Trail of Flowers in Henry Coe State Park

Sigal was the guide on wild flower hike in Henry Coe State Park. It turned out to be a family hike, grandparents, parents and grandchildren. We ventured down the narrow trail slowly searching for new flowers. We found a lot of flowers, many of them were new for us.
Here are some of the beautiful flowers we saw on the trail. Amos captured most of the flowers with his camera. Sometime I also could not resist and took turns with him.

	The woody shrub, Blue Witch , is also known as Blue Nightshade I found some information about the flower in the following site: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/environs/wildflowers/index.html “The Blue Witch blooms all spring and summer. It has grayish-green leaves and makes green berries about the size of a hazelnut. The berries develop in May and June. Yes, this shrub is related to Deadly Nightshade. All parts of the plant contain the deadly alkaloid Solanine. Surprisingly, it is also a close relative of the tomato and potato. The cultivated "potato bush" looks a lot like it, but the petals of the potato bush are darker and don't have the little yellow or white spots on each petal. The wild tomatillo is also in the Nightshade family. Apparently, it took two hundred years for Europeans to get up the courage to eat tomatoes. Can you blame them when a few berries of the Deadly Nightshade can kill?" -
	The Gilia a delicate flower- bears for a long time a succession of blossoms either blue, white, lavender, or rose-colored. In the Henry Coe Park, we saw the Blue Gilia, later when we hiked in Point Lobos we saw the rose Gilia.
	California Sun Flower – The beautiful book “The Secrets of Wild Flowers” by Jack Sanders devote a chapter for the Sunflowers. The subtitle summarizes the flower’s properties and qualities: “Sunflowers feed and entertain humans and birds and inspire artists.” Everyone who loves flower will enjoy the words about the beauty and the treasures of the Sunflowers family. Vincent Van Gogh painted series of "the Sunflower". Some experts say that the sun flowers painting are his most beloved.Wikipedia has a dedicated page for the "Sunflowers" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflowers_(series_of_paintings)
	The Chinese houses flower gets its name from layers of flowers which resemble a small collection of towers of decreasing diameter that looks like a pagoda. The scientific name is Collinsia bartsiifolia ssp. davidsonii - Davidson's Blue Eyed Mary. The shining white and light purple colors of the flower and its shape is very special and has some calmness about it.
	The Dense Flowered Lupine – Lupine is a wild flower. In the photo, one sees a branch with flowers and a branch with the pods. The Lupine is part of the Pea family. There are many species of Lupine; many of them can be viewed in the site: http://www.calflora.org/ The source of “lupine” word is the Latin word “Lupinus” meaning “wolf”. In the ancient, world, people believed that the Lupine flower was like a wolf, robbing the soil of its nutrient material and destroy it. Today we know that the Pea family plants add nitrogen to the soil. Old Greek tale, tells a story about Zeno of Citium of Crete (262 B.C), the famous founder of the Stoic School: Zeno, after drinking enough wine, compared himself to Lupine – Lupine loses its bitterness taste when soaked in water. Another Greek story tells us that visitors to the Oracle of the dead, on the back of the river Acheron, Epiros, were fed with Lupine peas, which prepared them to communicate with the dead. There are hundreds of species of Lupine. The Lupine produces flat seed-filled pods. Many species of Lupine are poisonous to livestock. If the pods are eaten in large quantities, they can cause poisoning. A reference to these two stories I found in the book “Florida Ethnobotany” by Daniel F. Austin. If you have reference to the source of the stories, let me know. A very interesting and fascinating article about the lupine appears in the following page: http://www.oldandsold.com/articles19/flowers-16.shtml One paragraph is about the advantage gained in the pea-shaped blossom and anther paragraph is about sleeping habits of the lupine. A Scientific article In the American Journal of Botany 64(8); 1032-1041. 1977, is about “Sun tracking and Related Leaf Movements in a Desert Lupine (Lupine Arizonicus) http://www.jstor.org/pss/2442259 Lupine became popular in the garden when George Russell hybridized them. He lived in Yorkshire England, as a railroad guard. You can read about his passion for Lupines and see some photos of his sensational flowers in the following site: http://www.godsowncounty.co.uk/03/yorkshire-folk/the-lupin-man-of-york-george-russell/ It is said, “Everybody loves Lupine”. In the coming year I will devote few square yards for Russell Lupine. I will try to start them from seeds.
	Derived Microseris Flower – Microseris Douglasii – The flower is an annual herb native to California.
	Douglas Violet - Commandant Violet Blanche Douglas-Pennant (31 January 1869 – 12 October 1945) was a British philanthropist and supporter of local government who served as the first commandant of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) until her dismissal in August 1918. These lines are part of an entry about Douglas Violet in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Douglas-Pennant

