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Balloons in the garden

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Wordless Wednesday

Balloon Flower Purple

The Balloon flower is a pretty flower once it becomes established in your garden.

I have three of this bluish purple kind, as well as two white balloon flower plants and one pink balloon flower plant. Yes, I love balloon flowers. Can you tell?

In the lower right corner I think that you can see a bud forming. The petals are folded in and as the bud grows it looks like a hollow ball or a balloon. When it finally opens the flower appears as above.

Unfortunately the flower, once it’s bloomed, doesn’t last long – perhaps a day at most. The flower dies quickly and droops like a wet rag.

I’d just finished picking off a bunch of dead flowers before I took this photo. That’s why there’s so many flowerless stalks. When a dead bloom is plucked off it’s stalk a milky white substance drips from the damaged stalk to heal the wound.






Clematis Flowers turn into Funky Seed Heads

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Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Funky

Plants and flowers can be pretty funky and good thing too since that’s this weeks Photo Hunters theme!

Take this Clematis seed head for example. This clematis vine develops very large bluish purple flowers. When the flowers are finished they turn into these funky almost woven seed heads.

clematis hybrid Seiboldiana seed heads and flower

As the seed heads age each thread that makes what I’ll call this woven ball appearance begins to get fuzzy. Eventually this seed head will be a fuzzy ball somewhat similar in appearance to a a dandelion seed head.

Of all the clematis vines I grow this one makes the most unusual looking seed heads.

I both of these photos on Thursday. This last one was taken at about 8 pm in the evening as I stood under the bamboo trellis that the vine grows on:

clematis hybrid Seiboldiana seed heads

I wonder what funky photos the rest of you came up with?

It’s a hot one!

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Oh my gosh. I’m just in from being in the garden for about an hour. I went outside to take some photos of flowers that have already been blooming for a week or two. You know how it is, if you don’t get the photos while they are blooming they’re gone! I already missed a few flowers that don’t re-bloom due to my lack of being in the garden much this year.

It is soooooooo hot outside! It’s apparently only 30 Celsius, but as always it’s pretty humid here and when you factor in the humidity it’s 39 c! That’s 102.2 F! I also happen to have a fever, as usual, so I’m sure my body wasn’t handling the heat and humidity as well as it should have.

When I came in I was literally soaked as if I’d been out there in the rain. Yuck. You can bet I hopped into the shower pretty quickly. I still feel overheated though.

I’m so thankful that we have air-conditioning. I know that I’ve said we have a fairly green lifestyle, but when it gets this hot here in the summer I don’t think I can easily give up my air conditioning. Hopefully all the rest of the stuff we do makes up for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that some more photos will be on their way shortly.

Hey let me ask you a question.

Do you like it when I post facts about the plants I photograph such as their hardiness, bloom times, whether they are drought tolerant and or like shade or sunlight?

I figure it helps those that are just getting started gardening. Plus if you haven’t tried growing a particular plant at least you’d know by reading the information that I post about each plant I photograph if it would do well in your area.

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