The Orioles have Returned!

Last evening I took a quick peek out my bedroom window toward the hanging bird bath and saw a beaUtiful male Yellow-Rump Warbler taking a bath. I figured I couldn't get out to the living room to fetch my camera and get back in time to try to shoot him, but I decided to try. When I got back, he was gone. BUT, in his place was a strikingly beautiful, chrome yellow, male Hooded Oriole! Sadly, the orioles are the most skittish of the birds that visit my yard and he fled the scene before I got to the window. A while later a female appeared and disappeared.

I've been meaning to do it for days, but last night I was suddenly motivated to cook up some nectar for the orioles. Now to retrieve the empty feeder and put a freshly cleaned and filled feeder out!

Hopefully I can get a shot of them today.

One of the many nice things about having a bird bath in your yard is the variety of birds it draws in. Last evening, in the space of but a few minutes (as in way less than 5 minutes), I saw male and female Yellow-Rump Warblers, White-Crowned Sparrow, Gold-Crowned Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, House Finch, Bushtit, Mourning Dove, California Towhee, and Black Phoebe.

Dang! Forgot the Quail!

A Morning Hike at Edgewood

Yesterday morning a friend and I hied off to Edgewood Park in San Mateo County in search of Purple Mouse Ears. When we got there, we found a valiant troupe of folks from the San Mateo County Horsemen's Association starting to work on their day of "Clarkia Trail Cleanup." Said "cleanup" consisted of pushing uncounted wheelbarrows-full of wet, muddy gravel up a hill of some consequence. 

It was quite the heroic effort and we thank them whole-heartedly for their work doing trail repair! And, until just now, I'd never noticed the fine print on the trailhead marker saying that they'd adopted this trail.

We were in search of spring wildflowers and the first of the smiling faces we encountered were the Coast Sun Cups. Quite an auspicious start!

Actually, we encountered a number of other flowers, but I was targeting wildflowers that are native to California and there are hoards of non-native, alien, and otherwise invasive plants abounding. The Friends of Edgewood (link above) work very hard at organizing folks to come out and work at eradicating said invasives from Edgewood. It's definitely an uphill battle.

The next of the flowers we encountered were the lupines (Miniature or Douglas's, I'm not sure), but there were lots of them this year. (As in, way more than last year.)

Now that I think of it, I remember seeing plenty of Bush Lupine a-bloomin' last year, but very little of the smaller, fields-of variety. Another blueish flower we encountered is known as Blue Dicks.

Yes, yes, I know. It sounds like a social disease, like the English pudding "Spotted Dick." But, really, the name comes from its botanical name, Dichelostemma pulchellum. They, too, aren't as abundant this year as they were last year.

This next flower got me. It looks like the Blue Dicks, but white instead of blue. I believe it's a White Hyacinth.

I didn't see any of the next flower last year and very few of them this year, but at least they *were* there. They're called Tidy Tips, presumably for the tidy white tips on the bright yellow petals.

We also saw miscellaneous butterflies on our hike including this California Ringlet.

In addition to the Ringlet, we kept seeing speckled orange butterflies streaking by at warp speed with nary a pause. I learned this morning (via the Gardening With Natives group mailing list!) that these are the Painted Lady butterflies on their northward migration. I had seen oodles of butterflies (as in, great, unavoidable clouds of them) down in Anza-Borrego a couple of weeks ago, not knowing what they were. I'm sure the Jeep grille ate a number of them. *sigh*

As with most wooded areas, there are downed trees and limbs that are left for nature to deal with. I don't know from fungi, but I thought this was an interesting looking tree fungus.

Of course, we also encountered the occasional bird along the trail. There was an Oregon Junco (or Oregon form of the Dark-Eyed Junco, if you prefer) hunting seeds on the side of the trail.

If I recall, there are two or three sub-species of these little guys, but I don't recall which is which. One has a pinkish beak, the other(s) yellow. This seems to be one of the yellow-beaked flavor.