May 29, 2010 Garden Day

My muscles were tired. My legs hardly carried myself from one side of the garden to the garbage pans. Piles of leaves were scattered on the trail. Slowly I carried them to the pan. In my mind I debated with myself: “shall I plant now the last tray of flowers or shall I postpone it?”

In my thoughts, I went over my imaginary to do list:

Mop the trail between the beds where I have just weeded, cleaned and planted purple and pink impatiens.

Water the new plants.

Water the Weigela bush I had planted few days ago.

Spread some pellets to stop slugs eating the purple violets.

Water the sweet peas and cucumbers.

Water and prune the small English dogwood which slowly takes a shape of a dinosaur.

And water the herbs’ pot.

“No” I told myself “I will plant the second tray of flowers tomorrow.”

I completed my assignments, enjoyed again and again the view of the bed with the new and the old flowers.

The sun was advancing towards the Pacific, but it was still high in the sky. The sky was deep blue, the light colored the garden with special fresh shades and I could not resist taking some photos.

The roses,in front of the house,still have a grandiose show.

The new rose, with purple petals and strokes of white, blooms like a shy girl.

In the backyard, under the kitchen window, the roses, the Irises, the Columbine and the Foxgloves are woven together wildly. I love the jungle of flowers in this corner.

The Lilies are starting to bloom in many corners.

The king of the flowers, the Amaryllis, rises from the bulbs. A special chapter will be later devoted to the elegant Amaryllis flower.

On the fence between us and our neighbors several different Clematis vines are climbing. Looking at them closely I discovered that most of the flowers have four petals, some have six petals and some have five petals. I take a close up photo and the texture and the design of the petal comes out clearly.


Last,I look at the Chamomile flowers. I have not yet tried making tea from the flowers.



While writing the blog I found out that slug pellets might kill birds. The article has some suggestions how to create an anti-slug garden. Apparently there are some slug resistant plants. Now I have to study the list of plants and bring some of them to the garden. I would like to attract birds to the garden,not to kill them. The best suggestion, in the article, is to attract slug predators. The paragraph ends with the exciting words: “Hedgehogs, foxes and badgers all eat slugs.”
I ended the day with a thought: “My grandchildren would love to have a hedgehog strolling slowly in the garden. I remember one morning in my childhood. I was three or four years old, my father waked me up and lead me out to the yard. A wooden box was standing up side down on the balcony. Slowly my father lifted the box. Underneath a hedgehog was curling.”
When Amos and I lived in Shlomzion Hamlka Street, Haifa,hedgehogs were living in the fields around the house. More than once, Amos succeeded to capture one under a box, but in the morning, when he and the girls lifted the box with excitement, the Hedgehog was gone.

Rose - - The Queen for All the World Flowers

For me Rose is the queen of all flowers. Slowly I plant more Roses in my garden even though I am unable to thin thread among the plants that are already spreading widely in every corner of the garden. I am already aware of the sad status quo between me and the space: “No More.” To calm myself I secretly plan to set up a Rose garden on the soil of my neighbor. I am sorry to say that this plan will be accomplished only at the beginning of 2011. At this time I will, also, add one more climbing Rose to my garden. In my imagination it is already climbing on the top of the arbor above the gate on the right side of the house. I have enough time, about six month, to ask Amos to build the arbor for me and at the same time to make him believe that it is his idea in the first place.


The Roses in my garden enjoyed the 2010 rainy winter. The first flowers bloomed on April 17.





