Helping Hand

Some plants looks so lovely in person but are so hard to take photos of that can convey their pleasing character on to images.

I suppose it's not so much of an issue if you have a sophisticated camera and have the time to enhance images using a photo editing software, neither of which we have.

But sometimes all you need to do is to give such plants a helping hand. Like the airy Nandina domestica 'Filamentosa' below:

Nandina domestica 'Filamentosa'

Can't wait for it to get bigger!

And this Mahonia fortunei

Looks unique and distinctive from other mahonias - Mahonia fortunei

Rhododendron roxieanum var. oreonastes

variegated Phyllostachys aurea

Phyllostachys aurea 'Variegata'

Most plants however are complete show-offs, they don't need any helping hand and are ready to be photographed almost anytime like the Fatsia polycarpa below:

But these show-offs still needs the helping hand of a gardener to keep them looking good, in another way of course.

Mark :-)

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The Sweet and The Soft

Last Saturday we attended the monthly meet of our local HPS chapter and the guest speaker was Colin Ward, owner of Swines Meadow Farm Nursery which is not that far from us (but we have yet to visit, oops!) and we know sell many rare and unusual plants. We bump into him quite regularly through the many plant fairs that we attend so it was extra nice to see and hear him do a talk for our HPS chapter.

Now we were aware that he will be bringing plants with him during the day to sell. What we didn't expect though was that he will be bringing with him many unusual and beautiful plants that are already of a good size. That was a very nice surprise and with so many tempting goodies we had an unexpected plant shopping afternoon! More about our HPS purchases in a separate post but one of the plants we got from him is a very beautiful Mahonia that is new to me.

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