Dear friends: It's a bitter winter of early February here, as at many places around the globe. What is a nature photographer going to do if he/she wants to photograph flowers. Wait for the spring? Nope. I drove to the Los Angeles Arboretum, where in an enclosure "Tropical Geenhouse" under one roof tropical and other plants are nurtured under climatic control. Outside of this enclosure, there were no other flowers in the huge garden area to speak of. I expected to find attractive-looking Orchids there as they always have these on hand. But, those orchids were just few but the area was invaded by many newly-planted or transported Flamingo Flowers! A pleasant surprise!

Flamingo Flowers are gorgeous. "Anthureum andraeanum," being their botanical name, Flamingo flowers are heart-shaped and are usually red and have a pointed tongue-like protrusion coming out of the flower's center, called a "spathe." When fertilized, the spathe forms seeds.

The greenhouse chamber is covered by glass, which allows the light of the sun but no direct sun is allowed in it. That makes an almost shadowless photography, a boon for photographers. There is too much of green inside and to some extent, yellow. So, one has to watch for color casts in the images. The chamber is well protected from rain and in the past I have spent fairly long periods photographing a profusion of lovely Orchids here, while the the rain kept pouring outside!

The garden has a large population of peacocks, more than I have encountered anywhere. They roam around freely on the grounds and sometimes on the tree branches. They love or even beg to be photographed. You can also easily photograph them in their dancing poses. This time I found only few of these graceful birds.

The "main course" for the feast today are Flamingo flowers, As "side dishes" I have a few Orchids and Waterfalls.
I have several photographs of FLAMINGO FLOWERS from previous times in my files. I will be adding some of these to this gallery.

Best wishes. Jaris