Anemone 'Panima' late Fall

I snapped these photos late November, mesmerized by the beauty of the seed heads of these anemones. Lovely tufts of white.

Christmas Crafts with Plant Materials

The kids' school has a traditional winter craft night. One table was filled with amazing bags of gathered plant seeds, cones, barks, leaves, and seed pods. Equipped with hot glue guns, ribbons, card board wreath cut outs, and googly eyes, the children delved head on into making these fun crafts.  The parent running the craft explained that she gathered material every day on her way to pick up the kids from school.

Christmas wreath made by my teenager.

Fun Christmas Tree Ornament

Jedi Apprentice made by 6-year-old

Blooming Aloe

I've heard, due to light requirements, that it is difficult to get aloe to bloom indoors.  For reasons unknown to me, this little plant decided late fall is a good time to bloom. Nice to see something flowering during this dormant time.

School Garden--Lettuce

We planted a salad bowl lettuce mix and a mesclun mix about 25 days ago during a cold, wet snap.  We just harvested three times the amount pictured in the second photo below. All that from one tiny raised bed! Definitely an easy and satisfying crop to grow.  All the produce was used for our school lunch program.

Lespedeza thunbergii 'Edo Shibori'-- Pink Bush Clover

Beautiful, tiny blooms on a graceful, weeping shrub. Slight scent. Blooming now!

Naranjilla

Solanum quitoense known as fuzzy naranjilla has sweet and sour orange tasting fruit. It is from the Andes. Fun plant to grow as an annual. 

Devil's Claw--Proboscidea parviflora

Devil's claw is native to the southwest desert of the United States and northern Mexico. It is an annual herb growing from a taproot and producing spreading stems. The ripe, claw like fruits are used in Native American basketry. 

School Garden Coming Along!

All of our plants were donated by Red Butte Garden and Arboretum. With the generous funds from the Whole Kids Foundation, the school was able to build four additional wood raised beds. We also had a farmer's pump installed! 

Huernia zebrina

Happy flowering succulent-- Huernia zebrina

Six Herb Pesto--Use Your Summer Herbs!

1 cup basil, loosely packed
1 cup parsley, loosely packed
1/4 sage, loosely packed
1/c cup majoram or oregano, loosely packed
1 Tbs chopped rosemary
1 Tbs chopped thyme
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/2 cup olive oil


1. Blend Half the Basil With Nuts, Cheese, and Garlic: Combine half of the basil with the nuts, cheese, and garlic cloves in a blender or food processor. Blend until the ingredients are finely chopped.
2. Blend the Rest of the Basil: Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the rest of the basil. Blend until a uniform paste has formed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Pour in the Olive Oil: With the blender running, pour in the olive oil. Less olive oil will make a paste good for spreading on sandwiches and pizzas; more will make a sauce better for pastas and stirring into soup. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue blending as needed until the olive oil is mixed into the basil and the pesto looks uniform.
4. Taste and Adjust: Taste the pesto and add salt,  more garlic, nuts or cheese as needed to taste.
5. Storing Pesto: Pesto will darken and brown quickly, but will still be tasty for several days. For best appearance, use it right away. If storing, store it in the smallest container possible and thoroughly press the pesto to eliminate air pockets. Pour a little olive oil over the surface, cover, and refrigerate for up to a week. Pesto can also be frozen for several months.

Moon Carrots--Underused Plants

The moon carrot, Seseli gummiferum, originates from Crimea and can reach 4 ft. tall.  As is typical with biennials (plants that complete their life cycle in two years), the plant remains in a basal rosette the first year. The second year a thick flower stalk arises bearing many white flowers clustered in large, flat umbels. Blooms are continuous and generous from midsummer through fall. The moon carrot can grow in full sun to part shade and prefers moderate to xeric watering conditions. If you allow the seed heads to ripen and fall, you will have many new plants in the garden in years to follow.

Growing an Ozone Garden--School Garden

Growing an ozone sensitive garden for a school science program would be an amazing way to incorporate visual results to a real world problem.

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has created an ozone monitoring garden that a school program could replicate with plants suitable to their gardening zone.
"The ozone monitoring garden is full of plants that scientists have found to be ozone-sensitive. When exposed to high levels of ozone, each of these plants shows damage on their leaves. Older leaves have the most damage. Plants with ozone damage have very fine colored spots on the upper surfaces of their leaves, and some leaves also turn yellow. Ozone sensitive plants growing in the garden include cutleaf coneflower, cardinal flower, flowering dogwood, and black-eyed susan. All of these species are fairly common and easy to grow, so can serve well for educational gardens.
Students, teachers, and public visitors to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center can learn and teach about atmospheric chemistry and public health with the garden, and can learn about setting up their own ozone monitoring programs."

Here is the link to their site: http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/outreach/ozonegarden.html

The National Park Service has a list of plants that are sensitive to ozone.  According to the site species considered sensitive are those that typically exhibit foliar injury at or near ambient ozone concentrations in fumigation chambers and/or are species for which ozone foliar injury symptoms in the field have been documented by more than one observer.
Bioindicator species for ozone injury meet all or most of the following criteria:

• species exhibit foliar symptoms in the field at ambient ozone concentrations that can be easily recognized as ozone injury by subject matter experts
• species ozone sensitivity has been confirmed at realistic ozone concentrations in exposure chambers
• species are widely distributed regionally
• species are easily identified in the field

http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/Pubs/bioindicators/index.cfm

Bees!

An emerging female mason bee. Female mason bees are black and larger than the males. The males also have a cute, yellow mustache. Mason bees are reported to be better pollinators than the honey bee.

 

Hunt's Bumble Bee  Bombus huntii

What's Blooming Late July

 

               Guara    Gaura lindheimeri

Hidcote Lavender  Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote'  

   

 Mexican Wine Cups    Callirhoe involucrata
 


   Liatris spicata 'Kobold' 


 Ornamental Fountain Grass  Pennisetum orietale

Uinta Basin Hookless Cactus

One tiny cute cactus flowering today (only?). The threatened Uinta Basin hookless cactus (Sclerocactus wetlandicus), salvaged from a natural gas pipeline project in the Uinta Basin in 2011.

What's Blooming

                   Rose Flower Girl

                       Clematis

                               Aster

                        Sego lily

Succulents

          Euphorbia lactea "White Ghost" crest

What's Blooming

Genista monspessulana--French broom

Jupiters beard--Centranthus ruber

       

Baptisia 'Twilite Prarie Blues'

               Dracunculus vulgaris

Tulip tree --Liriodendron tulipifera

The Gardens at the Getty Center

Bougenvilla

Roof top cactus garden overlooking L.A.

Lovely and poisonous Brugmansia tree

Gorgeous flower garden

Succulent