Bound and Determined Not to Kill Them!

I am attempting to do something that has daunted me my entire life. Thus far, the road has been rough to be sure. But I want to keep trying. Others seem to have no problem in doing this. It seems simple enough.

What, you ask?

My goal is to not kill plants!  My goal is to successfully keep greenery green to enhance my life. My goal is to do something that scares me to death.

Growing up, I don't remember us having any indoor plants.  I don't remember my mother planting outside, but I do remember some flowers, and rhubarb. There were what she called "four o'clocks" scattered about the back yard, but they grew like weeds anyway. (I do remember gather seeds from them a couple of times.)  I remember geraniums, hyacinths, daffodils, peonies, hollyhocks, and a lilac bush, in the northwest part of the yard. There were some roses that occasionally grew along the chain link fence to the north.

But I was never shown the finer art of plant maintenance, such as how often to water or fertilize.

I have always loved flowers.  The bright yellow of a daffodil, the purple of a lilac bloom, the red of a rose, the pastels of hyacinths--they delight my eyes. And I have always been intoxicated by their fragrances, even though not all flowers have them.  I keep a couple of fragrant pink or red rose blooms in my office at work that I clip from the bushes near the entrance to the building, and when they dry up they retain their fragrance.  I keep a bunch on my desk.

When we lived in Mount Washington near downtown Los Angeles, I became acquainted with plumerias.  They are the fragrant and beautiful blooms that often adorn hawaiian leis.  As I would go on morning walks, one of my paths took me by a home that had a substantial plumeria bush in front, and when I first saw their beautiful whiteness with yellow in the center, and smelled their delicious fragrance, I was hooked.  The owner gave me a start in a pot, but it was stolen off our porch not long after.

There is a patch traingular patch of dirt between the access to the "downstairs," or rather, the room that accesses our heater and under our house here in Tujunga.  I decided to purchase a substantial plumeria bush from a plumeria grower a couple of summers ago, and planted it in the patch, which is right next to the white stucco outside of our home near our tankless water heater, and which faces west, getting warm or hot afternoon sun.

I have always like the strong smell of jasmine, and decided to plant a jasmine bush on a trellis in the same patch.

My report is that the plumeria seems to be doing rather well.  I try to remember to fertilize it every couple of weeks during the summer, and while it didn't start blooming this year until June, it has given me non-stop pleasure since then. I make it a point to enjoy their beauty and stick my nose deep into a blossom every day. The green leaves sometimes look a bit yellow, and I've wondered if I have been watering them too little.  

By the way, I was given a couple of non-white plumeria starts recently, and since there isn't much room in the aforementioned patch, and since we haven't decided what to do with the back yard (we are going to remove the old termite-infested apricot tree in the late fall), I decided to keep them in pots and put them facing a not-so-harsh morning sun near the entrance to our front door.

The jasmine sometimes blooms but some of its leaves always look brown, as if they've been burned by the hot soon, and I have wondered if it's just too hot for it there on the trellis next to the house.  Actually, it often looks sickly. Arrrgh!

We are members of the Huntington Botanical Gardens because of our love of plants and we regularly visit this beautiful place near Pasadena.  They had a plant sale the past spring and I decided to purchase some succulents (harder to kill) and plant them in another patch that abuts the garage in our back yard. So far, of the ten plants, seven seem to be holding their own, but the other three don't look so good.  I don't know whether they need less water or more water. 

At that same sale at the Huntington, I bought three other plants, two of which I planted in the front planter and which seem to be looking okay but not great. The third was a lovely exotic iris that I guess I killed within about a month from lack of water.  Arrrgh!  






Because I am an official "Japanophile" from having lived in Japan when we were first married, I have always been fascinated by bonsai plants.  My wife bought me a tiny one many years ago for my office, but because it was a juniper and needed to be outdoors and not indoors (which I didn't know at the time), it died not long after.

I've always loved enjoying their looks, their lines, their sheer beauty.  I decided earlier this year to study up on bonsai with the idea that I would buy one for my office.  I learned that there are inside and outside bonsai, and that I needed to purchase an inside one, which I did.  It is a golden gate ficus from China, and I seem to be giving it the right amount of water because it hasn't died yet.

Not long after, I did some research about area bonsai nurseries, and found one that had a large amount of outdoor bonsai near Pasadena.  I found two that spoke to me, a cotoneaster and a shimpaku juniper, and purchased them. Both of these were recommended for beginning bonsai enthusiasts because it's hard to hurt them. I was told that they should not get full sun so I placed them in the back yard, and began watering them twice a week, which I had been instructed to do.

A couple of months after purchasing them, they started looking sickly.  They always got their water twice a week but I didn't fertilize them.  I killed them! I decided that the summer afternoon sun of Tujunga was just too much for them to live on two waterings a week, and that their roots probably got cooked inside their decorative pots.  Arrrgh!  

It was hard to not feel a failure and not want to give up on my dream of having a number of bonsai plants.  After feeling bad for a month or so, I decided to look failure in the teeth and buy some more.  I committed to put them under the aforementioned apricot tree so that they would get no direct afternoon sunlight.

I purchased a beautiful juniper--quite stunning actually.  

