dogwood | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Spring Morning at Greenspring Gardens

by hankinslawrenceimages | May 16, 2016 | Cornaceae Family, Flowers, Iridaceae Family, Papaveraceae Family, Violaceae Family

In mid-April, I spent a wonderful morning photographing at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. Like most of the gardens, Green Spring has flowers and plants to photograph most of the year. In the spring – Green Spring really shines. Mid-April through Mid-May is my favorite time of year to visit this lovely garden. Here’s what I found to photograph in mid-April.

Bleeding Hearts – Dicentra Speactibilis

Bleeding Hearts - dicentra spectabilis © 2016 Patty Hankins

Pink Dogwood – Cornus florida

Purple Pansies

And the first bearded irises I’ve seen (and photographed) this year 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the beauty I found at Green Spring Gardens earlier this year.

New Photo: Dogwood at the Ogle Cabin

by hankinslawrenceimages | Feb 26, 2015 | Cornaceae Family, Flowers, New Photos, Tennessee

Dogwood at the Ogle Cabin © 2014 Patty Hankins

I’ve recently added a new photo – Dogwood at the Ogle Cabin – to my BeautifulFlowerPictures.com website.

I took this photo last April when I was visiting my favorite national park – the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I’ve always loved seeing the blooming dogwoods surrounding the old cabins in the park so capturing a photo of them was on my “want to photograph” list last year. One evening I drove over the Ogle Cabin along the Motor Nature Trail planning to photographing the cabin from the from with the blooming dogwood to the right of the cabin. But when I got there – I saw a totally different composition. When I saw the golden late afternoon light shining on the side of the cabin with shadows from surrounding trees – I knew I wanted to include that in my photo. After photographing from several different angles – this composition was the one that said Spring in the Smokies to me.

I still haven’t managed to capture a photo showing the front of the cabins with a blooming dogwood alongside – but there’s always a chance I’ll find that photo when I’m in the Smokies in April. 🙂

Dogwood at the Ogle Cabin is available as a matted print on my website.

American Dogwood – Cornus Florida

by hankinslawrenceimages | Oct 3, 2014 | 2015 Wildflower Calendar, Cornaceae Family, Flowers, Wildflowers

One of my favorite scenes in the spring is seeing a beautiful white dogwood tree (cornus florida) in full bloom in the woods. There is just something incredible about seeing the crisp white blossoms against the greens and browns of the woods.

I spotted this dogwood tree along the side of the road one morning in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I was on my way up the mountain hoping to catch sunrise from Clingman’s Dome, so I didn’t stop on the way up. Sunrise was a bust that morning – totally overcast at the peak. The only way those of us waiting to photograph sunrise could be sure that the sun was up was by looking at our watches! There was a slight change in the sky color from dark gray to slightly less dark gray – and that was it.

So I headed back down the mountain feeling rather disappointed that I hadn’t managed to photograph sunrise. But then I remembered the dogwood tree I’d spotted on the way up. So I stopped, spent about half an hour photographing the dogwood tree against the woods in the distance. At one point, the sun barely broke through the clouds just brightening up the blossoms – which was when I captured this photo.

It was one of those mornings where I didn’t photograph what I hoped to – but still came away with wonderful memories of a beautiful scene in the Smoky Mountains and this photograph.

American Dogwood is one of the photographs featured in the my 2015 Wildflower Calendar. It is also available as a gallery wrapped canvas and as a matted photograph.

A Few More Dogwoods

by hankinslawrenceimages | May 7, 2012 | Cornaceae Family, Flowers

In addition to the wonderful Mexican Flowering Dogwoods, I photographed several other varieties of dogwoods when I visited the U.S. National Arboretum. Their dogwood collection is amazing.

The Cherokee Brave Dogwoods have beautiful soft pink flowers.

Wouldn’t this bench under the dogwoods be a wonderful place to enjoy the beauty of spring?

The Barton Dogwoods are a traditional white dogwood.

The Cherokee Sunset Dogwoods have deep pink blossoms.

And the Hess Select Red Dogwoods are another tree with soft pink blossoms.

Mexican Flowering Dogwoods

by hankinslawrenceimages | Apr 18, 2012 | Cornaceae Family, Flowers

On a recent visit to the National Arboretum in Washington DC, I saw and photographed a dogwood that was very different from all the others dogwoods in the Dogwood Garden. The petals on the flowers curved upward to form what looked like little loops! It was clearly a dogwood tree – just not one I’d seen before.

With a little research, I was able to identify it as a Mexican Flowering Dogwood – cornus florida urbiniana. Native to Eastern Mexico, these fascinating dogwoods are hardy to Zone 6-7. They are not commonly found in the United States, although they are becoming more common.

More information about this unusual dogwood, including information about the ones in the National Arboretum, can be found on the U.S. National Arboretum’s website.

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