Now a month later they are ablaze even though I already have to trim the old flowers. I walk with the pruning shears and clean the fading flowers. I collect the tiny branches in a pail. I look at the pail down and the pile grows high. I look up at the Rose bushes and there is no sign for vanishing flowers, more and more buds open and fill the crown of the queen of flower.









The bed floors are covered with fresh petals. Walking through the short trail to our home is like walking in a delicate unseen cloud of the sweetest perfume on earth.







Our first experience with planting roses here in Palo Alto was twenty years ago. Today our yard is divided to the old yard and the new yard. In our old yard, the previous tenants, the Millers, left a bed with four beautiful fragrant Roses in the backyard. We planted different red roses in the front yard bed and Rose bushes in the backyard. All of the plants are now full with flowers and fragrance. I never cut the flowers, but Amos brought me two flowers and I enjoy their sweet perfume around the kitchen table. The southern fence of our old yard is covered poorly with light pink climbing roses. Too much pruning probably was bad for them. I do not know the name tags of the roses in the old yard.
The most exciting rose show is in our new yard. When I started planting the roses unfortunately I did not kept record of their names. Hopefully I will slowly search and find their names.
Some of the ancestors of the roses in my garden are mini roses sold at piazza food market for decorating the table at home. Once the flowers faded I planted the mini rose in the garden. Few grew up and forgot they were once mini roses. Here is one that turned into a climbing rose.

Our Gargage door is decorated with two climbing red roses. The climb slowly above a beautiful arbor made by Amos when we just moved into the house. I got the two climbing roses from my friend Mindle who shares my love for Roses.

The most beautiful climbing rose in the garden is trying with great success to welcome who ever go through the southern gate to our garden.












You can read in many web sites and in many books about the Rose. The Wikipedia has beautiful pages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose
Lately I bought most of my roses, bare roots, from Jackson and Perkins
http://www.jacksonandperkins.com/gardening/GP/homepage/GardenRoses
Some time when I am not lazy I drive across the Dumbarton Bridge to Regan Nursery in Fremont.
http://www.regannursery.com/
I love paging through the Jackson and Perkins catalogue. When I go to the Regan Nursery I take the catalogue with me. I slowly stroll among the hundreds of Roses, read their names, search for their character in the catalogue, and debate with myself and with Amos which one to buy. Our last visit to Regan was about a month ago. The new Rose we purchased was Salsa.



Many yards in Palo Alto now in May 2010 are exploding with blooms of Roses.

Writing the blog stirred me up to look for legends, stories and poems about the flowers in my garden. Roses are subject of an infinite number of books, essays, poems and legends.
Last night while writing the blog I enjoyed reading Oskar Wilde's story "The Nightingale and the Rose"
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/wilde/330/

Russian Ridge Hike April 17, 2010

On Saturday afternoon, after a debate on the subject "To work in the garden or to hike nature garden," we drove up Pagemill Rd. to Skyline Blvd. We hiked among the green hills of the Russian Ridge Open Space and took photos of the wild flowers. In spring as we hike and the hills are green we always say:
"Soon the hills will be dry."
I always add:
"They are green only for a couple of months."
I like the openspace with the fields of flowers and I like the Ancient Oak Trail.

The fields were dotted with small flowers:

California Poppy




Buttercup




Johnny-jump-ups (Viola pedunculata)




Tidytips (Layia Platyglossa)







The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District website has information about the Russian Ridge.
http://www.openspace.org/preserves/pr_russian_ridge.asp

Delightful Spots In our April Garden

Early in the morning, when the light is fresh and special, I like to walk around the garden. I make believe that it has trails along the garden to hideout corners where a surprise awaits me. I make believe the trails are stretching and winding around the flowers for miles. On one bright morning I took the camera and looked closely at my favorite flowers. At the far end of the garden a Red Abutilion is raging.
I enjoy the flowers, but my To Do List is growing:
Prune the vines around the Red Abutilion, before it is too late.
Fertilize the Citrus fruit dwarf trees.
Plant more vegtables.
Make the new red stepping stones even with the soil.
Buy some Sulfur to cure the diseased Peach. Poor Peach, a fungus attacked it and the leaves are curled.

I walk back on the trail leading to the grape vine arbour. Behind the swing a glorious new Peony.



