My garden

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Horticulture and DavesGarden.com are sponsoring a Garden Photo Contest and they want to see pictures of your garden.
 
The grand prize is $1,000. The winners and runners-up will be featured in print with Horticulture and online at HortMag.com and DavesGarden.com. And the winners will also receive one-year subscriptions to Horticulture and DavesGarden.com
 
You can submit photos here: http://www.hortmag.com/gardenphotos. There is no cost, you can submit as many photos as you like, but you have to send them electronically. In other words, no snail mail.

The 5 categories are:

Wildlife, Animals & Insects in the Garden
The Edible Garden
Garden Landscapes
Seasonal Gardens (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter)
People in the Garden

The grand-prize winner will be selected by renowned garden photographer Rob Cardillo. The deadline for entries is Sept. 30.

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Continue reading "Snowto shoots" »

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Baltimore Sun photographer Barbara Haddock Taylor captures herbs on ice.

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And there is the Venus fly trap and the pitcher plant. Carnivores both. But they have nothing on Audrey, from "The Little Shop of Horrors." She was the scariest plant of all time.

If you are looking for more plants suitably scary looking for Halloween, check out this photo gallery from Garden Design magazine.

P.S. This photo is from the 1930s, the decade that brought you Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, King Kong and The Bride of Frankenstein.

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Debra Lee Baldwin is a garden writer and author and she writes on the blog Gardening Gone Wild that she has stumbled on some of the loveliest garden "sheds," for want of a better word, during her travels.

She shares pictures of some of the most charming ones.

Thanks, Debra. Now we can all be daydream believers.

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Baltimore Sun photo editor Bob Hamilton has chosen the winner of the last week's reader photography competition, the topic of which was gardens.

See the winning photo and read what Bob had to say in his comments. And see the two honorable mention garden pictures, as well as the winners in previous categories.

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Garden Variety was the guest photographer today on The Daily Camden, Raphael Alvarez's photographic tribute to Baltimore's baseball park.

And, of course, she photographed the park in the context of its gardens!

Visit Welcome to Baltimore, Hon, the host website for The Daily Camden, and see some of the other views of Camden Yards.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

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We've all seen those books of daily devotions, designed to get us through the day with a good thought or a greater purpose.

Like "Chicken Soup for the Soul," there is a daily devotional for every demographic, from teens to men, from tree-huggers to C.S. Lewis fans.

Now there is a daily dose for the gardener, too.

Britt Conley is the photographer behind The Daily Flower, a feature on her blog, The Photo Garden Bee.

When she was laid off by USA Today in December 2009, she decided to follow her passion and photograph the "most magical, intimate, majestic, romantic and historic" gardens she could find, and share those photos with the world in hopes that more people would visit these gardens.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Lloyd Fox

Continue reading "The Daily Flower" »

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The Baltimore Sun runs a photo contest for readers each week call Reader SunShots, and this week's topic has Garden Variety all over it!

The photo subject is gardening!

The winning photo will appear on line and in print in The Sun with a critique by Sun head of photography Robert Hamilton (who is actually a very nice guy!)

The photos do not have to be from this garden season, so send us your best shot. The photos must be uploaded by May 30 and the winning photo will appear June 7. (Just click on the photo above.)

All appropriate photos will appear on line. There are already some beauties up on the site.

All right, people. I am expecting a Garden Variety reader to be the winner!

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The 15th day of every month is "Bloom Day" among garden bloggers, and they post photographs of what is blooming in their gardens on that day.

It is pretty slim pickin's in winter, except for the West Coast and warm weather bloggers who get to garden 12 months of the year. But at this time of year, Bloom Day is an explosion of color and diversity.

Right now, there are Siberian Iris, salmon colored poppies, goat's beard, spiderwort, Soloman's staff, clematis, roses and peonies blooming in Garden Variety's garden.

But it is the exceptional photography that makes Bloom Day such a joy on the Internet, and I've gathered some blogs for you to visit. It is almost as good as a visit to their gardens.

