Pleasanton Rose Show

Every year, generally around May, Pleasanton organizes a Rose Show. This year, 2017, was the 77th annual show! Here are some of the photos. Yes, these photos are from May, and we are at the end of December, but hey, at least I am posting it in the same calendar year :-)

Enjoy!

First, some solo performers presented in a water bowl.

Now, other solo performers on their stems.

Simple elegance!

Very unusual color.

Candy!

What a beautiful marbling!

Simple stunner!

Another marbling

Unassuming beauty.

This deserves staring at it for a long time!

Now some group performers.

One of my favorite colors for roses

This was so delicate, even taking a photo might have hurt it :-)

Magical marbling!

Just white!

Too delicate

Another candy!

Riot of colors

The next ones, if I remember correctly, were some of the final winners.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Diary Of A Multi-Color Rose

Finally, this year rain has shown some kindness towards California. That has immensely helped the plants in the backyard. Like so many others, I had also reduced the sprinkler duration to conserve water. Even if I hadn't, the sprinklers can never substitute the natural benefit rain water has for soil and consequently for the plants.

These photos are from the current spring season. This is a rose plant that I can literally spend hours marveling at. The photos barely do a justice to the incredible color transformation process each rose goes through, but hopefully they give some idea.

Note : You can click on any photo to start a slideshow.

The buds start with a deep pink color, with yellow at the bottom.

As the bud opens up, it gives some hint of the what's inside.

The inside petals are bright yellow, and the outside still keeps some pink.

As it opens more, it gives the impression that it is going to settle on the same yellow color.

When it opens up completely, the yellow starts to fade away, as if the flower is losing the color.

Then the flower changes its mind, and decides to slowly become pink again.

Even in the last stage, it still keep some yellow at the bottom of the petals.

Other flowers on the same plant, and even on the same branch, do not follow the same trajectory of color change, and end up in different states. Here are last 2 stages of another flower.

And much different stages for a third one.

The flowers on the same branch follow different timelines, so they have different colors at any given time.

And while this is happening, the entire plant has flowers that are at the various different stages of the blossom, resulting in a complete riot of colors.

I have no idea what's the name (scientific or otherwise) of this rose plant. Most likely this is a result of some hybrid experiment, and not because of some natural mutation. Whatever the cause, it's a delight, and the whole transformation is captivating. 

Diary Of An African Lily

The "African Lily" is very commonly found in Bay Area. It's easy to grow ornamental plant with striking bunches of flowers in the season.

I have tried to capture the photos through out the flowering phase. The long stems start out with buds, which slowly crack open. Each stem features multiple flowers.