Uploads from Kugarth, tagged petals

Electric orange ... and blue!

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:15:28 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF 50mm F1.4 USM @F1.4

View on black, large.

Gerbera
Gerbera is a genus of ornamental plants from the sunflower family (Asteraceae). It was named in honour of the German naturalist Traugott Gerber, a friend of Carolus Linnaeus.

It has approximately 30 species in the wild, extending to South America, Africa and tropical Asia. The first scientific description of a Gerbera was made by J.D. Hooker in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1889 when he described Gerbera jamesonii, a South African species also known as Transvaal daisy or Barberton Daisy.

Gerbera species bear a large capitulum with striking, two-lipped ray florets in yellow, orange, white, pink or red colours. The capitulum, which has the appearance of a single flower, is actually composed of hundreds of individual flowers. The morphology of the flowers varies depending on their position in the capitulum. The flower heads can be as small as 7 cm (Gerbera mini 'Harley') in diameter or up to 12 cm (Gerbera ‘Golden Serena’).

Gerbera is very popular and widely used as a decorative garden plant or as cut flowers. The domesticated cultivars are mostly a result of a cross between Gerbera jamesonii and another South African species Gerbera viridifolia. The cross is known as Gerbera hybrida. Thousands of cultivars exist. They vary greatly in shape and size. Colours include white, yellow, orange, red, and pink. The centre of the flower is sometimes black. Often the same flower can have petals of several different colours.

Gerbera is also important commercially. It is the fifth most used cut flower in the world (after rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, and tulip). It is also used as a model organism in studying flower formation. Gerbera contains naturally occurring coumarin derivatives. Gerbera is a tender annual flower.

This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds. This plant is resistant to deer.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerbera

Back in time ...

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:25:02 -0800

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm
Texture by Pareerica. Thank you!
Texture

View on black, large

Old fashion romance

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:50:09 -0800

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm
Texture by  JoesSistah. Thank you!
Texture

View on black, large

Rose
A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin, rosa, which was borrowed from Oscan, from Greek ρόδιόν rhodion (Aeolic υρόδιόν wrodion), from Old Persian wurdi "flower" (cf. Avest. warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).

Classification of modern roses can be quite confusing because many modern roses have old garden roses in their ancestry and their form varies so much. The classifications tend to be by growth and flowering characteristics, such as "large-flowered shrub", "recurrent, large-flowered shrub", "cluster-flowered", "rambler recurrent", or "ground-cover non-recurrent".
The favourite rose for much of the history of modern roses, hybrid teas were initially created by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses in the late 1800s. 'La France,' created in 1867, is universally acknowledged as the first indication of a new class of roses. Hybrid teas exhibit traits midway between both parents: hardier than the teas but less hardy than the hybrid perpetuals, and more ever-blooming than the hybrid perpetuals but less so than the teas.
The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favoured in small gardens in formal situations. Examples: 'Peace' (yellow), 'Mister Lincoln (red), 'Double Delight' (bi-colour cream and red).

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. In Bulgaria, Iran and Germany, damask roses (Rosa damascena 'Trigintipetala') are used. In the French rose oil industry Rosa centifolia is used. The oil is transparent pale yellow or yellow-grey in colour. 'Rose Absolute' is solvent-extracted with hexane and produces a darker oil, dark yellow to orange in colour. The weight of oil extracted is about one three-thousandth to one six-thousandth of the weight of the flowers; for example, about two thousand flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

Roses are often portrayed by artists. The Luxembourg born Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté produced some of the most detailed paintings of roses.
Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The Rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist.
Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works.

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. 'Rose' means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish). The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively), of Alberta (the wild rose) in Canada, and of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan. It is the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.
A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy: it is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian and other European labour, socialist or social democratic parties, mostly adopted in the period after World War II.

A bouquet of red roses is often used to show love. It is used as a Valentine's Day gift in many countries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

Solar energy

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:11:10 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @35mm
Textures by ground*floor ,  JoesSistah and dog ma. Thank you!
Texture 1
Texture 2
Texture 3

Sunflower
What is usually called the flower is actually a head (formally composite flower) of numerous florets (small flowers) crowded together. The outer florets are the sterile ray florets and can be yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets, which mature into seeds

The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiral pattern. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other. This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds within the flower head.

Sunflowers in the bud stage exhibit heliotropism. At sunrise, the faces of most sunflowers are turned towards the east. Over the course of the day they follow the sun from east to west, while at night they return to an eastward orientation. This motion is performed by motor cells in the pulvinus, a flexible segment of the stem just below the bud. As the bud stage ends, the stem stiffens and the blooming stage is reached.