Enjoy.

Photo credit: Judah Kelber

Continue reading "May's Bloom Day" »

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Photo slideshow by Baltimore Sun/Sarah Kickler Kelber. Shot at the Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park.

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We never even got close. And it wasn't even the weekend!

Thank goodness for Baltimore Sun photographer Algerina Perna, who made it to the Tidal Basin and brings us these images.

Continue reading "Washington's Cherry Blossom Festival: gridlock" »

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I found this in my garden. The antique key by the gate in the picket fence has been nearly overgrown with ivy.

I saw it, and suddenly I heard Bruce Springsteen singing "Secret Garden"....

Photo credit: Susan Reimer

Continue reading "Her secret garden" »

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Yesterday, the 15th of the month, was Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, when we garden bloggers post photos of what's blooming in our gardens. (Me? Not much!)

I posted links to some of the stunning photography - not to mention the blooms that inspire jealousy, and I thought I would add more today.

We can all use a reason to keep going until spring officially arrives.

From Dee Nash in Oklahoma at Red Dirt Ramblings.

From Washington Gardener

From Mary Ann in Idaho and Gardens of the Wild, Wild West.

Continue reading "Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, continued" »

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Neomarica Gracilis

Neomarica Gracilis or Walking Iris is a tropical perennial with a white and lavender bloom that can grow up to 3 feet tall. And it is blooming right now at Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park.

Named because it will bend over and root where it touches the ground, it gives the impression of literally "walking" in your garden.

Also commonly known as the Apostle plant because of a belief that it will only bloom after it has developed 12 leaves. Flowers usually last for one day and then will close and rest, opening again in a few days.

Continue reading "What's blooming at the Baltimore Conservatory?" »

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Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

February is cause to celebrate for the camellias are starting to bloom, adding a spectacular splash of color to the winter palette at the Baltimore Conservatory in Druid Hill Park.

Camellias are evergreen shrubs native to southern and eastern Asia and prized for their flowers of red, pink, and white.

Traditionally representing longevity and faithfulness in Asian culture, it has also become the official state flower of Alabama.

Continue reading "What's blooming at the Baltimore Conservatory?" »

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A fun trip with husband Gary Mihoces, sportswriter for USA Today, to Super Bowl 44 (free room, cheap flight home Sunday morning) seemed like a good idea at the time.

Continue reading "Meanwhile, back home in Maryland" »

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Tropicals, they say, are all the rage among Mid-Atlantic gardeners.

More and more varieties are making their way across the Mason-Dixon Line with the expectation that they will be able to withstand a Mid-Atlantic winter....Well, maybe not a Mid-Atlantic winter like the one we are having.

Anyway, Garden Variety is in Fort Lauderdale for the weekend (try not to hate me) where she witnessed a REAL deadheading job on some tropicals!

These workers were cutting off the browned fronds from palm trees. And as you can see it isn't an easy job.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Continue reading "Deadheading tropicals!" »

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The weather outside is frightful.

In the Mid-Atlantic, that is.

Garden Variety is in Florida for a couple of days, where this is what passes for a snow drift.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

"Yes, sir. Your table will be ready shortly. Perhaps you and your friends would like to have a drink at the bar?

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Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

"Clerodendrum Quadriloculare."

Commonly known as “Starburst” and part of the Verbenaceae family, this plant will bring a dazzle of blooming fireworks to any garden.

Located in the Conservatory's original Palm House, it is a true attention grabber.

Continue reading "What's blooming at the Baltimore Conservatory" »

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Photo credit: MIchael Lemmon

On Mondays, Garden Variety will be letting you know what's blooming at the Howard Peter Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Garden in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park.

This week, it is Pachystachys Coccinea.

Commonly known as the "Cardinal's Guard," it is part of the Acanthaceae family. This tropical shrub grows 3 to 4 feet tall with soft green leaves and is native to northern South America.

Continue reading "What's blooming at the Baltimore Conservatory?" »

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Photographer David Perry has issued a modest challenge to the garden photographers under his tutelage:

Red, green and blue.

