Coral & Peach in the Garden

Pink suffused with shades of yellow--what more beautiful color in the garden is there than coral/peach? Entire swaths of my flower border are dedicated to this lovely color. It is warm but not aggressive, accommodating but not feeble. It complements the companion shades of lavenders and violets. Roses and daylilies especially seem to lend their hybridizing talents to corals and peaches.

Peach-pink tulips in the early spring bulb garden

Double coral columbine. These are not very tall, giving more of the impression of small double petalled roses. Surprisingly, these have reseeded for me.

American Peony Society gold medal winner Coral Sunset, an unusual shade in peonies, and an early season bloomer.

Papaver Orientalis, the Oriental poppy Watermelon. True to its name, this poppy is a luscious shade of watermelon pink.

 One of my favorite shrubs, the carnation-scented coral brooches of the viburnum Carlesii, the heavenly Korean Spice Bush. 

The prime rose shrub Easy Does It, with difficult-to-photograph dark coral flowers fading to a round-blossomed reddish orange that blends especially well with blue salvia.

 David Austin's Abraham Darby, studded with these innocently peach but powerfully scented cupped and quartered old-fashioned roses. 

Ruffle-edged peach-pink daylilies. Daylilies were meant to be this color--descendents of the original Hemerocallis Fulva, the tawny orange daylily, and Hemerocallis Flava, the sweet-scented yellow lemon daylily.

Flower Carpet Coral, the non-stop blooming, drought-resistant, low growing single-flowered rose that has earned its place in my sunny border.

Flower Edge Effects in Photoshop

Playing with layer order, blending modes and opacities, and edge effects in Photoshop can turn your flower photos into works of art.

Blending modes such as Multiply, Screen and Lighten in differing opacities have been used to achieve the effects on the following pictures. Edges are enhanced using Filter/Artistic/Poster Edges and Filter/Blur/Smart Blur.

The pink-orange rose image, above, was duplicated, stretched and enlarged to form the background.  A duplicate of the original smaller size was dragged to the top of the Layers Palette, and the Poster Edges and Smart Blur edges were applied.  Then Blending Modes in the Layers Palette were added to nearly every layer, and opacity of each layer was adjusted.

A sea of translucent daffodils. Poster Edges were applied to several layers and Smart Blur edges to the top layer.

Ballerina roses are enhanced using Poster Edges, then stretched into more layers, with added inverted Smart Blur edges on the top layer.

 To get this sort of effect, follow the instructions outlined below:

Open a picture in Photoshop. Unlock the layer by clicking on the "Background" in the layers palette. Rename "original" in New Layer Properties box

Duplicate the original layer CTRL+J. Use the Blending Mode drop down in the Layers Palette and choose Multiply. 

Adjust the Opacity to 60% in the Layers Palette.

Duplicate this layer CTRL+J. Go to Filter/Artistic/Poster Edges.

I used these settings: Edge Thickness=1, Edge Intensity=1, Posterization=2. Click OK to apply.

Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Screen and the opacity to 60%.

Go to Free Transform CTRL+T. This will set a bounding box around your picture. You may want to zoom out to give yourself more room. Now use the corners to stretch this layer much larger than the original layer. You can move the layer around by using the Move Arrow in your Tools Palette until you have the layer where you want it. Now hit Enter to apply the Free Transform.

Set the blending mode to Lighten and the opacity to 100%.

Duplicate the last layer CTRL+J. Set the Blending Mode to Screen and the opacity to 45%.

Duplicate the last layer CTRL+J. Keep the same settings.

Duplicate the last layer CTRL+J. Go toFilter/Blur/Smart Blur.
I used these settings: Radius=3, Threshold=25, Quality=High, Mode=Edge Only

Invert this layer by going to Image/Adjustment/Invert

Your picture should look something like this. If you want more or less edges, go to CTRL+L Levels and slide the slider left or right for the effect you want.

Change the Blend Mode of this top layer to Multiply with an opacity of about 20-25%. You can add another layer on the bottom and fill it with black (ALT+Backspace) if it adds to the effect.

You can adjust layers, blending modes and layer opacities to get exactly the effect you want.

For more information on blending modes and what they do, go to:
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/layer-blend-modes/intro/

Cool Blues

Blues are the shy and retiring flowers of the garden. We may not even see them when the reds and yellows shout for attention. Blues must be sought out to be appreciated. They grow most often in the shade and in the spring, but are a welcome addition wherever they are grown.

Phlox Divaricata, the fragrant and fleeting Wild Blue Phlox, is one of the earliest growers in my garden. It spreads slowly, so I dig up starts and plant them at the front of every border where I can find an empty spot. These grow in shade and sun for me, the shade-blooming ones a little later in the season. After blooming, Wild Blue diminishes until you can hardly see her anymore.

