Magnolia Season
These are erupting all over town. Pretty cheerful for what passes as the middle of winter in Southern California.
All different colors of Sedum.
The Sun Sets on December and Rises on January
Happy New Year to all!
Last week we had a series of beautiful sunsets and — cliché though it is — they are irresistible to photograph. This was from December 31 (more or less):
Late December Sunset
With January comes the reliably sunny and cheerful bloom of the Pearl Acacia at the end of my street. This is one of my favorite trees, in or out of bloom. The flowers only last a few weeks, much too brief.
Acacia podalyriifolia
Sadly this tree was badly damaged during the freak windstorm we had a month ago (wind gusts up to 100 mph, they say). It now has a huge gaping hole where a large branch or two used to be.
Acacia podalyriifolia wind damage
This is how it looked in January, 2011:
Acacia podalyriifolia intact
If you did not get to experience the windstorm first hand, you can see a bit of the destruction in this video. Downed trees and lengthy power outages were widespread. But you won’t hear too many complaints from us in Southern California where we’ve been enjoying 80 degree weather all week. Unfortunately, the plants are a little confused by the heat and we’ve hardly had any rain yet this winter — the only time of year we can expect rain at all.
Finally, here’s a shot of the blimp circling back around to the Rose Parade on Monday, January 2:
Blimp over the Rose Parade
R.I.P. Scott Wilson and Thank You
The trees of Los Angeles, and all those who depend on them (which is all of us), have lost a great friend and advocate. Scott Wilson, of Eagle Rock, founded North East Trees in 1989. He and the organization are responsible for planting at least 50,000 trees, many of them now mature, shade-giving, storm water absorbing, habitat-providing, oxygen-generating and beautiful members of our community.
I personally met Scott only once, about a year ago, and we chatted for about 45 minutes about trees and landscape architecture. He was passionate about his vocation, charming, friendly and funny. I feel lucky to have met him in person, though I already knew him well by reputation. He left a great legacy for his community and his profession. He showed us what can be done and it is up to us to continue on in the critical work of re-foresting Los Angeles and beyond.
His family is requesting that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to North East Trees.
Friday Afternoon Art Outing
I found myself in the mid-Wilshire area at lunchtime yesterday. The stars aligned and I scored a metered parking spot without any trouble (though I might’ve made a questionable U-turn to get to it). My first destination was the Rethink / LA exhibit at the Architecture and Design Museum. This show offers “perspectives on a future city”, imagining Los Angeles 50 years from now. There is a series of 18 collages, each made by an artist, designer or architect, showing his / her / their vision of what a portion of the city could be. Most of them are rich, creative and optimistic takes on the potential of our urban environment and the technologies that will get us there. There are some interesting audio and video installations as well. My favorite is a virtual skate part made only of walls lined with fluorescent light tubes that flash on and off synchronized with audio of skateboard wheels and sounds that move around you as you stand in the room. It’s a simultaneously peaceful and exciting experience (sunglasses recommended!). The exhibit is there only until September 4, so this week is your chance to check it out.
Wilshire Blvd., "Miracle Mile", where the A+D Museum is located
As envisioned by Rios, Clementi Hale Studios
Next stop: lunch. The lure of the food trucks that stretch along Wilshire at lunchtime in this neighborhood was too strong to resist. I had a delicious tofu / lemongrass bahn mi sandwich from the Phamish truck.
After that brief intermission, I crossed the street to walk among the forest of street lamps designed by legendary artist Chris Burden (also visible in the lower left corners of the photos above). Urban Light is one of my favorite public art installations in the city (especially since Barbara Kruger’s flag at MOCA is gone). Instead of explaining why, I’ll save a couple of thousand words by posting pictures. It’s easy to find other fantastic photos of this piece on line, taken by more talented photographers, including lit up at night.
Urban Light at LACMA, daytime, view from Wilshire Blvd.
Urban Light, LACMA, view toward Wilshire Blvd.
Just a bit deeper into the LACMA complex, in front of the newish Resnick Pavillion, is Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals / Chinese Zodiac (on display until February 12 next year). This article from The Economist gives a bit of context for their tour of the U.S. Some are fierce-looking, some are cute. They are all impressive in their Los Angeles setting against an installation of palm trees (by Robert Irwin) and a very blue sky with some high wispy clouds. To me they evoke some sort of odd cross between a council circle of deities straight out of a fantasy story and a display of trophies collected by some sadistic hunter or murderer. They are worth seeing in person, but here’s a complete set in photos:
Dog
Dragon
Goat
Horse
Monkey
Pig
Rabbit
Rat
Rooster
Snake
Tiger
I would love to see these installed in different environments. I think it would be an entirely different experience each time. At LACMA they form a closed circle, but in other installations they’ve been placed in a semi-circle arrangement instead. After Los Angeles, they are going to Houston, TX, then Washington, D.C. and afterward to Pittsburgh, PA.
Norton Simon Sculpture Garden in July
Last year, right around this time, I posted about trees with yellow flowers in bloom all around Los Angeles. Well they are at it again. And I’ve discovered that one of the best places to see them is in the lovely garden at the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena. This garden, designed by Nancy Goslee Powers several years ago, is one of the most tranquil and serene places to visit on a hot summer day. You can escape from the baking sidewalks, dust, exhaust and commotion of the street into this cool, leafy refuge and you can even have a sandwich at the little cafe while you are there.
