On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether youâre traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Flowers are found everywhere from the formal gardens like The Huntington or The Japanese Garden to the hills of Southern California in the Spring. They are also a renewal of nature and signal a changing of time from the chill of Winter to the warmth of Summer.
I have a small garden area outside my front door with a deck box and roses on each side. I shot this with a wide aperture so the background would be out of focus.
This is a flower I saw along the canals in Venice CA. I darkened the background further to increase its impact.
A single California Poppy flower in a field of billions during the super bloom in Lake Elsinore California
A close-up of the flowers that dominated the area burned during the Woolsey fire of 2018.
Between the Chinese and Japanese Gardens at The Huntington there is a path lined with Camellias. This was shot with a wide aperture to defocus the background.
Mornings at The Huntington allows for a view of the roses just after they’ve been watered. This was taken in Rose Garden.
This vibrant pink flower is the bloom of this prickly cactus, taken at the Desert Garden at The Huntington.
Lotus flower in a pool at the Chinese Garden at The Huntington.
The lotus flower blossoms in a fountain pool with the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano’s Great Stone Church in the background.
A purple lotus flower blooms in a pool at The Japanese Garden in the Sepulveda basin.
Eunicecycle
Beautiful! So restful.
JanieM
Maybe it’s just partly their effectiveness at stress reduction, but these bring tears to my eyes. Individually and as a set, they’re wonderful.
The fourth one — the one from the area that burned during the Woolsey fire — do you know what it is? I’m not a big flower person in general, but I love anything that’s true blue or near it. This one has a really lovely mix of shades.
stinger
How lovely! I can almost smell the roses. And I keep looking at the stamens and color gradations and other fine details of the “Malibu” image — what type of plant is that?
ETA: Or what JanieM said.
Benw
Just wow, Bill.
I get a kick out of the idea that “I’m brightly colored and smell good” has been a successful survival strategy for millennia.
Dan B
@JanieM: It may be a Phacelia. Don’t quote me on this because I haven’t slept enough lately, for some reason, well. There are few true blue flowers on earth (pollinators – what’s your problem? I know but…) so google true blue flowers and see if Phacelia comes up.
You’ve captured the elegance of colors, flower or whatever. Thank you.
But flowers can be the best.
Dan B
@stinger: May be Phacelia. I’ll look it up to confirm or disprove. They’re an annual in Seattle but bloom in Joshua Tree (my evidence) and probably most every Spring in California.
Tiny but stunningly enticing.
Dan B
@Dan B: There are 200 forms of Phacelia. You’re likely to find this beautiful form in nurseries in April or later.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Eunicecycle: Thanks, I culled though my photo collection for these, came up with about 30 and then eliminated 20.
@JanieM:
@stinger:
@Dan B: That flower has been featured here on the morning OTR about a year and a half ago. I said it was one flower, I was told I was wrong. I really don’t know, but they are a flower that grows in areas that have recently burned. We’ll have a lot of places for them to grow this year in California(as well as the poodle dog bush, avoid that one).
@Benw: I usually walk through the Rose garden on my trips to The Huntington(I did on Monday). It’s especially nice in the morning, but I’m a night owl, so I rarely go then. It’s really hard now with the limited admissions due to the ‘rona.
JanieM
@Dan B: There seem to be a lot of Phacelias. :-)
One of my faves for true-blue-ness is scilla, or squill. Here in New England, you see them in the scraggly corners of the yards of old houses, often intermixed with daffodils. Blue and yellow together is a treat.
stinger
@Dan B: The dark veinings on a creamy background, and then the lighter blue, remind me of violets. But of course these aren’t those. Love the stamens!
stinger
@JanieM: Oh, that’s nice. I could do a planting of those.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dan B:
@JanieM:
@stinger:Â Here’s what one plant looks like.
randy khan
Lovely. Â I have gained a new appreciation of how hard it is to take good photos of flowers over the past – checks calendar – 8 months as I have been doing a lot of walking around my neighborhood snapping shots of various things along the way. Â It takes a lot of skill and experience to create photos like these.
JanieM
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Wow, that’s gorgeous.
This Phacelia looks an awful lot like it.
stinger
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh my! So much blue! Now I really have to know what they are!
JanieM
@stinger: I think you start with little bulbs, but then they spread by propagating themselves underground somehow.
stinger
@JanieM: I think you’ve got it.
ETA: I read a little of the description, and see that it’s a borage. I can grow borage, if not the fern-leaf phacelia. Thanks!
stinger
@JanieM: I’ve seen scilla in bulb catalogues, but have focused on larger plants. I have jonquils, so I can easily mix in some squill.
Joe’s up!
Mary G
Those are beautiful compositions, Bill.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@randy khan: It also takes some good post processing; the one from Venice, I darkened the background quite a bit to accentuate the flower.
@JanieM: That could be it, it did say “quick to establish after a fire”.
@Mary G: Thanks, I’ve got quite a few more. I should put them up for my patrons ?.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Beautiful flowers. Thank you. I love the rose with water drops.
cope
Thank you for all that beauty. Â I didn’t have the energy to check BJ before going to bed last night because [insert some reason here]. Â I didn’t get to enjoy them as a nightcap but they make a fine eyeopener to begin this fine Saturday.
Thanks again.
Richard
@JanieM: i think it is some kind of Phacelia. I don’t know an english or spanish name for them . I suppose we could say “azulita” or “california bluebell”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Yeah, I’m partial to that one as well. My membership level allows me to go in early on weekend mornings, but the advanced reservations go quick.
@cope: Glad you liked them.