Found at last !

When I came back from the Arnhem Pilgrimage last autumn I brought with me several seeds from plants in the park of the Golden Tulip Hotel in Dorwerth.

Just before I went on holiday I had a problem with the fridge that meant cutting the electric off. One of the first jobs I needed to do when I came home, was to get hold of another fridge.

I decided to use the veg box from the old one and filled it with compost to plant the seeds. In the spring I was a little surprised to see some plants growing but thought I would leave them just to find out what was coming up. One of the plants looked very much as if it would turn out to be a Willowherb or one of the Geranium family. I searched in vain in a couple of my books and then found it in my trusty Octopus. However I checked on Google because the Octopus had been in error previously with the Latin names of plants. 

Sure enough it was Hoary Willowherb, Epilobium Parviflorum,
That's what I thought; however it turned out to be 
 Hoary Willowherb, Epilobium tetragonum,
Growing quite happily as I kept it watered well.

Another plant was Pearl Wort that I have posted earlier, much simpler to find as it was right in front of me on the first page of the Octopus book. The third one has yet to throw a flower.

 Life size twin blossoms.

 Twice lifesize

 3 times lifesize

3 times life showing the Calyx

In spite of the angled view the ring flash has thrown no heavy shadow, yet still shows an almost three dimensional view. Simply because the light is outside of the lens viewpoint. The power of the flash and the option of cutting it down to as low as 1/8th strength for extreme close-ups allows pictures to be taken with an f32 stop giving maximum depth of field.

The more pix I take of small flowers like this the more I am pleased that I sprung myself to the control unit for the Minolta1200 AF flash.

Even though it cost me an "Arm and biggest part of a Leg" I have seen new ones since advertised at over twice the price I paid for mine and mine included the twin flash fittings as well.
Although I haven't used the twins because the ring flash has given me a balanced light with no shadows. I believe that to be essential when taking flower pix at 2 or 3 times life-size.

Seeds are distributed in the typical Willowherb-Cranesbill style. As the seed pod ripens it turns darker and then dries and splits permitting the pappus  to drift in the wind carrying individual seeds