"Hidden" At The State Botanical Garden Of Georgia's Hummingbird Trail

"Hidden" At The State Botanical Garden Of Georgia's Hummingbird Trail  

Judy Royal Glenn Photography

  

I never post on a Saturday, but I was excited about the Hummingbird Trail being officially "open" today at The State Botanical Garden of Georgia.  I lead a group of people through the trail this morning and showed them where the hummingbirds hide at the garden.  There are 20 markers showing where the hummingbirds love to fed, perch, and hide.  There are maps located in the Visitor Center for people to pick up and walk the trail at their leisure.  

I photographed this particular hummingbird three weeks ago hiding in the Pineapple Guava shrub which is at marker #3.  The hummingbirds were quite shy today as we had over 20 people attend the ramble.  I did have one visitor tell me after the crowds left, she saw a number of hummingbirds around this area.

  This is most of the crowd that showed up for the Hummingbird Trail.  

"Jason's" Iris

"Jason's" Iris 

Judy Royal Glenn Photography

I have started calling the Japanese iris Jason's iris because of this story.

  

The story of the photograph I took of the two miracles continues to grow.  Read the story here about the miracles so this part of the story will make sense.  The second part of the story can be found here. 

I went to a Christian writer's conference a few weeks ago, and I was telling a faculty member about the miracles I photographed.  She asked me if I had looked up the meaning of the Japanese iris, and I told her no. 

The Japanese iris means "rainbow."  The meaning of the rainbow is indicative of God's promises.  
After reading the story, what does the meaning of the flower have to do to with the story to you?  I can not put it into words, but started getting teary eyed as I found out the meaning. 

 Recently, I quit taking photographs in the iris garden because there were thousands of plants blooming, and there is no way I would be able to photograph a hummingbird.  

On May 27th, when I came back to the garden, only the Japanese iris and a few others were blooming, so I knew I had a much better shot of photographing a hummingbird at the Japanese iris.  I set up my tripod about six feet away from the prettiest flower and pointed my camera at the flower.  I knew it was risky because I might be a little too close, but it was the shot I wanted.

Then there he was, six feet in front of me feeding off the flower.  I fired off three shots and said, "I hope I got one."  I was thrilled to capture the photo above.  If you look at the two petals on the right, there is a green heart shape between the petals!  

This photo was taken at marker #20 of the new Hummingbird Trail at The State Botanical Garden of Georgia.