Peony in Bute Park, Cardiff, June 2016
These days I have trouble noticing anything but trees when I walk in Cardiff’s many parks. But I made a special effort to think about the flowers when passing through the herbaceous borders in Bute Park a couple of weeks ago. I followed the borders quite closely last summer (see my flower posts here), but now it’s a little bit “been there, done that”.
This time I snapped pictures of big ball-like flowers, skipping everything else. Although sadly my subjects – peonies and poppies – are dying off now it’s midsummer.
This was one peony just starting to open – with an ant on it
Still cup-shaped
Pink peony in full bloom
According to Wikipedia the peony is native to temperate areas around the eastern Mediterranean, Asia and some parts of western North America. All tree peonies come from China, but the ones I picture here are the herbaceous sort. I can’t be more specific than that.
The Latin name, Paeonia, comes from Paeon, a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. When Asclepius became jealous of his pupil, Zeus is said to have saved Paeon from the wrath of his master by turning him into the peony flower.
Three peonies together
Petals turning brown
Gone over…
…but the rubies in the centre are quite interesting
A particularly bright peony
My compact camera is not very good at VERY bright colours. Look how this poppy came out…
My camera dislikes reds
Fiddling with PhotoShop doesn’t make it look true to life, but at least it’s interesting
According to Wikipedia the poppy comes from temperate and cooler areas of Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. I think those pictured are Papaver orientale, from the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran.
Poppy flower bud
Another one
Fading poppy
Botanist Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778) chose the name Papaver from the Latin word pappa, meaning “milk”, because the latex you get by cutting into poppy seed pods looks like milk.
Poppy seed pod
I also admired some Alliums – the Latin name meaning “garlic”. The following pictures are all members of the onion family but don’t ask me what species exactly…
Starry purple Allium
Flowers peeking out
There’s something Pixie-like about the shape of these…
…I think it may be Sicilian honey garlic, Allium siculum
I’m afraid I’m really not a great lover of summer in the garden – there’s so much rot and decay among the overblown flowers and overgrown leaves. Give me spring or autumn any time…
The Squirrelbasket 
Gorgeous! I love the flowers peeking out.
I’ve never been able to capture red on any mobiles or cameras. Must be something to do with the wavelength and lens …
I really should research what this “red” thing is all about.
I know that in newspaper production we used to have problems with a particular bit of software that converted colour pictures into monochrome and could never cope with Welsh red rugby shirts. They always went nearly white in mono.
As I also have trouble with very bright purples, maybe it’s the very end of the spectrum?
All the best 🙂
Maybe with the new technology just being used (read an article – nano something?) reds and purples will be the same as we see with the naked eye.
Awsome thank you for sharing have a blessed day
Have a good Sunday 🙂
Glad that you’re dendrophilia isn’t so overwhelming that you can’t see other plants and wildlife, Pat! Although i tend to agree with enjoying spring/autumn more than summer, I am enjoying improving my skills at Bee and Hoverfly identification, watching newly fledged birds being fed by parents (two young blackbirds in my garden), the summer migrants (listened to nightjars yesterday) the leafiness of trees, as well as many flowers. For bo particular reason, here’s one of my photos of a dandelion seed-head:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_seligman_cardiff/27436701780/
That picture is BEAUTIFUL! And so unexpected – you didn’t mention it was WET!
All the best 🙂
I love your peonies, they’re such sumptuous bloom that don’t really last long enough to tire of do they? I know what you mean about overblown summer flowers, although I find July is a great month for wildflowers, butterflies and insects in general.
I see it’s the Big Butterfly Count at the moment.
I’m sure I saw in a paper yesterday that the “speckled wood” is on the rise from being rare. I find that hard to believe, as it has been the commonest butterfly in my wooded garden for decades.
All the best – hope you are enjoying the welcome rain! That’s summer over…
Beautiful! We love Peonias and can’t wait for them to bloom in the garden. At the moment it’s quite chilly in North Norfolk and it’s raining cats and dogs, but we are quite optimistic the flowers will open soon. Have a wonderful weekend!
Greetings from the Fab Four
Thank you for your kind words.
It has been cold here for a couple of weeks now, and I know today is going to be wet and windy.
Stay warm and keep on taking the wonderful pictures 🙂