Balsam (Impatiens balsamina) is one of those old-fashioned garden flowers you don’t see too much anymore. Here are some fine examples from a garden in Beechview.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Balsam
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Daylilies After the Rain
It had been raining all day, but in the evening there was enough of a lull for old Pa Pitt to get out and take these pictures. The daylilies are all unnamed varieties from a planting of mixed hybrid seedlings.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A590 IS.
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Purple Coneflower
This American native is one of our most beloved garden flowers. It blooms most of the summer, and it tolerates a wide variety of conditions. Butterflies love it, too. You can often find it growing wild around Pittsburgh, but it is currently one of the most fashionable garden flowers. This is a semi-wild specimen: it was a volunteer seedling whose parents were deliberately planted nearby.
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Drumstick Allium
Drumstick Alliums (Allium sphaerocephalon) are more and more popular, but still a bit odd-looking. These grew in Beechview, where they were in full bloom at the beginning of July.
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Fall Flower Show at Phipps
In honor (apparently) of its Japanese theme, the 2015 Fall Flower Show has visitors keeping to the left instead of to the right all the way around the conservatory (except in the Fern, Orchid, and Stove Rooms, because a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little conservatories). It makes old Pa Pitt wax nostalgic, because Phipps was a keep-to-the-left place for the first century or so of its existence, before finally converting to keep-to-the-right circulation at some time in the late twentieth century.
Cameras: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3 and Olympus E020n.
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Entrance Garden, Phipps Conservatory
Annual flowers always look their best right before the first frost gets them.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A590 IS (hacked).
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Peony
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Rhododendron Season
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It’s Iris Season
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Bridal Veil
The “Bridal Veil” Spirea (Spiraea × vanhouttei) is a very popular planting in the Pittsburgh area. It blooms only briefly, but it is glorious for those few days.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
