A lone, late pond lily recently made a lovely appearance.
The leaves are fading but the plant produced a final beautiful flower before it drifts off into its winter rest …
… leaving us with a charming memory of summer.
Happy Friday.
Although we’re really into October now – and in Canada, Monday is Thanksgiving Day – there are still lots of autumn flowers about. Here are a few of these lovelies.
A bevy of asters …
… some vibrant chrysanthemums …
… beautiful red dahlias …
… and last but not least, vanille fraise hydrangeas that are entering their autumn pink phase.
Happy long-weekend Friday.
Over the course of the last four months, I’ve been watching an hydrangea shrub growing in one of the city’s parks that’s morphing from a variegated dark pink and white to blue and purplish-blue and lastly, to red. I first posted about it here.
As I indicated in my previous post about this hydrangea, one that shifts from red to purple, blue or purplish-blue and back to pink or red again is a “Bigleaf” hydrangea (hydrangea macrophylla) that is reacting to soil ph levels. This one has been putting on a particularly magnificent colour show all summer long that is now extending into autumn.
By the middle of September this shrub was well on its way to turning a dark, autumnal red as you can see below.
And as of October 2, those dark red hues were very predominant.
It’s amazing how beautifully this hydrangea shrub has changed and transformed and provided colourful blooms for months.
Happy Friday.
It’s almost October …
… but they’re still lovely.
I went in search of autumnal yellow flowers and here’s what I found.
There were more than I expected – a very bright and cheery find.
Happy Friday.
Today’s fleurday has a visitor.
I saw this lovely dragonfly – technically, a blue-eyed darner – resting on one of the impatiens flowers hanging above our deck. I was very happy to see it because we have had a huge crop of spiders this year and dragonflies love to invite them for lunch!
This one seemed to be drowsing in the warmth of the sun; it rested there for about an hour before flying away on those transparently beautiful, gossamer wings; they’re so delicate looking but extremely strong.
I love the impatiens flowers but I love even more the fact that the dragonfly stopped for a little rest in my deck garden.
Happy Friday.
September lovelies!
Happy Friday.
Now that the nights are becoming much cooler, the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Gardens has closed for the season, so I was …
Butterfly Beauties
A gorgeous collection of butterfly pictures from Sue at The Nature of Things. Please click the link above to see more of her beautiful nature photography.
I posted about colour-shifting hydrangeas last week but since they’re so beautiful and in the middle of their annual costume change, I’m visiting the same topic yet again but this time regarding a different type of hydrangea.
An hydrangea that shifts from red to purple, blue or purplish-blue and back to pink or red again is a “Bigleaf” hydrangea that is reacting to soil ph levels. In one of the city parks there’s one of those; it puts on a magnificent colour show all summer long and well into autumn.
This hydrangea is not to be confused with the “Cardinal” hydrangea that blooms red and stays in that colour zone throughout the summer, though. I posted about that type of hydrangea a couple of years back.
Above and below are a series of pictures from this spring and summer showing its beautiful progression. All photos show the same hydrangea shrub.
When it completes its final metamorphosis back to red I’ll post more pictures of this beautifully variable hydrangea.
Happy Friday.
August is usually very hot at its start and becomes cooler towards its end. Not so this year, here at least. Our opening temperatures were somewhat lower than usual but as the month progressed, we became consistently hotter, especially over the last couple of weeks. Nevertheless, as summer winds down – it officially ends on September 22, just over three weeks from now – here’s a look back.
We’re still in slo-mo as it remains very hot, so our summer may linger past its official end date.
Happy Sunday.
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 