This garden is about 25 feet long by about 15 feet wide at it's widest spot..sort of keyhole shaped...rounded at one end and curving flared out to two points at the other end, each anchored by a shrub. You really can't tell that by the photo.

Any suggestions for photographing a whole garden, especially at night would be appreciated.

Thanks for any info...I'd love to see photos of your gardens.. JoAnn

If you try to get the picture at night it may take special lighting if you don't have a yard light. I am going to install a yard light over mine, this year, so I can enjoy it more. I think it will be a sodium light.

Well, this is only MY opinion, but you did throw the question out there for discussion, right?

David

I think david_oklahoma is good with his advice. Em... come to think of it, the folks at Photo Gallery sure post a lot of awesome photos.
If you wish to; you might post a message over there for a few finer tips or twigging ideas.

My old camera is kind of heavy for me to handle and my hubby bought me a nice digital one not too long ago as an advance mothers day
present. I drooped the thing, it landed hard on a short block wall, the second day I had it go figure! I am out of commission a while lol.

Thank you for the advice on taking photos Dave... I hadn't ever tried early morning photo taking. I may give that a try. Sometimes I am up and look at the garden just before sun up, but I don't ever take out my camera. I will have to try that. I did try backing up on my own, but I have to tell you, the flash doesn't go that far, and natural light requires a more steady hand..so I may just have to stop being lazy and get out the tripod. I do like just walking around aiming and clicking..I am too spoiled, ha ha ha. Thanks for the advice. I am sure the photo gallery is a great place to get informations..sometimes I just think of my white garden here and not on the other forums. Many of the plants are perennials, yet I hardly ever post there.

Thanks again.. I am looking forward to the next 'wave' of white. The spring bulbs are starting to fade, although some of the late tulips are still going strong. Looking forward to seeing your gardens...JoAnn

Moon
Stephanotis
Jasmine sambac
Bougainvillea
Gardenia

I hope some day my garden will be as beautiful as yours.

It is a common complaint among some Stephanotis growers that the plant is lacking scent and does not
flower or as much as expected. So your not alone. ;-]

Would you please give me an idea how high the temp is during summer and how low does it get during the
winter? I assume that the plant is ground growing, how long has it been in the ground? Do you amend the
soil at all? How often do you fertilize, Type used?

I live inland, midway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs os it's semi desert. The hight summer temps are mostly upper 90's with short spells up to 107 or so. During the winter it gets down to the low 30's occasionally, and it seems the last few years that we've had many more nights dipping into the low 30's. The plant has been in the ground for about 10 years now and the soil was ammended when I planted it.

We have really hard clay soil and I ammend the soil with Bumper Crop by Master Nursery. It's full of bat guano, chicken manure, coffee grounds, worm castings, etc. and I use it when I plant anything. I mix it in half and half and it makes the soil "fluffy" and plants just take off. I've tried other soil ammendments in the past but since finding this stuff, I won't use anything else.

I don't fertilize nearly as often as I should and I've always just used whatever I happened to have on hand such as miracle grow or miracid. I've made a resolution to do better and after I posted on the 11th I fertilized with Osmocote slow release and my stephanotis has thanked me already and is covered in blooms already! It has to be because of the Osmocote because I haven't done anything different except that.

I still wish it had a stronger scent though...sigh.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of growing with the rest of us Stephanotis lovers. Really sounds to me like
you have provided a perfect growing environment for Stephanotis.

Congratulations! I could never be happier than hearing that now the plant is blooming.

Concerning fragrance, I believe this is just another over rated type of thing that some people use to describe their pride
and happiness once the plant finally performs to meet with their expectations. For me, if my Stephanotis only sends out
a few clusters of blossoms, I can not detect the fragrance until I get up close and bury my nose into the blooms. That is
only early in the morning or late evening anyway.

There are times that all of my specimens abundantly bloom. Even then, I can only get a sniff of it's famed highly claimed
delightful scent from a distance during morning and evening hours.

I guess I'm just a sucker for fragrance, I love to be outside, especially in the evening, and catch a waft of a lovely fragrance now and then, but there is something to be said for burying your nose in the blooms too. I was at the nursery the other day and buried my nose in the gardenia blooms...ahhh...heavenly.