Longwood Gardens Water Lilies - September 2013

The courtyard of pools that hold the water lilies at Longwood Gardens is one of my favorite places in the gardens. The lilies were full of blooms and bees. I always like to capture the flowers with the most insect activity. The magnification often gives the flowers an unworldly look. Their colors are so vibrant and that is just what our human eyes can see; the insects probably pick up on even more. There are also some lotus pictures mixed in the slide show below. The pink or white flowers with petals that look crumpled are the Victoria Regia water lily; a book from 1854 available on the Internet Archive includes lithographs by William Sharp of this water lily.

I posted several times before about the water lilies at Longwood: November 2011 and August 2012.