You know, I’m living in the northern hemisphere. And you also know, it’s currently winter here and it will last about 6-8 weeks until the first snowdrops or crocuses will pop up. So, why do I post an image with a blooming plant?
It’s a Christmas rose, also known as snow rose. It’s called that name, because its blooming time is around Christmas. This plant stands in our front garden and is blooming every year. A few years ago, my wife planted two small Christmas roses, side by side in our front garden. Although, both looked the same, one of them seemed to be weaker than the other and developed poorly over time. Unfortunately, it vanished some time ago. The other one, instead, developed fantastic. Each year it has more blossoms than in the year before. It’s always a pleasure to see the fresh blossoms either between the other, seemingly death, plants or among snow (when we have some).
I took the image on December 30th at noon. That’s usually a bad time for taking photographs because of the bad quality of light at (around) noon. But, in winter, when the sun is low above the horizon, she gives a beautiful, warm and soft light even around noon. Days are short now. Winter solstice or midwinter was last week. Despite the days become longer now agin, they are still short. Sunrise is late and sunset early. Thus, fresh green or fresh blossom are very welcomed.
This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.
I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.
Take care!
Beautiful flowers, have never heard of a Christmas Rose. What a nice thing to enjoy on a cold beak winter day.
The Christmas rose is botanically called Helleborus niger (black hellebore in english), “black” after the color of it’s rhizome. It’s native to the Alps: mainly in Austria, Bavaria, Slovenia. The whole family is very poisonous (all parts) and thus dangerous i.e. for cows grazing in the meadows.
Despite that, it’s know to be used for creating medicine at least since the ancient roman empire. It’s cultivated and brought to the gardens since the 16th century. A medicine book from the 16th century is quoted with “„3 drops make you red, 10 drop make you dead”
Have a look at Wikipedia, to find some more information. Compared to the German Wikipedia, the English one is a bit shorter, but still OK.
Thanks for the info!
You’re welcome, Carolyn
Great image .. love the lighting, so delicate 😃
Thanks, Julie