Selected flowers from Opcns Garden

[Opcn]

I tried to shrink all the photos way down, because I dont want to kill my photobucket bandwidth in the first thirty seconds and because I'm uploading on 56K If you really want a larger picture drop me a line I've got the 1.5 megabite 5 megapixel origionals still around


First we have a Bagonia that hangs above the front pourch

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Next we have a basket that hangs near it

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Thats just the famale flower however, off to the side of it there can be found one or two smaller male flowers (one on the first one, two on the second)

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Next I've got some Pictures from the morton arboretum, its about 3 square miles and has lots of beautiful trees, for any of you who are in the chicago Area I highly recomend it, Heres a maple that i really liked, it has alot of character

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Now here is an ecinachea from there prarrie reconstruction area, there a member of the daisy family and going extinct because people keep digging them up and turning them into tea

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Heres another pic from the arboretum, the last I have, A nice peopne, It was by there fragrence garden so It was surrounded by the most woderful scents

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Heres one from the garden next door, produces 3-4 flowers each year but she finnally cleared the tall grass from her beds so it may start producing more.

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She also Has these interesting purple flowers, I'd say that they are a member of a daisy family, My girlfriend tells me that they are used in flower arangements. Its also got a bumblebee on it

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Now back to my garden here is an ornamental cabbage, its looking very good, but it wont grow because we have it in a pot

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Heres the same plant 3 weeks later its gotten alot of shade and been dry alot but its still attractive, If I get gumption I'll head to the town square and take some pictures of that huge ones they have there, Hope I go before moose eat them all

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Okay, heres a nice white one, so crisp and fresh looking, we have two of each

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I PMed Gaya about the posibilities of various Plants for Her balcony, one of the plants I recomended were Arctic Kiwis, There are male and female plants and they are rather agressive vines, I havent got any mature males but heres a female

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And here she is about 2 weeks later, Shes just reached out and started to climb the arbor we have on the side of the house, Since I took this picture shes climbed 6 more inches or so and just last night she went about 2 to the side, a very fast plant she is

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Heres a double Daffodil that we planted then moved so it only bloomed about three weeks ago.

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And heres a Snap Dragon called Butter and Egg, its highly invasive and it will take over all the flowerbeds around the house if I dont pull it all up, shame its so pretty.

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Back to the other side of the Arbor, Heres a Shot of a sweet pea climbing in the background and infront of that you can see a scarlet runnerbean, It just hit the laticework of the arbor yeasterday with a little helpp from a knot I tied in the stem, they are an odd plant in that unlike other legumes they get off to a very slow start, it takes two weeks for them to germinate and then another week for them to get to be 1-2 inches hight, but as soon as they get to be a foot or so tall they take off toward the heavens.

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Theres some fungus inside of the bottom birch trunk in the arbor, heres a shot of the fruiting bodies.

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they start ut a mat finish but smoother and as they grow they get to be shiney and have bumps and cover anything that touches them with black spores, They are harder than a conch and after a long while everything around them gets covered in something that looks like a white crystaline buildup. heres what they look like on the inside, you cant really see it because it would not photograph but the stratified layers seem to have a columnar texture to them

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Have a lichen on a willow branch for you too, Lichens are a major food source for arctic mamals up on the tundra, but the dont grow very well in Anchorage

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[Puffer_freak]

Number 8 looks a lot like a closed up passion flower to me! Beautiful flower! Fantastic pictrues! I love the maple.

 

[Arfie]

Beautiful pics Opcn

Arfie

 

[3fsh]

....

 

[Opcn]

That Is a type of Willow called a diamond willow because when they are skinned and sanded down the heartwood seems to form beautifuly collored diamond shaped areas where the branches come out, as apose to the round knots that most trees have, heres a Magpie in a diamond willow, Magpiesd are a corovid, very active but not as smart or brave as crows.

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Out front we have two large Colorado Blue spruice, atleast 40 years old, heres some spanish moss, its a relative of the pineapple rather than a true moss, it lives an epiphytic life, living on trees but not acting parasiticallym I worry that it doesnt get enought water here in anchorage though.

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Below that Spruice we have some siberian Asters, They are a member of the daisey Family They can handle very deep shade and low water conditions but need acid soild and if the leaves get wet they are very suseptable to mildue, But they are very agressive and they are perfect for life below spruice ace they form a nice vegitative mat to cover up the dry needles they useually live below spruice trees.

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Heres a little woodland wild flower, No idea what it is but its an Alaska native

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Out back below the Diamond willow we have some False Spirea growwing, today the wind was blowing hard and buffeting they all around along with some tall grasses, I went and stood in the middle of it, it was great, only Wish My girlfriend could have been there with me, shame she was busy really

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Another Alaska Native, and a beautiful one at that is Monks Hood, its native to the aleutian chain and its root was used to poison many a whale.

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Near that we have some fireweed, another alaska native plant thats often used as a nectar producer for honey to be sold in tourist traps, It blooms every year on july 5th and in a month or so will start sending out loads of seeds with cottony strands to catch the wind.

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Heres some forget me not, the Alaska state flower, Next to it are some first year strawberries that look like they will take over a large patch of the yard if we dont keep tract of the runners, they streatch atleast 18 inches, these are on the ponds edge.

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On the back of our Waterfall we have a bit of an alpine garden, but tis really hard to keep it watered, heres a recent adition that has some beautiful Purple Flowers, Sorry, no Idea what it is

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We also Have a rock garden out below the mailbox, because grass wont grow there, Heres a plant that is either a sedum or a native plant knack knack knick

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Next to that we have a lovely yellow icelandic poppy, we used to have a pink one beside that but it died mysteriously after it bloomed

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Heres a hybrid Hen and chick, its a suculent that will grow anywere from zone 11 to zone 0 which is amazing because not much can handle zone 0

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Heres another rock Garden plant, Again no idea what kind of plant it is but its semiwoody and will be nice in a few years once its grown large enought to have visual wieght

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If I look off to the side from there I can see a handful of trees, Whitespruice, mayday cherry to the far right, and some white birch and river birch making up the remainder

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Up onthe front porch my mother has a small plant in a small pot, I wanna say its bytonal geranium, the leaves are fancy butI dont really like them that much

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Heres a few asparagus ferns, in 5-6 years they will be producing enought for a meal or two each spring and be about 4 feet tall and very soft looking later in the year.

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Heres a Marigold that lives just behind the dripline in the back, Marigolds, despite there antipest properties, are quite edible and fragrant.

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This is an amarillis, Unfortunately I never got to see it bloom but I was told thaat it was beautiful and a good 10 inches across.

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This is a lilly from infront of a cottage on gull lake near kalimazoo michigan, The amarillus would look similar, only red and without the bumpy deals inside and with yellow stamen. I ampologize that its not in focus, I have no manual focus on my camera and this was the best of a good 7 pictures.

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And finally we have a volunteer Viola, Violas, violets, Pansies, Johny jump ups are all edible, this little one made its way into a salad later the day the photograph was taken.

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Well I hope you have enjoyed my pictures and Hope to take some more for you some time soon, maybe once my peas start to bloom.

 

[CathyG]

You have some awesome pics here, and I like how you have found interest in the "not so pretty" stuff, too! *takes notes*

I love that maple!! and I wish you knew the name of the purple flower in your Alpine garden, that is so beautiful!

 

[julibob]

Lovely pics. Photo 8 on the fist lot of pics is actually a Cornflower.

Pic 23 is a true geranium

Pic 28 is a double petunia

Julia

 

[Mr Miagi]

Great pics guys!

Lucky for my broadband LMAO!

I love that tree in your original post opcn. Its like something of LOTR! Magical!