Exercise in Showing Off a Single Bloom Without a Busy Background:

This exercise not only showed the flower better without the busy background but also a wonderful gift. The flower seedling is our (15NR318 PNB x Schlenker’s Spirit). The pollen parent Schlenker’s Spirit is one of our 2016 introductions.

Side Note: If the plant would have been larger (older), there would have been green leaves in the background and that would have given a green background. However, because it was a small first-year seedling of 18 months, the plant and foliage were small, and the black cloth and concrete block showed in the picture too, so it wasn't very easy to focus on the flower.

To my rescue came Photoshop, which I am learning. With my teacher Tim Fehr’s help, we cut the flower out and pasted it on a black background. As I was cleaning up the edges with the eraser tool, “Oh My”, I discovered this wonderful gift from the real Creator of all beauty. There was a heart on the ruffling between the teeth and the flower petal. If you look closely, you can see it in all of the four pictures. It's just a tiny speck until you enlarge the picture. I take all my pictures with my Sony Digital Camera at the highest number 20m L:20M quality Fine on this camera.

I don’t know if it will appear on any flower on the plant in the future, but consider it my gift for taking the time to ‘really look at this creation’. I cut off the scape with the flower and took it inside to put in water, hoping that the other flowers on the scape would open in the days ahead, and I could get pollen. I do not set pods on 18-month seedlings. I did get pollen to use.....happy dance!

I always say look at your flowers closely. This was really close, but what a treat!