Winter Dip Into Our Flickr Pool

A quick peek at what's going on these day on our Talking Plants Flickr group. The conversation went like this:

jesse.sexton: Cool shot, is this some variety of post processing or did you use radial blur or even a lens baby? Either way, very pretty.

pathos3: Thanks Jesse. Radial blur, b/w conversion, and sepia toning.

A shot taken at the Cathy Fromme Prairie, Fort Collins, CO. I'm sensing the beauty here in the process, not the plant.

photo credit: pathos3

 

Why not put your body (of work, anyway) in our pool; join the party.

9:30 AM ET | 11-18-2008 | permalink

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Wonder What To Do With Your Fab Fall Photos?

If you're new to Talking Plants you may not know about our photo community. Given some of the stunning shots showing up there today, I wanted to be sure you take a look and consider delighting us with some of your own stolen moments from this 2008 fall.

Given what else this season has brought us, I suspect you'll find our photo album a very safe haven -- and there can never been too many of them.

"Ready to fly" was taken by TP regular Aleth Matrone who tell me she moonlights as a professional skydiver "and/or" an insurance claims specialist. And you thought you were interesting?

photo credit: Aleth Matrone

 

The majority of our group is enamoured with macro shots, and having tried a number of my own I know there's more to it than hitting the old "macro" button and hoping for the best. I find I have better luck with the big picture, which of late has been fairly mindblowing as I continue to hike my favorite (nearby) places on the planet.

I've been spending way too much time talking about the Wallowa Mountains and the nearby towns of Joseph and Enterprise, but now I can brag all I want without incurring the wrath of locals because the mountain passes involved in getting there have become quite formidable.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine

 

I'm going to give the last word to Aleth for capturing a moment we've all stumbled into but perhaps have never fully seen.

Aleth spied this moment on her 17 acre farm spread in Kutztown, PA. A little light, a hint of red barn, and suddenly I'm no longer in front of the computer but smelling the sun on hay. Thanks, Aleth.

photo credit: Aleth Matrone

 

10:42 AM ET | 10-20-2008 | permalink

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Now That's A Big Moth

All manner of lovelies are showing up on our Flickr site right now. Bright orange lanterns, tight-fisted aquatics, check it out.

But let's start the week thinking big. Really big. Introducing the Atlas moth, Attacus atlas, as seen by our own Andy Carvin (you might remember his stellar pix of passiflora last year). Andy grabbed this stunning shot at "Wings of Fancy", the live butterfly exhibit now on for another two weeks at Brookside Gardens outside D.C.

In terms of total wing surface area, Atlas moths are considered the largest in the world. Andy figures that each wing was bigger has his man-sized hand.

photo credit: Andy Carvin, NPR

 

Everything I know about Attacus comes from Wikipedia, so feel free to dissent. Among the more compelling things I read concerned the moth's sexual differences and mating behavior:

Females are sexually passive, releasing powerful pheromones which males detect and home in on with the help of chemoreceptors located on their large feathery antennae. Males may thus be attracted from several kilometres downwind. Atlas moths are unsteady fliers and the female does not stray far from the location of her discarded chrysalis: she seeks a perch where the air currents will best carry her pheromones.

Since you know how the story ends, I figure you'd like to see how it begins. Thanks to Sachin Palkar for this photo.

photo credit: Sachin Palkar

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Wild Kingdom when we re-visit the floating photographer Mary Edwards and the underwater world of spawning salmon...

10:42 AM ET | 09- 8-2008 | permalink

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Another Mystery Solved

We've just had a query from DillyBean over at our discussion group about mystery plants and with a little help from our friends over at Timber Press (what? you don't know about this outstanding horticultural publisher?), we have lift-off.

This volunteer showed up in DillyBean's Oregon garden. The telling clue was its seed pod, "covered by a paper husk, much like a tomatillo". Any ideas, she asked? Don't eat it, we answer. This is the shoo-fly plant, Nicandra physaloides, a day-blooming relative of Jimson weed with similarly poisonous parts.

photo credit: DillyBean

 

Based on some elemental surfing, it would appear the shoo-fly plant is inordinately fond of Illinois, since few other states (w/the exception of California) have websites showing where this weedy non-native has naturalized. After planting it voluntarily, Chicago gardener Mr. Brown Thumb has since decided to nip his in the bud.

Nicandra physaloides is hardly poised to take over the planet, and if you can look past its coarse leaves, the flowers and the dried seed husks are quite ornamental. I found a nice assortment of comments about the plant posted on the U.K. website, Plants For A Future. And should you want a variegated form (who am I to judge?) check out Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Oh yeah, about this "shoo, fly!" thing. The plant's reported to have insect-repelling properties, particularly against white fly.

