It has been a wonderful year for wildflowers.

With the Naturescapes Contest deadline less than two weeks away, I’ve got to finish reviewing all my photos and decide which ones to submit. I usually don’t submit that many wildflowers, but this year may be different.

I found a couple more opportunities to photograph wildflowers recently. This one of Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa), in various stages of opening, is from a hike last weekend. It was a cloudy morning so the light was perfect.

This plant is a native and is fairly common. It spreads to cover large fields. The flowers have four petals, pink in this case, but they also come in a darker pink and in white. The petals have quite pronounced red or dark pink veining. The common name refers to the fact that the flowers open in the evening and close in the morning. These were still open well into the morning and I think it was because of the cloudy, dark sky.

You can see some flowers to the left and right which are not open. My guess is they have closed for the day.

The plants can grow to about 1 1/2 foot tall, but these weren’t that high. They were hugging the ground and were only about 8 inches tall.

Evening Primrose

The nice thing about photographing wildflowers is you don’t have to go far.

Here is a trio of Rain Lilies (Cooperia drummondii) in my backyard. You can see more in the background. These are perennial and grow from a bulb. They tend to pop up after a rain, hence the common name. They have six petals which are mostly white but also have beautiful and subtle pink veining.

The blooms sit atop a single, leafless stem, which is about a foot tall. The flowers open in the evening and last for a few days.

Rain Lilies