Pretty pictures: Purple and Blue

I've been taking tons of pictures lately, and then not doing much with them, blogularly speaking. Part of this is because I've been taking so many that the thought of trying to sort them all out makes me exhausted before I even start. Today, I'm going to at least try to get a few of them out of the way.

Hyacinthus orientalis NOID. In somebody's yard, here in town.

Glechoma hederacea. Ditto. I like this picture not because it's a great photo in and of itself, but because it's closeish to an accurate depiction of the weird luminous quality G. hederacea flowers have in certain lighting situations. Like all blue/purple things, they rarely photograph in anything close to accurate color, but I'll settle for them glowing slightly. The leaves are reddish, incidentally, because this photo was taken when it was still pretty cold at night, and Glechoma turns reddish in the cold. Like a lot of plants do.

Bacopa 'Colossal Blue.' Or possibly Sutera 'Colossal Blue.' I've lost track of which one is supposed to be current. This was at the ex-job, and whether or not I find it interesting depends mostly on what I'm comparing it to. So like, comparing it to the overall options available in the outdoor annual category, I think it kinda sucks. But comparing it to the other Bacopa/Sutera varieties I'm familiar with, all of which were white, it's interesting. A quick googling suggests that I should actually be even less impressed than I am, because this is far from the only lavender Bacopa in the world.

Lobelia erinus 'Laguna Sky Blue.' This was more impressive in person than in the photograph. I'm not sure what went wrong with the picture. I don't think I'm likely to try to grow Lobelias again, having had uniformly negative experiences with them, but there's no arguing that they're pretty.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost.' Also at the ex-job, and unfortunately a little bit past prime bloom, but nevertheless blue, so it fits, so here it is.

Delphinium 'Summer Skies Pacific Giant.' Delphinium cultivar names appear to be getting as ridiculous as those of orchids.

Viola sp. From our lawn. The plant's nothing special, but I thought this picture turned out remarkably well. Hence my remarking on it.

Viola sp. I don't actually remember where this one was taken. They're everywhere right now, you know.

Scilla siberica? An older photo, from someone's lawn. Really like this picture too.

Anchusa arvensis. Taken at a garden center that's not the ex-job. I hadn't actually heard of this before this year, and now that I've heard of it and seen it, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XVI

I know I just did one of these, but I've burned most of my free time over the last two days working on something that looks like it's going to turn into a series of posts. I'm very pleased with the title -- it may in fact be my best title ever -- but the text is proving to be kind of difficult. It's one of those situations where I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts and figuring out what I want to say. My hope is that this was mostly caused by the relentless sawing and hammering coming from the living room over the same time period (the husband and his stepfather were doing carpentry-type stuff which I sort of understand now but couldn't explain concisely), which is distracting, even with earplugs. It might also just be that this is a complicated thing to write about. Time will tell.

And I could do a pretty picture of a flower or something, but I've pretty well taken pictures of everything I've got blooming at the moment (which was always fairly limited in the first place: I should go back to visit my ex-job for the blog fodder, except that we know I'd wind up buying plants, too), so we're left with another round of transmitted light photos. Which is fine with me. I just worry that it's tedious for y'all. In any case:

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana NOID. As usual with the thick leaves, even if you can get light to shine through, it doesn't necessarily show off any interesting structure. But sometimes the blurry, cloudy pictures are okay too.

Pilea nummulariifolia. This one was hard to get, but it turned out okay eventually. There are a few plants that I like to give sunny windows less because they require sun than because they're pretty by transmitted light: this is one of them.

Ficus 'Green Island.' This plant and I have gone through some tough times back at the apartment, but boy has it taken off and done well since the move. I've been impressed. If I'd known how appreciative the Ficuses would be, I would have tried harder to get them sun before.

Ardisia crenata. The other plants tease it about its freckles.

Impatiens x hawkeri NOID. I should have waited until the variegated New Guinea impatiens at work grew bigger leaves: would have made for a better picture. But you go to war with the Impatiens you have, not the Impatiens you wish you had, am I right, Rumsfeld?

Chlorophytum 'Charlotte.' The plant itself is still just barely hanging in there; it gets too dry a lot, I think. I should probably repot. The leaf picture is better than I remembered it being.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Peter Wonder.' I'm fairly certain the plant is capable of better photos than this. Will keep trying.

Brunnera cv. 'Emerald Mist.' My favorite from this batch by a mile.

Caladium 'Gingerland.' I'm pretty sure I could do better on this one, too, though really this picture only needs to be lightened a little, maybe up the contrast slightly. Oh well. The things you decide too late.

Codiaeum variegatum NOID. Including crotons kind of feels like cheating. Dunno why.

Random plant event: Brunnera 'Jack Frost' flowers

Owing to the way that things are set up at work, I spend most of my time with the tropicals and annuals, but we have perennials too, and occasionally I wind up getting to see them.

I don't have much to add to this picture; Brunnera is one of those plants I remember kind of liking but the name hasn't really been sticking with me. Hopefully that will change now, though. One of the nice things about having a blog turns out to be that when you're forced to stop and contemplate a particular plant for a post, it does burn the plant's identity into your brain. I think having to come up with posts for PATSP last year is probably how I learned about 40-50% of the annuals. Maybe this year we'll see more perennial pictures.