7:59 PM ET | 09- 2-2008 | permalink

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Stumped No More

Eileen Vennum sent in a pix of a mystery plant she and her husband have been seeing in spring along the roads of east Texas. Before reading any further, wanna hazard a guess?

Nice to know that healthy stands of native elderberry are thriving along the roads of east Texas. But what am I missing: can anyone tell me why the county mowed it down a week after this pix was taken? A plant that feeds countless birds and deer?

photo credit: Eileen Vennum

 

The answer's Sambucus canadensis, good old elderberry, a beloved and sentimental native plant used for everything from pies and wines to whistles. Chances are just about everything you want to know about elderberries you can find here.

So what else you got for us, folks? We love playing matchmaker, introducing you to the mystery plants in your world.

10:49 AM ET | 08-28-2008 | permalink

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No Stump Speech, Just Stump Me

One of the on-going discussion groups at the Talking Plant Flickr site has focused on that age-old gardening question, "What the hell is that plant?". Thanks to the page's moderator and TP's best friend Andy Carvin, we've had some interesting species pop up for identification now and again.

TP flickr member Live Now posted this to the stumped page to see what might turn up. The answer, with help from Mike in Oregon: the fluffy seedheads from our native western pasqueflower, Anemone occidentalis. Isn't it a hoot? The mountain in the background is the ever-spectacular Mt. Rainier, which I will go to my grave never being able to pronounce.

photo credit: Live Now

 

I expect you'll be seeing a lot more peculiar seed heads, fruits and unusual late-blooming flowers -- or perhaps you've got a file of stuff you're still wondering about -- in which case, consider this an invitation to post your unidenfied flora and if I can't figure it out, no doubt one of our community can.

You can either post your pix here (with a few useful hints, please!, like location and season pix was taken) or send me an e-mail with jpg attached and again, as much info as you can recall.

OFFER IS LIMITED, PLANT GEEKS STANDING BY...

11:26 AM ET | 08-27-2008 | permalink

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Your Views On Plants

As summer marches on, our legions of Talking Plants Flickr Pix members continue to document moments in both their own and in other peoples' gardens. Most folks are enamoured with macro shots so we've got a lot of sexy plant porn, but I've also noticed some nice one-word captions that help transform a pix into a story. And I do like stories.

Once TP regular Blathanna called this, "Hanging On", her photograph took on a poignancy that reminded me of a much-loved piece of art on my own wall. It's a charcoal drawing of an elephant in a fanciful kind of harnass, hanging mid-air; I wasn't sure why it spoke to me till I saw the title, "Reluctant Departure". Then, I cried. Turned out the artist Christine Bourdette created it during the last days in the life of her beloved dog. Does "Hanging On" speak to you?

photo credit: Blathanna

 

Another recent post by a TP photographer I'm less familiar with, djFargo, gained a little something with the addition of a title. It's a good picture of a moment in time that takes place every year, every place, coast to coast -- but with little fanfare.

"Awakening" may not be a new take on emerging buds, but the title did make me take a second look. With a little imagination -- and whatever else gets you through the night -- you can see the slow-mo unfolding and awakening sepals yawning on a brand new day.

photo credit: djFargo

 

OK, enough with the corny stuff. Thanks to the more than 400 of you! who are playing in our Flickr pool. I would enjoy getting a wider perspective on your growing, ageing, drying or dying garden. As always, all stages of beauty and decay are welcome here.

11:04 AM ET | 08-26-2008 | permalink

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Winter Memories on a Hot Summer Day

The problem with getting up really early is the number of times you have to listen to your local Morning Edition announcer carry on about the weather forecast. By repeatedly warning us about the upcoming heat today, he's set up his entire listening audience to swelter and complain.

Better he should talk about the chance to store up all that sunlight in our solar cells, or to get outside while it's still gorgeous. And boy howdy, it sure is.

(Oh no, now he's saying we'd better draw the curtains. Somebody put him on ice!)

Fortunately here at Talking Plants the subject is winter, as we come down the home stretch of our anniversary celebration by highlighting a year of great pix from our Flickr group.

Though there were some great frozen flowers to choose from -- some looked like iced flower pops -- I found myself drawn towards the darker depressing ones. Their effect on me -- last night when I chose them, anyway -- was calming, like seeing my inner colors projected onto a screen.

