Love-in-a-Mist

Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena)

Nikon D850, Nikkor 105mm micro, 1/80, f/14, ISO 125

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Visual overload: Love-in-a-mist and peonies

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Come a little bit closer…you’re my kind of bloom

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena)

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A profusion of Love-in-a-mist blooms

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Cicada on Love-in-a-mist

Ah…finally out and shooting flowers for the first time this season, thanks to the urging of my dear friend Michael Powell on this beautiful Sunday. We went to Green Spring Gardens to shoot and although it was pretty windy for photography, we both still managed to capture some images in between blusters! Here’s a shot I got of a cicada making its way through a cluster of love-in-a-mist blooms.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Delphiniums and Love-in-a-mist

This morning was my first time shooting at Green Spring Gardens this season. I was way overdue to shoot there and the subjects did not disappoint. I shot with my Nikon D800, but also these shots with my iPhone 6s (border added in the Snapseed app). More photos to come from this morning’s session!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lotsa love (in-a-mist)

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella Damascena), photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Closeup detail of Love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) © Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Intriguing at every stage: Love-in-a-mist

From that feathery foliage at the onset to those otherworldly blooms to the past-its-prime pods (as seen here), Love-in-a-mist is eye candy in every stage of its life.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-mist in blue and white

One of my favorite flowers to photograph—the ethereal, other-worldly Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Published: Anything But Ordinary—Inspiring and Unique Flowers

As a gardener and as an artist and photographer, I have long been attracted to more unusual plants—those that are showy, quirky, alien-like, and over-the-top—anything but ordinary. Any plant or flower that makes me ask,“what in the world is that?” has a place in my garden! Many of these flowers can also be used in bouquets, adding a touch of the exotic and unusual to any arrangement.

In the link below, you can read my latest column for the Bloomin’ Blog, a monthly newsletter published by the flowershopnetwork.com.

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/unique-flowers-photos/

You can see my previous columns in the links below:

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/got-the-blues/

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

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/fall-garden-flowers/

Re-post: Blue than blue

Originally posted 2.2.2009

Remember that 1978 hit song, Bluer than Blue, by Michael Johnson? Check out the video on youtube. Kinda low budget video, isn’t it? Ah, well, it’s the song that matters, right? Another song of his that I love is, “The Moon is Still Over Her Shoulder.“

Let’s see—I’ve received three requests in response to my “what color collage next” question. One requested a collage showing variegation. One was a request for the color teal. Uh…thanks for the challenge, gals! And the third one was for blue, which just happened to be the color I was working on! (Jan of Thanks for Today blog and I were on the same wavelength.) I’ll work on those first two (more challenging) requests, but in the interim, here’s a collage of nothin’ but blue. Blue isn’t a really common color in the garden, yet I was surprised I had enough images in that color to create this collage. I would love to be able to grow the extra-heat-sensitive-needs-cool-rainy-summers (which we don’t have in Northern Virginia) lovely sky-blue Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia), a native of southeastern Tibet.

Other blue flowers include:

Statice
Sea holly (Eryngium-–which I grow in my garden—and it is a beauty)
Hydrangea
Delphiniums
Chicory (shown below)
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella—shown below)
Cornflower
‘Heavenly Blue’ Morning Glory (shown below)
Forget-me-not
Bearded iris
Himalayan blue poppy (there are other shades of blue poppies as well)
Scabiosa (beautiful pale blue; I’ve grown them but they flop over too soon!)
Scilla
Veronica Speedwell
Globe thistle (Echinops)—I have several of these in my front garden
Muscari (grape hyacinth—some varieties lean more toward blue than deep purple)
Pride of Madeira (leans toward purple-blue—unbelievably beautiful plant—wish it would grow in our area)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-Mist

Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) is a beautiful Victorian garden annual blooming in soft shades of blue, pink, white, and lavender. Because its fern-like leaves look similar to fennel, it has also been called fennel flower. This annual herbaceous plant is in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), readily self-seeds, and is common in old-fashioned cottage gardens. It grows in full sun to partial shade and blooms from late spring through fall. Nigella is short-lived, so for continuous bloom, repeat sowing every four weeks. You can cut and deadhead this plant to keep it flowering longer.

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Yep, you guessed it. Green Spring Gardens again.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

More blooms at Green Spring Gardens

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In bloom today at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-mist

I photographed this beautiful Love-in-a-mist at Green Spring Gardens this afternoon. Michael and I got up bright and early this morning to check out the annual plant sale at Green Springs. We got back about noon-ish and then left again with my friend Regina back to the park. The morning excursion was reserved for plant-buying for me (recap to come) and this afternoon jaunt was simply to photograph the latest flowers in bloom. I wrote a post about Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) last May here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) is a beautiful Victorian garden annual blooming in soft shades of blue, pink, white, and lavender. Because its fern-like leaves look similar to fennel, it has also been called fennel flower. This annual herbaceous plant is in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), readily self-seeds, and is common in old-fashioned cottage gardens. It grows in full sun to partial shade and blooms from late spring through fall. Nigella is short-lived, so for continuous bloom, repeat sowing every four weeks. You can cut and deadhead this plant to keep it flowering longer.

http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/Features/flowers/nigella/nigella.htm

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.