Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Battery Conservancy garden. Again.

 Persicaria amplexicaulis, which I called polygonum in the earlier post.

The template of this blog has been tweaked to accommodate super-size photos, and the question is:

Are you left feeling queasy? It's really the overall impression that interests me.

Here are some more pictures from Monday's visit to the Battery Conservancy. And also a link to what is blooming now in the gardens. It is not 100% up to date, but it is very helpful.


 Aster tataricus "Jindai", three feet tall, and just coming into bloom, now.

 One of my favourite perennials, Astrantia major, blooming again after its late spring flush.

The Staten Island Ferry behind mass of grasses and the Aster tataricus again, which seems to do equally well in sun and dappled shade.

 Denizens of the garden.

An excellent example of fall flowers Ceratostigma plumbaginoides and Aster x frikartii.

 At least I think it is Aster x frikartii...

A whole new world of foraging potential opens: This is saffron, the real deal. I only need about 50,000 flowers for a pound of saffron. Crocus sativus.

 Crocus pulchellus. Yes, real crocuses, not colchicum.

A little-used clematis, which sprawls and rambles. C. jouiniana "Praecox".

And finally, breezy Panicum, not sure which cultivar, possibly "Rehbraun".

18 comments:

  1. I've wanted autumn crocus. By the way, wow to that Korean, my guess, blogger with all the butterfly photos. Someone who really knows how to use the aperture on their camera!

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  2. Lovely new layout.

    And the flower photos as gorgeous as they are newly expansive.

    Astrantia make my heart sing. I'm hoping the panicum isn't 'warrior' as I've just bought some and don't want it that huge!

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  3. I'm always a sucker for pretty pictures, so I vote 'yes'!

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  4. Thank you for the persicaria photos. Been missing mine since the vole ate it.

    Love the jumbo shots, unfortunately they download so slowly ( but beautifully) I accidentally ate all the leftover apple crisp.

    xo jane

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  5. Frank, yeah, they're depressingly lovely.

    Thanks Belinda - That panicum was about 4 feet tall. Is Warrior a smaller cultivar?

    Jane, thanks - that's helpful and I'm sorry. Hmmm: Do you mean that they take long to load on the blog page itself (as opposed to clicking on them). What browser are you using? Huh, Firefox and Windows XP - spied on you in Feedjit :-)

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  6. I can decide which is better. In some ways I rather liked the more subdued older version, but I'm an analogue personality in general. I like seeing the plants in context (i.e. no blurry backgrounds) -- that's the reason I started looking at blogs, because I found the trend to floral close-ups in magazines and catalogues didn't always give a proper sense of what they'd look like in the garden. Whichever you decide on, I don't think you should supersize the photo of the cubes of fat left on your plate from the boerewors.

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  7. We're also investigating the use of jumbo sized photos. But it's tricky: domination is risk. But you seem to have kept the overall page happily balanced. I does force me to look at only one photo at a time, which is probably a good thing.

    And I'm reading about saffron now. 40 bulbs to get a teaspoon. Hmm...

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  8. Honestly, I like big photos that are good. I hesitate to scale up whenever I am using an illustrative shot that is lame, but then it looks so poor to have a small shot along with the large!

    I think the ratio of the center column size to the left column size that throws me off balance. If you would be willing to tweak that ratio just a bit, maybe more pleasing. Maybe. I have a big screen Mac (20"), well suited to the three column, looks worse on smaller laptops.

    I have slow internet, dial-up, and the photos don't take any longer that I have noticed.

    Work in progress:)

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  9. And to keep running on at the digits, maybe its just some more padding between the left column and the central column that is needed.

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  10. Marie-Louise - thanks for the input - checking on your rooibos story :-)

    Klaus, thank you, and how pithy you are. I may just super-size the fat cubes to punish you.

    I can't decide whether I like this view, where the pictures really dominate the page. I will keep this for a week and see how I feel later.

    Feel free to let me know if anything changes for you, too. This is your blog, I only work here :-)

    jvdh - ja, ek's nie seker nie. Soort van grandiose. Ek kyk weer na julle blog en dit lyk perfek. Die langer sinne is ook nogal irriterend. I think 40 bulbs for one teaspoon is WORTH it. One bouillabaisse a year. Or whatever.

    Frank - thanks, that is also very helpful. I'm laptopping it and should look at it more on Vince's screen. Your own 3 columns are well balanced. Sigh. Padding. Only time in my life I needed more padding, but you're right.

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  11. Love the new look and the larger photos.

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  12. I'm all for your lovely large pics.

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  13. I agree, you want to do your photos justice, but when viewing your blog on a smallish screen (netbook) I can't actually see the whole picture at once at it is bigger than the frame, which affects the experience a bit. Just my two cents worth :)

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  14. Nee, ek hou van die groter foto's, ons is juis in die proses om (weer) ons hele layout te verander sodat ons baie groot foto's kan post.

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  15. Really like the new format, by the way...

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  16. I'm interested in the Panicum. I think it's unusual for them to bloom quite so far above the foliage . It's hard to tell scale in that pic, but I like the large images. Before I read that it was only 4' tall, I thought it may be a Molinia rather than a Panicum.

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  17. You are lucky to have such a great camera. I would love to have seeds.

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