The corner under the kitchen window is my cottage garden. Under a low trellis a delicate Clematis is trying to climb up.




I once read an article about a garden with 6000 Clematis plants. I wish I had only 600 clematis climbing all around the fences. Have a look at the one behind the pink abutilion.


The tiny red garden pencil add some notes to the Garden To Do List:
Find the special name for every Clematis in the garden.
Do not forget to plant the new impressive red Clematis.
Fertilize! Fertilize everywhere.

I climbed slowly the four steps back to the veranda. For a moment I turned back to the garden and saw the apple trees just starting to have some green leaves and flower buds.

Peony

When I first came to live in Palo Alto, about 20 years ago, I observed next to a house on Middlefield Rd, a magnificent, huge white flowers blooming on a small unimpressive low tree. Since then every year, at the end of February, I pass by the tree and watch for its flowers. Years ago when I first saw the flowers I learnt their name: “White Peonies.”
I soon tried to plant peonies in my garden. I planted a tree peony and four peony bushes. The tree and the bushes are success. The Peony tree, every year in March, decorate itself with about thirty large purple flowers, an astonishing sight. But the pleasure from the crown of the flowers is annually ruined by rain. Whether it is a year full of rain or a drought year, the next day after the peony’s buds open, the sky are open and a splash of water wrinkle and damage the silk petals of my peony tree.
This year the peony’s flowers stood firmly and were not ruined as you see in the photo above. Slowly they fade and the petals drop around the tree. Every year I wait for these few days of splendor and magnificence.
There are many garden books, history books, old medicine books, legends, articles and fiction literature about the Peony flower. If I was not so involved in a few hobbies I would take upon myself to create a bibliography about the Peony.

I looked up Peony in AskOxford.com and here a quatation from the dictionary: "herbaceous or shrubby plant cultivated for its showy flowers.
— ORIGIN Greek paionia, from Paion, the physician of the gods."

"

Clematis Armandii

Walking through Palo Alto streets, I smelt an intense, sweet fragrance. It came from a tall fence covered with white flowers. I felt that I, too, should have the beautiful white vine with the deep green foliage on the fence in my garden. I did not know the name, but one day, about two years ago,I was visiting Filoli Gardens and there I saw the vine for sale. One was not enough for me and I bought two. I planted them, one next to the north fence and one next to the south fence. While planting them I forgot to pay attention for the name, but now while keeping records of the life of my garden in a diary I searched and found the name "Clematis Armandii."
Clematis Armandii is named to honor the Vincentian priest Jean Pierre Armand David. He was also an avid Zoologist and Botanist. On a mission to China he collected hundreds of specimens of the many groups in the natural world. Many of the specimens were first discovered by him and many specimens were named after him. He is best known for discovering the giant Panda.
Read more about Armand David in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_David
and in
http://www.vincentians.org.au/Studies/ScottBDavid.pdf
I found out that the author George Bishop created a book about David Armand "Travels in Imperial China: The Exploration and Discoveries of Pere David.
I published the blog, called my sister Ora and we both looked at the photos while chatting. The conversation quickly sailed far away from the Clematis Armandii's photo. While we spoke about this and that, the photo displayed on the screen and we both suddenly noticed that the flowers have different numbers of petals. "Have a look at the left corner of the photo and you can see flowers with four, five and six petals." we both exclaimed.
There is few interesting facts about petals in wikipedia, under "Petal".
While searching the net, for "flowers with different numbers of petals," I found out that on many plants the number of petals is a Fibonacci number.
"Oh," I sighed deeply, "long ago I did study about Fibonacci numbers but today I do not think I can give you a lecture about the subject."
Still it is intriguing. I am planning to start reading about the subject at the site "Flower Pattern and Fibonacci Numbers
http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpamages/sunflower.html

Today, April 3, 2010 the flowers are gone. I can't take closeup photos of the flowers with 4, 5, 6, petals. Four and six are not Fibonacci numbers.
I'll have to wait for next year.

