Ash Leaves Faux Cyanotype [Photography]

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

Some leaves from our large Ash tree in the back garden. I have digitally turned this photograph into a faux cyanotype. I have made true cyanotypes in the past, but have been trying out various methods of applying them to existing photos. – Douglas

Here are the steps I used in a current version of Photoshop (but you can probably duplicate them using your own favorite tools:

Create a Cyanotype look in Photoshop

Open subject file (leaves, etc.)
Switch to Greyscale
Remove background
Invert Image
Convert to Color
Create background layer
Fill with cyanotype color
Set subject layer to Hard Light (to take on the color of the background
Filter, Add Noise… to give some grain to the background or use texture file.

Find a variety of books about cyanotypes

Find supplies for making traditional cyanotypes

A Botanical Mystery Solved, After 146 Years via Atlas Obscura [Shared]

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

Yet another example of how archives can continue to educate even a century after their contents were created. – Douglas

A Botanical Mystery Solved, After 146 Years – Atlas Obscura

Something about the painting made Tianyi Yu pause. The artwork, depicting tropical plants crowded together in a riot of color, had been painted in 1876 by prolific botanical illustrator Marianne North. The wealthy Victorian woman had traveled the world, usually on her own, documenting in bold oils the plants and landscapes she saw.

During a trip to Borneo, North had filled this canvas with plants from a particular spot in the forests of the island’s northwest corner. The viewer’s eye might be drawn to oblong yellow fruits from one plant, or pink buds from another, or the rounded leaves cascading down one side of the painting, one of them apparently nibbled by an insect. But Yu, a botanical illustrator who was working at London’s Kew Gardens while pursuing a masters degree, was drawn to clusters of berries, some green and unripe but others black or a bold blue. These berries would solve a botanical cold case more than a century in the making, and connect both illustrators forever.

Read A Botanical Mystery Solved, After 146 Years – Atlas Obscura

Oak leaf Hydrangea From the 2022 Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour [Photography]

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

2022 Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour

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Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium via TikTok [Shared]

Posted on May 19, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

@hemlockhousestudio Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium is a collection of over 400 plants pressed and classified by the poet. #socool #botany #pressedflowers #herbarium #garden ♬ original sound – Samantha

Potting on Kalanchoe leaf cuttings via TikTok [Video]

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

@douglaswelch Potting on Kalenchoe leaf cuttings #kalenchoe #cuttings #propagation #garden #gardening #nature #succulents #free #easy #grow #growing ♬ State Lines – Novo Amor

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Today I Learned: Fastigiate or Columnar Trees

Posted on May 12, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

I often come across gardening terms I don’t know, so I always make a point to use that as a learning opportunity. I came across “fastigiate” in some magazine article and immediately looked it up. While I understood that there were trees with columnar growth habits I had never heard them described with this more technical term. Like every division of science, botany has its own specific terminology that more closely describes elements than the typical common names or typical English words might. This is one major reason I try to learn the Latin names of plants so that I can refer specifically to one plant and differentiate it from others that might share its common name. – Douglas

Is there a difference between columnar and fastigiate?

While these two growth forms are often treated as synonyms, they are in reality variations on a theme. Columnar trees usually have a height-to-width ratio of 5-to-1 while fastigiate plants are closer to 10-to-1. Think of columnar plants as having the shape of a stovepipe while fastigiate plants take on the form of a power pole.

This narrow, upright growth habit is caused by the inability of some seedlings to develop normal, broad-spreading side branches. With these plants, the main branches grow straight up instead of spreading sideways so they can better position themselves to intercept more light. For some reason – probably centered around the response of cells in the apical meristem to the level of a natural growth hormone called auxin – the balance between verticality and photosynthesis is swayed in favor of narrowness. Nurserymen, ever on the lookout for something different, select these natural variants and maintain the form by grafting.

from the University of Arkansas Divison of Agriculture

Air-layering an Orange Tree 🍊 via TikTok [Video]

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

@bosesgreenlife Air-layering an Orange Tree 🍊 #citrus #orange #organic #foryoupage #plantsoftiktok #garden #airlayering #elfitup #tree ♬ Lazy Sunday – Official Sound Studio

Orchid Care Sheets via Smithsonian Gardens [Shared]

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

Orchid Care Sheets – Smithsonian Gardens

For the novice orchid grower, it can be difficult to know where to start with plants that have a reputation for being complicated or delicate. With just a little knowledge of an orchid’s growing preferences however, any gardener can care for these entrancing plants. We have picked six common orchid types that are good entry points for the beginning orchardist. When trying to identify your orchid, always look for any tags provided with your plant. If that is not an option, compare the shape of your plant’s flower to the pictures below, to see which is most similar.

Read Orchid Care Sheets – Smithsonian Gardens

Root System Drawings – Wageningen University & Research – Image Collections [Shared]

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Douglas E. Welch

Root System Drawings – Wageningen University & Research – Image Collections

This collection holds 1,180 drawings, the outcome of 40 years of root system excavations in Europe, mainly in Austria. The drawings, their analysis and description were done by Univ. Prof. Dr. Erwin Lichtenegger (1928-2004) and Univ. Prof. Dr. Lore Kutschera (1917-2008), leader of Pflanzensoziologisches Institut, Klagenfurt, (now in Bad Goisern, Austria).

Read Root System Drawings – Wageningen University & Research – Image Collections