Take pictures focusing on each of these three colors. Not on shape or content or beauty. Just color.

Perry, who lives in Seattle, is a superb photographer who finds healing and calmness in the garden, and his photographs reflect the deep respect he has for that space.

(For a look at "red" and "green," keep reading.)

Continue reading "Red, green and blue" »

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They are predicting warmer temperatures and rain on Christmas, which means the 22 inches of snow that fell on Garden Variety last weekend will begin to melt away.

Before it does, one last look at the garden in snow.

So many of the photos we published here seem to be black and white, or at least sepia. Here is a photo of the garden in the storm that has plenty of color!

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

And....

Continue reading "Baltimore snowstorm--one more look" »

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A snowstorm renders these garden photos almost black and white!

A special thanks to Baltimore Sun co-worker Nick Madigan and Garden Variety reader Reggie.

Continue reading "The garden in black and white" »

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Photo courtesy of Eye on Annapolis

The snow pictures are starting to appear!

Check out these from Annapolis, my hometown. http://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2009/12/19/snow-shots-1/

And some garden shots from my garden friends. This from Kylee in Ohio at Our Little Acre.

Where are your photos, Garden Variety readers? Send them to sun.gardenvariety@gmail.com

Continue reading "Snow in the harbor and in the garden" »

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Beautiful blooms are not the only subjects for the garden photographer.

Layanee DeMerchant, author of the garden blog Ledge and Gardens, clearly understands that.

Take a look at her photos of the last days of the garden, when the flowers are overtaken by time and frost. 

Photo credit: Associated Press (2004) file photo.   

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 Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Garden Variety took the day off Monday to play tourist with Nancy, my best friend since the seventh grade, and her husband, Mark, and daughter, Heather.

Nancy and Mark had driven from Seattle to Baltimore to bring their daughter some furniture and stuff for her new apartment and her new life on the East Coast, and so Heather and I showed them the sights in Baltimore.

(Mothers, it can be said, do so much better when they have mental pictures of their children's lives that they can occasionally "take out" and find comfort in. I call them "visuals.")

Anyway, I wrote on Monday about the trips Nancy and I have taken over the years with Connie, my other best friend since the seventh grade, and a particularly memorable time on Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington State, and the flowers there.

I vowed that I would find some gardens for Nancy, even if it was November in Baltimore.

Here is some of what we saw on, of course, Federal Hill.

So Heather's new life in Baltimore now has some structure to it, including a new kitchen island. And Nancy and Mark have begun the drive back to Seattle, racing against the oncoming winter weather.

Drive safely, my friends.

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If you are wondering if the cobbler's children have shoes, take a look at this photo slideshow of author Michael Pollan's home garden. It appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Pollan and his wife are residents of the San Francisco Bay area.

The author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food," lives what he preaches, and has created a lush kitchen garden in the front of the house he and his artist wife purchased three years ago.

Garden writers? This is what best selling looks like.

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David E. Perry is one of those photographers who is as good with a keyboard as he is with his camera.

That's why his garden photo blog speaks so eloquently in both languages. Here is how he introduces himself.

If I were to somehow leave the impression that I consider myself some sort of gardening expert, I’d be misleading you.  I’m not.  I am instead a practicing gardener, still quite capable of unintentionally wounding and sometimes even killing plants that I really just want to nurture, a guy who despite that (ironically), has always found healing with his hands in the soil.  I’m also a guy who sometimes struggles with feelings of inadequacy in the presence of gardeners who can see so much deeper into a garden’s bones than I, so much more intuitively into a plant’s nature ...and let's not even  start with those who effortlessly rattle off the Latin names of every botanical specimen in sight.

 "oh yeah, coupled with that, from time to time, a bit of shared expertise in the art of actively seeing ...and then capturing what one sees.  "

Perry was at the Garden Writers Association convention in Raleigh and here are his impressions, in both words and pictures, of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University.

 

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Categories: Garden photography