TP member Dave Getzy clearly showed some insight when he chose his Flickr name, pathos3. I find this frosted leaf shivering on a sheet of ice so sad! Dave writes, "I tend to walk/hike with my dogs a lot in winter, and the somber tones of the wooded areas around Fort Collins seem to reflect my mood this time of year. This picture was taken at Arapahoe Bend Open Space, on the southeast border of Fort Collins". Thanks for the insight, Dave.

photo credit: Dave Getzy

 

Now meet Danuta Majchrowicz, a good and constant friend of Talking Plants.

"What can I tell you about myself? I spent 7 years overseas working and studying languages and archeology in Poland, France, Israel and several countries of West Africa. I then worked with study abroad and international students in the US for 18 years, until recently when I started working for my husband (a retired cell biologist who rehabs houses when he's not playing golf). We've been involved with blind golfers for about 6 years now".

During the last year on TP, Danuta's submitted lots of optimistic flower portraits. For obvious reasons, however, I couldn't resist her deep and melancholy winter silhouette.

Danuta took this photo in Northwestern Pennsylvania on Christmas Day.

photo credit: Danuta Majchrowicz

 

I've got a few more pix this week, then we're off and running into Year #2. Assuming, that is, that my current stubborn funk frees me to celebrate the ordinary, the magical, the wonder of every day. That's where you come in...

11:49 AM ET | 07- 7-2008 | permalink

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TP Fall Photo of the Year

The dogs and I have survived another 4th with the help of Benadryl (for them) and two loud movies (for we three). Managed to get a hike in and saw our lovely native lily, Lilium columbianum. Always leaves me a bit wistful.

D'you garden? High time we started swapping notes about the living, the slugged and the dead.

But when last we met, I was in the midst of celebrating Talking Plant's first anniversary with an array of particularly fabulous photos that premiered on the TP Flickr site. And yes, I now realize I was largely celebrating alone.

Yet in the hopes you're still stopping by as things far more pressing compete for your attention, I thought you'd enjoy a memorable blast of vivacity from last fall.

Titled "Setting Them Free," the shot of this milkweed spilling all was captured by TP Flickr member Camera Slayer. As it turns out -- and I didn't know this until recently -- said Slayer is actually our own Harold Neal, who works as a web application developer for NPR. I asked him what camera he used for his wonderful shot; his answer, "a very thin Casio EX-V8 that I keep in my pocket for those 'unexpected' shots when I didn't bring my bigger cameras." Check out what he can do with his entire array.

photo credit: Camera Slayer

 

2:35 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink

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Summer Eye Candy on our Anniversary

In August 2007, a gender-unknown person by the name of Cy Savino uploaded a stunning close-up of a bee in multi-hued buds. Almost a year later, I now know her real name.

Cynthia Savino spends her summers as a dance instructor at the Albuquerque Academy. She's also a fencing enthusiast talented enough to coach. And she belongs to a number of Flickr groups aside from Ketzel's, including Secret Life of Plants and The Flower Show.

The girl's got an eye for plants and invertebrates, for sure. Congrats, Cynthia, on being named TP Summer Eye Candy of the Year!

If you'd like to know more about Cynthia's macro photography, stop by her Flickr page and drop her a friendly, "Ketzel sent me" line.

photo credit: cy_savino

 

A bug in a bud has got to be worth at least two in a blog -- which brings to mind one of the best-loved creature pix of Talking Plants' first year. It dates from September 2007 and was credited to Judie Dunn (alas, we haven't had any submissions from her in a while). The title of that day's blog was Beautyberry and the Beast.

The identity of the spider caused quite a stir when the post went up. The last word went to Bill Barber, a spider expert and TP friend: "I think I can agree with Phidippus spp., but I thought (from the B.J. Kaston book) it's the male (not female) of the genus that have the vertical 'eyebrow tufts.' From this photo it's hard to tell if the chelicerae are iridescent, which would further suggest male." We are so beyond hip ...

photo credit: Judie Dunn

 

We've had so many wonderful summer pix in the last year, to pick one is certainly not to diss another. We've featured a few of them on the NPR homepage billboard just in the last week, but you never did get to see the one below in its entirety.

I was pretty sucker-punched by this white peony and its pink belly button until I saw the photographer's name. Ah yes, Aleth11, I should have known. She's one of the most frequent contributors to the Talking Plants Flickr Group and her stuff just gets better and better. I couldn't help but notice that her grandma BJ was one mean photographer, too.

photo credit: aleth11

 

There's still a little time left for you to nominate your favorite of our first year's TP Flickr Pix. But if you're not up to the challenge, come back tomorrow for more of the best of the best ...

