Spot The Red

Barbie alerted me to an amazing competition in  SA Garden magazine for gardeners called “Spot The Red photo competition”. The 1st prize is a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera and the second prize is a Nikon COOLPIX S3100. To enter the competition, gardeners are required to submit a photograph of a red item in their garden. The “red item” can be anything from a bug, a field of red flowers or a tree with red apples. The blurb goes on to say “It doesn’t matter whether you are a wildlife amateur photographer or a happy snapper, or if you have one red rose in a pot or a mass of red in your backyard – we want to see your photos“.

I don’t have much red in my garden. In fact, hardly any red at all. I have a small area in the back where I have been playing around with adding red which includes two small red Impatiens that look like they are on their way out (was an experimental planting), some Salvia and apart from that, I don’t really grow red flowers. I’m not sure why, except that red would clash with my predominantly pink, white and blue garden. I have the odd red camellia that works well and the red berries on the Nandina are lovely (and don’t clash) so I don’t have much to offer in the way of “red” photos.

Nonetheless I trawled through my archive of photographs from 2011 and these are the best of my red offerings. Photographically none are up to standard to submit for a photo competition, but it was fun looking for the red in my garden and I thought I would share …

[one_half]Red leaves on Nandina pygmaea[/one_half]

[one_half_last]… as seen in the planting scheme[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Red markings on the Rooibeksysie[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Red colour to attract the birds *[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Red Calibrachoa peeping through Lamium[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Bit of red on the fallen Fuchsia[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Red flowers on the Salvia coccinea[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Red hand beaded rose ornament **[/one_half_last]

* The nectar feeder I bought came with a small bottle of red food dye and instructions to add a drop or two the first time you set it up as red attracts the birds. Once the birds know about the feeder you can stop adding the dye. This photo from the archives of when I first set it up.

** The hand beaded rose ornament I bought from a street vendor – local women hand bead these lovely garden ornaments –  I like to support them as this is usually their only form of income.

So there you have it … that’s all the “Red” I have to offer!
What RED do you have in Your garden?

Happy Gardening
xxx