Summer Flowers

Tags

asclepias tuberosa, astilbe, cleome, clivia, echinacea, kabocha, milkweed, photography, postaday

The abundant rain we have had this Spring has led to lots of vibrant summer flowers.

Milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa).

Milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa).

Some Monarch butterflies have already started to visit the milkweed.

Astilbe.

Orange Echinacea.

Kabocha (winter squash) flower in vegetable garden.

Inside the house, the Clivia plant, now divided into three separate pots, is also blooming vigorously.

Clivia.

Clivia.

Cleome.

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Milkweed Flowers and Others

Tags

asclepias, cone flower, cosmos, echinacea, milkeed, photography, postaday

This year I planted milkweed (Asclepias) to try to help and attract butterflies, especially Monarchs, a species that is in decline in North America over the past several years. The milkweed flowers have started to bloom.

Asclepias or Milkweed

Let’s see whether the Monarchs will come! In the meantime, other summer flowers are very noticeable also, and butterflies, but not Monarchs, do fly around the yard.

Cosmos

Cosmos

Cone flower (Echinacea) and green bee.

Midsummer Photos

Tags

cone flower, cosmos, echinacea, photography, postaday

It is midsummer, and the following photos are typical of those that can be captured at this time of the year. I took them around our house.

Cone Flower (Echinacea)

Cone Flower (Echinacea)

Cosmos

Summer Flowers – White II

Tags

becky, echinacea, photography, postaday, shasta daisy, white swan

The “White Swan” echinacea from last Thursday has grown larger and prettier, as you can see in the following photo.

White Swan, at f/32 and 2 secs

As you probably know, macro photos usually have a very shallow depth of field, especially when the aperture is set wide to produce a nice bokeh background. For the above photo, I tried to make most of the flower as sharp as possible by using an aperture of 32, which violates all kinds of photographic rules. I also had to use a tripod, and the shot took 2 seconds. Are the results worth it? You be the judge.

Here’s another shot at an aperture of 16 and a speed of .5 second.

White Swan, at f/16 and 0.5 sec

Which of the above two photos do you prefer?

The Shasta daisies also increased their sizes, and these two look like two sisters next to each other.

Shasta Daidy, “Becky”

Summer Flowers – White

Tags

daisy, echinacea, photography, postaday

To replace some of the azaleas that could not withstand this past winter, I recently planted some Shasta Daisy and Echinacea. They are starting to bloom and here are some of the first photos I took of them.

Shasta Daisy “Becky”

Daisy

Echinacea “White Swan”

The White Swan is still quite young. I’ll wait a few more days and take another shot when it is in full bloom.