2:33 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink

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The Human Body Ain't Got Nothing On This Plant

First and foremost, this breaking news...

TALKING PLANTS TURNS ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!!!

I'd like to celebrate all next week by posting some of the best pix from our TP Flickr Pool and I need YOUR nominations.

Why not take a few minutes and either scroll through former posts or walk through our garden of, count 'em, nearly TWO THOUSAND submitted images and send me the best spring, summer, winter and fall TP Pix of the Year.

As a token of my thanks for your continued interest in Talking Plants through rain sleet and inexplicable absence, I'm posting a great big ol' Flickr pix that says more than I can legally say.

This is only one of the sumptuous images TP photographer Chris Stamboulis recently taken at the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. Talk about an inside-the-beltway scandal. And let me add a personal note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL MAGGIE. Add it to your birthday bouquet.

photo credit:Chris Stamboulis

 

3:57 PM ET | 06-26-2008 | permalink

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Dirt Nerd's Gotta Pea

Dirt Nerd gardens above 5,000 feet in Boulder County, Colorado. "In this dry climate," he says, "seeing a rain drop stick around makes my day."

photo credit: Dirt Nerd

The lead story this morning in the Talking Plants world (I didn't hear from you so what else could I lead with?) is Dirt Nerd's pea seedling. Isn't she sweet?

Well if that doesn't work for you, perhaps the thoughtful musings over at A Thinking Stomach will:
"What possible kinds of salad greens can one grow when it is 105 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday and 50 degrees Fahrenheit (and spitting hail the size of nickels) on Thursday of the same week?" asks blogger Christina from Pasadena. Check out her answers.

OK, how about...

An old friend showed up in the Talking Plants inbox the other day. If you'd like to meet one of the people in the world I most envy, check out the latest from the fabulously talented (and obscenely young-to-retire) Margaret Roach. Her blog is Away To Garden.

Sure I wish I had a couple acres in upstate New York. Poor me, all I've got is this:

It was another dark, rainy morning when I left Portland and headed East along I-84. Sixty or so miles and a hundred minutes later, I was climbing up through lupine, balsam root and penstemon, making my way to the top of the Tom McCall Preserve. What you see here is the view from mid-way up, looking north across the Columbia River towards Washington State. The spills of yellow and purple you're seeing? Wildflowers, my friends. Wildflowers. More pix from this magical place tomorrow.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

10:44 PM ET | 05-26-2008 | permalink

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A Plant Nerd Worthy of the Name

Ever so slowly here at TP, strangers are becoming regulars, and regulars are becoming friends. So as I continue dodging your most-asked question, What Would Eve Do? (she'd chew her nails to the bone worrying about how much angst to reveal; I promise an update, soon...) I thought I'd introduce you to one of the many sensational photographers in the TP Flickr pool, an anything but garden variety acolyte of the Goddess Flora.

His name is Rob Illingworth, he says the "real"gardener in the family is his wife Sharon (I guess that makes him, what, chopped liver?), and the couple lives 7 miles north of the MN border in Oh! Canada. Judging by their Flickr page, her passion is woodland and rock garden plants and his is everything she grows.

If it takes a family to create a portrait like the one below -- the plant is Hepatica -- consider this union blessed.

Hepatica clearly thrives in Ontario, at least in the Illingsworth garden, where the couple grow -- and he photographs -- a variety of colors and forms, mostly from seed. The Mr.'s photographs blew me away. In answer to my sheepish question, Um, you didn't color-correct this, did you Rob?, he answered quite earnestly, "I went out and picked two flowers from the plants. I have always intended to do this just to satisfy myself as to colour accuracy. I am pleased to say that the flower colours are very close to what I see on my monitor, which is colour balanced."

photo credit: Rob Illingworth

 

A self-described "plant nerd with a bias to growing rather than plant classification" (aha! he does garden!), this serious amateur recently visited one of the country's more imaginative and certainly better-endowed public gardens, Chanticleer in Wayne, PA. Its website does not do it justice, but Rob's photographs do.

Surprisingly, it wasn't his destination. He had, shall we say, less romantic plans. Rob was visiting the mid-Atlantic region because of a trillum symposium he'd signed up for at a nearby native plant mecca, Mt Cuba. Now that is one serious plantfest of a place. "I went to the symposium not as an expert, but as a keen grower," Rob wrote, "feeling that we could grow many more trilliums here despite our climate."