Iris Tectorum, the Japanese roof iris, another early bloomer of low growth, grassy leaves and interesting markings.

The prime perennial Rozanne hardy geranium. There never was a better blue, that blooms as long. I've grown lots of geraniums but none as wonderful as this one.

Bobbing butterflies of blue columbine in the spring garden in the company of a peach-pink pillar rose. Men especially like this plant; they always ask what it is and want it in their gardens.

Blue baptisia, the false indigo with its pretty pea flowers and foliage, blooms alongside a white and green ribbon grass.

Delphiniums are the epitome of the sunny blue border flower. I covet these plants, but they never live very long for me. This specimen is one of the more free-flowering species, less well known than the utterly formal and towering Round Table series. Annual larkspur are of the same family, are much less demanding to grow, seed themselves, and come in this same intense blue.

Ruffled blue Scabiosa with white geranium. Slender, lovely plants that seed themselves readily.

One of the many varieties of veronica in my garden. This one is a ground cover with the four-petaled true blue veronica flower. It often reblooms in the fall. I love all veronicas: the tall and slender speedwell, the mid-size candles of white and pink, and the sprawling repens creepers.

Blue balloon flowers of the campanula family, growing in a pot under the Black Lace elderberry, here in frilly flower. The cool blue color is welcome in the hot summer shade garden.

One of the few blues of the mid- to late summer garden, the agastache Blue Fortune puts on a display that few plants can rival

A tall, sturdy, bushy plant, the poisonous Monkshood aconite is also known as wolf's bane, leopard's bane, women's bane, Devil's Helmet or Blue Rocket. Arresting names for an arresting plant.

Pink Flowers of All Kinds

Pink flowers are the mainstay of the perennial garden. Almost every variety of flower has a pink one. Pink shades vary from the blue-toned lilac-pinks to yellow-infused peaches. Pink is at once vivacious, flirty, demure, and charming.

Bleeding heart, one of the early spring bloomers and a particular favorite of everyone who has ever grown it. This plant likes some morning sun, blooms over a long period, and then retires and disappears for the rest of the season. I have tried cutting it and taking it into the house, but the leaves make me sneeze.

Pink-to-yellow tulips in the spring garden

Acres of columbines grow under the fruit trees. Although columbines give us some of the truest blues of all the flowers, newer varieties of pink and white make an enchanting combination.

Pink dianthus with a powerful clove fragrant scents the entire yard for six weeks, after the Korean Spice Bush Viburnum Carlesii is finished with the same delicious scent. This dianthus spreads slowly but inexorably into dense mats that crowd everything else out. The only problem is it looks a little ragged when it is done blooming and has to be sheared back. I have starts of it all over my yard and given away freely to its many admirers.

 The long-lived, fragrant, clear pink Japanese peony Seashell. When this lovely plant blooms in May I know the winter really is over and the summer is actually on the way. It appreciates full sun and does not like to be planted very deep. This has spread for me and I have given many starts of it away. The mounds of green leaves make an attractive background plant after the blooming period is over.

Light pink Missouri primrose that fills in empty spots in the border. These bloom over several months and seed freely.

Perfect, delicioiusly fragrant, baby pink David Austin rose.

 Duchess of Albany clematis facing the sun next to my garden shed in the back yard. Once established, this has made good growth each year. Clematis varieties are so much more than the large-flowered ones, which have been known to "drop dead" when least expected--make sure you plant them deep enough in order to avoid this.

Matching shades of pink phlox and pink Elsie Heugh prairie mallow. The pink phlox mixes with the white phlox, producing all differing shades of pink in between. Tall, bounteous phlox bloom over a long period, and many are sweetly fragrant.

Darker pink Ava agastache, the hummingbird mint of the drought-tolerant garden. This blooms in summer to late summer. My Ava is a very large, tall plant visited by hummingbirds morning and evening.

 Volunteer pink Cosmos. Cosmos seeds itself readily and can establish itself as a perpetual plant in the right circumstances. Large, sturdy plants with ferny foliage cover themselves with these cheery flowers that are so at home in a vase on the table.

Sedum Brilliant in the autumn garden. I haven't grown the stonecrop sedums very long but I've fallen in love with them. Interesting fleshy foliage that changes in fall weather, and these frost-resistant domes of multi-flowered heads that persist over a long time.

Prairie mallow, the sidalcea Party Girl that laughs at frost. I find these popping up everywhere and usually pull them up unless I want a nice bit of pink.