Small autumn asters-purple and white-Macro Flowers Saturday 74

Another weekend and a new round of Macro Flowers Saturday.

Many thanks for sharing your beautiful flowers from around the world with us at Macro Flowers Saturday.

I can't wait to see your autumn flower and the spring flowers as well, from the other half of the world.

These little purple asters are in full flower now by us. The blooms are tiny but they come in very showy clusters, in purple, lavender and also in white. They are hardy plants and bloom till snowfall.

This small purple bushy aster is called the wood's purple-Aster dumosus.

The lavender one is the New England Aster - Aster novae-angliae, though I could be wrong with the names. They all look the same to me except the color.

The white one is the Aster vimineus. Though I don't see any difference between these flowers except the color, they are all different species.

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Yellow wildflowers-Macro Flowers Saturday 73

Welcome everyone to Macro Flowers Saturday 73!

I have just some modest yellow wildflowers for today. They grow in large colonies and are very similar to dandelion flowers.
Narrowleaf Hawksbeard-Crepis tectorum by its name, is an invasive species of weed, spreading very fast on wastelands and roadsides but bees like them very much .

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Conkers-horse chestnut seeds are ripe!

Welcome to Macro Flowers Saturday round 72!

Conkers are done and ready for the game.
Do you know what conkers are?

Conkers is a traditional children's game played using the seeds of horse-chestnut trees. The name "conker" is also applied to the Horse chestnut-Aesculus hippocastanum tree seed and to the tree itself, in some parts of the world.

Horse chestnut-Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous tree, also known as Conker tree. This beautiful ornamental with white blossoms in May, grows to 36 m tall, with a domed crown of stout branches.
Aesculus hippocastanum is native to a small area of the Balkans in southeast Europe, but widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. The North American species in the same family are the buckeyes.

The fruit matures to a 2–6 cm diameter, globose, spiky capsule, that splits into three sections, releasing 1-3 glossy, dark-brown seeds. With these seeds children play the conker game, at least they did before the computer era.

The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string. They take turns striking each other's conker until one breaks.

Our red flowering variety, another members of the genus that we often call the Red horse chestnut (Aesculus × carnea) is a hybrid between Aesculus hippocastanum and the Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia), or Firecracker Plant.

Have a great weekend!

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Red Amaranth-Amaranthus cruentus Velvet Curtains

Red Amaranth-Amaranthus cruentus is a common flowering plant species.
The one in the picture is the Amaranthus Velvet Curtains, much appreciated for its intense burgundy colored flowers and foliage.

This annual plant can grow up to 1-2 m (6 ft) in height, and blooms in summer to fall.

Its large inflorescence consists of numerous agglomerated racemes and spikes and a terminal one up to 45 cm long. The plant has many side shoot growing upright on thin branches.
Besides being a focal point in any garden, Amaranthus cruentus is also used as cut flower, or can be dried.

Amaranth is a very high consumer of minerals, needing rich soil, full sun and much watering.

Amaranthus cruentus usually has green leaves and is an important leaf vegetable in many countries of the world, with an excellent nutritional value.

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I got romantic - red velvet rose

Hi everyone and welcome to another round of Macro Flowers Saturday!

"Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song."

Oscar Wilde - The Nightingale and the Rose

I took so many rose photos this last week that I got in a romantic mood while downloading them from my camera and processing a few of them. Anyway, I don't remember how but I've find myself reading Oscar Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose". And I wept and wept because of the nightingale's useless sacrifice. It's a shame I know, romantics is not trendy these days but you have my word, it felt so good.

Here is a red rose bud picture. It is SOOC, as most of my photos, except cropping.

I feel something is wrong with this picture but I have no idea what to change on it.
Please leave me some feedback on this, if you are an experienced photographer or just a beginner.

Update:
Thank you all for the nice feedback and good advices, I'll try a few.
The white and colorful patches come from the blurred out roses in the background. I was too lazy to process them, that's why I mentioned that they are sooc.
As I mentioned in my other post, there were so many roses in this garden that I was not able to isolate individual ones, so I just cropped the picture.
Thanks again!

Have a great weekend!

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Newcomers, please read the rules at MFS info page!

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Pale orange rose closeup photo

Beautiful weekend to you all and welcome to Macro Flowers Saturday!

It's autumn already. It's berry time, mushroom time and harvesting time.
I want to remember you that you can post many other subjects, not just flower. There are many beautiful photo subjects at this time of the year.
Autumn leaves and foliage offer a great variety of choices as well. Please review all possible themes you can post at the info page, in case you've forgotten.

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