Sunflowers in their blooming stage lose their heliotropic capacity. The stem becomes "frozen", typically in an eastward orientation. The stem and leaves lose their green color.

The wild sunflower typically does not turn toward the sun; its flowering heads may face many directions when mature. However, the leaves typically exhibit some heliotropism.

Sunflowers most commonly grow to heights between 1.5 and 3.5 m (8–12 ft). Scientific literature reports from 1567, that a 12-m (40 ft), traditional, single-head, sunflower plant was grown in Padua. The same seed lot grew almost 8 m (26 ft) at other times and places (e.g. Madrid). Much more recent feats (past score years) of over 8 m have been achieved in both Netherlands and Ontario, Canada.

The sunflower is the state flower of the US state of Kansas, and one of the city flowers of Kitakyūshū, Japan.
The sunflower is often used as a symbol of green ideology, much as the red rose is a symbol of socialism or social democracy.
The sunflower is also the symbol of the Vegan Society. During the late 19th century, the flower was used as the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement.
Subject of Van Gogh's most famous still life, Sunflowers (series of paintings)
The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower

There must be an angel

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:17:14 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @65mm

View large, on black

Rose
A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin, rosa, which was borrowed from Oscan, from Greek ρόδιόν rhodion (Aeolic υρόδιόν wrodion), from Old Persian wurdi "flower" (cf. Avest. warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).

Classification of modern roses can be quite confusing because many modern roses have old garden roses in their ancestry and their form varies so much. The classifications tend to be by growth and flowering characteristics, such as "large-flowered shrub", "recurrent, large-flowered shrub", "cluster-flowered", "rambler recurrent", or "ground-cover non-recurrent".
The favourite rose for much of the history of modern roses, hybrid teas were initially created by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses in the late 1800s. 'La France,' created in 1867, is universally acknowledged as the first indication of a new class of roses. Hybrid teas exhibit traits midway between both parents: hardier than the teas but less hardy than the hybrid perpetuals, and more ever-blooming than the hybrid perpetuals but less so than the teas.
The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favoured in small gardens in formal situations. Examples: 'Peace' (yellow), 'Mister Lincoln (red), 'Double Delight' (bi-colour cream and red).

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. In Bulgaria, Iran and Germany, damask roses (Rosa damascena 'Trigintipetala') are used. In the French rose oil industry Rosa centifolia is used. The oil is transparent pale yellow or yellow-grey in colour. 'Rose Absolute' is solvent-extracted with hexane and produces a darker oil, dark yellow to orange in colour. The weight of oil extracted is about one three-thousandth to one six-thousandth of the weight of the flowers; for example, about two thousand flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

Roses are often portrayed by artists. The Luxembourg born Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté produced some of the most detailed paintings of roses.
Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The Rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist.
Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works.

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. 'Rose' means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish). The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively), of Alberta (the wild rose) in Canada, and of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan. It is the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.
A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy: it is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian and other European labour, socialist or social democratic parties, mostly adopted in the period after World War II.

A bouquet of red roses is often used to show love. It is used as a Valentine's Day gift in many countries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

Nature's wedding veil

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:33:41 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @70mm
Textures by Max F. Williams. Thank you!
Texture 1
Texture 2

Rose
A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin, rosa, which was borrowed from Oscan, from Greek ρόδιόν rhodion (Aeolic υρόδιόν wrodion), from Old Persian wurdi "flower" (cf. Avest. warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).

Classification of modern roses can be quite confusing because many modern roses have old garden roses in their ancestry and their form varies so much. The classifications tend to be by growth and flowering characteristics, such as "large-flowered shrub", "recurrent, large-flowered shrub", "cluster-flowered", "rambler recurrent", or "ground-cover non-recurrent".
The favourite rose for much of the history of modern roses, hybrid teas were initially created by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses in the late 1800s. 'La France,' created in 1867, is universally acknowledged as the first indication of a new class of roses. Hybrid teas exhibit traits midway between both parents: hardier than the teas but less hardy than the hybrid perpetuals, and more ever-blooming than the hybrid perpetuals but less so than the teas.
The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favoured in small gardens in formal situations. Examples: 'Peace' (yellow), 'Mister Lincoln (red), 'Double Delight' (bi-colour cream and red).

