Summer, Summer, Summer

Coreopsis rosea ‘Heaven’s Gate’

(texture by Florabella Textures)

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Another beautiful day, like yesterday and the days before.

I’ve spent a lot of time watering and trimming and preparing a new bed for my lovely Gaura lindheimeri ‘Pink Cloud’. I just adore this plant. The two I had in containers last fall didn’t survive the winter and although I swore not to buy more plants until I’ve planted everything that’s still in nursery pots, I just had to replace these. I happened to have a chunky coupon at the local nursery so got three nice healthy plants. Now I’m preparing their bed with extra loving care. I really want them to make it! Here’s a photo from last year. They are like fairy plants. Their other common names are “Whirling Butterflies” and “Bee Blossom”.

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Gaura lindheimeri ‘Pink Cloud’

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Badminton update: D: 16 matches G: 16 matches
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– g

Clematis ‘Rosemoor’ Redux

Clematis ‘Rosemoor’, originally uploaded by georgiannalane.

As per my previous post, I have been attempting for several weeks to faithfully capture the marvelous colors in these flowers. Plum, burgundy, purple, magenta and more – all in iridescent, velvety petals. It may be the most beautiful flower I’ve ever seen.

And it comes with a valuable lesson. I planted three of these very expensve clematis nearly two years ago. Nothing happened. They were spindly and dried up things. I nearly ripped them out but my husband said to give them time. They survived our rough winter and suddenly began growing two feet a week. The challenge became to get enough trellises up fast enough. And then they opened with these breathtaking blooms that nearly bring tears to your eyes.

Lesson learned.

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We are having more glorious weather. Day after day of sunshine and breezes. :)
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Badminton update: D: 14 matches G: 15 matches
– g

Lavender Daze, Purple Haze

Lavender Harvest at Purple Haze Lavender

(Florabella texture)

Up at 4:15 again today, our usual summer schedule. The birds were a bit late, I think because it began overcast. The chorus didn’t start until after 4:30, but they are going strong still now at 6:30 pm.

We caught the 6:25am ferry from Edmonds to Kingston and drove up to Sequim (pronounced Squim) to shoot the lavender farms before they are crowded with people for the Lavender Festival this weekend. We are creating a new collection of images for our stock library, Garden Photo World.

What a fabulous day! Around nine the sun came out and we walked row after row of heady lavender, met fantastic people and ate sinful lavender-infused treats!

More soon, as we are still processing the 1,000+ shots we took… :) – g