What a Beautiful Morning!

Posted on April 28, 2013 by composerinthegarden

Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I’ve got a wonderful feeling,
Everything’s going my way. ~lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, from “Oklahoma!”

I’ve spent the early hours of the past few mornings in the garden, with the moments between weeding and planting spent enjoying the sparkle of early morning light. The woods are showing a soft green blush of unfurling leaves as the garden begins its April bloom cycle. Yesterday morning a golden shimmer of light reflected on dewy flowers; this morning the almost full moon still hung in the morning sky while the birds sang their dawn chorus. I couldn’t help myself – I broke into song with them. “Oh What a Beautiful Morning!” is a personal favorite of mine and it seemed so descriptive of the moment. “All the sounds of the earth are like music” – who knew Oscar was so poetic?

Here are a few images from the late April garden. Enjoy!

Snow Fountain cherry blossom

Bench and cherry tree

Double tulip

CInnamon fern head

Daffodils in the light

Daffodil ‘Geranium’

Pale daffodils with dew

Daffodil ‘Thalia’

Oakleaf Hydrangea leaf

Down the hill

Heuchera Foliage

Hillside foliage

Japanese maple

Summer snowflake

Purple sand cherry

Early April garden and woods

White tulip

Ol’ Weeping WIllow

At Last

Posted on April 8, 2013 by composerinthegarden

At last, the skies above are blue. ~Mack Gordon

At last, spring has arrived.

At last, flowers are blooming.

At last, the dawn chorus of birds is deafening.

Daffodil Verdant Meadows

Rose striped hellebore

Daffodil Rijnveld’s Early Sensation

Half moon in April

Golden arborvitae

Dark hellebore

Cornus mas branch

Chionodoxa

Anemone blanda White Splendour

At last, I am in the garden.

Although this song has been playing in my head for the past few days, no one can sing it quite like Etta James. Enjoy.

A Day in the Tropics

Posted on January 18, 2013 by composerinthegarden

Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too. ~William Cowper

We are fortunate to have the Phipps Conservatory, a wonderful glass house, in the heart of Pittsburgh. A visit to Phipps in the dead of winter is a treat for the senses, and members can take a tripod for photography early on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday, my friend Suzan and I indulged in a ninety minute whirlwind of intense picture taking amid the tropical splendor of an orchid show. Not only was this a great winter interlude, it was also an opportunity for me to give my new camera a workout and test the waters for the equipment I may need for my A Year in Penn’s Woods project. The challenge of taking photos with limited space in which to maneuver a tripod and varied sources of light was useful in determining what worked with my current camera gear and what needed to be changed. I’m convinced that a few more trips to this warm green space filled with flowers will be required to continue my research this winter 🙂

Enjoy the tour of my morning in the tropics.

A first look at the tower of orchids in the Palm Court

Pink orchid spray below the tower

A tiny orchid along the path

The green path leading to the orchid room

Two Chihuly glass bowls

Maidenhair ferns line the path in the Fern Room

Moss and ferns add texture

Brilliant aloe and orchid flowers in the Orchid Room

Showy orchid flowers

Cream and magenta orchid

Spidery shaped orchid

Rich brown tones in orchid

Lady slipper orchid

Chilhuly Glass flames stand guard along the path

More Chihuly glass bowls

Deep rose magenta orchid

A tiny Phipps Conservatory in the railroad garden

A stream in the railroad garden

Grand orchid display in the Sunken Garden

White orchids are a feature in the Sunken Garden

Chihuly glass sun in the Desert Room

Blush pink spray of orchids

Blush pink orchid blossom

What, I sometimes wonder, would it be like if I lived in a country where winter is a matter of a few chilly days and a few weeks’ rain; where the sun is never far away, and the flowers bloom all year long? ~ Anna Neagle

Facing the Light

Posted on July 21, 2012 by composerinthegarden

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher. William Wordsworth

As daylily season winds down, I spend each morning removing spent blooms and reflecting on how new blossoms turn towards the light. When I first began gardening, I was dismayed to find that the daffodils and daylilies I had planted along the paths turned to face the sun but often faced away from garden visitors. It was like being in a hall before the concert starts and looking at the back of everyone’s head and an empty stage. It took a while to get the hang of planting flowers with faces in the right spot, often with a sturdy shrub at their backs, so that they turned towards the light and the garden visitor.

I cannot help but see the metaphor of this, of trying to find one’s place in life, preferably with a friend at one’s back, so that it is easier to face the light. As always, the garden teaches me a gentle lesson. Here are a few photos of daylilies and other flowers with faces as the garden nears the end of the July flower extravaganza. Enjoy!

To see more photos of light in nature, visit Carol’s Light Words and Robin’s Life in the Bogs; Kerry has a wonderful series of light filled photos of the Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks of Utah in his Lightscapes Nature Photography Blog. I will be taking a two week vacation from the blogging world; I look forward to catching up in August, the first anniversary of this blog.

Autumn Wood

Black swallowtail on Evermore Edge

Brown Witch daylily

College Colors

Elizabeth Salter daylily

Fairy Firecracker daylily

Five O’Clock Shadow daylily

Later Alligator

Nosferatu, Echinacea, Swallowtail

Pansies and petunias

Petunia and phlox

Planet Max daylily

Prince of Purple & Brookwood Black Kitten

Ruby Spider daylily

Ruby Spider & Dark Avenger

Susan Weber daylily

Trahlyta

Tribute To Dan

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. Walt Whitman

Beauty for a Day

Posted on June 22, 2012 by composerinthegarden

Hemerocallis or daylily – from the Greek “hemera” (day) and “kalos” (beautiful) translated as “beauty for a day” – a hardy perennial native to China, Japan, and Korea whose flowers last for only one day

Although I have been deep in multiple projects for the past two weeks, I found time the past few mornings to grab a few photos from the garden. The intense heat has driven garden bloom from rose season into daylily season.

I love daylilies for their huge variety of color, shape, size and durability. If you are only familiar with the orange roadside dayilies, you may be surprised to find that there are literally thousands of modern hybrids to choose from, often with fanciful names and exotic shapes and patterns. I love coordinating daylily bloom colors with other flowers and foliage. One of my favorite color beds in the garden is the “grape and lemonade” bed – cool lemons and deep purples, a color scheme inspired by daylily ‘Etched Eyes’ hybridized by Matthew Kaskel.

Here are a few portraits of the early season bloomers. For more information on the wonderful world of daylilies, visit the American Hemerocallis Society.