New Photo: Ice Punch Poinsettia

Ice Punch Poinsettia (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I’ve recently added a new photo –  Ice Punch Poinsettia – to my Beautifulflowerpictures.com website.

Ice Punch Poinsettia is the fourth in a series of four poinsettia photographs that I am introducing this fall. Even before I saw the identification tag for this poinsettia, the red and white patterns reminded me of the patterns ice makes as water freezes. Ice Punch Poinsettia is one of the most dramatic flowers I’ve had the chance to photograph.

This photograph is available as a 10X10″   gallery-wrapped canvas.  You can order Ice Punch Poinsettia from my website and I will have it available at shows in October and November this year.

Links – October 29, 2010

Southern Blue Flag Iris (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Here are the rest of this week’s links. Hope you find them interesting.

Photography and Art Links

Maria Brophy has Why Artists Should (Not) Be Paid for Their Artwork

PhotoAttorney has When You Are Eligible for Statutory Damages for Infringements

Jeff Revell has A Few Tips for Fall Color

Dan Heller has Flatter Stock Marketing Tiers

The Upshot has Very Early Photographic Images of Humans Discovered

Black Star Rising has Sometimes, Photographers Are Their Own Worst Enemies

Gardening, Flower and Plant Links

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden have launched Landscape for Life

Karen’s Garden Tips has Botany for Gardeners: The Leaf-Autumn Coloration

National Park & Wildlife Refuge Links

National Parks Traveler has Portions of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park to Close at Night During Hunting Season, Economic Analysis Predicts Minimum 4-1 Return on Restoring Everglades Ecosystem,Warmer, Drier, Crowded, Grizzly-less and Lots of Thistle: The Yellowstone of the Future, Shenandoah National Park Ready to Embark on Year-Long 75th Birthday Celebration,

Refuge Watch has Cherry Valley NWR is #553

Wildlife Links

BBCNews has Dolphins Learn to ‘Walk on Water’ and Iberian Lynx: Radical Moves for World’s Rarest Cat

Reuters has Secret Life of Birds My Give Info on Climate Change

Christian Science Monitor has Will Florida’s Burmese Pythons Move North? How Far?

The RecordLive.Com has Record Numbers of Whooping Cranes Coming

National Parks Traveler has Proposal for State-Federal Collaboration on Combating White Nose Syndrome in Bats Out for Public Review

RestoretheGulf.org has Nearly 500,000 Acres Enrolled in Cooperative Federal Effort to Protect Birds in Spill Zone

Environmental Issues Links

BBC News has Nature’s Gift: The Economic Benefits of Preserving the Natural World

Christian Science Monitor has Will Space Tourists Be Earth Polluters? Scientists Sound a Warning and Biodiversity Study Sounds an Extinction Alert (For Things With Spines)

Links – October 28, 2010

Butterfly Weed (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

 

I’ll be doing two links posts this week since I haven’t done one in a few weeks. Hope you enjoy these links.

Photography and Art Links

Black Star Rising has Photographers, Be Sure to Watch Out For Online Scams

Jim Goldstein has Review: Ansel Adams in the National Parks

Photo Business News & Forum has Lessig’s Kool-Aid: Proposed New Norms – Don’t Drink

Dear Rich has How to Register a Group of Published Photos

Plagiarism Today has The Facebook, The DMCA and The Problem with Counternotices

Photopreneur has Surviving the Death of Stock Photography

PhotoAttorney has A DMCA Case of Note for Photographers

Gardening, Flower and Plant Links

NYTimes has A Seed Library for Heirloom Plants Thrives in the Hudson Valley

Wildlife Garden has Getting to Know Plants’ Wildlife Value and It’s a Girl! Why Sex Matters in a Wildlife Garden

Washington Post has The Mighty American Chestnut Tree, Poised for a Comeback

Sustainablog has Indian Scientists Developing a Green Paint from Flowers

Karen’s Garden Tips has Botany for Gardeners: The Leaf Part I General Characteristics

Christian Science Monitor has Milkweed: Not Just for Monarch Butterflies

National Park & Wildlife Refuge Links

National Parks Traveler has Interior Secretary Signs Cape Wind Project Lease, Stresses Need for U.S. to be Energy Independent

Wildlife Links

NYTimes has Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery

National Parks Traveler has In Race to Halt Spread of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats, USFWS Grants $1.6 Million for Research and DNA Tests Indicate Yellowstone NP Elk, Not Bison, Most Likely to Spread Brucellosis

Christian Science Monitor has Dracula Fish, Lipstick Gecko, 23-foot Carnivorous Plant Among New Species Discovered

BBCNews has On How the Leopard Got Its Spots

Ventura County Reporter has Volunteers Saving Condor Chicks from Danger

Environmental Issues Links

CNN has UN Summit Sends S.O.S. on Biodiversity

Slate has Can Biodiversity Conservation Reduce Poverty?

 

New Photo: DaVinci Poinsettia

DaVinci Poinsettia (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I’ve recently added a new photo –  DaVinci Poinsettia – to my Beautifulflowerpictures.com website.

DaVinci Poinsettia is the third in a series of four poinsettia photographs that I am introducing this fall.  I love all the shades of pink in DaVinci Poinsettia. The soft colors and dappled patterns create a beautiful look for the holidays.

This photograph is available as a 10X10″   gallery-wrapped canvas.  You can order DaVinci Poinsettia from my website and I will have it available at shows in October and November this year.