One of the pretty little flowers that I saw very few of last year, but actual fields of this year, is the so-called Blue-Eyed Grass. 

It's not actually a grass, but in the iris family. When it's not blooming, it does resemble a rather untidy, coarse grass. But the flowers are awfully pretty, don't you think?

Another denizen we came upon during our hike was our State Mollusk: The Banana Slug!

He's seen here in the middle of the trail, among young poppies that are not likely to last much longer due to foot traffic.

It's getting to be rather late in the season for a dryish place like Edgewood for Miner's Lettuce to be growing, but there it was. And, yes, it's edible.

We also spotted a plant that looks remarkably like a grapevine, but not quite right. A botanist happened along (no, really!) and ID'd it for us as Manroot. 

   

The Manroot is so named because it has a large, tuberous root shaped like a man. It's of the cucumber family, but the local native species aren't edible. Bummer.

As I mentioned earlier, there are plenty of "alien species" in the park. Here's another one: The Scarlet Pimpernel. Yes, yes. The one the novel, movie, and TV series are named for. 

I'm happy to report that the Sticky Monkeyflowers are starting to bloom!

The ones in the wild are a little the worse for wear, but the ones in my garden are going completely nuts. (I'll post new photos soon.)

We saw a few specimens of Purple Nightshade (or Blue Witch, if you prefer).

I'm used to seeing ceanothus (California Lilac) with blue flowers, and I've see ceanothus with white flowers, but I thought the white ones were "fiddled with" by horticulturists to get the white. But NO! The big, white-flowered large shrub/small trees I was seeing last year have been identified as white-flowering ceanothus (a.k.a., Buckthorn). (Same botanist. Really!)

Yet another flower that was in abundance last year, but minimally represented this year is Fremont's Camas.

It's related to the Death Camas (and is just as poisonous) and is named after *that* Fremont.

While the fields weren't dense with flowers, they made for some nice meadows of flowers. Here we have a mix of California Poppies and Cream Cups (among other things that I couldn't ID from the trail).

Here's a closer look at a Cream Cup.

I mentioned the California Ringlet and Painted Lady Butterflies earlier. We also saw the Acmon Blue Butterfly (closed and open).

   

And there were other birds besides the Oregon Junco. We caught sight of a hummingbird (Anna's, I think) and a Scrub Jay.

   

And, finally, the object of our quest... It sounds like another denizen of the woods, but it's actually a wildflower: The Purple Mouse Ears! (Mimulus douglasii)

Success! It was a beautiful day -- not too warm, not too cool, not too breezy. We saw many wonderful sights and took too many pictures. And we met interesting people along the way. 

Oh, that botanist we encountered along the way. Well that was the well-known Toni Corelli! She was leading a group of docents-in-training. Lucky docents! (I'm so jealous!)

Why to Garden

Yes, I'm sure that hiring a professional to do up a design with input from me to put this here and put that there, but there's a certain satisfaction when you get up in the morning, take a look out the window at your less-than-perfectly-maintained yard and see something like this.

After I've had breakfast and coffee, I can go out back and see different flowers almost every day. The other day it was white freesia. Now it's yellow freesia.

The other day it was the usual orange California Poppies.

Now we add a "Moonglow" California Poppy to the mix.

And I get to see two colors of Calendula almost every day.

   

The Nasturtiums keep coming up with different color combinations for me.

I think it's all worth a little effort in the garden.

Earth Hour?

I've been hearing the odd tidbit about Earth Hour (kinda like Earth Day, but only an hour) and I checked out their web site today to learn more. Now I'm confused. And/or angry. Maybe angry is too strong. 

Here's the deal. Tomorrow night (3/28/09) at 8:30 PM (wherever you are), "you can vote earth by switching off your lights for one hour." That's cool. I like the idea. Take the load off the grid for an hour. Blah, blah, blah. Really. I like it. Really.

