‘Blue Moon’ Siberian iris against a backdrop of Astilbe foliage

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Kaleidoscope

I think these might be ‘Black Magic’ Black Leaf Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta ’Black Magic’). I had never seen them lighted from behind, so I never knew they actually had more color to them than you can see on the surface! The photos below were of two different leaves from the same plant—the reddish-orange one had more indirect sunlight, while the top greener one had direct sunlight from behind. I find it fascinating that something that appears to be just a solid blackish-purple shade could be hiding a kaleidoscope of colors! Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Meadow Rue ‘Lavender Mist’

Meadow Rue ‘Lavender Mist’ (Thalictrum ‘Lavender Mist’), photographed against a backdrop of ‘Black Magic’ Black Leaf Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Backlight

Unidentified leaf, backlighted by morning sunlight

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Cannon’s Double Azalea

Azalea x ‘Cannon’s Double’ (Exbury hybrid)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Taro or Elephant’s ear

A never-before-posted image pulled from my Green Spring Gardens archives…I named this one “neon.”

Taro or Elephant’s ear (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum ‘Illustris’)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Tropical foliage

(unidentified), photographed at U.S. Botanic Garden. This plant was backlit by the sun, so what you’re seeing is light through the leaves.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Purple Muhly Grass

The feathery and ethereal Purple Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) is a Virginia native and is also known as Pink Hairgrass or Gulf Muhly. A North American native ornamental grass, it has blue-green needle-like foliage and can grow 3-4 feet high with a 2-3 foot spread. In the fall, the grass looks like a soft purple cloud from a distance. This sun-loving plant will grow in both drought and wet conditions. Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All right reserved.

Hosta ‘Green Fountain’

Although hostas aren’t known for their flowers, I think they are the most sculptural and elegant blooms, don’t you? We incorporate them into our gardens because of the wide variety of shades of green (and blue!), their easy-to-care for nature, and their longevity throughout the gardening season—but we sometimes miss their lovely blooms!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Gomphrena globosa (Bachelor’s Button)

Gomphrena, sometimes called globe amaranth or bachelor’s button, is a sun-loving, drought tolerant annual plant. I think might be the “All Around Purple” variety. These intense magenta-pinkish purple flowers are tiny, no more than an inch in diameter—making them a bit of a challenge to photograph. Just imagine paired this color with lime green foliage! Although they were too quick to photograph, there was a bounty of skipper and sulphur butterflies darting through this bank of Gomphrena at Green Spring Gardens this afternoon.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Osprey’ Spiderwort

This is a new Virginia Spiderwort cultivar—‘Osprey’ (Tradescantia x andersoniana ‘Osprey’), photographed at Green Spring Gardens yesterday. You can order it from Bluestone Perennials. Their website states that after shearing the plants to the ground in midsummer, new foliage and flowers will return again in the fall. How’s that for a repeat performance? They’re half price on their website now!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Check out my zenfolio.com gallery!

I’ve been working on putting the “cream of the crop” of my garden and landscape photos into one easy-to-navigate gallery. Eventually I’ll have the gallery set up to sell prints as well as stock photos, but in the interim, this is just a way to wrangle all of my web-viewing-only images into one gallery. I’ll be adding more images in the future. Currently there are 380 images in the Botanical Gallery. That should keep you plenty busy! If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you’ll recognize many of the photos.

Once you click on the first link below, you can click “view all” at the bottom and see everything on one page, scrolling down as you go. If you click on an individual photo, it will enlarge and thumbnails for other images will show up on the side (as shown in the collage below). You can click on any of those to enlarge, or you can just launch the slide show in the second link below. I hope you enjoy the show!

Gallery:  http://cindydyer.zenfolio.com/p270076135

Slideshow: http://cindydyer.zenfolio.com/p270076135/slideshow

———————————————–
Open a Zenfolio account with my referral code 8B9-BTJ-6G3 and save $5.00

Another golden pond

Views of Lake Land ‘Or in central Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

That perfect light

Fall has finally come to northern Virginia, albeit much later than normal. Today the light was so beautiful that I just had to get out and shoot some foliage around my neighborhood. Looking at these photos, I find it hard to believe that this area is just off the beltway and not in the Vermont countryside!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.