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. In Bulgaria, Iran and Germany, damask roses (Rosa damascena 'Trigintipetala') are used. In the French rose oil industry Rosa centifolia is used. The oil is transparent pale yellow or yellow-grey in colour. 'Rose Absolute' is solvent-extracted with hexane and produces a darker oil, dark yellow to orange in colour. The weight of oil extracted is about one three-thousandth to one six-thousandth of the weight of the flowers; for example, about two thousand flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

Roses are often portrayed by artists. The Luxembourg born Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté produced some of the most detailed paintings of roses.
Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The Rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist.
Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works.

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. 'Rose' means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish). The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively), of Alberta (the wild rose) in Canada, and of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan. It is the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.
A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy: it is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian and other European labour, socialist or social democratic parties, mostly adopted in the period after World War II.

A bouquet of red roses is often used to show love. It is used as a Valentine's Day gift in many countries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

Mother of Sun

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:37:34 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @20mm

View large, on black

Sunflower
What is usually called the flower is actually a head (formally composite flower) of numerous florets (small flowers) crowded together. The outer florets are the sterile ray florets and can be yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets, which mature into seeds

The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiral pattern. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other. This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds within the flower head.

Sunflowers in the bud stage exhibit heliotropism. At sunrise, the faces of most sunflowers are turned towards the east. Over the course of the day they follow the sun from east to west, while at night they return to an eastward orientation. This motion is performed by motor cells in the pulvinus, a flexible segment of the stem just below the bud. As the bud stage ends, the stem stiffens and the blooming stage is reached.

Sunflowers in their blooming stage lose their heliotropic capacity. The stem becomes "frozen", typically in an eastward orientation. The stem and leaves lose their green color.

The wild sunflower typically does not turn toward the sun; its flowering heads may face many directions when mature. However, the leaves typically exhibit some heliotropism.

Sunflowers most commonly grow to heights between 1.5 and 3.5 m (8–12 ft). Scientific literature reports from 1567, that a 12-m (40 ft), traditional, single-head, sunflower plant was grown in Padua. The same seed lot grew almost 8 m (26 ft) at other times and places (e.g. Madrid). Much more recent feats (past score years) of over 8 m have been achieved in both Netherlands and Ontario, Canada.

The sunflower is the state flower of the US state of Kansas, and one of the city flowers of Kitakyūshū, Japan.
The sunflower is often used as a symbol of green ideology, much as the red rose is a symbol of socialism or social democracy.
The sunflower is also the symbol of the Vegan Society. During the late 19th century, the flower was used as the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement.
Subject of Van Gogh's most famous still life, Sunflowers (series of paintings)
The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower

Seduction

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:59:00 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm

Rose
A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin, rosa, which was borrowed from Oscan, from Greek ρόδιόν rhodion (Aeolic υρόδιόν wrodion), from Old Persian wurdi "flower" (cf. Avest. warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).

Classification of modern roses can be quite confusing because many modern roses have old garden roses in their ancestry and their form varies so much. The classifications tend to be by growth and flowering characteristics, such as "large-flowered shrub", "recurrent, large-flowered shrub", "cluster-flowered", "rambler recurrent", or "ground-cover non-recurrent".
The favourite rose for much of the history of modern roses, hybrid teas were initially created by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses in the late 1800s. 'La France,' created in 1867, is universally acknowledged as the first indication of a new class of roses. Hybrid teas exhibit traits midway between both parents: hardier than the teas but less hardy than the hybrid perpetuals, and more ever-blooming than the hybrid perpetuals but less so than the teas.
The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favoured in small gardens in formal situations. Examples: 'Peace' (yellow), 'Mister Lincoln (red), 'Double Delight' (bi-colour cream and red).

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. In Bulgaria, Iran and Germany, damask roses (Rosa damascena 'Trigintipetala') are used. In the French rose oil industry Rosa centifolia is used. The oil is transparent pale yellow or yellow-grey in colour. 'Rose Absolute' is solvent-extracted with hexane and produces a darker oil, dark yellow to orange in colour. The weight of oil extracted is about one three-thousandth to one six-thousandth of the weight of the flowers; for example, about two thousand flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

Roses are often portrayed by artists. The Luxembourg born Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté produced some of the most detailed paintings of roses.
Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The Rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist.
Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works.

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. 'Rose' means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish). The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively), of Alberta (the wild rose) in Canada, and of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan. It is the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.
A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy: it is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian and other European labour, socialist or social democratic parties, mostly adopted in the period after World War II.

