Montana

 In our garden one of the first blooms in spring is Clematis Montana a really welcome wall of colour as the buds open up and herald the change of seasons.

It is then replaced by two varieties of honeysuckle a cultivated variety and a wild variety that are so fragrant and beautiful. 

Although the clematis is a spring blossom it is flowering now and the flowers are quite spectacular.

More Montana

These beautiful flowers grow in magnificent clusters and my garden has a wonderful display of pink and white and green.

The petals are so delicate like tissue and zooming in to the heart of the flower you see a mass of fine tendrils.

Montana

So after a week without posting anything I decided to get creative again and I spent a little time over the Easter weekend. First of all I went into the garden and took some macro shots of the early spring blooms before heading indoors to take some unusual shots of household items which I will get to later in the week.

For today here are some fairly standard shots of the stunning Clematis Montana var wilsonii that forms a colourful and fragrant border to the garden. It is amazing how quickly the mass of buds has exploded into a mass of delicate pink flowers with the chartreuse and white stamen rather like tiny boiled sweets at their hearts. It is beautifully fragrant and later in the year it will be replaced by the delicate colours and scent of honeysuckle.

Close up in the Garden

I'm staying out in the cold tonight and it's grey and cold so I thought for my blog today I would share a bit of summer colour which I hope you will enjoy 😁

Cool Clematis

I love the bold colours of these large and striking Clematis flowers. I have got it wrong in the past when I have described the colours in some of my pictures so before I started to write anything I checked out with my youngest son so now I can say with confidence how much I love the different shades of pink and yellow.



Only kidding, purple and cream :)

These are such beautiful flowers and so that is why I have posted several shots .

Delicate Tendrils

I love the different shades of purple in this beautiful clematis which was also tempting for the tiny little beetle which in the first shot is climbing up one of the tendrils and then in the second shot is walking away from the centre. 

I hope you love it too.

New Blooms

A few more blooms from Bodnant today, the first picture I love, showing the delicate new tendrils of Clematis with the fine downy fur covering the new shoots, giving the promise of fresh green leaves and abundant beautiful flowers.

The next two shots are of different varieties of Primula, both were growing in the shade of larger shrubs. I love the central yellow star at the centre of these lovely woodland flowers but I particularly love the delicate heart shaped petals.

For those who have seen my blog in the past the flower in the final image needs no introduction but for newcomers I can tell you it is Turkish Glory of the Snow, I first saw this in the gardens at Chirk Castle and I posted some pictures about three weeks ago, why not go back and have a look and compare them and see which you prefer.

Abstract Montana

So today I have decided to follow on from yesterday's choices and stick with some macro photos of flowers.  

Flowers are great subjects for photography with so many shapes, textures and of course colours. But close up they are also great for abstract pictures like these.

The second shot isn't as clear as I would like given the magnification but it is still an interesting image.

These pictures are cropped from photos of the Clematis Montana that was in flower a few weeks ago.  And so that you can appreciate the beauty of the flower and the extent to which these shots have been enlarged I have posted a third picture below... enjoy! 

Fine detail...

Here is another selection of close ups of flowers.  The first one isn't as sharp as I would have liked it to be, it was handheld and the flowers were being blown about by the wind, it is also a very tiny flower too so this is quite a significant enlargement which means some of the detail is lost. The others however are pretty good.

As with the last couple of days I will post pictures of the actual plants in full tomorrow so make sure you come back then.  Also why not leave a comment below to let me knwo what you think of these pictures

Close up on Clematis

The Clematis in the pictures above is currently in full bloom in my back garden.  I have taken a series of pictures getting progressively closer and revealing more detail of the flowers.  When looking at the mass of flowers which form the backdrop to the garden it is easy to miss the intricate detail, so I hope that you like the view I have given you today.

The final picture is of course not Clematis at all, but is a variety of Lavender.

Over the next few days I will be showing some more pictures of flowers and plants so come back for some more colour and fine detail...