Bird of Paradise

My Dear Husband cut back his  Bird of Paradise today because the sucker is taking over the house!! I never would have guessed these plants would grow so large. We have two plants in our back yard. Both are taller than our house. This bloom (one of many!) is probably a foot long. The flower has two white petals and a bluish purple one.  The colors are very subtle and my camera totally sucks but I took a bunch of photos and then ran them through some of the filters/effects on Picasa. (I [heart] Picasa!!) 

I'm actually pretty happy with some of the results.

This is the actual color.

Same photo in Sepia.

Saturation bumped up as far as it would go.