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I’ve been having a lot of fun over the past few weeks taking pictures of emerging buds and blooms, especially those springing from several potted clematis vines in my garden … so much fun that on a recent trip to a local Home Improvement Store, I snagged two new plants for a pair of pots on my back deck.

The gallery below shows a Bernadine Clematis — a variety I had not seen before — already in bloom. The flower’s large petals range in color from pale blue to pale violet. The color variations among flowers on the same vine fascinate me, especially where you can see distinct beige or light yellow striping through the center of some petals, as well as a slight shift in the colors of the central structure. Since newly opening flowers don’t show either the striping or center color shift, I’m assuming the colors change as the bloom ages … but it will be a couple more weeks before I know for sure. Most of the larger flowers have fallen off and the new ones (like the first two below) don’t show the additional colors yet.

The last image in this gallery got some special treatment that I’ll write about in an upcoming before-and-after post. For now, I’ll just say the flower was pretty much spent, but a little creative magic restored its original character.

Another gallery featuring images of a President Clematis — whose rich purple and violet hues presented me with some new photo processing challenges that I’ll describe in that post — will be up in the next day or two.

If you would like to see the previous posts showing my clematis transitioning from vines to unopened buds to flowers, they’re here:

Clematis Preparing to Bloom: Gallery 1 of 2

Clematis Preparing to Bloom: Gallery 2 of 2

Wordless Wednesday: Clematis Blooming

Wordless Wednesday: Clematis in Full Bloom

Select the first image if you would like to see a slideshow. Thanks for taking a look!