Here in Highland Park » flowers

Today’s Flowers: Periwinkle, Lilac, and Dogwood

Leora — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:31:28 +0000

Periwinkle is growing on the side of my house: it’s a great ground cover for shady spots.

The lilac blooms have already fallen off my neighbor’s bush. They don’t last long.

The dogwood flowers are such a pleasure to view in bloom.

Dancing Dogwood Watercolor

A watercolor with goache I did in 2008 of dogwood flowers

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Today’s Flowers: Grape Hyacinth

Leora — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:21:23 +0000

I appreciate grape hyacinths, small cone-like flowers that grow from fall-planted bulbs, more now that I have whole bunches of them popping up in front of my home.

The grape hyancinths go nicely with the creeping phlox blooming in patches of my front yard.

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Today’s Flowers Visit Macy’s

Leora — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:53:21 +0000

Last Monday my daughter and I went to New York City. We visited the flower show at Macy’s. The above photo was taken by my daughter. I had to crop out the head of my friend, as my daughter includes anything in aim view in her compositions (she’s only 6).

There were three of these flowered flamingos at the show. I wonder how much money it costs Macy’s to put this on. They also had tour guides taking people around the room explaining all the various flowers. In a recession, won’t they get more lookers than buyers? Perhaps the marketing group likes a crowded store for making more sales.

I took one picture of the tulips outside Macy’s, which I actually preferred to the show inside but the rest of my party was hurrying me on, so I only got this one shot with an overexposed background:

Here’s a posterized version of the above flowers:

Lots of folks gawking at flowers:

How many can you name?

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Today’s Flower: Magnolia

Leora — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:35:06 +0000

My neighbor’s magnolia tree is in bloom.

This magnolia flower has a black dot toward the top.

I enlarged the dot, and I discovered it is a fly. Or some kind of bug.

There are few more days left of Passover, so blogging will be light until next week. One of the names for Passover is “Holiday of the Spring.”

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Today’s Flowers: Daffodils

Leora — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:33:32 +0000

I call these “baby” daffodils because they are only a few inches tall. These little daffodils bloomed this past week in front of my house. My large daffodils in the back look like they might bloom any day now. I have seen some daffodils in bloom elsewhere in Highland Park.

Because I like yellow and purple together, here are some little crocuses that are situated in the far corner of my backyard.

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Today’s Flowers: Early Spring

Leora — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:58:44 +0000

Enjoy the lovely striped crocuses with orange stamen that grow in front of my home.

I also have white crocuses that popped up recently next to my sidewalk.

The first periwinkle has shown its purplish blue petals on the side of my house.

This is a fun bunch of purple crocuses that emerged under my climbing rose bush.

My neighbor just showed me where the deer have already nibbled at his (and my) tulips.

The pink markings show where the deer nibbled (upper left) and the deer hoof (bottom right). I am thinking of buying blood meal. Other deer-friendly scare tactics welcome.

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Today’s Flowers: Crocus

Leora — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:06:06 +0000

Such a joy that my neighbor’s crocuses are blooming! (Two points for anyone who can pluralize crocus in a different way, without looking it up in Google, no cheating!)

For some reason the orange ones have opened up before the purples.

A few of the crocuses have stripes!

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Snowdrops

Leora — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:57:23 +0000

Some of you wondered how snowdrops look when they come up out of the ground.
(see Sunday’s post of snowdrops)

Don’t they look like little lamp posts? Later they “spray” open their petals a bit.

Crocus photos will appear on this blog on Sunday.

Today’s Flowers: Snowdrops

Leora — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:33:24 +0000

I took this photo last week, before the snow. Today, one week later, all our snow is gone! Part of me is sad, but then, the birds are happy and chirping; they are announcing: spring! Yesterday I walked past a different neighbor whose snowdrops had already formed blooms.

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Today’s Flowers: Sedum

Leora — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:27:09 +0000

I took this photo of a dried sedum flower a block away from my house a few days ago.

Here’s a sedum flower I photographed last September. I believe this is “Showy Stonecrop” or Sedum spectabile. I would like to try growing this flower in my garden this summer.

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