I can only imagine the notes he took; something tells me this is the guy who'd you'd most want to cheat off during a final. Anyway, among the many pix he's posted from Chanticleer, this one is Rob's favorite:

"Here's a low circular mound of fine gravel very carefully raked into an artful pattern," writes Rob. "The fallen flower petals from the adjacent trees had collected in the ridges making for me a perfect garden memory. While I was there the light was right and I was very happy even though I only had three hours for my visit. Not nearly enough time to see all the garden, but leaving me reason to return".

photo credit: Rob Illingworth

 

So many Illingworth pix, so little time. Be sure to take your own tour through his photos.

And who, might I ask, are you?

2:46 PM ET | 05-22-2008 | permalink

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EZ Guide to Sharing Your Plant Pix

Just got a note from Ken Banks who's new to Talking Plants.

I'm a Hawaii plant guy and would like to be a part of this blog and pix scene, but I dont understand how it works. How do I become involved? I apologize for my ignorance, but a brief step-by-step guide might help.

Much aloha to you, too, Ken. Here's your step-by-step guide, courtesy of Andy Carvin.

Step 1: If you're not a member yet, join Flickr. It doesn't cost anything to join, though if you want to use it to share a lot of photos - ie, hundreds or thousands - you may want to purchase a Pro account.

Step 2: Upload some pics you'd like to share with the Talking Plants group. (If you're having trouble uploading, consult Flickr's help guide.

Step 3. Go to the Talking Plants group on Flickr and click "Join this group." You'll then have to click another button to confirm your membership.

Step 4: Find a photo from your personal collection that you'd like to add to the group. Between the title of the photo and the photo itself, you'll see a series of tabs. Click "Send to Group" then Select "Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants."

And that's it; you're done. Your photo will now be included in the group collection.

(Me again. Now even I get it. Guess it's time to finally jump into the Flickr Pool. See you there)

5:14 PM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink

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Behold, Sumptuous Snapshots

A recent walk through the Talking Plants photo garden reveals that your eyes are keen and your imaginations fired. How I treasure you roving troubadours of spring.

Guillermo Meraz, aka Guissimo, went for a recent hike near the Merced River in Mariposa County, CA., home to the Sierra National Forest. So you've got to be wondering about those blue wildflowers, huh? Guillermo has the answer:Nemophila menziesii var. menziesii, or baby blue-eyes.

photo credit: Guillermo Meraz

 

Another TP regular didn't have to go very far to find stunning spring ephemerals. The prolific and talented Aleth11 just had to wander into the woods behind her house to behold the sparkle of the truly wondrous Sanguinaria canadensis (that link will take you to the bloodroot profile from my book).

I have this note from our photographer: "These flowers ooze an orange/red color when a leaf or stem is "damaged" so I imagine that's where they got the name. Sounds like a horrible name for such a pretty flower, no? The sap is apparently toxic and has been used in salves and such on warts and skin cancer.

photo credit: Aleth11

 

Finally, though there's not a whole lot new to be said about tulips (after moving to the NW, I'm pretty much ready to give them up, except for the unimproved smallest species), TP friend Troye captured a few lovely shots that pretty much tell the story of why they'll always be a market for tulips.

.

Troye's shown us his, time for you to show us yours. The Talking Plants Flickr Group has more than 300 members who've posted almost a year's worth of gorgeous, memorable and classy pix. To join, all you need is a camera and a love of the natural world. We want you!

photo credit: troye

 

2:17 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink

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Doyenne of Dirt Comes Clean

Consider me humbled.

You may have noticed I'm not the hippest blogster in the bunch. In other words, if it's hot and happening in the blog world, you're NOT likely to read about it here.

Believe me, I'm not bragging. I get that my creds as a blogger are slightly pathetic, possibly even considered rude, if the standard of gentility is linking to others.

So consider me a plant in need of sunlight and nourishment and help me out here. What are the enlightening, surprising, irreverent and relevant plant-related blogs I need to read?

12:02 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink

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Gloom Or Bloom?

You may think you know what this is, but I wouldn't jump to any easy conclusions. Wanna guess again?

photo credit: Coburn Dukehart, NPR

Rumor has it the bulbs are poppin' in Portland, OR. after a glorious weekend. And there are thousands of little blossoms like the one on the left now blooming at Dumbarton Oaks. So much for the Z7 and Z8 edges of the country what's up in your front yard?

Seedheads of sweet autumn clematis are about it these days for the floral fantasies of some TP members. If you are in need of chlorophyllic support, join the Talking Plants Flickr Group and let us ooow and aaah over your small triumphs.

photo credit: Blathanna

 

10:38 AM ET | 02-19-2008 | permalink

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Plants on Ice

Listen up, friends -- It's now that dead, dried and dessicated flower time of year and we need more TP Flickr Pix friends before some of us get really depressed. We need colors, shapes, lights, action! So skip the holiday shopping (just buy your friends memberships to local enviro orgs, they'll hate you for it), and go snap us some iced flowers and berry frappes...

