Cotton Rose Ends Our Summer Blooms

Today is Monday, so I went out and shot some Macro Monday blooms for this weekly series post. All of the images below were taken this morning (October 6th) using a macro setup, my Nikon D850 and the 105mm macro lens. Only the second shot below is actually a true macro image though. The blooms are always so beautiful though and they deserve some space on the internet. On this particular day I didn't have time to haul out my tripod setup so everything was handheld making super closeup shots pretty difficult.

The Hibiscus Rose

These blooms are from one of those plants that has many names depending on where you are from. Down here in the south we call it a Confederate Rose, some in the northeast call it a Rose of Sharon, others still call it a Cotton Rose (my chosen name for today), but it's actually a Hibiscus (Hibiscus mutabilis).

The Cotton Rose is always the last blooming plant in our garden each year. It blooms reliably around mid-October to close out the summer heat. The blooms were a bit of a surprise this year because we have been in a drought. We weren't sure it got enough water to create any blooms this year, but we were pleasantly surprised. We got this particular plant as a cutting from a friend when it was a knee high stick. Now somehow it towers over everything else and must be over 25 feet tall even though we cut it back to the ground every winter (see when we planted it a few years ago at The Confederate Rose Marks the End of Summer).

It is always amazing how unique every single flower is, and exactly the time when it blooms. If you look really close at the details on any flower you can see unique striations and color variations. The Cotton Rose has a yellow and white center core and creates deep dark pink buds, but when it opens it turns into a very subtle soft pink bloom. So beautiful.

Cotton Rose Video

While I was out there I grabbed some video of the blooms with the birds in the background. I like the combination of photos and videos in one place, so if that's your jam here you go.

Cotton Rose Blooms

If you happen to see my previous post on the Surprise Late-Blooming Light Purple Iris I mentioned we had a white Iris that looked like it was going to bloom, and it did! But I didn't get those images edited before the Cotton Rose bloomed, and that edit is a lot more complicated. So those will be out of order from nature when I post the white Iris blooms later this month, but the Cotton Rose closes out our summer blooming season. After this the cooler weather should come, eventually.

Featured Image