Nature Photography by Richard L. Bowman

September 22, 2015

Beautiful Flowers I've Recently Met

It seems to me that flowers are considered a significant part of the natural beauty around us in any country and culture I have visited. One indicaiton of this is that plant breeders continue to work to make big, brighter, and more diverse varieties of flowers. Below are just a few I have spotted recently.

Daisy blooms

White Daisies (14-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

Near our basement apartment, Elsie's sister Alice has a good-sozed rose bush. Below are the various stages of rose blooms I captured a few days ago.

Rose bud

A Closed Rosebud (19-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

Rose bud opening

A Small Rosebud Recently Opened (19-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

an older Rose bloom

A Still-beautiful Mature Rose Near the End of Its Life (19-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

Across the driveway Alice has planted a long bed of Petunias. I call them purple, but you might have a different name for their color. They are ubiquitous in our region of the USA, but that does not make them any less beautiful.

purple Petunia

Purple Petunia Bloom and Some Buds (19-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

purple Petunia blowing in the wind

A Petunia Flower Blowing in a Light Breeze (19-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

The close-up below shows the stigma (the top of the pistil which will produce seeds from the eggs it contains) and the anthers (the top parts of the stamen which have the pollen on them). See Encyclopædia Britannica for more info, or check out "Flower Development in Petunia" in the journal, The Plant Cell (1993).

close up of a purple Petunia

Close-up of the Center of a Petunia Flower (19-Sep-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

In the three and a half weeks we have here in our Harrisonburg home before our return to our home in Lezhë, Albania, I expect to find more beauty in flowers. And I will marvel as I photograph them! Thank you, God.

September 8, 2015

More Flowers from Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA

As we were visiting our daughter and son-inn-law, Heidi and Holden, and their daughter, Sydney, back on July 1, I captured several flowers that caught my eye. First of all, I had never thought about how much a Sweet Pea flower reminds me of a small orchid.

sweet peas

Sweet Pea Flowers (1-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

close-up of sweet peas

Close-up of Sweet Pea Flowers (1-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

The brown and yellow Daylily below is what I would call a more more traditional variety, but I do not know what cultivar it is. I likke the coloring very much.

yellow-bronze daylily

A Beautiful Brown and Yellow Daylily Bloom (1-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

The orange Coneflowers also captured my sense of beauty. The Gardens of Transylvania University on "tumblr" give more info on these flowers and many others. (Click on the photo of any flower to learn more.)

orange and brown cone flowwers

Orange Coneflower (1-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

Chicory plants are so robust that they can grow most anywhere. But in spite of their ubiquitousness, I like the floowers.

chicory bloom

Chicory Flower (8-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

One day coming home I noticed a mass of mushrooms growing on the pile of wood chips that remain from the cutting down of our dying maple tree. I do not know the kind of mushrooms, but they must have been there for awhile since they look like they are aging.

aging mushrooms on a pile of chopped treee debris

Mushrooms on a Pile of Wood Chips (8-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

In addition to the robust Chicory that grows almost anywhere, there is the Queen Anne's Lace plant and flower.

Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace Flower Head (9-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

Queen Anne's Lace close up

Close-up of Queen Anne's Lace Flower Head (9-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

Another country roadside flower is the Red Clover.

Red Clover blossom

Red Clover (9-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

One of the families living in our home for a month while we were in Albania planted flowers in containers on our deck. And we are very thankful. Here is one photo showing, what for me is unusual, black Petunias.

Coleous and

Coleus and Black Petunia Flowers (23-Jul-15; © Richard L. Bowman)

The first weekend in August our children and their families came and hung out at our house. On Saturday August 1, we all went to Riven Rock to wade in the river and have a picnic lunch. Near the river I found a mass of Cardinal Flowers with Swallowtail Butterflies.

Cardinal Flower

Cardinal Flower with Swallowtail Butterfly

On Sunday August 2, I could not pass these Hydrangea bushes at the James Madison University arboretum without taking a photo.

white Hydragea

Back at our house, I liked these small Zinnia flowers.

small pink zinnias

close-uup of pink zinnia

After wwe moved into an apartment so our renters could move into our house for the time we will be in Albania, I noticed a smallish white butterfly flitting among the Lavender flowers near our mailbox.

Lavender flower with small white cabbage butterfly

And that same day I found this stem of Gladiola blooms.

white Gladiolus

On the deck of the house of Elsie's sister, Alice, and her husband, Dennis, they have growing a container of these four inch (10 cm) Hibiscus flowers. I like the yellow flower with pink centers.

yellow Hibiscus

close-up of yellow Hibiscus

I am still enjoying all of the variety of flowers and growing plants in our world. And I will try to keep documenting what I find here.

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