ColorChallenge - Sunday Purple - What's Purple? A Garden Walk - Photography
English lavender in bloom
I was about to go out and do some gardening when I noticed that-- thanks to a few warm and sunny days-- the lavender around our garden labyrinth has started to bloom in earnest.
So I went and grabbed the camera, deciding it was a lovely opportunity to enter a post in @kalemandra's photography #colorchallenge since today is "Sunday Purple."
We originally planted the lavender when we started building the labyrinth in July of 2012. It seems the lavender has grown stronger and more vibrant every year-- maybe it's the good vibes we put into it! My wife works with clients in the labyrinth, and we do meditations out there.
Definitely plenty of purple here!
When you get up close, it's just a mass of blooms, just opening
Lavender blooms
Since we have almost 100 plants (and it's all totally natural/organic) we end up harvesting quite a bit of it to sell through a local shop. This is the kind that's generally referred to as English lavender.
Of course, I'm a sucker for close-up work, so that's what many of these photos are.
The reason the one on the left looks "bluer" than the others is that the sun temporarily went behind a cloud as I was photographing... it's interesting how that "cools" the particular shade of purple.
Once I was done with the lavender, I thought I'd add a bit to the challenge by walking around our garden with the general question "What's purple?" around our property.
It seems quite a bit... surprisingly more than I expected. I suppose I never spent that much time thinking about it, but it does seem like purple-- along with yellow-- may be the most common color found in flowers.
Not sure what this is... a weed?
I'm not sure what this flowering plant is-- it's probably some kind of weed, but we always let it grow in peace because it sets quite pretty purple flowers... and it also works somewhat as a ground cover; not very much else seems to grow where it is.
As a result, we've generally just left it to grow... we tend to not be very particular about only having "fine" plants in the garden.
Around the corner, I noticed there was a pale purple thistle in bloom, so snapped a couple of shots of that, which you'll see down below.
Of course, the fact that we have thistles blooming in the garden will tell you that we're not exactly perfectionists when it comes to weeding!
However, you can be pretty sure that I will be out there whacking down that thistle before it sets its downy seedpods that'll fill the place with tiny thistles next year... it's pretty, but not THAT pretty! And kind of prickly and unpleasant.
Pale purple thistle in bloom...
Same plant, different cluster of flowers...
Walking a little further, I noticed one of our sage bushes is starting to bloom-- purple.
Purple sage blossoms...
In this case, we have purple happening in two levels: the flower itself, as well as the veins on the outside of the buds.
Interesting story with this-- we have three large healthy bushes... all of which came from tiny cuttings we took from a bush outside a local shop (yes, with permission!) and rooted... three years later, they are quite impressive!
So there's my "Sunday Purple" from walking around our garden! Thanks for indulging my photography interest.
If you're interested, I also suggest checking out the supporting @colorchallenge page! There, you will also more explanatory posts about the challenge, as well as a number of resteems of participants' posts.
How about YOU? Have you even done any of the color challenges? Leave a comment-- share your own experiences and feedback!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Posted 20170709 19:54 PDT
A very nice entry with the included explanation. I love lavender both for the look and the fragrance. I'd love to have it as a border here at my place but the neeedles from the pine trees on my property kill a lot of plant species.
I find it so interesting that you are able to sell it in your store. Do you put it into little decorative bags to be put into garment drawers?
Thanks @kus-knee! The lavender likes fairly dry soil although ours often needs watering in the summer... and it's happiest to have quite a bit of sun so we have it away from the trees... one of the few spots we have that's not overhung. I know what you mean about pine needles...
When it's fresh, we just sell it in bundles "as is," which is quite popular with the visitors to our town. My wife likes to dry the "irregular bits" and those get made into little sachets for use like you suggested... haven't tried selling those yet.
Your lavender photos came out really nice! I love the focus depth of field on the first one.
I'm loving the @colorchallenge - I post a few each week and the rainbow montage to sum up my week. Today I posted pictures of Epcot Center's "Spaceship Earth" at night glowing in shades of purple for my Sunday post.
Thank you! I'm not dedicated to doing the color challenges... but if I happen to have some relevant photos for a particular day, I'll toss an entry or two out there.
I'll go check out your post!
Yep, I do it on the days I have something relative to the color as well. But the weekly montage recap thing is kinda fun. :-)
Beautiful photos and a great post @denmarkguy! Your garden or 'labyrinth' must be a beautiful thing to behold!
Being a Scotsman my favourites are the thistles! :)
Thanks @tonyr! Yes, it's really lovely late in summer when everything is in full bloom. Like Scotland, western Washington is somewhat north, and we're having a particularly "late" year this year after a particularly cold and grey winter/spring.
The thistles are quite lovely... but terribly invasive when you're trying to garden!
:) I can imagine.
I'd love to see the garden when it is in full bloom. :) I don't have a garden myself at the moment but hope to have a small one soon when I move house. :)
@dmcamera had an excellent photo of a thistle for her colorchallenge sunday purple as well as a brief history of the flower. It's a great wee post and she seems like a very nice lady. She is a professional photographer and told me she was going to be making a post today about plagiarism since she discovered that some of her photos were being used on steemit by another user passing them off as their own. Sounds like it could be interesting. :)
Hope you are enjoying a wonderful day @denmarkguy! Always a pleasure talking with you and reading your posts my friend!
so nice pics! I love lavender, I love to see these flowers on the fields and I love to use them to smell my home. Maybe one day I'll plant some of them ^_^
As I recall, you're in the Tuscany region... lavender very much likes the climate there, so it should grow quite well for you!
Yes, I live in the Tuscany region and in some gardens here I can see plants of lavender, so Ican try to do it even if I don't have a green thumb :D
Very nice, Will be looking forward to your posts.
Up-voted :-)
RightWithin
Thank you-- glad you liked!
You have a lovely variety of purple in your garden! Weeds or no, the spots of color surely make it a happy place to relax in. I don't think I would hack anything so pretty either.
You know, @denmarkguy - I've been seeing these color challenges for a good while and never knew who started it! Kudos to @kalemandra and I've just followed @colorchallenge. :)