Bright Sparks

Bright blooms I couldn’t miss, I took these photos at Alexandra public garden on 29 January. It was a very sunny, summer day and a beautiful day to be there but challenging for taking photos! Loved all the bright colours and the variety of plants in all shapes and sizes. Plenty of bumblebee buzz. Central Otago, New Zealand.

Re the ‘Echinops’ below I’m actually unsure if it’s that or Eryngium!

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Magenta dahlia flowers with yellow centres. The plant has very dark foliage and buds – nearly black! Very bright flowers against dark foliage, in harsh sunshine.

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Big, bright, yellow, many-petalled daisy-like flowers with dark centres. Green stems and foliage. These are Rudbeckia flowers, also has young buds in various stages of opening their petals, looking like little fists opening.

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Pretty Echinops or globe thistles with three bumblebee visitors. A mix of metallic mauve and silver stems and blooms. The blooms are about the shape of an upturned thimble, and furry, with thin sepals radiating out from the base of the thimble.

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Pink Echinacea flowers held on tall, sturdy, stems. Long pink daisy petals with a big cone-shaped, furry, centre. The cones are especially bright in this shot because they’re lit up with bright sunshine.. they’re appear a bright orange-brown colour.

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Daisy-type flower with fuzzy centre and petals that are mostly bright red, but with wide bright yellow margins.. these are Gaillardia. They’re fully sunlit and very bright. Two flowers have a bumblebee visitor. Also a delight is the sprinkling of fat, fuzzy, button heads where older flowers have now lost their petals.

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Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2023)