Borage Flowers Flash Pink, Purple & Periwinkle
Are you a Natural Photographer or Do You Like Using Flash?
Digital photos with flash often change the color from the way that I see the flower. These Borage flowers are photographed on a bed of lettuce, without flash. Usually I prefer this setting as the colors and shadings tend to seem more realistic. Yet the color of the Borage is not true, though I like the realism of the color of the lettuce. Yes, that is oregano on the left.
Ah, this is closer to the color of the borage. In close up mode, there is so much more detail in the delicate colors than I can usually see directly through the eyes. This photo was taken WITH the flash and is much more true to life than the photo above. However the bright shine in the lettuce disturbs my eye.
Periwinkle - a wonderful color!
Why would I provide photos of an herb flower on Bloggers' Bloom day*, on a bed of lettuce?
These Borage flowers are the first this year from the greenhouse plants. I picked them to join the lettuce for dinner before I remembered that this was the night to prepare a blossom post. Yes, there are a couple of late tulips and almost open lilacs in the yard. A few of the violets still have imperfect flowers, but no other radiant bloom beauties were available. So I offer you these herbal delights!
Please enjoy the flowers, add some salad dressing and join me in a fresh picked salad, won't you?
Well, I did intend to post on 4/15/09 - a Bloggers Bloom day. However, I had upgraded my blogging software, RapidWeaver, to the new version which is supposed to keep many of the little (and big) glitches in the blog, such as disappearing comments, crazed Blotanical pick behavior etc.. (Too bad I can't add bad spelling and grammar to RapidWeaver's faults.)
Little did I realize that this upgrade was far from simple and meant that I'd have to almost rework the whole blog, adding back categories on posts, and sometimes finding posts from the past, redoing many of the settings and generally have to work at it.
As you might imagine at this time of planting, there are much more seemingly important things to do. But where am I now, out in the garden preparing the much needed beds before the next rain? No, I'm fixing my blog as I really enjoy sharing with you. Many thanks for reading, commenting and offering suggestions, dear readers.
And I did have a chance to add photos of borage flowers still on the greenhouse plant which opened later yesterday than I had intended to publish.
Today's bonus photo: First strawberry blossoms on last year's plants which overwintered in the garden bed.
May all your upgrades be within your garden when the weather is fair.
Dug Up: Raspberry Roots 'n' Shoots
So Spreadable - Its Incredible! Raspberries Multiply Like Maniacs.
The Gardener had to move the raspberries out from the garden to the yard, way far away from everything. Many viable clumps of roots and shoots were happily given away. Very quickly garden club members and neighbors came by, visiting the greenhouse. They left fresh eggs, tomatoes and peach jam, taking home lettuce and small plants too.
Roots and shoots excavated and placed in a pan.
This photo is among the best from the garden in 2008.
The raspberries were packed as bare root, wrapped up in newspaper envelopes and kept damp. The paper is about torn through now, but fewer packages are left. Hopefully they will be all gone soon to good homes and can quickly take over the world.
Raspberry flowers and leaves
This gardener's sense of "right to life" is lovingly granted to almost all plants, save weeds in the garden. Sadly, she still practices preemptive attacks on plant-eating bugs.
The raspberries are fall bearing, sweet and delicate. The books say they are best for eating when ripe, without trying to save or put them up. The plants could use a little support and reportedly like a little potash (wood ashes). They expand exorbitantly through the root system. Give them lots of room, far away from every other plant!
Bug Report:
Bugs that bothered these raspberries in 2008 included some kind of red-headed black-bodied cut worm (I think), grasshoppers, blister beetles, and a large two-legged fructivore that stopped by between garden jobs to graze.
But let's not think of frost
or a season time has lost
as we eagerly coax seeds to sprout
hoping soil will dry out.
And for you who plant a tree to fruit
in five years or in ten,
Radish will adorn your salad sooner
than a dream of future "when" ...
Strawberry Blossom, Lilac & Hyacinth Buds
This purple lilac begins to release her shyness and show her budding beauty to the world.
(We are hoping she will live through whatever late frosts or freezes may come.)
This Hyacinth below thought she was hiding in the grass, but this year (my second Spring here) I knew where to look for her.
White Lilac is a bit more reticent than her purple sister. But still she swells more each day.
The strawberries below overwintered in the greenhouse.
They seem ready to go outside, but Momma says, "Not until all danger of freeze is past."
The strawberries below slept beneath the straw outside.
This one woke up with so much strength it wouldn't wait for the gardener to determine when to remove the covers, but kicked the straw off itself - from its own growth.
It is true that the forecast for the next several days is all above freezing. But my garden coach suggests that if I uncover them and they put their crown (root) energy into growing and blooming and forming fruit, and then a freeze or ice storm (oh no) comes, they will have misused their winter rest vitality.
I feel sorrowful to keep them covered when they obviously want out. What do you think?