But here's the thing...  This same site is exhorting us all to:

• Take a photo that night and upload it to Flickr with appropriate Earth Hour tags
  
• Make a video and upload it to the Earth Hour YouTube group
  
• Write a live blog post during the event with appropriate tags
  
• Update on Twitter on the night with appropriate tags
  

Am I missing something? Instead of having a CFL on and reading a book, we're supposed to be on our computers uploading photos and videos, tweeting, and blogging in the dark. NOTE: your computer will be ON. You will be using a powered network, powered servers, and the power of your computer (or cell phone which will have to be re-charged later) to do all of this.

What the hell?

You wanna help the Earth for an hour one night? Turn off your computer, your cell phone, your MP3 player, your TV, and whatever else is sucking down energy. Bundle up. Go sit in a lawn chair in your pack yard (weather permitting) and watch the stars with your loved ones for an hour. Having inclement weather? Bundle up with your loved ones on the sofa and listen to the weather in the dark. Talk about the stars. (Talk about how many more stars you could see if *everyone* turned off the lights for an hour.) Talk about all the birds and other creatures that actually make noise at night, even in the city. If you're listening to the weather, talk about how the rain sounds like drumming on the roof or like frying bacon. Talk about how much quieter it is when it's snowing than when it's not.

Or, just turn off everything but one light and read. If you live alone, read for yourself. If you have a family, pick someone to read aloud to the family.

I was a sophomore in high school when we had the first Earth Day. (Yes, I'm *that* old.) When I was a junior, the first recycling center in the valley opened and I worked as a volunteer almost every weekend for the next two years, rain or shine. (It was only open on weekends.) That center has long since closed, but that's because the cities and trash collection companies take care of it now.

We're definitely making *some* progress toward helping the Earth, but this Earth Hour thing seems rather "broken" to me.

Parsley as Weed

No, not that kind of weed. (Who smokes parsley?!?! Oregano maybe... :-)

I bought my current abode one February eleven years ago. That spring I started planting happy new plants for myself. I bought a few 2" pots of parsley (among other things) and tucked them in here and there. Shortly thereafter, they croaked. Likely eaten by snails. Dang. (Most other things grew just fine, thank you.) 

What the heck, I bought a packet of seed and carefully planted about half the packet here and there in the garden. (Other seed I planted grew just fine, thank you.)

The next spring I acquired Shelley and Mr. T. In my studies on the care and feeding of Box Turtles, I learned that calcium deficiency was something horrific to guard against. Happily, parsley was one of those herbs that sucks up and stores calcium if it's available. (With our water in Silicon Valley, lack of calcium is NOT a problem. Excess calcium is.) 

So, I went through the parsley exercise as outlined above for a second year. Again, no parsley was to be had. (Turns out it's OK. I needn't have worried on Shelley and T's behalf because *anything* they might have eaten in the yard would be *loaded* with plenty of calcium to keep their carapaces healthy.)

The following year, someone donated a bunch of aging seed to my cause -- including parsley -- so I scattered them all around the yard. Some grew. Some didn't. Parsley didn't. In the meanwhile, Shelley and Mr. T went NUTS eating the snails in the yard. 

And the next year, viola! Without planting any new seeds, parsley started popping up here and there, but especially in one corner of the yard. Cool! Parsley!

Parsley is a member of the carrot family and is a biennial. As such, it only blooms and sets seed after the second year... then dies. So, theoretically, you plant seed in year 1 and it grows. In year 2 it sends up a flower stalk, sets seed, scatters said seed, and dies. In year 3 the new set of seed sprouts, etc. But no-o-o-o-o-o-o! Parsley is one of those seeds that has a mind of its own. It may or may not come up the first year. Or the second. Or the third. Gah!!!

So, what do you think happened to my yard? Well, *this* eventually happened.