From what I've heard, the first snow in the greater D.C. area didn't last long, but TP member Camera Slayer (evidentally, he kills a lot of them) was poised and ready.

photo credit: Camera Slayer

 

Truth is we gardeners don't have all that much work to do right now (as if I've done a thing in the last eleven months; this was the Year of the Ruptured Disc), so this is a splendid time to look a bit more closely at things we missed all year, and indulge in the smaller moments that rushed right by during the growing season.

At my place, for instance, it's all about bark and bones -- as in, the dog's soggy stuffed animals and my garden's design bones that are in need of serious chiropractic care.

If you're a TP regular, you've seen this aster before (scroll down page). Our friend in New England, Christine 4nier, sent in a purpleacious shot this past summer.

photo credit: Christine 4nier

 

Winter is also a superb time of year to have a Bad Excuse For A Garden exhibition here on TP...and I know just the "ornamental" cabbage planting I'm going to include. So while you're out walking the dog please scour the neighborhood for any amusing disasters. If I get enough pix that are truly bad enough, I'll put up a show.

Stopped in its tracks while blowing in the wind, this rudbeckia relative got caught up in last week's Oklahoma City ice storm.

photo credit: Clarissa Sharp

 

12:00 PM ET | 12-16-2007 | permalink

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Getta Load of Your Plant Pics

Wanted to catch you up on what's happening over at our TP photo club, membership cruising towards 300. If you have no idea what I'm on about, here's how to play.

And now for a glimpse of some of the most evocative and enticing from the last few weeks:

As it was originally described by photographer and admired TP regular aleth11, "Sadly, the last zinnia photo of the year. As the frost melted, so did their color, and then they were gone ... "

photo credit: aleth11

 

Simple, unpretentious, and universal. I also like to say the photographer's e-name, Grundlepuck. Grundlepuck. Grundlepuck.

photo credit: Grundlepuck

 

With any luck, photographer bear.bonnell will swing by the blog and tell us where he/she took this. I do recommend checking out the bear's other pix.

photo credit: bear.bonnell

 

If you're a TP regular, you'll know the gent who took this pix, Andy Carvin. He's a gift to both NPR and TP, plus one hot flower photographer (what, me, prejudice?). The featured plant is my longtime late fall favorite, Leonotis leonurus. Let me know if you want me to blog about it sometime.

photo credit: Andy Carvin, NPR

 

I've saved my favorite for last. I am crazy, crazy, crazy for this photograph. It speaks to me; hell, it screams to me. Childhood, the Berkshires, Russian writers, the associations are endless. This is a photographer you must meet (and a pix you've got to see larger), so follow the links. Thank you, Jen!

photo credit: Jennifer Yu

 

So of course you're thinking, what's the big deal? I can shoot as well as this. Well, what are you waiting for?

11:46 AM ET | 11- 8-2007 | permalink

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Let It Fall!

What a relief that the flower season's almost over. Honest.

You macro pix meshuganas make the world so blissfully bite-sized and so breathtakingly unreal! While the truth -- for this gardener -- is the bigger, messier picture. Which is one of the reasons I can't get enough of the kaleidoscopic chaos that is foliage in the fall.

For my money -- and the stuff does cost -- there's nothing black mondo grass can't do. This week it's drowning in killer crape myrtle foliage; a few months from now it'll be setting off brilliant little species tulips if the squirrels and the beagle don't get them first.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Kudos to TP Flickr Pixer Christine4nier who grabbed this conversation between a red maple and a birch before they took the plunge into history near Woodstock, VT.

photo credit:Christine4nier

 

So how 'bout grabbing your cameras and sharing your perspective as this most melancholy of times take its leaves? Delight us with autumnal light, colorful landscapes, fiery and fallen moments in your garden. Best pix gets posted on the NPR homepage billboard (hint: take horizontals).

And if this is your first visit to Talking Plants, it's easy to join our jolly band of photographers (244 members and going strong!). We all belong to the no strings attached Talking Plants Flickr Pix photo swap, All Comers Welcome and Here's How, where you're likely to run into folks much like yourself with a strong sense of wonder (and might I add, gratitude) for all Man has yet to plunder.

