Wild About Here

Celebrating nature's beauty in fine art prints, botanical tales, accessories with botanical art photography by Kriss MacDonald.

Wild About Here is a blog about nature adventures and living creatively with camera, kids, recipes & books. I’m a mother, photographer, blogger, journalist, cook and dreamer. I’m British and American thus both Mum and Mom to my fraternal twins.

04/06/2026

It’s Gladiolus time in the garden when I wait to see which ones from past seasons and newly planted bulbs show up as flower divas in the garden. They became popular in the 19th century with the first hybrids, later were viewed as rather old fashioned but they’re now back in fashion in many gardens.

1 In the first floral flatlay ‘Enchanted’ they’re mixed with wildflowers and garden flowers. Can you spot the bees that landed on the wild leeks - Allium ampeloprasum ? They kept buzzing around the flowers when I was photographing this work with real flowers on a canvas outdoors in natural light.

2 Gladiolus in front of our lemon tree. In warm climates like ours in the Algarve you can leave the bulbs in the ground and many return as perennials.

3 Wild leek, Scabiosa, wild carrot and the blue chicory wildflower in our field.

4 The many different colours of the showy Gladiolus.

Are you a Gladiolus fan?

25/05/2026

Iris Gone Wild … growing near ruins of abandoned homes near me, and next to ancient stone walls, are colonies of Bearded Iris - Iris germanica - all a distinct purple with a golden crest and golden stripes along their bearded falls. With the off shoots of their rhizomes they’ve naturalised in the countryside. I’ve also introduced them in our garden and discovered they prefer spots which are shaded part of the day and prefer their rhizomes just beneath the soil due to our hot dry summers in the Algarve.
1 ‘ Iris Gone Wild’ botanical art photograph
2 Iris germanica colony near a ruin (video)
3 ‘ Iris Gone Wild’ Eco friendly phone case - soon to be released. Next to this biodegradable phone case is a white Iris albicans which also has naturalised all along countryside roadsides
4 Floral photography of Iris germanica naturalised very close to our home
5 Close up of this Bearded Iris in my garden
6 sunset scenes (video)
7 More Iris x germanica gone wild 💜💜

I’ve read that a similar bearded Iris has naturalised across Europe…and last summer when I was in the US for a family wedding I noticed so many different Bearded Iris in gardens and by old homesteads in Vermont and Maine!

I’ll soon be updating in my newsletter when my phone cases are launched x

18/05/2026

I call this floral photography flatlay Candy Land as the colours of the May garden flowers and wildflowers are like a mix of sweets. It’s filled with an assortment of roses, sweet peas, cornflowers, Love-in-the-mist, mallow, wild delphiniums and chicory.
1 Botanical photography artwork with flowers from my garden and field
2 Spanish mallow - Malva hispanica
3 Cornflowers in a wild patch in my garden
4 Roses at sunset
5 Chicory - Cichorium intybus
6 video of tiny meadow in my garden with cornflowers, love in the mist, and a poppy
7 sweet peas

12/05/2026

Who loves when the roses bloom? In between rain showers I’ve been so happy to see the garden fill with roses again…with flower tea and botanical breaks and vintage floral books…
I’m also getting ready to launch phone cases featuring my botanical art photography - there will first be eco friendly cases (the prints on them are amazing) as well as luxury tough MagSafe cases. As I’m also on long drives and many nights away this May as my twins’ A Level exam centre is in a different part of Algarve the launch is still a few weeks away (they’ll be shipped from EU and US hubs). I’m happy to say that I now have carers taking care of my mother who lives in our cottage annex so I can focus on both my twins and work (I’m just going to add that I think carers are incredibly special )
So here you have ..
1 Tea and botanicals with roses, vintage books, and freshly picked flowers from our garden
2 Pierre de Ronsard roses
3 ‘ Where Roses Bloom’ biodegradable phone case
4 White rambling roses Felicite- Perpetue on our gate wall - it’s a historical old rose which I grew from a cutting picked at an abandoned factory. EVergreen foliage and I don’t have to worry about watering it despite our heat
5 Pierre de Ronsard roses
6 ‘ Where Roses Bloom’ botanical artwork photographed with Felicite Perpetue roses, Love in a Mist, Hibiscus,Salva, and other roses all grown in my garden
7 Iris sibirica