Holy crap! It's been getting worse every year. It has tried to come up in the lawn (such as it is), but for the last few years I've been pulling it up before it sets seed, so it doesn't come up in the lawn (such as it is) anymore (that I've noticed). But it's completely rampant in the area of my yard that is supposed to be nice, clean river rock. It's also completely rampant in the planting bed that runs 90 degrees to the river rock. (Bet you can't guess which is which.  :-)

Well, over the past month we've had lots of rain and lots of sun, so everything exploded... including the lawn (such as it is). So, today was the day I tackled mowing, edging, and the beginnings of weeding... with focus on the parsley, dammit!  After a few hours of weeding, I'd only made a dent or two. Viz:

At least now you can tell which part is supposed to be rock and which part is supposed to be plantings. The studied eye (if you go look at the bigger views) can also see that there's a hollyhock growing on the left of the left photo. (I planted hollyhocks the first summer and never since. They keep coming up from having gone to seed!) The studied eye might also make out a prunus ilicifolia (Holly-Leaf Cherry) on the right of the left photo. (The studied eye will also note that the photo on the right has plenty of other weeds to deal with besides parsley. Shut up.)

Tomorrow's another day. Gotta tackle those weeds early. 

Indoor "Gardening"

OK, not really gardening, per se, but still...

My house doesn't have a lot of glass to help brighten the environs in the winter, so I bought a couple of Amaryllis bulbs to "force" indoors. Forcing is what you call planting bulbs way out of their normal season in pots to grow indoors. Normally, one does not expect these poorly treated bulbs to be good for more than one season.

I planted these two bulbs months ago and left them out on the deck for a week or two to get a little chill. Then I brought them in and let do their thing. The first one to bloom was the all-red-all-the-time one. The flower stalk was nearly three feet tall!

(Trying something new with embedding Flickr's HTML: editing the heck out of it!)

These flowers were seriously-freakin' RED. The "red bulb" started blooming in early March. The fourth (of four) flowers opened just before I left for Spring Break. The Red & White bulb started blooming the day I got back from Spring Break.

As you can see, the stalk on this one was only about half the height of the red one's. But still, it's quite the cheery picture on a dark weekend, like this last one. :-)

Something I hadn't figured on -- because I've never seen it -- is that one of my "Corn Plants" decided to bloom!

The so-called "Corn Plant" (do-o-on't ask me why) is actually one of the many species of Dracena (of which I have a few... species, that is). I've never seen one bloom. Never. 

I mean, it's not like I've never had the thang in the house for the winter. Even for protracted periods. Like last year. And those little flowers? OMG!!! Do they smell SWEET! Like, knock you over, sweet. Like, if you had the flu, you might have to hurl, sweet.  However, since it's sitting on the hearth, behind other things, in a large room that is open to other large rooms (hall, the rest of the house), in a house with forced-air heat, the wealth is shared and reasonably dilute... unless you go over there to turn on the TV. (Oh, yeah, you can see the tips of the leaves of the Dracaena marginata tricolori to its left. And you can see the tips of a Dracaena marginata at the top right.  Told you I had more species.)

Another stunner is that the "Wax Plant" (Hoya carnosa) I brought in for the winter is also blooming! This sucker normally doesn't even start setting buds until late spring or early summer. And here it is a-bloomin'!

What looks like little drops in the angles of the center stars is nectar. It's not strongly scented (like the Dracena flower), but it's exactly the right concentration of sweetness for the hummingbirds! The little buggers come around all summer to taste the nectar from these. Oh, and if you grow them as an indoor plant, you can look forward to cleaning up the sticky mess under the plant all summer. (Been there, done that when I thought they were only a houseplant. It turns out they're fine down almost to a solid freeze.)

Not actually growing, but I also have stalks of cymbidiums from my mom's garden submerged in a ginormous tubular vase and a small vase of daffodils that were a gift.

It's getting to (mostly) be plenty warm enough out (tho' near freezing this morning) that I should probably be moving most of the "houseplants" back out to the deck this week. That means that the space in my living room and dining room will quite suddenly double!