2:09 PM ET | 10-17-2007 | permalink

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Beautyberry and the Beast

If you aren't familiar with beautyberry -- a.k.a., Callicarpa -- you'd be forgiven for thinking this photo was a fake. But these purple fruits are the real thing and available in a number of delicious flavors, including that downhome Southeast native, Callicarpa americana.

Oh, it's the spider that lured you to Talking Plants? Excellent. Perhaps you'd care to tell us what kind of spider it is?

Congrats to Talking Plants Flickr Pix winner Judie Dunn for her stunning close-up of these Callicarpa berries featured with this handsome stranger. Can you introduce us?

photo credit: Judie Dunn

 

1:24 AM ET | 09-20-2007 | permalink

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Maypop Memories

The gig's up. The mystery's solved. The Flickr Pix of the Week was Passiflora 'Incense'.

One of this hybrid's parents is commonly known as Maypop, and just about everything I know about the plant -- also known as Passiflora incarnata -- I found out this week from you.

All I'd hoped was to tease out a few passiflora experts with our Talking Plants Flicker Pix of the Week. And I did find a few.

But I'm happy to report I got way more than I bargained for. Click here and you will, too.

For instance: Chris has learned not to kill caterpillars (right, Chris?) because they could turn into Gulf Fritillary butterflies; Jason uses the plant's flowers to make tea; Michelle used to pretend the flowers were ballerinas, with three sets of arms and three heads; and Serene has a recipe for passiflora juice.

In addition: it's the Tennessee state wildflower, it's rich with Christian symbolism, and it does a wicked imitation of that creature immortalized in the 1958 classic, The Purple People Eater.

Finally, I'm aware of at least one person in our community who did NOT use a search engine to come up with the mystery plant's name. Congrats, Tai Haku.

I send you off into the weekend with the maypop memories of a Glasgwegian. Here's the last two stanzas of Where The Passion Flower Grows, by a fellow flower-lover, Charles M. Moore.

Feel your mind exploding
in the heavy scented air
experience the shiver
as you're captured unaware

A little touch of heaven
where imagination flows
the valley in the garden
where the passion flower grows.

10:18 AM ET | 09- 7-2007 | permalink

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Gotta Problem With Eye Candy?

Here's this week's Talking Plants Flickr Pix winner, a sensational mega-whallop of purple...

It's root-hardy to zero degrees and like most passion vines, it's not a particularly demanding plant. So I ask you, why aren't we all growing this plant? Could it be because most of us can't identify it?

photo credit: Andy Carvin, NPR

 

This pix was taken by NPR's own Andy Carvin, the best friend a blogger -- and Flickr fan -- could have. After a considerable amount of detective work, Andy was able to identify this species of Passiflora, and now I know the answer, too.

Question is, do you?

2:02 PM ET | 09- 5-2007 | permalink

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Heavy Metal Hits

Metallic blue is a preposterous color which behaves badly in front of a camera. Which makes the genus Eryngium the naughtiest of them all. So bravo to our Talking Plants Flickr Pix of the Week winner, who we trust did not doctor this photo of Eryngium alpinum -- the so-called alpine sea holly -- posing here in all its impossibly blue-osity.

Thank you Canadian TP friends Rob and Sharon Illingworth for posting this little portrait of E. alpinum, a perennial that likes its feet in fast-draining soil, its head in full summer sun, and its neighbors some breathing space away.

photo credit: Rob Illingworth

 

I find this genus so captivating, its infertile blue bracts (the feathery bits) so ridiculously showy, its color so consistently elusive, and its demeanor so percussive, I thought I'd regale you with a couple more close-ups. Ready, Mr. DeMille?

This was taken in Switzerland more than two decades ago. It's a decidedly more purple look at Eryngium alpinum, the same plant as our Flickr Pix of the Week.

photo credit: Dr. Robert Thomas and Margaret Orr copyright California Academy of Sciences

 

I'll wait for you while you check out this gorgeous shot also taken in a Swiss meadow but just last year.

Awesome, right?

OK ... let's give the alpine eryngiums a rest, and move on to a different species (stop groaning). Drumroll, please...

Killer photo, isn't it? Now take a close look at those bracts -- the Elizabethan collars around the fertile flowers -- and check out the textural difference between this puppy and the two above. So cool!

photo credit: htop

 

What, you're not awed? I'll find your weakness yet.

Maybe it's native plants, in which case, meet the little guy from Kansas, E. leavenworthii. This is one anatomically nice annual. You'll have to tell me whether it works as a garden plant -- maybe in a meadow? -- but at least you Kansans, Texans and Oklahomans get to tiptoe through fields of it in summer.