I purchased another cotoneaster.  I am determined not to be a failure twice with these supposedly easy-to-maintain plants.  

I daringly purchased a fukien tea bonsai.

So that is my plant story as of July 2014.  I am determined to keep learning and not make too many more mistakes.  I would really like to eventually have a modest but beautifully landscaped yard with lovely flowers and bushes, and I would really like to have a collection of some eight to ten bonsai plants.  I hope to eventually learn how to make plants into bonsai plants.  For now, my goal is to not kill any more!

Cherry Blossom Time!

An announcement for a cherry blossom festival at a nearby garden in La Canada (Descanso Gardens) caught our eye this past weekend.  So after going for a hike earlier in the morning on Saturday, Ann and I went to feast our eyes.  We were not disappointed!  I wanted to share some of the better pictures on my blog.  I hope that you enjoy them!

Point and Shoot

Ever since I served as the photographer for the West High School newspaper from 1969 to 1971, I have been interested in photography.  In fact, it was an interest in it that prompted me to ask to be the photographer.  One of my college jobs was taking dorm pictures of entire girls' residence halls (thank you my friend, Bill Harten!)

From then until now I have maintained my interest in photography.  It has been limited to looking at and enjoying pictures until now.  My desire to start taking pictures has been rekindled through the gift of a Nikon Coolpix "point-and-shoot" camera given me a few years ago.  The desire has also been heightened by being able to take pictures with my I-Phone at any time and any place (because I usually have it with me all the time).

I asked for and received a camera that I had chosen (thanks, Ann!) this past Christmas.  I wimped out and didn't get a DSLR (digital single lens reflex), but rather, a top-of-the-line, digital "point-and-shoot."  Maybe some day when I am more confident in my abilities....

So since December, I've been taking pictures with my new Nikon V-1.  I took a bunch while my siblings and partners were here for the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's.  But everything that I've read and everything that I hear from real photographers indicates to me that the best way to become a great photographer is to take great numbers of pictures--tens of thousands!  So I am just barely starting out.  BTW, I keep the Coolpix in my car and will sometimes use it if I stumble on to something that inspires me.  And I will occasionally take pics with my I-Phone as well if I am not in my car.

I thought I would be brave an post some of my very preliminary pictures.  I am trying to pay attention to composition, to lighting, to texture, and to depth of field.  There is so much that goes into taking a picture that I don't even know about yet.  But that's okay.  I have to start somewhere, right?  This photographic journey is yet another transition for me.

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So this is of a Christmas display in a yard just down the street from us.  I liked the creativity.

Lighting was a challenge for this shot of the Parade.  I only had one lens at the time.  I don't know how to filter, and I certainly do not know how to photoshop.  It's a fun picture, however!

 

This was taken during our Big Bear weekend vacation a little over a week ago.  It had snowed about 8-10 inches and the temperature was just starting to warm.  I liked the coloring of the sky in the AM light, the shadows, the overall composition.  If I knew how to photoshop I would have eliminated the wires that were everywhere.  It was taken with my 10-30 regular lens.

More wires.  I liked the purple against the green of the trees, the blue of the sky, and the white of the snow.  Not a great picture--had the wrong lens--but a kind of interesting one.

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I saw this more rustic bird feeder and decided to shoot it; didn't have my zoom lens.  I'm sure there is something that could be done with this, maybe even with the composition, but I don't know what or how.















 
Yet more wires.  Thought this was a nice contrast of green and blue and white, with some shadowing.  I did crop this one along with both bird feeders above.

This may be the best picture that I've taken thus far, in terms of composition, depth of field (I'm still getting acquainted with the zoom lens I bought a few weeks ago), lighting (needs to be lightened a bit?), and texture.  Again, I'm sure that this picture could likely be improved with techniques that I am unaware of, but this is an untouched picture, and I'm kind of proud of it!

This is my Prius that stalled on the freeway.  Yes, I have since had repairs done on it, and I am trying to take good care of it (got an synthetic oil change coming up this week or next), but I still like it and the average 46 miles per gallon it gives me, and it is an attractive color.  It looks good in the shade; the color really looks nice.  The picture was taken at a turnout up Angeles Crest Highway about four miles.  I came up to find some flora and fauna to shoot, and this shot was pretty much an afterthought, but hey, tens of thousands, right?

This tree and others were across from the turnout.  I used my telephoto lens on this but it didn't do anything about the background.  Still, the mountains and foliage in the background are kind of nice.  I like the stark nature of this burnt tree and the black and natural colors of the trunk and limbs. 

 

There were lots of these wild yellow flowers everywhere and I shot a dozen or so pictures.  This one I cropped to eliminate any distraction from this one bloom.  I really like the shadows on it and the out-of-focus background.  This was shot with the zoom lens as was the tree above (also was cropped) and the picture below.

This was a tree (flowering plum?) growing in an island in La Canada.  It was too beautiful to not record so I pulled into a nearby parking lot, put on my zoom lens, shot it, and cropped out stuff below.  I like the pink against the blue, the texture/detail, and the subtle shading.

If anybody is a professional photographer out there in the blogosphere, I'd welcome any suggestions.  Otherwise, for everyone else, I hope that you liked my first attempts.