Category: photography

From Lilies by Naomi Slade:

“Lilies are familiar because they are ancient. Evolving before the very dawn of mankind, they were poised at our own birth to catch, embrace and captivate us. Despite the innocent blooms that dance in the wilderness, they tend to be portentous rather than frivolous, and they are never cosy. Adopted by religion, death and politics, the lily is a plant of ritual significance and multifaceted symbolism.”

From “The Journal of Henry David Thoreau” in The Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau by Henry David Thoreau:

“I wished to breathe the atmosphere of lilies, and get the full impression which lilies are fitted to make.”

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Hello!

Here are the last variations on my lily photos. The previous posts in this series are:

Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (1 of 4)

Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (2 of 4)

Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (3 of 4)

I’m out of lily photos from those in my own garden, though I’ve accumulated several batches from elsewhere in the neighborhood that I’ve just started processing, including more than a dozen different varieties (which is just amazing!) and about 400 photos. It will take some time to organize them (the first few days with a large collection of photos is like sorting a mountain of paper clips by color) and jazz them up, so next — from my garden — will be a set of hibiscus photos from a couple of new plants I bought back in April. Stay tuned!

Thanks for taking a look!

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From The Book of the Lily by William Goldring:

“The history of lilies in English gardens is interesting, as it runs parallel with the history of geographical knowledge. Before far-off countries were known and explored, Lily culture in England was naturally restricted to the species native of Europe…. It was no doubt first cultivated in gardens of the royal and the rich, and it is quite possible that Elizabeth and her courtiers may have plucked flowers from the same stock from which has descended the common White Lily of today still… cherished by rich and poor alike.”

From The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (Vol. 4) by Liberty Hyde Bailey:

“The various lilies are unequaled by any other plant in their unique combinations of beauty, gracefulness, and stately magnificence….”

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Hello!

Here are some variations on the lily photos in my previous two posts (see Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (1 of 4) and Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (2 of 4)), where I have removed the backgrounds (by “painting” them black).

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Lilies” in Blue Iris: Poems and Essays by Mary Oliver:

… If I were a lily
I think I would wait all day
for the green face
of the hummingbird
to touch me.…

From “To Poetry” by Nazik al-Malaika in Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, edited by Reza Aslan:

I will roam Existence
I will gather the particles of your voice
   from cool springs
From the mountains of the north
Where even lilies whisper songs…

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Hello!

This is the second of four posts featuring Summer Sky Pink asiatic lilies from my garden. The first post is Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (1 of 4).

For this post, I tried something completely new, different, and FANTASTIC! I rented a portable miniaturizer from a nearby hardware store, shrunk myself (and my camera) to the size of a honeybee, then gently flitted (yes, FLITTED!) from flower petal to flower petal to get some closeup shots of each blossom’s interior.

Ain’t technology GRAND!

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Pink” by George Crabbe in The RHS Book of Flower Poetry and Prose by the Royal Horticultural Society:

This, this! Is Beauty; cast, I pray, your eyes
On this my Glory! See the Grace, the Size!
Was ever Stem so tall, so stout, so strong,
Exact in breadth, in just proportion, long;
These brilliant Hues are all distinct and clean,
No kindred Tint, no blending Streaks between….

From Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding by Noel Kingsbury:

“[If] a pink flower crosses with a white one, the progeny may show a variety of shades of pink.”

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Hello!

This supercalifragilisticexpialidocious lily is a newcomer to my garden this year, it having been adopted by The Gardener to replace one of last year’s Tiny Epic Asiatic Lilies that fell asleep during the winter and never woke up. “Summer Sky Pink” is a really good name for this variety: its pinkness is certainly reminiscent of that kind of pink-purple-magenta color that surrounds clouds at the horizon this time of year, especially before or after summertime thunderstorms.

Fresh from the garden center, it produced quite a few big blooms for about two weeks in early June. I learned it’s a cross between white Longliflorum (or Easter Lily) and pink or red asiatic lilies. It clearly retains the large, thick-to-the-touch blossom petals of the Easter Lily and, toward the center, yellow and orange highlights. You can see some Longliflorum in one of my earlier posts, Easter Sunday 2021: Yellow Daffodils and White Lilies.

Thanks for taking a look!

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From The Lilies by Henry Percival Spencer:

‘Tis passing strange this life of ours,
Nought in this world can we explain;
We are helpless as the flowers
Forced into life by April rain.

What reap we for our joy and pain
Except the hour in which it lives?
He who can fathom Loss and Gain
Can tell us what the Future gives.

The Lily comes, the Lily goes….

From Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi:

“Sooner or later every gardener must face the fact that certain things are going to die on him. It is a temptation to be anthropomorphic about plants, to suspect that they do it to annoy. One knows, after all, that they lead lives of their own: plant the lily bulb in the center of the bed and watch it come up under a brick near the edge; pull up a sick little bush and throw it on the compost heap, and ten to one, it will obstinately revive.”

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Hello!

Here are a few more photos of my Tiny Epic Asiatic Lilies — some from the previous post along with a small handful of new ones (those whose backgrounds were very cluttered in the originals), all reprocessed on black.

Thanks for taking a look!

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