Woohoo!

The Other Side...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have not only California natives, but non-native flowers a-bloomin' in my yard. So shoot me.  :-)

I have several colors of Nasturtium blooming around the yard.

It's native to South America and is classified as "invasive" in Hawaii and New Zealand. And I can see how that could happen. I have not bought Nasturtium seed in over 10 years. They freely re-seed themselves and continually surprise me with the variety of blossoms they come up with each year and each season. The ones that come along later in the year are sometimes quite baroque.

Next we have Freesia.

This guy is native to Africa, but doesn't seem to be classified as "invasive" anywhere. But these little bulblets are seriously robust around here. I say that because the ones I planted (in pots) over a dozen years ago just keep coming back year after year. Later this season the purple, pink, and yellow ones will show their faces. (They're budding up nicely right now.)

Next up we have the Wisteria.

This beautiful vine is most decidedly invasive... including in my yard!!! The gorgeous clouds of purple flowers have a heavenly scent (unless you're right under them on a warm day when the wind is still, then they're almost sickly sweet -- maybe like the dichoronium creature from ST:TOS). But I have to keep the grabby vines from grabbing every nearby thing, like the trees! Lots of vine-cutting maintenance. Oh, and if the roots of a potted one get into the soil, you're screwed. Just figure on a life of continuously re-digging them out as any remaining fragment will re-sprout. (Yes, I've been fighting one of those for nearly 10 years.) 

OH! and if you allow the seed pods to ripen on the vine, you can look forward to an entertaining fall and early winter. When the pods are ready to release their seeds, they do so quite explosively. Yes, explosively. I had told my brother about this. I told him about the seeds firing and hitting the windows and sounding like somebody shooting a BB gun at the window. Yet, when he, a former soldier, had it happen when he was standing near the window when it happened, he was diving for cover till he saw me looking at him with amusement. 

This is also another thing contributing to the invasiveness of the species. I found these seeds fired completely across the yard from the vine. And trying to sprout where they landed. I have to pull them before they get their taproot into the soil or, well, re-read the paragraph above about roots.

But I love the vines and the flowers and the scent and the color and, well, the roots are already in the soil. No, I don't water it.

The next non-native, potentially invasive flower blooming in my yard is the Calendula.

Again, I haven't planted seed for this species in at least 10 years, but I have more and more every year. Note that the original blooms were extremely double. These days, they're barely double, as you can see. I figure that after all these years the o!-so-double commercial hybrid is reverting to original type. That's fine. There are plenty of yellow and orange blossoms in that bed. One of these days I'll get around to pulling them out before they go to seed and put in an equally hardy native.

Also starting (quite surprisingly!) to bloom is a climbing rose of unknown pedigree.

I acquired the climbing rose with the house, so I haven't a clue what it is. I did move it to a corner of the yard where it could climb rampantly. And it did... until I planted a Western Virgin's Bower (Clematis ligusticifolia) about five feet from it. The Virgin's Bower is simply taking over the entire area. Where a joint touches the ground, it tries to root. Heck! Where a joint touched a fence rail it tried to root! 

So, the Virgin's Bower has completely covered the climbing rose and insinuated its vines throughout. You can see the leaves peeking through above and to the right of the rose blossom. But the rose clings to life and has started blooming again this year.

Also blooming (but no photo) is a vine that came with the house. I'm pretty sure it's one of the solanums, but it's got large clusters of small white flowers with yellow centers. (Maybe rattonii? I'll post a photo one of these days and get it ID'd.)  The solanums out front are blooming, but they usually are. I'm pretty sure this is the one called "Purple Potato Plant" or "Blue Witch" or some such thing. Again, I'll get a photo up one of these days. Oh, yeah. And I have some red Impatiens that have been in their pots and coming back year after year for at least 7 years.

Next post, maybe I'll do the plants that are blooming INdoors.