| Selections from the Iowa Victory Garden Summer 2006
Selected flowers from our gardens over the course of this past summer.
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| Selections from the Iowa Victory Garden Summer 2006
Selected flowers from our gardens over the course of this past summer.
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This particular hibiscus is one of our favorites, and was baptised OLIVIA this summer! We don’t normally name our plants, but this one begged to be named after a certain fabulous flower photographer in Canada … without whom this diary would not be here, nor would Urban Oasis exist. I can’t think of a better name for this splendid Moscheutos specimen … Photo taken July 19, 2006.
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you picked a great flower (love those IBs!) … honoured for sure … {{{IVG}}}
Up close and personal with one of my favorite tulip varieties … I like the light play and the near flame effect I got on this one. Taken April 22, 2006.
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OMG!!!!
You and Olivia probe the most intimate innards of flora in a wondrously shocking and enlightening way. Keep it up!
Oh yeah and artistic way too.
This is just so luscious looking I had to include it! I can’t begin to say how much I love peonies and look forward to their beauty and fabulous fragrance every spring … Photo taken on May 29, 2006. They bloomed right on schedule for Memorial Day this year!
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We keep planting more and more Foxglove every year and one of these years we’re going to have a big patch of it! It’s not the easiest to grow, but wow is it spectacular when it blooms! Photo taken May 29, 2006.
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This is my favorite! Perfect angle to see right into them. And I love the dainty colors.
Crocus dance in my dreams in late winter and I’m always overjoyed to see them peek through in the waning days of the winter … This is one of hundreds we have planted around the gardens … I especially liked the inner bits on this one, and I’m sure Olivia will too! Photo Taken April 4, 2006.
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This is one of the many Celosia sports that appear in our front garden every year. We never quite know what they’ll look like from year to year because they mutate and cross so readily. This one even has a bonus butterfly I managed to catch dining here! You can find more of these at Urban Oasis, along with extended commentary. Photo taken August 25, 2006.
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Yes, a Castor Bean tree! We plant a few of these each year for their striking foliage and bizarre blooms. Unfortunately the early freeze kept them from producing viable seeds this year, so the ones we’ve saved from past years will have to make do for us next year. These are increasingly difficult to find seeds for due to their extremely toxic nature. Photo taken October 1, 2006.
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This is actually an herb, but a beautiful one we think. The flowers are entirely edible, and make a refreshing cool down on a hot day. They taste kind of like cucumbers and are reputed to cool the body down naturally. Photo taken September 7, 2006.
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What a pretty flower! I’m always interested in knowing what a plant is because I want them all. But then I have to break out my California Native Plant guide, to see if the pretty stuff I love will grow here (usually not, unless I pot it).
Thanks fabooj! You should probably be able to grow this if you want, even in CA. It’s an annual most places, but it self-seeds so heavily that we never plant it anymore, it just comes back every year. It’s pretty tough in the cold, and has just died off after a couple of weeks of freezing temps at night. You should be able to find seeds easily enough, but I do know that Botanical Interests in CO sells them because that’s where we got the original ones for these.
One of the most unusual plants we have out front in the boulder bed … though it looks spiny and prickly, it’s anything but! It’s really difficult to capture the ethereal blue of this unique flower, but I think I managed to get a good rendering of it in this shot. Photo taken on July 19, 2006.
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And finally, up close and personal with Pepa, my faithful companion for the last 11 years … sorry about the dirty jeans I was wearing, but I cropped out as much as I could! I think Olivia would like it if I could clone Pepa and send one up her way … look for Halloween pictures of her and the other dogs to appear on Urban Oasis in the next day or so … This photo was taken sometime in July, 2006.
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I love Pepa 🙂
At last. But worth the wait. 🙂
Lovely flower pics — almost as lovely as Pepa.
Thanks, Andi! From you that means a lot (and from Jim too!) Pepa is getting used to her Halloween regalia today, and there will be pics of her up at my blog either tonight or tomorrow… so you can see more of her.
Glad you enjoyed the flowers… it was very hard culling them all down to just 10! And Olivia is to be heartily thanked for getting me the template stuff this afternoon, even if I couldn’t log on to BT for several hours, thus the delay. Heard you had the same problem as well… must have been earthlink, eh?
I’ll be sure to check out the Halloween festivities.
I guess it was earthlink but it was somewhat localized — I tried the 800 number just to see if I could get to BT that way and I could.
Beautiful photos, IVG!
Thanks, B2 … looking forward to seeing yours and some of the other awesome ones I’ve glimpsed around here today!
A gardener indeed! Beautiful flowers.
I’ve missed trading flower pics with you on the cafe thread. I’m not sure if you’ve been MIA or I have, but we never seem to be there at the same time.
(As it’s spring here, mine are just starting to come into their own, so I should have plenty to share soon.)
I look forward to seeing your dogs’ costumes on the next Dog Blog.
Thanks Keres, and yes, I’ve been majorly MIA since about August due to a huge project at work. And I do need to get more dog pics going now that most of the flowers are dead. And visit the dog blog more often as well! (Now I feel guilty, lol.)
Looking forward to your spring pics too … bet they’ll help tide me over the dreary months here. And I hear that your landscapes fotodiary is spectacular, so have to get over there tonight! (that was free blog pimpin by NDD, btw)
Glad you liked these, and thanks for stopping by!
I feel like we haven’t crossed paths in ages. Thanks for your great pictures, you all have such an amazing way at showing the brilliance of life in each bloom. Lookin forward to seeing those halloween pix, Bud would run away from home if I tried to dress him up. Besides, he’s gonna sleep through the Witching Hour anyways – you can bet on that 🙂
Know what you mean Manny, and thanks for the props there. I have to get back to your diary again and look at everything, as I just had a quick perusal earlier after I posted mine. I was going to ask where Bud was, but as hard as it was for me to narrow it down to 10, I can imagine why he didn’t make it.
I have been MIA (as Keres said) for quite some time due to crazy work schedule, which has finally eased up and I’m actually enjoying a long deserved week of vacation. I’m hoping I’ll have more blog time in the near future, as soon as we get the garden put to bed, which needs to happen soon.
Btw, first of the Halloween pics are up over at my place. No spiders involved, I promise!