Forget-Me-Not

About four years ago when I have just started creating a garden around my new home I walked around Palo Alto streets. I was attracted by small blue crapets in some gardens. Tiny light blue flower with with five petals and a delicate yellow dot in its center. The green leaves are shining and healthy, they have a hairy texture.
I bought seeds and spread them in one corner of the garden.
Today I have small light blue carpets every where in the garden. They conquered every space. I still like them. I stand next to kitchen window and they cover the front of the bed below the window. The light blue color is exhilarating. I do feel bad for all the beautiful flowers they cover and I am planning to change the structure of the bed, but I am not planning to weed out the cute little Forget-Me-Not flowers.
I am thinking about asking my sister, Ora, the artist, to create for me a pair of tiny earring in the shape of forget-me-not flowers with saphire stones.
There are about 50 types of the Forget-Me-Not flower.
While writing the blog I found out that Alaska's flower is "Forget-Me-Not.
There are many legends about the source of the name.
One of them is medieval story by the poet William McGonagall. I like the poem and even though it appears onother sites, I decided to copy it right here. It is a long poem, but it is an easy reading.

The Knight and the Bride

A gallant knight and his betroth'd bride,
Were walking one day by a river side,
They talk'd of love, and they talk'd of war,
And how very foolish lovers are.

At length the bride to the knight did say,
'There have been many young ladies led astray
By believing in all their lovers said,
And you are false to me I am afraid.'

'No, Ellen, I was never false to thee,
I never gave thee cause to doubt me;
I have always lov'd thee and do still,
And no other woman your place shall fill.'

'Dear Edwin, it may be true, but I am in doubt,
But there's some beautiful flowers here about,
Growing on the other side of the river,
But how to get one, I cannot discover.'
'Dear Ellen, they seem beautiful indeed,
But of them, dear, take no heed;
Because they are on the other side,
Besides, the river is deep and wide.'
'Dear Edwin, as I doubt your love to be untrue,
I ask one favour now from you:
Go! fetch me a flower from across the river,
Which will prove you love me more than ever.'
'Dear Ellen! I will try and fetch you a flower
If it lies within my power
To prove that I am true to you,
And what more can your Edwin do?'

So he leap'd into the river wide,
And swam across to the other side,
To fetch a flower for his young bride,
Who watched him eagerly on the other side.

So he pluck'd a flower right merrily
Which seemed to fill his heart with glee,
That it would please his lovely bride;
But, alas! he never got to the other side.

For when he tried to swim across,
All power of his body he did loss,
But before he sank in the river wide,
He flung the flowers to his lovely bride.

And he cried, 'Oh, heaven! hard is my lot,
My dearest Ellen! Forget me not:
For I was ever true to you,
My dearest Ellen! I bid thee adieu!'
Then she wrung her hands in wild despair,
Until her cries did rend the air;
And she cried, 'Edwin, dear, hard is out lot,
But I'll name this flower Forget-me-not.
'And I'll remember thee while I live,
And to no other man my hand I'll give,
And I will place my affection on this little flower,
And it will solace me in a lonely hour.'

by William McGonagall

String of Pearls

String of Pearls is a succulent plant. It has spherical leaves and tiny white flowers. I have the plant for over a year, but only today while strolling in San Mateo Garden Show I learnt its name. Before I had just refernced it as "small gree round balls". Now when I know its name, I can google search for it.
Searching taught me that the plant might be poisonous if ingested.
I have to keep eye on Itamar.
I learnt that I should place the pot over pebbless scattered in a dish that holds water.
I would like to propagate it to be able to share the plant with my friend.
The best instruction for propagating String of Pearls were:
Take a cutting.
Let it rest overnight.
Moist a Cacti soil.
Partially submerge the cutting in the soil.
Water once a week.
I will try it.

Ranunculus - Nuriot

Every October I plant the Ranunculus claw like bulbus alnog the Roses bed.
Slowly the green leaves emerge and in March a row of brilliant colored flowers decorate the Rose bed.
I love the dark colors of the Ranunculus flowers with the layers of petals.
I have to remember to dig them out and replant them, otherwise the Mow and Blow guy rake the row thoroughly.
I have to remember to order jumbos bulbs next year. It is said that each jumbo bulb will produce 35 flowers.
The site
http://garden.garden.org/subchannels/flowers/bulbs?q=show&id=757&page=2
has a very instructive article about Rnunculus.