Topic: Technical Exercises
The Common, Close-Up
Agapanthus - all over Southern California, perhaps the most common decorative garden plant out here. The trick is photographing them in an uncommon way.
Botanical Basics - Agapanthus is a genus of between six and ten species of herbaceous perennial plants native to South Africa. They are treated either in the family Alliaceae, or separated into their own monogeneric family Agapanthaceae (e.g. Indices Nominum Supragenericorum Plantarum Vascularium). Members of the genus have funnel-shaped flowers, which show diverse bluish colors. They occur in many-flowered cymes on long, erect stems, which can grow up 1 m long. The basal leaves are curved, lanceolate, and are up to 60 cm long. Several hundred cultivars and hybrids are cultivated as garden and landscape plants. Several cultivars are known, such as 'Albus' (with white flowers), 'Sapphire' (dark blue flowers), 'Aureus' (leaves striped with yellow), and 'Variegatus' (leaves almost entirely white with a few green bands). There are also double-flowered and larger and smaller flowered cultivars.
These were blooming on North Laurel Avenue in Hollywood, Thursday, May 25, 2006, late afternoon.
