Will work for Peeps…

(and Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies, too!). This past Sunday, Karen and I drove down to her lakehouse to paint the last remaining bedroom. While making a run to Family Dollar for paint rollers, we picked up some unhealthy snacks (bless her little heart). I told her I sure worked cheap—Peeps and Cosmic Brownies! To quote Steve Martin’s character in The Jerk, “And that’s all I need too. I don’t need one other thing, not one—I need this…and Peeps…and these Cosmic Brownies…but not one other thing…not one…oh, and this blue broom…

Without a doubt, it was plenty of sugar to keep us going. After we finished painting, I stretched out on the lakeside hammock for a few minutes just to get these graphic tree shots and also—because how often does one get to lie in a hammock, anyway?

Yes, Virginia, there is a Peeps Fan Club. Check it out here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Could Photoshop get any better?

Thanks to F.T. for sending me this sneak preview of Photoshop CS5’s “content-aware fill” feature. I’m looking forward to this version!

Study of Summer Snowflakes

I photographed Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum Aestivum) at Green Spring Gardens last year (see that posting here, along with a nifty photography tip!), and then planted a dozen bulbs in my own garden—and they’re now in bloom again here! I think they have a Calder-esque look to them, don’t you?—like little mobiles or elegant sculptures. I especially like the tension of all the converging leaf lines combined with the curving of the flowers—so graphic! Today was such a good and creative day (even after I had to put away the camera and get back to my paying design work!) Here’s wishing all my days could be like this one!

Addendum: Last year, when I was trying to identify them, I thought they were SnowDROPS. These are actually SnowFLAKES. The Snowflake is a taller flower that normally has more than one flower per stem. Snowflake petals are even and have green spots on each end. Snowdrops have helicopter-like petals and the green appears on the inner petals.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Your guess is as good as mine.

No plant label on this beauty at Green Spring Gardens…so I’m stumped. Wanna hazard to guess what it is? It was in the woodland garden area and it was blooming in the shade. The blooms were small, too (maybe 1-1.5 inches), perched atop reddish-orange stems. I had to lie down on my side (in the mud, thank you very much) to photograph the downward-facing blooms. Oh, the things I do for you people!

😉

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Spring Beauty

One of my favorite little spring flowers at Green Spring Gardens is Scilla siberica ‘Spring Beauty’—also known as Spring Beauty Scilla, Wood Squill or Siberian Squill (Liliaceae family). Tiny and delicate bright porcelain blue flowers grow on 4-6 inch stalks from bulbs in early spring in full sun to part shade. Tough and extremely cold hardy (Zones 2-8), this low-maintenance plant naturalizes easily by bulb offshoots and through self-seeding. Until this morning, I had never seen the underside of these shy, downward-facing blooms. The wind had flipped back a few blossoms, revealing their “faces.” I also photographed a white form, ‘Alba.’ Green Spring Gardens also grows a striped squill, Puschkinia libanotica. The website tulipworld.com states that although this striped form is hardly known, it is one of the best bulbs for beginners because it can be grown almost anywhere as long as there is proper drainage. And their price is right, too—40 bulbs for just $9.71—can’t beat that!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Striped crocus

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens this morning. There’s just something punchy about the combination of orange and purple, isn’t there?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

A new garden visitor

I spotted this pretty girl (I assume it’s a girl because of the pink collar, but you just never know) walking across the shed roof outside my office window. In the glare of the morning light and without my glasses on, at first I thought it was our regular visitor and neighbor’s cat, Indy. We’re guessing she might belong to our new neighbors, but we’re not sure. Michael saw her on their front porch before she came to the back yard. I got closer and realized it wasn’t Indy. She stayed on the roof and approached me when I came up to her. I petted her once, then she began hissing, then she let me pet her again, then she hissed again. Testy little thing, she was. Ah well, she made a great photographic subject and she hung around on the shed roof for quite awhile.

