Monarch on zinnia

Just uncovered this never-before-shared gem from my archives—overlooked in the cull of hundreds of butterfly images from the Wings of Fancy exhibit at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD a few years ago.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hawaiian White Hibiscus

Stamen of Hawaiian White Hibiscus (Hibiscus waimeae)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Flowerfly on Rudbeckia

Flowerfly (or Hoverfly) on Rudbeckia bloom; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Geranium (Cranesbill)

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Tree Tones

Through Pinterest, I learned about Sherwin-Williams color-palette-generator at http://www.letschipit.com. Here’s my latest palette using a photo I shot at Brookside Gardens a few weeks ago. Qué fun!

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Tropical Water Lily ‘Panama Pacific’

(Nymphaea) Tropical Water Lily ‘Panama Pacific’, photographed at Brookside Gardens. Look at the upper left (top) petal—see the tiny stowaway damselfly? I didn’t notice it until I zoomed in on the image in Photoshop!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Swallowtail butterfly (species unknown)

Photographed at the Wings of Fancy exhibit at Brookside Gardens

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Malachite butterfly

Malachite butterfly (Siproeta stelenes), a neotropical brush-footed butterfly, photographed at Brookside Gardens in their Wings of Fancy exhibit

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bumblebee and Honeybee on Purple Coneflower

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Daylily ‘Ollalie Late Red’

‘Ollalie Late Red’ Daylily (Hemerocalis hybrid), photographed at Brookside Gardens

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Calder-esque

I photographed this beautiful (unidentified) tree outside the visitors center at Brookside Gardens yesterday morning. I thought it looked like an Alexander Calder mobile.

UPDATE: Thanks to a fellow gardener/blogger, Les (of www.atidewatergardener.blogspot.com), I think we may have an identification—Euphorbia cotinifolia.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Tropical Water Lily ‘Blue Beauty’

Tropical Water Lily (Nymphaea) ‘Blue Beauty’, photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Same time, last year re-post: Mating Monarchs

Photographed at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit; the blue/purple blobs in the background are Plumbago flowers

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’, an All-America Rose Selection in 2006; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Stephanotis

Stephanotis (Stephanotis floribunda), photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Ombre Rose

Sometime during my college years, my sister Debbie and I were out shopping at Joe Brand, an upscale department store in La Plaza Mall in McAllen, Texas. It was there we discovered “Ombre Rose,” a hot new cologne (at the time). I declared this one was THE scent I could live with the rest of my life. (I do this quite often but then that “end-all-be-all” scent is inevitably dethroned by another every few years). For most of my high school years my scent of choice was Anais Anais. Before that, I enveloped myself in Jean Nate Body Splash (influenced, no doubt, by those commercials with the breathy announcer—“for people who want to take charge of their life….you get the feeling there’s nothing you can’t do!” Hey, sign me up for some of that!) or Charlie by Revlon (I just knew that if I wore that scent, I would appear to have much longer legs and my hair would swing in the wind, just like Shelley Hack’s did). And don’t get me started on how much I loved the smell of Farrah Fawcett shampoo. Though I never did achieve hair like hers (I’m sure you’re shocked), I did find an almost exact replica of the blue plaid jacket she wore on the bottle label.

Ah…how I digress…here is my visual rendition of an ombre rose. Hybrid tea rose ‘Portrait’, photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Sea Pink (Armeria Maritima)

Each bloom is less than 1″ in diameter!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Floribunda rose ‘Scentimental’

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‘Royal Candles’ Speedwell

‘Royal Candles’ Speedwell (Veronica spicata), photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

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Grandiflora rose ‘Cherry Parfait’

Grandiflora rose ‘Cherry Parfait’, an All America Rose Selection 2003, photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

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Rosa x ‘Betty Boop’ Floribunda rose

Rosa x ‘Betty Boop’ Floribunda rose, 1999 All-America Rose Selection; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’, an All-America Rose Selection in 2006; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Monarch butterfly

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Indian Pink

Indian Pink (Spigelia Marilandica), photographed at Brookside Gardens

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Trumpet Honeysuckle

Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens ‘Leo’), photographed at Brookside Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Mating monarchs

Photographed at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit; the blue/purple blobs in the background are Plumbago flowers

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Carpenter bee

Carpenter bee on unidentified flower, Brookside Gardens

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Flower fly on Cranesbill (Geranium)

Flower fly or Hover fly (Syrphidae) on Cranesbill; photographed at Brookside Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Delphinium border

What a sight this was at Brookside Gardens—several banks of these beautiful blooms!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Queen Fabiola Fool’s Onion

Tritelia laxa ‘Konigin Fabiola’ Queen Fabiola Fool’s Onion, photographed at Brookside Gardens

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