The Giant Amsinckia of Union City

 This giant Amsinckia flower is stretched oout over five or six stories overlooking a play ground in Union City near the BART station. Kudos to the artist!

Who painted this amazing mural?

It was Mona Caron. Check her on Facebook and on Laughing Squid.

The Lillian Moore Rose, PPIE's award winning rose

From the clues below,
I hand-colored
Lillian Moore,
2015.
This is not
necessarily correct!

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 held many horticultural contests. One contest was for a rose with an award of $1000 which by some calculations would be about $24,000 today, nothing to sneeze at.

In the American Florist in 1912, there is a small note that George Roeding announced a $1000 prize for a rose contest for the PPIE:


"San Francisco Calif - Geo. C. Roeding, chief of the department of horticulture of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, has been authorized to make the announcement that a prize of $1,000 will be offered for a new rose to be named in honor of the exposition."

The Island of Rare Fruits and Trees

A Pleasure Island for Plant Nuts

Today we discovered a garden treasure in Fremont in a place that was so very unexpected. This garden is only a few miles from home.  It is on a peninsula, almost an island, in our local quarry lakes.  The garden, even in January, was full of bright colors, odd shapes, strange flowers, exotic plants, fruits, and a promise of free samples. Just the list of conifers takes up 8 pages. Wow.

I was as excited as Pinocchio when he first saw Pleasure Island, without the dire consequences (donkey ears) that Pinocchio's friends suffered.