Beautiful Blooms at San Diego’s Botanic Garden

A couple of weeks ago, I visited some friends in San Diego.  One afternoon, we visited the Botanic Garden there, and there were so many varieties of beauty to see.  In this blog post, I’ll share some of the floral blooms.

Gold Star

This flower is named Gold Star – for obvious reasons, I think!  It’s originally from Mexico, but is flourishing at the botanic garden in San Diego.  I especially like the reddish detail on the inside of the petals.  It sort of draws you into the heart of the bloom.

Hard at Work

This flower is called a Globe Artichoke – I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an artichoke blooming, but now I can add that to my list of new experiences!  I can’t tell you how many shots I took of this bloom with bees hovering around it before I got this perfect shot!  Thank goodness for digital cameras – saves me a fortune on processing prints!  I love the detail that I was (finally!) able to capture on the bee.

Spotlight

This image struck me because of the lighting.  I love how the sun cast a wonderfully soft spotlight on this bloom.  It makes the flower seem like it’s glowing.  Altho it was early afternoon and the sun was at its strongest, I think its rays were diffused by some trees overhead.

Perfect Petals

It’s not often that I see a truly perfect bloom, with all the petals intact and so symmetrical.  The other thing that drew me to this bloom is the coloring.  The deep center, and then the variation of color on the petals.  It almost looks fake, like some florist did some magical coloring on it, but all the magic of this bloom was provided by Nature!

Rich Red

One of the best color combinations in nature is red and green.  Yes, I know – Christmas colors – but they also serve to set each other off so well in nature.  The red of this bloom is perfectly balanced with the green leaves of the plant.  When the lighter color stalks are added in, it’s a nice soft place to rest our eyes and a great offset for the rich colors on this plant and bloom.

Red Top Thistle

Generally speaking, thistles aren’t that pretty of a plant…..except when it’s blooming!  Then, the rich red top seems to be the perfect counterpoint for the spikey thorns and pale coloring on the rest of the plant.  Almost makes me want to reach out and touch it…..almost!

Stark Beauty

I have never seen this flower before.  I’m not certain if the color is red or purple, or something in between.  But between the dramatic markings on the petals, and the contrast between the pale and bold colors, this flower is quite stunningly beautiful.

Enjoy!

 



Succulents at the Botanic Garden

As a stark contrast to the thin leaves and blooms of “regular” flowers, the succulents seem almost plump by comparison.  Succulents can go a long time between watering, and that’s because they store water when they do get it in their leaves.  You’ll see what I mean when you check out some of the images below!

Sharp

Altho the leaves on this cactus are thick, what I truly noticed about it were the sharp points at the edges of its leaves.  No, I didn’t touch it to see if they were as sharp as they look – I let their appearance speak for themselves!

Succulents

I love this sort of bunch of different succulent blooms.  They were actually structured so that they formed the skirt of a young woman.  I have to admit, I wasn’t all that taken with the “sculpture” created, but I did like how these looked so closely grouped together, so I decided to just focus on one part of the overall sort of statue.

Golden Succulents

Here’s an image where you can really get an idea of how thick and plump the petals or leaves of the plant are.  And, the color is just so luscious!  I just had to get in close for this image, so that you just feel sort of immersed in the color and texture of it!

Enjoy!

 



A Category of Their Own – at San Diego Botanic Garden

There were many different types of plants and flowers at the botanic garden, and some just didn’t quite fall into a category that I could easily identify.  So, I say, they are in a category of their own!  Check them out –

Mysore Fig Tree

The Mysore Fig Tree is from India and is a member of the ficus family of plants.  It’s said the tree is prized for its leaves, but I was primarily impressed by the above-ground root system!  I did include the leaves in this image, but my focus was on the roots – so cool!

Narrow Leaf Tea Tree

What a different looking tree this is!  It’s a pine tree with the fuzzy “blooms” on its tips.  This tree is from Australia, and is a member of the Myrtle family.  The oil from the tree is used to make antiseptics, deodorants, shampoos and lotions. The tips reminded me of a sort of duster!

