Beautiful in Mourning

Are you familiar with the Mourning Bride or Scabiosa, otherwise known as the pincushion flower?  I’ve been seeing a lot of these over the last month as summer blooms burst into view.  In fact, I have seen these at every garden I have visited over the past month.  This reminds me to tell you that I have a new Sheryl’s Virtual Garden “channel” on Instagram TV, AKA IGTV where I’ve begun a series titled Come Shoot with Me.  Be sure to follow me on Instagram to be notified when I go live.

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Here is how it works.  I typically visit a botanic garden here in Southern California, following all of the pandemic safety precautions every week or so.  While I am on site, I broadcast a brief live intro to the garden, and in the days that follow, I update that video with additional footage and some of the images I captured.  It is a great way for you to have a virtual garden visit and I hope you will join me.  Recent garden visits have been to Descanso Gardens, The Huntington Library and Gardens, the Los Angeles County Arboretum, Lotusland, and the South Coast Botanic Garden.  The best way to virtually participate in these visits is to follow me on Instagram by clicking here.

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Anyway, back to the subject at hand – the Scabiosa.  As I write this, it is Independence weekend here in the US, and as you’re aware, one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson played a key role in the smash hit Hamilton.  Of course I re-watched the play on Disney+ this weekend, which inspired me to do a bit of research on the gardens at Monticello where I learned that Jefferson planted Scabiosas and they are in bloom there right now.  Jefferson apparently requested these for his garden back in 1804.

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While I captured a number of these beauties during the month, I was especially taken with the beauty of the spent pincushions like the one shown here.

In addition to the full color shots, I used a de-saturated grunge look for this new print titled Muted as shown below.

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I hope you are able to safely plan your own garden adventures, and I wish you good health and happiness despite the pandemic.  You know the three keys – hand washing, masks, and social distancing.

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