Showy Lady's-slippers

My field guide for wild orchids of the Northeastern United States indicates Cypripedium reginae is occasional in New York.  They seem more rare than occasional.  Seeing them is always exciting.  Here's why. In groups they are spectacular.

Individual plants often host interesting little critters.  This little spider refused to come around to the shady side of the leaf; likely the dew had evaporated from his sunny side.

When I look closely at the blooms, I discover even more of interest. Flying insects best be wary when they enter the flower.

Cypripedium reginae doesn't live in a  mono-culture, so there are interesting complementary plants like this Water Avens, Geum rivale, whose flower is now growing into a spiky seed head. 

It just seems to me that when I am photographing these orchids, I see faces such as in this portrait of two ladies with friends beyond. 

I see the resemblance to slippers, but I still see faces first.  It affects how I approach the composition.

Paul

Blooming Highlights

The rush of migrating birds has ended, and it's time to catch up with the highlights of the spring wildflower blooms. I find myself pulled between the elusive birds and ephemeral blooms.  Here is the best of the spring blooms.

At the entrance to Cornell Plantation's Mundy Wildflower Garden, I found Celandine Poppies and Virginia Bluebells in wonderful colors.  I had to get very low on the ground to get this view.

Nearby was one of my favorites each year, May Apple. Another chance to lie on the ground.

The Trillium grandiflorum were a bit higher and less difficult to photograph.  They are always grand.

An easily overlooked wildflower is the Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum).  Oddly, the garden geraniums we plant in our gardens are not members of the Geranium genum.   The Wild Geraniums are so prolific that the deer must not be eating them.  Hope it stays that way!

Now, all of these are fairly common, and while beautiful, they do not excite the passions like a wild orchid. These Pink Lady's Slippers were in a cluster of 185 plants that I visited for the first time this spring.

That is an extraordinary cluster of blooms.  I also like to portray the charming arrangements that the blooms sometime present.  This one is, for me, a portrait, .....perhaps of two sisters?

 

So, those are my highlights of spring.  In only a week or maybe two, the later blooming orchids will appear, and I'll get excited once again.  The one difference is that I will have to endure the mosquitoes that frequent the bogs and fens in June.

You can understand how I am torn between choosing blooms or birds on any given day.

Kind regards,

Paul