Art of Nature

I've been doing a lot more photography and a lot less blogging this summer.  Most of my photos have been gardening- or nature-related, but that doesn't make up for not blogging.  It does have its rewards - a month or two ago, I found out that our local paper had a weekly photo contest, so I started sending in submissions.  They would have a different theme each week, and recently the theme was the "Art of Nature".  Since that is what I take more pictures of than anything else, I had a lot to choose from.  I narrowed it down to a few and got Robin's help picking the one to submit.  I had been enjoying just sending them photos every week, but then I had to go and win.  To see the article they published on the web, click here, or take a look at what they published in the paper.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

It appears that I took the previous month off - it wasn't intentional, but it happened.  I will remedy that right now.  Welcome to another edition of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, where garden bloggers post photos of what's blooming in their yard.

With so many plants growing close to the ground, one doesn't always look up.  It pays to do so when your tallest yucca decides to bloom.  It's tall enough that it makes it hard to get a decent picture.

When we think of American beautyberry, we don't usually think of flowers, but that's what you need if you want berries.  Here they are.















I'm not exactly sure how this is a flower, but this is what the root beer plant does during the summer.  I've never seen any seeds - it actually spreads fairly easily by way of underground stolons, or horizontal roots.

I can always count on my American Bog Lilies to put on a show.  They're in a sometimes shady, overgrown bog area, and when these white flowers appear, they really pop.

The last couple of years I've enjoyed seeing my night-blooming cactus do its thing.  It's in a little less than ideal spot - a little too much sun, but it puts on a show a few times a year now.




I'm not really sure how many different types of day lilies I have, but here's another one.

I thought I had posted a photo of my backyard sunflowers, but it doesn't look like it.  Here's a shot of it, almost fully open, with bees pollinating it.