BCSS - Forum

We are at the start of the calendar year, but in the middle of the "sleep" for many of our plants. Yet there are signs of growth .... aspirations ... or even preparations we are making for the new growing season.
I'd love to see pictures of plants or objects or techniques we have for our hopes for 2022.
I'm judging photos and your photographic skills not the plants or objects. I want to see a story in the picture of how you are planning for our hobby for the new season. The greenhouse clean. The seed trays. The potting on. New growth. Etc.
Good luck
Lots of pictures please.

New beginnings for this photograph are the new stems now growing following a rather drastic pruning.

This plant and its bonsai pot would have been entered in last May's competition as originally announced. Unfortunately the plant had a bad mealy bug infestation as did the other 4 plants nearby in similar pots. I did try and eradicate the mealies by regular application of SB plant invigorator but they always came back. I decided more drastic action was required so chopped the tops off all the stems and gave the plant a spray (and the soil a bit of a drench) with Bug Clear Ultra. The mealies are still there albeit in smaller numbers as I found out while checking focus by zooming in to 100% in Lightroom.

Jim
Thanks .... I was beginning to worry that no pictures would arrive.

el48tel wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:58 pm Thanks .... I was beginning to worry that no pictures would arrive.

I had to think a bit to find some suitable subjects, the obvious one was some seedlings. Not quite new beginnings as they were planted a while ago As they are in a plastic bag no easy way to get a clear photograph of the seedlings and I want to keep the bag sealed for now so best I can do is not really suitable for photo competition. One plant that has had a new beginning this week is this Pachyphytum oviferum which had been in the same 2 inch pot for a few years. It is now in a 4 inch square "bonsai" pot that I found on Amazon recently

Jim .... and others .... keep 'em coming.

Jim_Mercer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:01 pm
As they are in a plastic bag no easy way to get a clear photograph of the seedlings and I want to keep the bag sealed for now so best I can do is not really suitable for photo competition.web-2833.jpg

Avant-garde filter effects, very advanced photographic techniques in that one.

Pattock wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:23 pm

Jim_Mercer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:01 pm
As they are in a plastic bag no easy way to get a clear photograph of the seedlings and I want to keep the bag sealed for now so best I can do is not really suitable for photo competition.web-2833.jpg

Avant-garde filter effects, very advanced photographic techniques in that one.

I do hope we might see some of the advanced filters of which you speak in some of your own examples. I do hope so. I do love to see well applied technique to show to my students.

el48tel wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 8:07 pm

Pattock wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:23 pm

Jim_Mercer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:01 pm
As they are in a plastic bag no easy way to get a clear photograph of the seedlings and I want to keep the bag sealed for now so best I can do is not really suitable for photo competition.web-2833.jpg

Avant-garde filter effects, very advanced photographic techniques in that one.

I do hope we might see some of the advanced filters of which you speak in some of your own examples. I do hope so. I do love to see well applied technique to show to my students.

I am pretty sure I have some different colour plastic bags somewhere. I doubt I would be able to surpass Jim's subtle artistic expression with that second photo, though. As though the miniature biosphere has its own misty clouds crossing its plastic sky. Microcosm reflecting macrocosm. The cover constraining discovery. The erratic, random, mobile forms of the ceramic substrate contained within the ordered, intentional and static curve of a fashioned white plant pot. Made of the same material or a new material mimicking the familiar, classic form of a clay pot? The name label encouraging the seedlings to emulate its contour as they unknowingly embody the holistic truth of that label's mere symbolism of a written Name.

It may not be conventionally pretty but does that stop it being Art?

One component of my ambitious project may be arriving in the post tomorrow.

Nearly everything is pretty much fast asleep still, in my greenhouse. A couple of Crassulas are flowering, and a solitary unrooted Aylostera cutting (JD234, from Martin Lowry) is putting out a couple of buds.

Paul
Thanks.
They are in keeping with the topic.