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 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.

Hanging Pensively, Miss Pendula of Niles

Humorous Horticultural Writing from the library

Niles Redwood Develops 'Flop'

Sequoia Giganticus Branches Grow in All Directions on Freakish Tree

"An occasional diversion of species into the "cuckoo class" seems a privilege given by Nature to other than human beings.

"At the gardens of the California Nursery Company in Niles a specimen of the Sequoia Gigantea, California's favorite wonder tree, has gone so completely "haywire" that it is given an extra nursery-Latin handle to describe it. This acquired adjective is Pendula, meaning to hang pensively.

The Nurserymen Discuss the Merits of Native Plants, 100 Years Ago

One hundred years ago, the members of the California Association of Nurserymen (CAN) were talking about growing and selling California native plants.

Many of the nurserymen at a meeting in 1913 were very enthusiastic about native plants: They are beautiful. They don't need summer water when they are established. They harmonize with the natural landscape. We should be selling them.

Tracking down Luther Burbank, two girls, and a dog

I recently saw two intriguing photos in the California Nursery Company archives. In the photos Luther Burbank is standing in a group near two girls and a dog in the front row. George C. Roeding is also in the front, on the right. Probably lots of other movers and shakers of the nurseryman world in these photos. Who are they? I was curious.

Sequoiadendron giganteum...Who named it first?

"Hermit and Burnt Tree" from Calisphere.

The "Big Tree" has had many names and there is much interesting controversy over how it was named and claimed. This is but one of many articles that I have found in google books and Internet Archive and other archives.

What I have read elsewhere is that the English scooped the Californians in describing the tree now known as Sequoiadenron giganteum. To the Americans it must have seemed very nervy and audacious when Dr. Lindley named our great tree after one of the English military greats, the Duke of Wellington. How much sense did that make? Apparently it's ok if you are the first one out of the gate. But not surprisingly there was a bit of fallout and controversy. And as you know, it didn't stick, except in the U.K. where you can still see signs for the "Wellingtonia".

Branch Studies

Oak tree branch and rocks and hills

Whenever I hike in our local parks, I see the scenes that Eyvind Earle painted. (No, silly, not Sleeping Beauty's castle)

His landscape pictures capture the look and feel of the coastal hills of California - coastlines, green or golden rolling oak hills, long shadows of cattle or trees. Many of his pictures have a tree branch in the foreground. I have wondered about those tree branches. 

Thirty-Six Views of Mission Peak

Many of us Fremont-ers treat Mission Peak as our Mt. Fuji.
Wherever we go we have our own "Where's Waldo?".
This view is from Sabercat Creek.

I really love the  Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. Each picture has Mt. Fuji in it somewhere, either prominently or somewhat hidden. When you look at each picture, it's like looking for a friend in a crowd or .... a "Where's Waldo?" game!

The awkward boulevard strip

We have a very small parking strip or "boulevard", as my friend, Debcot, calls it. Just 2 feet wide.

(A very interesting word, "boulevard", from 1700's French meaning an avenue built on a razed rampart. Also very interesting what that strip is called all over the U.S. according to Wikipedia. This strip name even turned up in the New York Times quiz that shows you "How Y'all, Youse and You Guys Talk". Just all around interesting.) 

I rather like the terms devilstrip, furniture zone, and hellstrip and there is even a book written called Hellstrip Gardening: Create a Paradise between the Sidewalk and Curb.

Our old boulevard was filled with Liquidambar trunk and roots, ice plant, and African Iris. The sidewalk was a hazard - tilted concrete - from the roots snaking under to our lawn. It was really bad. Our neighbor chastised us for causing her husband to have to climb over the humps with his walker. The final straw was when the local teens started using it to get airborne on their skateboards. A true accident waiting to happen. The city no longer repairs sidewalks so we decided we needed to take this into our own hands. We removed the two Liquidambars and put in a couple of landing pads and a brand-new flat sidewalk. Heaven!

Selecting that perfect tree

Looking for that plant that is low maintenance, drought tolerant, and is a great tree?  And maybe one that will not grow so tall that the utility company hacks at it periodically? 

Stinkwort, Stinkweed, a stinky weed by any name

Stinkwort - not only does it smell very bad, but
it can cause dermititis and diarrhea.  

Stinkwort.

You can't avoid running into it where ever you go. In Fremont, I see it along side the road here and there, at the California Nursery Park, at Coyote Hills, at Ohlone College. You can identify it 65 miles per hour along the freeway. It's one of the only green plants at this time of year.

In August and September, in our hills in the Mission Peak Preserve, the sticky monkeyflower is burnt to a crisp, the California Fuchsias are still hanging in there, and we see various kinds of flowers in the Asteraceae family (what I used to call a "comp"..."daisy" flowers to others). It's nice to visit the native plants that are blooming at this late time of year.