the ER to be sure I hadn’t broken anything, I lost over 2 weeks of garden work… So much for getting ahead of things this year…. In addition to helping me to lose the garden work time, I ended up racking up some nasty medical bills…. With no insurance, CT scans, ER visit, and extra rheumatologist appointments, have made a mess of the finances. The additional bad spot in my back has not helped with the creative funk, either… working in my studio, stitching on the machine, and other things have ended up increasing pain which was already giving me grief enough with the fibromyalgia and arthritis… At least I have the flowers blooming in the gardens to take photos of, and I have been slowly getting things weeded and mulched little my little.
If there is enough interest in my flower photos, I am considering adding them to one of my shops… Maybe if I can’t create much in the studio, I will able to be more creative with my photos.
I am a former textile artist and new pattern designer with a degree in horticulture, wishing to share my love of nature, flowers and gardens with everyone through my photos, sunprinted fabrics, and now pattern designs. Chronic Lyme Disease has caused major changes to the direction my life. I have to limit the amount of time spent digging in my gardens, and quilting has become more difficult. I discovered pattern design as a way to get art back into my life. I now use my gardens and photos to inspire designs that can be used on fabrics and print on demand items.
