Balloon Flowers

Balloon Flowers, also known as Chinese bellflower, (Platycodon grandiflorus). Though I'm partial to the blue, this white one caught my eye. 

This plant is known for its root. In the greater Campanula clan, the root of the Balloon Flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, is very popular in Korea where it is cut into strips, seasoned with chili’s, vinegar, sesame oil and soy  sauce and eaten as a salad. It is also used in soups, stews, dishes with vinegar, and is one of the ingredients in Toso, or sweet Japanese sake. Boiled young leaves are eaten in salads. Its blossoms are sweet in taste, have a bit of texture, and are used in salads, stuffed, candied or dipped in butter. The Balloon Flower is so called because before the petals open are fused at first making the blossom look like a balloon.

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Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

Having A Ball With Bees

Bees congregating on Blue Allium.

Ordinary Onions They're Not 

Onions, shallots and garlic are members of the allium family that belong in the vegetable garden. But there are many ornamental alliums that deserve a hearty welcome in your perennial gardens.

There are more than 700 different types of alliums in the world. It wasn't until the late 1800s that this vast group of plants started to intrigue plant lovers. Russian botanists began collecting some of the spectacular alliums from Central Asia and introducing them to avid horticulturists through the Imperial Botanical Garden in St. Petersburg. Of course, it didn't take long for the consummate plant hunters, the British, to get wind of this "new" family of garden-worthy plants. Their expeditions yielded many more interesting alliums varieties.

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.artfire.com

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

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Silvery Checkerspot Butterfly

The Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) is a species of Nymphalinae that occurs in North America.

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.net

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

Django Takes A Plunge

With a little encouragement from Liz, Django leaps from his inner tube to cool off in the water. He loves to be towed around on this tube, but rarely gets wet. When he does get wet, he has to lick every drop of water off, like a cat cleans itself.
This photo was Photo of the Day on Capture My Vermont, for July 30, 2016.

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.artfire.com

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

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Wildflowers

Me

While picking blueberries in Charlotte, Nancy & I could not resist taking some photos in the field of wildflowers.

Nancy

Me at a sunflower farm

Highlights From The Open Farm & Studio Tour-Discover the Heart of the Islands

Angora Goat. My new friend that I met in Grand Isle during the 10th annual, Farm & Open Studio Tour, Sunday.

This photo was Awarded Photo of the Day on, Capture My Vermont, for July 17, 2016.

Kissing An Ass

Peter & Willy

 Raku

Ceramics

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.artfire.com

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

Whimsical Flowers

Who knew that chicks & hens could have such cool flowers.
This photo has been awarded the Photo of the Day award on Capture My Vermont on July 8th, 2016.

Orchid Primrose flowers. Also known as Poker Primrose, Vials Primrose.

Primula vialii is a very striking plant. It's distinctive flowers have a bottle brush appearance. It's stout stalk is crowded with hundreds of tiny flowers of red calyces and blue-violet corollas. Primula vialii is native to temperate N.Hemisphere, also high altitude tropical mountains in Ethiopia, Indonesia & New Guinea, and in temperate southern South America.

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.artfire.com

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.