Showy Orchis – Galearis Spectabilis

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

The Showy Orchis (galearis spectabilis) are one of my favorite spring wildflowers. Every time I see a cluster of them, I have to stop and photograph them. I first saw some showy orchis in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2008. Each year since then, I’ve gone looking for them, and had a wonderful time photographing.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

This year, I photographed Showy Orchis on the Little River Trail, Porter’s Creek Trail and Cove Hardwood Trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Showy Orchis are perennial members of the Orchid Family (Orchidaceae). They are native to the United States, found in every state east of the Mississippi River except for Florida. West of the Mississippi River, they can be found as far west as Nebraska, as far north as Minnesota and as far south as Arkansas. They are also native to the three easternmost Canadian provinces. Showy Orchis as listed as endangered in Maine and Rhode Island, threatened in Michigan and New Hampshire and Exploitably Vulnerable in New York.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Showy Orchises grow in clusters. The plants are usually between 4 and 8 inches tall. The have between 6 and 15 white and pink/purple flowers. The flowers have a distinctive white lower lip and spur with pink/purple petals and sepals. The flowers are between 3/4″ and 1 1/4″ tall.  Each plant has two green leaves. They bloom in April in the south and May/June in the north.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Showy Orchis prefer in partial shade with rich moist woodland soil. In the Smokies, I’ve found them along the sides of the trails in wooded areas.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

The only other name I’ve come across for Showy Orchises is Preacher in a Pulpit – which was used in the nineteenth century in Pennsylvania. I haven’t been able to identify any known medicinal or practical uses for Showy Orchis.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

OK – so I went a little overboard with all the photos in this post. What can I say – Showy Orchis is one of my favorite spring wildflowers !

If you’d like more information about Showy Orchis, you may want to visit the following sites

USDA Plant Profile

UW-Stevens Point Herbarium

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

eFlora.org

Connecticut Wildflowers

NC State University Wildflowers

The Native Ferns and Floras of the United States

New Photo: Monet Twilight Poinsettia

Monet Twilight Poinsettia (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I’ve recently added a new photo –  Monet Twilight Poinsettia – to my Beautifulflowerpictures.com website.

Monet Twilight Poinsettia is the second in a series of four poinsettia photographs that I am introducing this fall.  The red and white color patterns in these flowers were amazing. They really did look like an impressionist painting. It’s easy to see why it was named in honor of Monet’s paintings.

This photograph is available as a 10X10″   gallery-wrapped canvas.  You can order Monet Twilight Poinsettia from my website and I will have it available at shows in October and November this year.

Christmas Made in the South – October 22 – 24 – Concord, NC

I will be at the at the Christmas Made in the South Show at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center in Concord, NC this weekend. I will have several photos with me that I haven’t shown in North Carolina previously. You can see my most recent flower photographs on my BeautifulFlowerPictures.com website.

I’m offering two special offers this weekend at the Christmas Made in the South. Save $ 10 on any purchase of $ 50 or more. Spend $ 100 or more and receive a free Wildflower calendar ($ 19.95 value)

Show hours are Friday October 22 10 AM – 6 PM, Saturday October 23 10 AM – 6 PM and Sunday October 24 11 AM – 6 PM. My booth number is 622-623 this weekend.

Directions to Cabarrus Arena, discount admission tickets and additional information is available on the show website.

I hope to see you in Concord this weekend.

Spoon Mums – Redwing, Trendy Time and Yolaporte

I’ve been looking at some of the photos I took last year – and have never gotten around to editing or posting here on the blog. I found a fun set from last year’s Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens. I figured I’d better start sharing these – before I start photographing chrysanthemums this year.

One of the major groups of chrysanthemums are the Spoon Mums (chrysanthemum x morifolium). They are closely related to the daisy mums. The difference is in the petals. In the spoon mums, the petals form a tube – and then open out into a spoon shape at the end. They are very distinctive looking.

I photographed three types of spoon mums at last year’s Chrysanthemum Festival.

The first is the Redwing Spoon Mum. I love the contrast of yellow, white and red in these flowers.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I had fun taking this final photo of the Redwing Spoon Mum – I loved the way the spoon ends of the petals look when one flower overlaps another.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Next is the Yolaporte Spoon Mum – a wonderful purple, yellow and white chrysanthemum

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

And yet again – I had fun photographing the petals

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

And finally the Trendy Time Spoon Mum – a wonderful flower in shades of yellow

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Now that I know how to identify a Spoon Mum – I’ll be keeping my out so I can photograph more varieties of them.

Lots of Colorful Coleuses

Last fall I photographed several varieties of coleus at Longwood Gardens. I was so surprised to see the different varieties they had – prior to that – almost all the coleuses I’d seen had been the ones growing in local gardens or as house plants.

All four varieties of coleus I photographed were members of the same species – solenostemon scutellarioides. They are members of the lamiaceae (mint) family. Originally native to Southeast Asia and Malaysia, they are now cultivated almost worldwide. Coleus are perennial plants that prefer partial shade and are easy to propagate by cuttings.

I really liked the colors and shapes of the leaves I saw at Longwood Gardens.

Fiesta Coleus

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Rustic Orange Coleus

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Alabama Sunset Coleus

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

And finally Garnet Robe Coleus

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for additional varieties of coleus to photograph in the future – who knew their leaves came in such wonderful colors and patterns?

New Photo: Christmas Feeling Poinsettia

Christmas Feeling Poinsettia (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I’ve recently added a new photo –  Christmas Feeling Poinsettia – to my Beautifulflowerpictures.com website.

Christmas Feeling Poinsettia is the first in a series of four poinsettia photographs that I am introducing this fall. As I was deciding which poinsettia photograph to introduce first – Christmas Feeling – a bright red poinsettia was a natural.  I just love the combination of red, green and white in the photograph.

This photograph is available as a 10X10″   gallery-wrapped canvas.  You can order Christmas Feeling Poinsettia from my website and I will have it available at shows in October and November this year.