A bouquet of red roses is often used to show love. It is used as a Valentine's Day gift in many countries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

Under the spell

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:13:09 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Searching the light

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:55:16 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm
Texture by Borealnz. Thank you!
Texture

Tulip
A tulip is a bulbous plant in the genus Tulipa, comprising 109 species with showy flowers, in the family Liliaceae. The species native range includes southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran in the west to northeast of China. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, used as pot plants or as fresh cut flowers.
The species include short low-growing plants to tall upright plants, growing from 10 to 70 centimeters (4–27 in) tall. They can even grow in the cold and snowy winter. Plants typically have 2 to 6 leaves, with some species having up to 12 leaves. The cauline foliage is strap-shaped, waxy-coated, usually light to medium green and alternately arranged. The blades are somewhat fleshy and linear to oblong in shape. The large flowers are produced on scapes or subscapose stems normally lacking bracts. The stems have no leaves to a few leaves, with large species having some leaves and smaller species have none. Typically species have one flower per stem but a few species have up to four flowers. The colourful and attractive cup shaped flowers typically have three petals and three sepals, which are most often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. The six petaloid tepals are often marked near the bases with darker markings. The flowers have six basifixed, distinct stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals and the stigmas are districtly 3-lobed. The ovaries are superior with three chambers. The 3 angled fruits are leathery textured capsules, ellipsoid to subglobose in shape, containing numerous flat disc-shaped seeds in two rows per locule. The flat, light to dark brown seeds are arranged in two rows per chamber and have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed coat.
Although tulips are associated with The Netherlands, commercial cultivation of the flower began in the Ottoman Empire. The tulip, or lale (from Persian لاله, lâleh) as it is also called in Iran and Turkey, is a flower indigenous to a vast area encompassing parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The word tulip, which earlier appeared in English in forms such as tulipa or tulipant, entered the language by way of French tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulīpa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend ("muslin" or "gauze"), and is ultimately derived from the Persian language dulband ("turban").
The Black Tulip is the title of a historical romance by Alexandre Dumas, père (1850), in which the city of Haarlem has a reward for the first grower who can produce a truly black tulip.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip

Circle of light

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:33:10 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm
Textures by mudkat and borealnz. Thank you!
Texture 1
Texture 2

Burning Love

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:40:39 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @50mm

Rose
A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin, rosa, which was borrowed from Oscan, from Greek ρόδιόν rhodion (Aeolic υρόδιόν wrodion), from Old Persian wurdi "flower" (cf. Avest. warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).

Classification of modern roses can be quite confusing because many modern roses have old garden roses in their ancestry and their form varies so much. The classifications tend to be by growth and flowering characteristics, such as "large-flowered shrub", "recurrent, large-flowered shrub", "cluster-flowered", "rambler recurrent", or "ground-cover non-recurrent".
The favourite rose for much of the history of modern roses, hybrid teas were initially created by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses in the late 1800s. 'La France,' created in 1867, is universally acknowledged as the first indication of a new class of roses. Hybrid teas exhibit traits midway between both parents: hardier than the teas but less hardy than the hybrid perpetuals, and more ever-blooming than the hybrid perpetuals but less so than the teas.
The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favoured in small gardens in formal situations. Examples: 'Peace' (yellow), 'Mister Lincoln (red), 'Double Delight' (bi-colour cream and red).

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. In Bulgaria, Iran and Germany, damask roses (Rosa damascena 'Trigintipetala') are used. In the French rose oil industry Rosa centifolia is used. The oil is transparent pale yellow or yellow-grey in colour. 'Rose Absolute' is solvent-extracted with hexane and produces a darker oil, dark yellow to orange in colour. The weight of oil extracted is about one three-thousandth to one six-thousandth of the weight of the flowers; for example, about two thousand flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

Roses are often portrayed by artists. The Luxembourg born Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté produced some of the most detailed paintings of roses.
Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The Rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist.
Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works.

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. 'Rose' means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish). The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively), of Alberta (the wild rose) in Canada, and of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan. It is the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.
A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy: it is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian and other European labour, socialist or social democratic parties, mostly adopted in the period after World War II.

A bouquet of red roses is often used to show love. It is used as a Valentine's Day gift in many countries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

The romantic red

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:03:39 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm

Red rose

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:37:06 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Fireworks

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:26:50 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @30mm

Sisterhood petals

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:57:26 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm
Textures by Playingwithbrushes and ground*floor . Thank you!
Texture 1
Texture 2

I'm a star!

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:32:33 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @85mm

Beauty. In orange.

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:35:36 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Pure thoughts

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:04:32 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Rebel

nobody@flickr.com (Kugarth) — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:47:35 -0700

Kugarth posted a photo:

Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @70mm