Pretty much any photo that I post will have at least some minimal Photo or Paintshopping, if only for cropping and sharpening. If there is obvious dirt or pollen spilled on a petal (or a hybridizing clip that I can paint out), I will clean that up, too. Sometimes the digital image color will be wrong on the bloom - either because the photo was taken in too much shade, or else due to the particular color of the bloom itself. In those cases, I will either color balance the entire image (basically lighten it up) to more closely approximate the color bloom (because the image taken in shade looks too dark), or else in rare instances I may have to mess with the hue. (In the past year or so, I have only had to do that with one lavender seedling of mine, which kept appearing too pink on the digital images.)
In the series of photos above, I may have lightened up the images with 'One Fine Day' (taken in early morning shade), and I touched up/out some white splotches on the sepals of 'Silver Rings'.
As I said, these photos were for myself.
Regarding 'Sears Tower'.... Yes, I am fond of that one too. Unfortunately for that clump, there are more than a dozen fans crammed into a 3 gallon or so pot. It is past time to put it out into the garden (deer or no deer), but I am not sure where. Right now I can enjoy the flowers up close, as the pot is right next to the walkway. In the garden, however, it is a back of the border (or, at least, second row back) plant, because of the scape height.
Regarding its traits.. It has nice clean dormant foliage. It does not have a long bloom season (most years here it begins bloom about July 1st, and ends bloom around August 1st), but the blooms are coming on when most other things here are almost finished, so it is valuable for extending my bloom season (I don't see much rebloom). I like the cheerful color. The blooms are large (but not giant) and always open well (we have cool nights so that is an issue). Iirc it is fragrant. I like the scape height (though it does not attain its registered height here; perhaps that is due to the pot culture?).
The downsides of it (you may have guessed one already) are that it has no rebloom, the bud count is very modest (around 14 iirc), and the scapes are weak enough that as the buds develop enough to get large and start blooming, the scapes also start leaning and need support. (I actually have to weigh one side of the pot down with a brick, otherwise the leaning scapes tend to pull it over!)
Still, despite its faults, I like it and will keep it around, and hopefully will find it a spot where it can thrive, and I can still enjoy it.