CRITTER UPDATE: Unknown kitty has a home—she belongs to our new neighbors. I saw her and a dog peeking out the glass front door last night. Good to know she has a home! I sure wouldn’t let our cats out unattended—I’m much too fearful the call of the wild would whisk them away forever.

CRITTER UPDATE #2: Unknown kitty is now known…her name is “Foxy.” And that she most certainly is (she could improve her attitude, though).

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hellebores in bloom

As promised, new garden photos—I shot these early this morning in our front yard garden. After dropping off (yet more) donations to the Salvation Army, Michael and I spent an hour photographing blooms at Green Spring Gardens. More flower photos to come!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Same time, last year: Pink Poppy

I promise to get out and shoot some new blooms soon. There are some lovely hellebores in bloom in the front yard, but today was just too windy to shoot flowers. In the meantime, here’s a shot taken this day, last year.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Plant shopping!

Because of the various gaps in my front and back yard gardens (due to the age of the garden and our crazy winter weather), I’ll need to do a bit more planting than usual this year. We also took out two butterfly bushes that grew too big for the space, so that left two big gaps in the side garden. (Note: When the tag on the plant states that a butterfly bush grows 5-8 feet wide, do not ignore it and buy the plants just because they are “today only, just $5 each!”). I speak from experience: if you have a townhouse garden, you do not have the room for this monster—much less two of them!) They will be relocated somewhere else where they have room to spread.

I just ordered some replacement plants from Michigan Bulb Company, Spring Hill Nursery and Dutch Bulbs this week and got some really great deals, particularly with their “buy x, get x free” specials. I’m adding things that I would love to photograph this year and most species that I haven’t grown before. I’ll add few more things like herbs (basil, mint and oregano) for my kitchen garden. I also bought inexpensive bulbs from Wal-Mart this week, too (Liatris, Crocosmia and my favorite, lilies!). I’m filling in the gaps with these great deals and since they’re all perennials, I should have easy sailing for a few more years.

From the Michigan Bulb Co., I ordered (left to right, top to bottom, photos from catalog): Sparkle Meadow Rue, Green Wizard Rudbeckia, Foamflower, Montana Skies Delphinium, Toad Lily Mix, Twinkle Toes, Double-Decker Coneflower, Licorice Mint, Petite Delight Bee Balm, Blue Fringe Daisy, Helenium Mix and Blue Mist Shrub

From van Bourgondein (dutchbulbs.com), I ordered (left to right, photos from catalog): Gloriosa Rothschildiana (gorgeous!), Habeneria Radiata/Egret Flower (I’m really excited about growing and photographing this unusual beauty—not an inexpensive bulb, but I’ve been wanting one ever since they debuted—tell me this isn’t one of the coolest plants you’ve ever seen!), and Hardy Gladiolus Atom (love the white piping outline—wait, is that a 3 point reverse rule around those petals?!)

And finally, from Spring Hill Nursery, I ordered (left to right, photos from catalog): Coral Drops, Lemon Fluff (how cute are these?) and Anchusa Azurea

Wish me luck with my green thumb and be on standby for photographs throughout this spring and summer!

Same time, last year: White Spoon Osteospermum

Originally posted March 23, 2008

This is an Osteospermum, also called African Daisy, Cape Daisy or Spoon Daisy (because of the spoon-shaped ray florets). I believe this might be the cultivar ‘William.’

Learn more about growing Osteospermums at www.osteospermum.com.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Parents, plants and partying

Best parents in the world, shown at right. It’s true. It’s really, really true. Wouldn’t trade ’em for nuthin’. Check out the latest photos I’ve posted on our wedding blog here.

