Magnificent Magnolias

Yesterday these essential southern plants showed mostly large glossy leaves and buds. Today before the heavy rains and winds hit I managed to capture their full large blossom beauty. Now the open blossoms are torn apart and only fallen petals remain.

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Personally, I favor the white variety over the pink. When the sweet magnolia tree's fragrance fills the air you know you're in the South!

Thursday Finds...

Next year I plan to grow these beauties. I was experimenting shooting into the sun and two photos are backlit. There are very few flowers in bloom now, but I do see some Angel Trumpet buds on a couple of plants in the park. I'm waiting for a small patch of sunflowers to pop open. Today, as I rode past the sunflower patch, the owner was out raking and I had a short chat with him. It seems that he didn't plant the sunflowers but they grew from the mulch he put around them. He is also waiting for an event of sunflowers in October. They are very late, we think due to being in the mulch until it was spread. We'll know what variety they are soon.

I was admiring a neighbor's tea roses this summer, but there were too many people around and she wasn't at home so I didn't take pictures. Today she was at home and she said she can't buy them any more at her favorite garden center so I looked to see if I could find a source and did. The pictures here are not mine. They are called Rio Samba and start out yellow then the edges turn pink, then it slowly turns orange, then a pinkish red. What a show it puts out for rose lovers. It is named after the Samba dancers at the Carnival in Rio.

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Dahlia

Sunflower Bud

Rio Samba