If I might quote from the photographer, botanist Tom Clothier, "Eryngium leavenworthii is nothing short of fantastic with its metallic purple stems and flowers". He also notes that the flowers' stamens come out as bright blue filaments, which you can see in the still-blooming flower heads, the ones that look spray painted. photo credit: Tom Clothier

 

OK, I'm just about done, but I must point out that even Shakespeare took note of eryngium.

"Rain me eringoes...." says Falstaff of the candied eryngium root. Turns out it was both a celebrated sweet, and an aphrodisiac.

1:55 AM ET | 08-30-2007 | permalink

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It's Flickr Pix Monday, Do You Know Where Your Dahlias Are?

So let's start off this deliciously wet Monday (at least here in Oregon) with the Talking Plants Flickr Pix of the Week...

This week's photographer is Steve Garfield, who shot right down into the kisser of a pinwheeled dahlia. At least that's my best guess what the flower is, based on its foliage. Any dissent in the ranks?

photo credit: Steve Garfield

 

Good idea to get your flower in focus if you're going to submit to the Talking Plants Flickr Pix. (Clearly, I have no business being in the club.)

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

And speaking of dahlias, there is none finer (nor more ubiquitous) than the red alarm in a dark night that is the dark-foliaged dahlia, 'Bishop of Llandaff'. Here's a quick shot just scored from the dripping front garden.

Meanwhile, amidst this jumble of August growth you might see the red flowers from a flowering shrub known as Abutilon in the background, left.

Care to offer your fellow gardeners your favorite dahlia picks with pix?

4:32 PM ET | 08-20-2007 | permalink

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Your Photo Here!

Oh the fame! and exposure! that await you if your stunning gardenesque moment is chosen as the Talking Plants Flickr Pix of the Week!

Or not. But at least it gives me something to post this dog-day of an August morning.

This week's photographer is Elizabeth Yu Ellsworth, who captured this inner moment in the life of a flowering vine. And we'll have no political discourse, thank you, about this often unstoppable genus, Ipomoea, the morning glory.

photo credit: Elizabeth Yu Ellsworth

 

Seriously, folks, there will be one photographer each week posted Monday morning, chosen from pix posted at the Talking Plants Flickr Group.

Congratulations, Elizabeth Yu Ellsworth.

And now, on another note ... TP is taking orders for Rove farewell bouquets. What would you put in yours? ;-}

8:55 AM ET | 08-13-2007 | permalink

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Face First into the Raspberries! Wanna Share Your Garden Pix?

Earlier this week, I made a promise I didn't keep — to explain the Talking Plants Flickr group and show you how to play. Much to my chagrin, even the Flickr folks noticed I hadn't followed through and sent me a crib sheet in case I was the one who needed the explaining.

But first let me get you up to speed.

As you may have noticed on the right side of this blog entry, I've set up a Talking Plants photo group on the Flickr Web site. I'm hoping those of you who are photographers will want to post your plant and garden pics to the group. (NOTE: All dogs and cats must be accompanied by something chlorophyllic.) That way, we can see what we love, hate, envy, can't identify, and wish we could dive right into.

Is there anything more enticing and legal than a Flickr group that posts such voluptuous eye candy?

photo credit: Barbara Galasso

 

As for what the Yahoo! company Flickr is — on a strictly need-to-know-basis — it's a free way to both store and share your photographs that is incredibly painless to use. All you need to do is sign up, create an account, and start uploading pix.

Lest you think that Talking Plants is a shill for Flickr, let me assure you that we are just users of the service. We don't have any special relationship with Flickr.

Most important — to me, anyway — is that you then join the Talking Plants Flickr Group. Then you can introduce yourself (or not; all curmudgeons welcome), and join the other kids who've been playing in our photo pool.

Stay tuned for weekly photo winners and other incredibly cheap thrills...

12:28 PM ET | 07-20-2007 | permalink

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Jump in the Talking Plants Photo Pool!

A sublime moment in the life of an ordinary sunflower

photo: Jesse78

Thanks to you guys, we've been cavorting for weeks in the Talking Plants Flickr photo pool, where fellow plant fiends have been posting garden pix and showing off their sublime sense of aesthetics. I'll explain what Flickr is in my next post so you, too, can bring your toys and jump in the pool.

Right now, for inspiration, enjoy the above delicious moment in the life of a sunflower captured by Talking Plants Flickr member Jesse78. Any little entertaining story you'd like to add about your pix will be most welcome (e.g., "I hate this sunflower because it's tall, rank and boring but I grow it for this one moment of glory" - no, Jesse did NOT say this!)

10:29 AM ET | 07-16-2007 | permalink

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