Flowering now May 2007

[Paddy Tobin]

Anthony, what a beauty!

Tell me a little more about it. You are growing it in a pot, I think. Hardy enough for the garden?

Well photographed.

Paddy

[Martin]

Wet and windy here in Derbyshire. A sad week also, I attended the funeral of a good friend, Bob Straughan. Perhaps better known to AGS members, Bob ran an alpine nursery, Highgates, at Belper for many years.
Some cheap and cheerfull plants to brighten a dull day. Echeveria peacockii, Aquilegia skinneri and a little Dianthus which had sown itself. Sorry about the poor quality, I had forgotten to change ISO setting from 800 to my normal 100. Thought the shutter speeds were high !

Martin.

[Anthony Darby]

Paddy, not difficult in a pot in the bulb house. Needs a dry summer rest and is winter green, like many southern European orchids.

[Ian Minty]

I like your photos Martin, not only do the plants look good, but they look very artisitic.

[derekb]

Iris in flower now Blue Sails
Edraianthus pumilio very loose not sure why as it is in a trough out in the open,
and 2 Campanula the first is choruhensis(sorry about the pot David)
Does anybody know the second?.

[Paddy Tobin]

Many thanks for the information, Anthony. Your photographs would certainly tempt anyone to attempt growing these delightful plants.


Martin,

I would love to hear of the technique you are using for your photographs. What are you using for your background? Using a flash? Plants brought indoor for photographs? You get the drift.

Paddy

[Mark Griffiths]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can identify this Aquilegia? I grew it from AGS seed as A.saximontana, but I think that is blue and white? It's about 4 inches high, might it be A.bertolinii?

[Martin]

Hello Paddy,

These pictures were taken inside the greenhouse with a black card background and the use of silver foil on a board as a reflector. The camera is tripod mounted and I spot meter, usually underexposing a little. I never use flash for plants, although I have considered investing in a ring flash but never got round to it. I use a Nikon D200 and, for this type of shot, a 60mm Micro Nikkor.

Martin.

[Lesley Cox]

I like your photos Martin, not only do the plants look good, but they look very artisitic.

They do indeed Martin. How do you get that little frame around each one?

I remember Bob Straughn from a visit in 1981 to Highgates and I bought super things from him and his wife then and later by mail when it was so much easier to import. Among others, Bolax gummifera - alas no longer with me.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, could your aquilegia be A. bertolonii? An Italian species I think, with a quite large flower over small, very neat and quite dark foliage. The spurs curl inwards like yours too. It is about the only species I know that doesn't seem to hybridise with every other (well, maybe the red and yellows don't so much) including the kitchen cat!

[Paddy Tobin]

Martin,

Many thanks for the details on the photographs. For glasshouse photography the background card is certainly a good idea. I find that the backgrounds in the glasshouse will inevitably be cluttered with a  multitude of pots, odds and ends etc which spoil the shot, so the background card certainly improves that situation. I rarely take  my photographs in the glasshouse preferring to take the plant outside and 'pose' it in as natural a position as possible.

Any true photographer would cast their eyes to heaven at my methods of photography. I make use of the 'take many, select one' method and can often take 10 - 20 photographs of the same flower, later discarding the unwanted images.

I am using a Fuji FinePix S9500, one of these cameras which with the aid of digital technology approaches SLR capabilities. It has a viewing screen which can be flipped up for viewing which is a great benefit when photographing plants near ground level. The light metering is a little weak in it I find however - a good excuse to look for a new model, I suppose! The Nikon D200 or one of the Canon range?

Paddy

[afw]

Martin, I first visited Bob Straughan in 1987 on a Alpine Nursery & National Trust tour. Little did I think that 10 years later I would be living here.  My daughter moved here in 1992 & I would pop over to Highgates  every time we visited her. I was very sorry to hear the news of his passing. Still wet & windy!

Wet and windy here in Derbyshire. A sad week also, I attended the funeral of a good friend, Bob Straughan. Perhaps better known to AGS members, Bob ran an alpine nursery, Highgates, at Belper for many years.
Some cheap and cheerfull plants to brighten a dull day. Echeveria peacockii, Aquilegia skinneri and a little Dianthus which had sown itself. Sorry about the poor quality, I had forgotten to change ISO setting from 800 to my normal 100. Thought the shutter speeds were high !

Martin.

[Martin]

Hello Lesley,

Do you use Photoshop as your editing program ? if so, it is easy to put frames around your pictures. I tend to use a thin white frame first and then a thicker frame. As follows;
1. Select all.
2. Edit (drop down to stroke) then add an amount of 30px, or whatever you are happy with, I normally use white in colour.
3. Deselect. This leaves a thin white border.
4. Go to image and drop down to canvas size. Click this and a box will appear. For my pictures I alter the size to 0.80. Then place your cursor over the colour box and click. The eyedropper tool will then appear, you can pick out a colour from your photograph as a frame colour. When happy with the colour just click ok and the frame will appear.

You can do a similar thing in Corel Paint Shop Pro.

Martin.

[Mark Griffiths]

Hi, a pic of my Weldenia candida and some questions. This is a pic from last year (for some reason my camera has a problem focusing on white flowers..must read the manual!). It's a little bigger this year but I'd appreciate some advice on cultivation. I sort of lost my nerve with this after managing to kill the first one within weeks of arrival (I was told I shouldn't have watered it after may but it appeared to be coming into growth rather than dying down). The new one grew a number of additional crowns last summer, I then kept it dry after the leaves died down but this year only one crown came up. It looked as if the additional crowns had failed autumn or winter rather than through lack of water in the spring. Advice?



Another question, off topic I'm afraid. After the storm last night I see our philadlphus has keeled over. I thought it was due to water on the braches and gave it a gentle shake to reduce the weight but it looks move as if it has moved in the ground, maybe it's waterlogged and the wind is coming from a different direction to usual. Advice please?

[johanneshoeller]

Physoplexis comosa and Leontopodium nivale

Hans