{Jasminum Sambac - Jasmine Grand Duke of Tuscany}

Last year we bought a new Jasminum Sambac - Jasmine Grand Duke of Tuscany from Logee's  and this year it did yield its first fragrant blossoms.

August 9, this beauty opened with yet another bud underneath.

Look what heavy rain did in just one day... 

Waiting 3 more days did yield another double blooming, highly fragrant beauty.

They are so lovely!

Jasmine 'Grand Duke of Tuscany' - Jasminum Sambac ← click it

We hope it will look bigger next year!

Related links:

{Our Jasminum Sambac 'Maid of Orleans' - "Arabian Tea Jasmine"} | previous post by me

{Gladiolus in Cylinder Vase with Beach Pebbles}

Well, if your own Gladiolus Flowers don't perform; what do you do?

Getting a nice nosegay of beautiful Gladiolus flowers at Whole Foods Market...

Okay, that's been taken care of. 

Polished Beach Pebbles from The Home Depot inside the Cylinder Vase from Walmart.

Trying to photograph them proved another problem because it was dark and rainy around August 22.

But I had to do it since the flowers already showed signs of wilting away...

When I had bought the cylinder vase I had in mind that our own Gladiolus, seen here, would perform the same way for 2014...

For some reason though, they seemed very stressed or depressed... Almost flat on the ground and none of them was budding!

When Dutch blogger friend Willy posted this: Gladiolenfestijn in laag Soeren, it made me homesick... Just click the link and see a sea of flowers!

In my Dutch Nouveau magazine of September 2003, I found this example of how they could be presented...

My Beach Pebbles were not as pretty and I never had that kind of perfect light to make such a photo inside.

So I took my Cylinder Vase with the beautiful Gladiolus out on the balcony into limited daylight due to rainy days...

How come I could not see through the water as clear as on the photo in the magazine?

More and more I do admire those stylists and professional photographers!  Don't you?!

Maybe gray polished beach pebbles would have worked better...?

That glass cylinder vase is reflecting too...

Okay than, let's photograph them inside the vase, not through the glass...

My subject was so beautiful and I'm glad I captured them!

Do you love Gladiolus?

{Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum - in August and September}

Summer does last a lot longer here in the 'Deep South' as they call our region...

That sure has been true for our Fragrant Flowers, the Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum that bloomed on August 9, and again on September 24.

This is on August 9th...

Sure we have had lots of rain this summer as is evident here in this photo.

In only 2 days these buds did open up fully. This was on August 7.

The foliage is rather wavy...

Those raindrops on the almost bursting flower buds look very special.

One stem holds lots of flowers!

Husband Pieter took this photo of a second stem with flowers on September 24!

That are again several flowers, a total of six, on one stem!

Leaves do start falling down and accumulate on the patio in front of our greenhouse.

A very good photo showing the wavy leaves!

A final photo where Pieter is holding a single, large flower in his hands.

Wish I could also transmit its fragrance...