Annual Visit to the Annual Gardens
Every year in late August we go to the CSU Annual Trial Gardens in Fort Collins. This garden has a beautiful display of flowers that they do water trials on to see which flowers do best with what amount of water. As such, the public gets to enjoy a beautiful garden.
Since we don't live in Fort Collins anymore, this was an outing that we planned with a few other Fort Collins errands. After a few quick stops, we went to Purpose Brewing to have a few beers before going to the gardens to catch the last hour of sunlight. It was overcast the entire time we were there, which made for better lighting but also worse lighting at the same time. Harsh lighting is bad for photographing, but softer golden-hour lighting is ideal. But with the clouds, we just got overcast lighting which was okay.
We made it to a new location at the gardens this year. The perennial gardens are on the north side of the UCA building that we didn't know existed. I knew there were more flowers over there but didn't know what they were about. There were some cool trellises and some taller plants that were a nice change of pace from what is in the normal garden space.
Gelato Passion
I love the name of this color of this daisy; The Gelato Passion.
Castor Oil Bean
I haven't seen this plant at the CSU Trial Gardens before this year. It's overall size (it was huge) and it's unique pokey seed pods caught my attention.
Red Veins
The Castor Oil Bean plant had giant dark green leaves with red veins.
About to Open
To my surprise, there were still flowers yet to fully bloom. Usually in years past, we've been too late to get to the gardens. But this Gerbera Daisy still hasn't peaked yet.
At the Gardens
Katie brought her camera too and we split apart taking photos of different stuff. Occasionally we would bump back into each other.
Dark Stemed Dahlias
These Dahlia's always catch my eye because of the dark stems.
Bicolor Dahlia
The Dahlia's are always fun to photograph because of their complexity and symmetry.
Red Celosia
This flower looks so soft.
Landing
We didn't find many bees (or any other bugs) this year at the gardens. This is a Salvia flower.
Hyacinth Bean vines
I hadn't seen this flower at the gardens before this year. It was taller than myself which made shooting into the sky a nice contrast with the transparent petals.
Shooting Expression
I caught Katie making a great face while taking a photo of something.
Through the Mulla Mulla
I caught Katie taking photos of sunflowers through some pink mulla mulla.
Pink Mulla Mulla
Back to the Daises
We ended back up at the Daises towards the end of the photo shoot.
Background Bokeh
The lighting towards the end of the photo shoot started getting nice for some bokeh.
At the Perennial Gardens
On the North Side of the UCA building there is a section of Perennial plants that we've never gone to. This area has lots of benches and would be a great place for a picnic.
Purple Globe
We found some Purple Globe Thistle which were fun to photograph.
Under the Arch
The Perennial Gardens section at the UCA had several vine-covered arches.