🌿🌸🤍🩵💜

04/05/2026

May the Fourth be with you! Gladiolus is derived from the Latin word ‘little sword’ and in the language of flowers mean strength of character.
I always look forward to the abundance of the May garden when it also fills with Roses and a sprinkling everywhere of ‘Love in the Mist.’
1. ‘Spring Alchemy’ - real flowers all grown in my garden photographed in a floral flatlay.
2. Gladiolus next to the lemon tree
3. Basket of garden spring flowers
4. Pierre de Ronsard roses in my garden today which hopefully will cover the whole arch in a few years time x

28/04/2026

Sunset moments in our garden - I’m so happy that the first Bearded Iris are blooming! I planted these Iris germanica bulbs last year - they’re ones that naturalise around our lanes so I was hoping they’d do well💜💜 Often you can see them growing around old ruins which makes me wonder when they were first planted around here.

In (2) are my Felicite-Perpetue roses. This originally was from a cutting I made from a climbing rose shrub at an abandoned factory.

(4) my bottle brush tree ( Callistemon) at sunset - this started out as a dying small plant in a container when we moved into our home.

(5) ‘ Rose’ our feral rescue cat looking out of the window of our cottage next to us where my mother lives. In the last couple of months she’s finally let us pet her! Indeed she now wants to be stroked all the time 😻

(6) The last wild Scilla peruviana in our April garden. Not planted - but like other wildflowers finding a home in our garden x

22/04/2026

“The earth laughs in flowers” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Wildflower meadows to celebrate Earth Day.

THese are all April wildflowers growing in our field and countryside around us here in the Algarve.

1 and 5 are details from my botanical art photograph ‘Wildflower Meadow’ - it’s a blended collage of photographs of wildflowers taken on walks by our home. (A small limited edition now long gone)

I had to include the sawfly orchid because if you look at it closely it looks like it’s laughing!

Celebrate and enjoy the beauty of nature - bring out your wild side x

20/04/2026

The Sweet Peas have been flowering earlier this Springtime but it could be that they are all self seeded blooms. Usually I sow direct in the garden before New Year because of the warmer climate…but shoots were already appearing all over. IN contrast the Roses are finally blooming.
The first image is my botanical art photograph ‘Sweet Love in a Mist’ - a floral flatlay filled with spring flowers including Sweet Peas and Roses.
2 - Sweet Peas at sunset yesterday evening
3 - Olivia David Austin Roses
4 - Sweet Peas grow all along the fence by our drive
5 - Wild Love -in-the- Mist (Nigella damascena) in our field. NIgella have been flowering outside my studio at the foot of the old grapevine but will bloom across the garden in next couple of weeks (all self seeded too) x

Hi I’m Kriss - I create botanical art by composing and photographing flowers grown in my garden and wild flowers from our local countryside and fields. Floral fine art prints are released a few times a year and I’m about to launch phone cases featuring the beauty of flowers and nature. I’ll be updating soon in my newsletter xx

14/04/2026

April Blues…and purple and white hues of flowers in the countryside and in the garden. I’m working on getting ready phone cases (swipe to see April Blues in no 4) while rising early for nature walks with our big pups.

The best part of the day is at sunrise when I discover new wild meadows of flowers. The wild Iris - Iris xiphium - are painting the countryside with their blue and purple blooms while in shady spots the Portuguese squill - Scilla peruviana - range from turquoise to purple.

1 A flower tea break with garden flowers. I’m so happy that more and more wild Scilla peruviana are also appearing in our garden.
2 My floral artworks ‘April Blues’ in which I combined and photographed wildflowers and blooms from the garden.
3 Wild Scilla peruviana at sunrise this morning
4 ‘ April Blues’ featured on a MagSafe Tough phone case - will be part of launch in next few weeks
5 White Iris hollandica and Narcissus in my garden ###

11/04/2026

April flowers when the wildflowers bloom in meadows and the garden fills with blooms x

Our field and the ones next to it are covered right now with wild Gladiolus - Gladiolus illyricus . WIld Iris - Iris xiphium - are making their April seasonal appearance while the last of the Iris hollandica are showing off in the garden. And it’s rose season again.

I wish I could just spend all my time now on nature walks to see all the new wildflowers, including all the Rock Roses (Cistus) and wild lavender - Lavandula stoechas. I’m happy to say many of them are also flowering here in my garden, expected in my gravel garden while a lovely surprise in many of my flower beds x

RIght now is prime wildflower time in the Algarve!

Endereço

Região Do Algarve
Albufeira
8200-250

Website

http://wildabouthere.com/

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