Up Close and Personal With Plants

I was playing around with the macro extension tubes that I have for my camera. Would’ve been better if I had gotten out the tripod, but still got ok close-up shots of some of my garden plants. I love looking at them in detail like this – you notice things you never saw before.

The Maypop Passion Flower is so uniquely beautiful. I planted this in the garden in the spring and bought a trellis especially for it. It is one of the only passion flowers that is hardy to this area, so I hope it feels at home and survives.

This is the Sedum with tiny leaves that is in a pot on the back porch steps.

I have lots of little Venus Flytraps in my potted bog gardens right now by the back steps. It is just about the time of year that my bog plants seem happiest – usually in September.

Also near the back steps, Sage. You can really see the soft, fuzzy texture of the leaves here.

 
I love the varying colors of the Ninebark leaves. They are especially lovely when the sun back lights the leaves.

I was chasing bumblebees for awhile trying for a good shot. These were the best that I got. This handsome fellow was enjoying the pollen of the David Phlox.

Here you can see the yellow pollen all over him.

There are still a few Shasta Daisies hanging around.

This is a close-up of the flower buds of a Black and Blue Salvia.

When you magnify the buds and flowers of Sedum flowers, they really are delicate little beauties.

The same with these Hydrangea flowers.

The shots of the Purple Coneflowers didn’t come out great. This was the best one and it really is blurry and washed out, but it kind of has a neat, abstract look.

Now heading to the Kitchen Garden...this Alaska Nasturtium looks positively fierce this close. It is like the mouth of a dragon or some other scary, mythical creature.

I really wanted to get some fabulous pictures of the Cut And Come Again Zinnias because the centers of the flowers are so delicate and intricate, but these really aren’t great shots. You get the idea of what they look like in the middle, though. So cool. They’re like flowers within flowers.

This one looks like a funky layer cake.

This is some sort of weed growing in one of the raised beds and it looks similar to a dandelion seed head, but it is not. It looks as soft as a bunny’s butt.

I like this image of the Sunchocola Tomato because you see the texture of the skin and the green stem.

Danger, danger, seriously big thorns ahead. This is the leaf of the Solanum Quitoense that is in one of the big blue pots in the Kitchen Garden. It’s looking marvelous...and threatening all at the same time.

Here are the fuzzy buds of the Solanum Quitoense. Such a contrast to the sharp thorns on the leaves.

The Bright Lights Swiss Chard looks like something out of a science fiction or horror movie this close. Egads!

Speaking of science fiction, what the heck is this?! I honestly don’t remember, did I plant this???? It has elongated flowers and these weird, pointy pods. I looked through all of my gardening records and can’t find this – what is it and how did it get here? (For an update on this plant, see blog post from Aug 31.)

How can you not love plants when you see how diverse and fascinatingly beautiful they are? It’s enough to make one want to be a gardener. Oh wait, I am. It also makes me want to learn more about botany. I’ll see if I can fit that into my busy schedule sometime.