Bleached Hibiscus
I can’t compete with that deep red, Cee, so I’m going in the opposite direction. Here is an hibiscus with the color drained out of it. I would love to have one that was really this color! (Or lack of color.)
I was given this flower today so want to share it. See: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/07/flower-of-the-day-october-7-2015-hibiscus-for-judy/
Hibiscus: Faded Glory
Part of maintaining an interest in life is finding beauty in all of its stages–not just the budding and full bloom, but also in its slow relaxation towards the finish.
The interior of this lush hibiscus, long past its prime, reminds me of a messy bed with it’s bent and tumbled stamens and pollen spilled out over rumpled and twisted sheets. I can imagine the almost drunken pleasure of bees and other pollinators as they burrowed into the flower, creating this disorder!
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/05/flower-of-the-day-october-5-2015-small-daisy/
Heavenly Hibiscus
I found this gorgeous hibiscus outside the Casa del Sol B&B in Ajijic. I’ve been there twice in the past week for a Feria fashion show and then for a board meeting. I broke my vow to never again attend a board meeting when I moved to Mexico! Finally, after 14 years, I went to the Feria board meeting to find out what my duties as “coordinator of artist gifts” will be. (I’m not sure that is my title, but yeah, I caved for this very good cause. I’ll give you more information later.) It you love Mexican art (and if you live north of the border, you’ve never really seen the “real” stuff done by artists and artisans who continue centuries old traditions) you would love the Feria de Maestros del Arte! But more about that later.
“Cee” dahlias and more flowers here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/03/flower-of-the-day-october-4-2015-dahlia/
“Found” Mystery Flower
I thought perhaps this was a variety of Clematis, but the stamen and pistils are wrong. If you know what it is, please let me know!
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/03/flower-of-the-day-october-4-2015-dahlia/
Mexican Color
I have spent hours trying to identify this plant and I’m no closer now than I was a year ago. Whatever it is, Here it is again in detail. The leaves look like a heliconia or ginger, but although I once found a picture of it by Googling heliconia, I think it was just a random picture placed in that category as it wasn’t labeled at all and I can’t find it elsewhere. *
*News Flash!!! My lovely, smart, kind, curious, researching genius friend Marilyn Armstrong has identified this plant I’ve been trying to identify for fourteen years! After she told me the various names for it, I looked it up in Wikipedia and this is some fascinating information about it:
Canna indica is a perennial growing to between 0.5 m and 2.5 m, depending on the variety. It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. The flowers are hermaphrodite.[3][4][5][6] Canna indica sps. can be used for the treatment of industrial waste waters through constructed wetlands. It is effective for the removal of high organic load, color and chlorinated organic compounds from paper mill wastewater.[7][8]
The seeds are small, globular, black pellets, hard and dense enough to sink in water.[5] They resemble shotgun pellets giving rise to the plant’s common name of Indian Shot.[citation needed] The seeds are hard enough to shoot through wood and still survive and later germinate. According to the BBC “The story goes that during the Indian Mutiny of the 19th century, soldiers used the seeds of a Canna indica when they ran out of bullets.“[9]
“Cee” more flowers HERE.
Zealous Zinnias
Just when you think all these ladies have left the dance, several pop up in a different place!.
Shady Lady and Pup
“Cee” more floweres HERE!
Mystery Flower
I took these pictures at my friend Harriet’s house. She has no idea what it is. Nor do I. Al? Anyone else? I know someone gave me a link to a place that identifies flowers from a picture but I misplaced the URL. If you know what this is or have a guess, please comment!
For more audacious flowers, look here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/28/flower-of-the-day-september-28-2015-american-beauty-checkers-dahlias/
Throw Away
As I go through my pictures on days I’m not in the mood to go take new photos, trying to remember which ones I’ve already used on my blog, I also take the time to delete photos I know I will never use. But today I got a wild idea and decided to restore the picture I’d just deleted and see if there was any part of it I could use. After an hour or two of playing, I came up with fourteen possibilities. I’m posting them all, and at the end, the picture of the giant blooming castor bean plant they all came from.
Below is the unedited photo I threw away and then retrieved–the mother of them all:
I guess the moral of the story is that there are lots of possibilities in even a picture you think doesn’t warrant saving. Unfortunately, I see this potential in other parts of my life as well, which is why I got distracted waiting for all these photos to download to my media file and started sorting closets. I’m proud to say I sorted out a big box of clothes to give away and another to sell. Photos are an easy thing to hold on to because they don’t take up much space, and if all else fails you can send them to the cloud. Now if they could just invent a cloud for the rest of the clutter of my life!!!.
Do not miss this photo: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/27/flower-of-the-day-september-27-2015-bashful-dahlia/
Obelisco y Mas
In Mexico, the hibiscus flower is an obelisco. These two blooms were picked off the street in San Juan Cosala this morning as I came out of Cafe Saga after the girls’ dance class. I loved the rust-red color, which somehow I have been unable to duplicate in these photos. I’ve tried decreasing the light to duplicate the color so that is why the photos are a bit dark,but none are the correct color.
I carried the two flowers to my favorite local plant place and although they had a rather large plant that he said had this color blooms, it turns out that the blooms change color three times and are only this color for about a day, finally turning into yellow. The plant I bought has no blooms, but I bought it anyway. If it isn’t the plant I want, no doubt it will be beautiful anyway as I’ve never met an hibiscus that I didn’t love. I’ll show you the results!!!
For more flowers, look here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/26/flower-of-the-day-september-26-2015-gitts-perfection-dahlia/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 