Shades of Red

I couldn’t find any sort of identification for this plant, but it reminds me of a coleus plant – except I’ve never seen those with red leaves!  I love the detail on these leaves, and the variety of red coloring.  I just had to get up close to fill the frame with these beautiful leaves.

Enjoy!



Shades of Green at San Diego Botanic Garden

Since we were at a botanic garden, you’d expect to see a lot of green, and this garden didn’t disappoint!  Some of these plants were brand new to me and not anything I’ve seen before……

Palm Variety

This was a familiar plant to me and probably almost all of you – a lovely palm plant – not tree, tho.  It was obviously happy growing here – this plant was huge!  One of the things I loved was the near perfection of each of the leaves.

Red and Green

I always love it when I see red and green together in nature.  This coloring was a bit subtle – you have to look rather close to see the red on the edges of the leaves of this plant.  For whatever reason, I thought this plant looked happy – and I love the alternating pattern the rows of leaves formed!

Bamboo

There was a small section of the garden where there was a small grove of bamboo growing.  I love walking among the bamboo.  Instead of hearing the wind rustling the leaves of the trees, I hear the very soft, subtle groan of the bamboo slightly bending with the breeze.  It’s an amazingly peaceful sound.

Light Shines Thru

The leaves of this variety of palm was more yellow than green.  However, what caught my eye was the way the sunlight shined thru those leaves.  They took on a bit of a translucent quality, which sort of surprised me, because I thought the leaves were too thick to have this happen.  How lucky I was to get to see this!

Falling Stars

This was one of the plants that I’ve never seen before – I don’t know what the name of this plant is, but it reminded me of falling stars.  You can see the leaves below the star blooms, and then the string of what looks little pearls until you see the star bloom at the very tip.  Perhaps each one of those “pearls” is a bud that had yet to bloom.  I don’t know, but I do really like this plant.

Green

I love this image.  It’s so rich with the color green!  And I love the off-center point of interest.  I would like to claim credit as it’s my artistic eye, but the plant just sort of presented itself to me this way!

Standing Tall

My friend and I stopped for a bit by a pond in the botanic garden, and we both noticed this very different type of plant.  I loved the sort of frilly top – it looks sort of wispy!  You can see a waterfall in the background. (More about the waterfall in another post.)

Intimate Portrait

Closer to where we were sitting was this lovely little portrait of nature – an intimate portrait.  I love the soft green that acted as a background for the delicate white blooms.

Enjoy!



Pond Life at San Diego Botanic Garden

I guess I’ve saved my favorite for last – the pond blooms and wildlife.  I admit it – I’m a sucker for waterlilies, so they are taking a bit of front and center in this post.  But, there are other things to see as well!

Floating Beauties

There were several small ponds around the botanic garden, and each had some lovely waterlilies blooming.  These three are set off by the pads they are seemingly resting on.  I also love the detail of the moss covered rocks under the water.  Did you notice that?

Freestyle Swim

I did notice a couple of turtles swimming in what I think of as the main pond.  This little guy is enjoying an afternoon swim.  I really got a bit of a chuckle at the position of his back feet – so straight out, perhaps making the most of his glide!

Watercolor Waterlilies

I did love these waterlilies and I decided to sort of convert them to a bit of a watercolor effect.  However, I elected to not make them soft, or a bit blurry.  Instead, I went for a bit of sharper definition on the edges to make them pop.  And, they do!

Pretty in Peach

This waterlily was peach colored, a bit different from the mostly pink blossoms I had been seeing.  I worked to enhance the detail in this image, so you can almost feel the wetness of the stem of this bloom as it rises out of the water.  And the pads almost seem like they are 3D, don’t they?

Peaceful Waterfall

The main pond had a beautiful cascading waterfall.  I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to capture its beauty due to the high contrast conditions.  However, thru the magic of computer software, I was able to combine 3 different images together to create an image that looks like it did to me as I stood there.  Makes me truly appreciate how our brains work to sort of balance things out without our even being aware of it!

Taking a Breather

As we walked around the pond, I noticed another little turtle taking a bit of a breather, and just relaxing on a rock on the pond’s shore.  The sunlight was softer here, with the trees branches and leaves dappling the light.  The result is a nice, quiet restful image of nature.

Enjoy!