Pink Magnolia

Pink Magnolia, Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin

Pink Magnolia © 2011 Bo Mackison

I finally found a sunny time to drive across town and see how the flowers were faring at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I had a nice surprise. Even though many of the flowers are several weeks behind their normal blooming time, the entire garden in filled with flowering beauties. The magnolia trees are in bloom. I think the magnolia has one of the more interesting flowers.

Scientists think that the magnolia is one of the older flowers on earth, believed to have evolved before bees, for the magnolia is designed for pollination by beetles. (The magnolia is not the oldest of flowers, that distinction goes to the water-lily.) The magnolia bloom has many primitive features including a large number of both pistils and stamens–the reproductive parts of the flower. In comparison, most flowers have only one pistil and five stamens. The magnolias’ large number occur in spiraled rows and cluster together above the petals.

The magnolia has between six and twelve petals plus an additional three sepals. Typical of primitive flowers, the petals and sepals are nearly identical in shape and color. This magnolia, the Loebner magnolia, has a purplish hue. Other magnolias range in colors from pure white to yellowish-green to pink to lavender.

The trees, when planted in groupings, are quite a marvelous sight–twenty five foot tall trees covered with thousands of almost translucently tinted flowers.

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I am back home after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona. It has taken some time to adjust to life in Wisconsin, but now that the spring flowers blooming and the sun is finally shining, life is good.

 

Tiny Yellow Flowers

Rock Garden Flowers

Rock Garden Flowers © 2011 Bo Mackison

The sun peeked out from behind the clouds this morning for about an hour, and so we took advantage of the sunlight and went for a walk at the nearby Allen Centennial Gardens. The gardens, located on the urban campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is home to a huge number of botanicals on a few acre lot.

There aren’t many flowers blooming except for the early spring bulbs — daffodils mostly– but the rock garden is showing the beginning signs of flowering. Several bunches of flowers, mostly in the draba family, had a few flowers in bloom, especially those blossoms that were sheltered from unpredictable weather by larger rocks.

If we have a couple of days of warm weather and sunshine, there are plenty of flowers with buds ready to pop. Should be a lovely sight when spring decides to stay.

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I am back in Wisconsin after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona. Still waiting, with bated breath, to see Spring tiptoe into Wisconsin.

Dogwood Blossom Variations

Dogwoods au Natural, Quincy Illinois

Dogwood au Natural © 2011 Bo Mackison

Looking at these dogwood blossoms in their natural color…

Dogwood Blossoms, Desaturated, Quincy, Illinois

Dogwood Blossoms, Desaturated © 2011 Bo Mackison

And in more muted tones…

Dogwood Flowers in Black and White, Quincy Illinois

Dogwood Flowers in Black and White © 2011 Bo Mackison

And in black and white.

Same flowers, but three different ways to view them. There are times when I love seeing the world in full, living color. Other times I prefer my world to be somewhat muted, a bit quieter. And once in a while I like the simplicity that black and white offers, a focus on the elemental shapes, fewer distractions.

Do you have a favorite? Or does your preference change depending on your mood? Do you ever use photographs like these as a focus for meditation or as a stepping stone to lose yourself in thought?

 

 

A Matter of Perspective

Ocotillo Thorns

Ocotillo Spines @ 2011 Bo Mackison

This is an ocotillo, one of the most plentiful plants in the Sonoran desert. It offers a great lesson in perspective. When you look at the ocotillo, do you first see its long, sharp spines? And when you notice the spines, do you see them as a threat to you or do you see them as the protector of the plant?

The ocotillo, a major shrub in the Sonoran desert, acts more like a succulent than a woody plant. It can absorb sunlight for photosynthesis through its leafless stem during the dry seasons. And when there is a desert rain, it will produce full grown leaves within three days. This plant has both primary and secondary leaves. When the primary leaves fall off the shrub, the remaining woody stalk elongates and becomes a spine.

Ocotillo Blooming

Ocotillo Blooming © 2011 Bo Mackison

Perhaps your attention is first drawn to the bright cluster of flowers at the tips of the branches, to the beauty of the tightly clustered  red cylindrical blooms.

Ocotillos are a favorite of migrating hummingbirds. The ocotillo is often the only spring desert flower in abundant bloom, even in very dry spring seasons. Hummingbirds, which migrate  from Mexico to their breeding grounds as far north as Alaska, pass over the desert in huge numbers and get their nourishment, the nectar, from the bright red tubular flowers.

Ocotillo Star

Ocotillo Star © 2011 Bo Mackison

Or perhaps you see the ocotillo in a different way. Perhaps, when you look at the ocotillo from a unique angle, you can imagine a desert full of woody stars.

So many perspectives, all from the same plant. Just depends on what you focus on, what you notice, and how closely you look. What part of the ocotillo first attracts your attention?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson through the first week in April, exhibiting her photography in art fairs, taking photographs in deserts,  and blogging about “Bo goes solo”. She is learning much about life as she studies the plants in the desert.

Hidden Horizon

Lake Monona, View from Olbrich Gardens Formal Pool

Hidden Horizon © 2010 Bo Mackison

Olbrich Botanical Gardens has a variety of themed gardens including this formal garden with a reflecting pool. My favorite part of this garden is the view – not only can you see the formal gardens, but you can see Lake Monona in the view beyond.

Olbrich Gardens is located in Madison, one of the prettiest cities in the Midwest. Madison’s boundaries not only include one large lake, but four. Almost 20% of the area inside Madison’s city limits is comprised of lake, so it is easy to find a shore and take in a water view.