Spring Flowers on Display
We had a great display of spring flowers from a small wildflower bed next to our herb and vegetable beds. The gallery below has some of our favorites. Click on a photo to open a larger view. You can scroll through the images as well. Below the gallery is a description of some of the highlights.
The detail really comes out on a large screen. Viewing on a laptop or other large screen really brings them to life.
Flower Descriptions
The wildflower bed included a lot of Shirley poppies in colors ranging from intense reds to pale pinks. The textures also varied from smooth to crinkly.
Rudbeckia, or Black Eyed Susan, is almost everywhere in our garden. Their sunny yellow/orange flowers produce hundreds of seeds from each flower head. Our goldfinches like the seeds and scatter them all over the garden to assure they have a good supply!
Chamomile is another herb garden flower. Not a large flower, but they make up for size with hundreds of white and yellow flowers. We collect and dry the flowers to enjoy as tea.
Okra from the vegetable garden produces a showy flower before making an edible fruit. Flowers open in the morning then close up in the afternoon, so only a few hours to catch them fully open. The flowers fall off the following day to reveal the okra fruit that will be ready to harvest in a few days.
One favorite is the Cilantro flowers at the top of this post. This close-up photo shows the intricate detail of the blossoms, bringing out the pinks and purples of the anthers against the white petals with a slight pink tinge. Photos like this bring out details that are easy to miss when looking at the flowers in the garden. The spring green background and pastel colors creates an Easter style palette.
Bachelor’s buttons were also in the wildflower bed and came in shades of purple, blue, pink and white. From a distance they look fairly plain, but take a close look and you can appreciate the detail of the flower structure.
Pomegranate flowers are a showy red/orange against the dark green spring leaves.
Yellow Iris bring a bright color to the spring garden. In our climate they have a fairly short blooming period, but they show off while they are blooming. Note the one with the Ladybug searching for an aphid. Extra points if you can spot the aphid (hint – the aphid seems safe for now).
California Poppies are great at self seeding. They come up all over the garden by the hundreds after we get some fall/winter rain. Their seed pods literally pop open when they get dry, shooting seeds all over the garden.
Red Flax along with white flax were in the wildflower mix. Surprisingly there were none of the common blue flax in the mix. May have to add some next year to have a patriotic red, white and blue mix.
Flower Photography
All photos were taken on an iPhone camera. Quite amazing to see the detail in these photos. The exposure and focus is quite good in most situations. Some of the best were taken on mornings when we had hazy/overcast weather. That softer light helps bring out the colors and details.
Most photos have been cropped to give a good presentation. No filters or other adjustments have been made, so those brilliant colors are an accurate representation of the live in person view.
Zanganeh Garden 