Speaking of blogs…check out my dad’s blog, The King of Texas. He waxes rhapsodic about his family, revisits his childhood (with amazing recall for details), comments on current events (political, celebrity, media and more), and aims to right grammatical wrongs (one visitor at a time) with his occasional lessons on the subject. Check out his archives for some of his essays. I introduced him to blogging almost a year ago and he has become a prolific poster. He has always loved to write and it shows in his lengthy and detailed essays. I just knew it would be a great creative outlet for him. I realize I’ve created a monster, but I am so proud of my grasshopper! Whether you agree or disagree on any particular posting, he welcomes feedback of any kind (but thrives on kudos in particular), so don’t hesitate to comment—he always responds.

Out in the garden…my hellebores, snowdrops and crocus plants are in bloom—after a long, cold, way-too-much-snow winter. I predict some flower photos appearing on the blog shortly. Michael and I cleaned up most of the front yard (gathering six bags of debris!) on Thursday and my friend Tom helped me with a good portion of the back yard garden on Friday. There are lots of empty gaps in the garden this year, so there will definitely be some restructuring of the various beds in an effort to refresh things. I bought a slew of bulbs at Home Depot last night for the front yard garden (liatris, crocosmia, tigridia and lilies). I’m waiting to plant when I’m sure there’s no danger of frost! I also want to try out some new perennial choices so I’ll have some new specimens to photograph this year.

Speaking of flower photography…check out my buddy Ed Vatza’s stunning photos here of the elusive Himalayan Blue Poppy, which he photographed at Longwood Gardens recently. Wish these beauties weren’t so temperamental—they would be in my garden in a heartbeat if they were easier to grow!

And on to the partying…Nanda, one of my Garden Club Weedettes, hosted a knitting party late this afternoon (with wonderful Indian munchies). Yours truly was introduced to knitting today. Boy, was that ever a challenge! I think I’ve gotten the hang of it (sorta/kinda), but it’s definitely seems harder than my basic crochet skills. I’ll post a few photos of my newfound knitting friends and my work-in-progress (I think it’s a scarf—hard to tell at this point!) shortly. Sigh…as if I needed another hobby.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Wow!

Thanks to Carmen for sending me this link. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they could create something like this? I’d be first in line for one!

Playing with Actions: Mission San José

Next, I applied some of the Totally Rad Actions to an image I shot of Mission San José in San Antonio, Texas. Learn more about the mission and see more photos in my August 12, 2008 posting here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Playing with Actions—Portrait of Lauren

Using an image I shot of my niece, Lauren, I have applied nine of my favorite Totally Rad Actions from photographer Doug Boutwell—just to show you some of the effects you can achieve with portraits. I love his action names, too—Prettytizer, Cool as a Cucumber, Not-So-Magic Glasses, Rusty Cage, SX-70…

The first photo in the series is a “normal” shot (with minor retouching, but no action applied). Some of the actions were used at 100% strength; some were dialed back to about 60-75% strength (particularly in the case of Technicolor Dream World, Grunge Rock and Pross Crossessed #1). I just love these Photoshop actions—they’re well worth the investment if you want to take some of your photos to another level with very little effort. And no, I don’t get a kickback from endorsing Doug’s store—I just love to share a great product when I find one! I don’t use them in my garden and nature photographs, but they’re great used occasionally with landscapes, portraits and architecture—and when you want to add an artistic effect to a dull “record” shot.

Go play on his site here and try out his “recipes” for cool effects. Now I thinking I might have to add his “TRA 2—The Revenge” to my arsenal. When I ordered my actions and had a little problem completing the download, Doug was very quick to respond personally. Very nice guy with very nice products!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Published: A Passion for Purple Flowers

I recently wrote an article for flowershopnetwork.com for their monthly online newsletter. All but three of the photos in the article were shot by me (shown below); the others were purchased from istockphoto.com. The Flower Shop Network Newsletter is a free monthly e-mail featuring articles based on the knowledge of floral professionals across the country. Once a month, they provide interesting information about all things floral. You can view their newsletter archive and sign up for an e-mail blast here. To read my article, click on the link below:

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/passion-purple-flowers/