Here you can see Cassia leptophylla and Tipuana tipu trees side by side (or rather, you can see the Tipuana tipus towering over the Cassias), both covered in yellow blossoms that also litter the ground like confetti. A handful of sculptures by artists such as Henry Moore and Maillot sit placidly in strategic spots, seeming to gaze back at you as you wander among them. I can’t imagine a better way to spend an hour if you’re passing through Pasadena.
Although I think the garden is one of the best reasons to visit Norton Simon, they do have a beautiful art collection as well — inside. Norton Simon also happens to be the location of one of my greatest celebrity sightings of all time: Stephen Hawking (many years ago)!
There are many other, wonderful plants here besides the two trees mentioned. I’ll save those details for another time.
Strangler Fig, Part Dos*
You might have seen my earlier post about Strangler Figs.
When I traveled to Belize this spring, I got a chance to see those strangler figs in action! Deep in the jungle, among the Mayan ruins, are many trees slowly being swallowed up by the relentless aerial roots of strangler figs creeping downward to earth from their canopy cradles and devouring their host trees in the process. These are the plant worlds’s woody boa constrictors, smothering and suffocating the life out of their nursery trees as they engulf them on their way to solid ground.
This is the end result, a majestic tree with a trunk and roots resembling a waterfall poured down from an azure sky and leafy green canopy above, its roots cascading over a rocky pedestal.
Strangler Fig
Here is what it looks like along the way, a baby strangler fig’s roots slowing snaking their way down an unsuspecting palm tree’s trunk, enveloping it:
Strangling Fig
Strangling Roots
Until the roots hit terra firma and slither out in all directions.
* English is the official language of Belize — it was formerly a British colony, just like us. But Spanish is widely spoken, just like home, and Creole and various Mayan-derived dialects are also used.
Flora & Fauna in Belize
Well, I was lucky enough to enjoy a fantastic vacation in Belize a few weeks ago (which helps to explain the long period of time between my posts). It was much too short, but otherwise perfect. Of course, I can’t help but take pictures of plants, even amid the worthy distractions of snorkeling, swimming, eating, drinking lots of rum punch and lounging / napping (in between eating / drinking). This is just a small sampling of what I got to see — and taste — there.
There are so many Coconut Palms on the beach that you can actually just pick one up, knock it hard against the trunk of the tree, and start sipping the coconut water right out of it on the go (so much better than a Big Gulp). These are “custard” coconuts. Once you break it open, the delicious, soft meat is best eaten with a spoon. You do have to watch out for coconuts falling out of the trees; a guy in the hammock next to me had a very near miss and almost got beaned right on the noggin when one of them came crashing down out of the fronds.
Coconut Palm on the beach
Another Coconut Palm growing through a deck
Banana (or Plantain?) riverside
Red Mangrove along coast of Ambergris Caye
Banana Orchids growing on Red Mangrove along the river
Wild Orchids (blurry close-up)
Snake Cactus on Red Mangrove
Tillandsia (Air Plants) growing wild among the Mangrove
Russelia equisetiformis (Firecracker Plant) growing like crazy
Heliconia at Lamanai
A Strangler Fig at Lamanai
We got to see a few of the local critters, too.
Nymphaea (Water Lilies) with a "Jesus Bird"
Tiny Crocodile on a log
Spider Monkey watching us watch him
BIG Iguana
In Bloom: Echium candicans (Pride of Madeira)
To say that a particular thing is “in bloom” now is a little silly. Nearly everything is blooming now, especially our crazy abundance of wildflowers (find the best places to view them at the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline, March through May). But I like to use this space to highlight a plant that seems to suddenly erupt into bloom in a big and noticeable way and that causes people to say to themselves, “What the hell is that???”
Right now, that plant is Echium candicans, known as Pride of Madeira (which sounds to me like the title of a triumphal poem from some other era written to celebrate a victorious battle). This striking plant really does originate from Madeira, a Portuguese archipelago north of the Canary Islands.
Whether or not you knew the name of this plant, you could not have missed seeing it if you have been outside of your house anywhere around Los Angeles lately. They grow to be very large and look like they want to swallow up anything that might get in their way. At this time of year they send up dramatic spires of blue and purples flowers. These flowers are shortly aswarm with dozens, if not hundreds, of bees. These do particularly well near the coast and are also good inland with only a moderate amount of water.
Echium candicans sharing the stage with a blooming Agave and a large Grevillea
Echium candicans flower spikes in shades of blue and purple
Echium candiscans blooms, closer-up (hard to see, but many bees!)
If you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a less common, but equally striking plant, Echium wildpretii or Tower of Jewels. This one is from the Canary Islands, Tenerife specifically.
Echium wildpretii
Echium wildpretii at the Huntington Gardens, May, 2010
La Cañada Day Trip
Although La Cañada is only about 10 minutes away from my house, I rarely go there (except for semi-annual visits to get my teeth cleaned). But a friend recently opened her design office in La Cañada so I made a date to meet her for breakfast and then managed to squeeze in quite a few errands. Remarkably, I could get everything done within a 3 mile stretch of Foothill Blvd, including: stops at Trader Joe’s and Petco, a stop at a branch of my bank, stopping at an awesome thrift store and picking up a cute pair of pants for only $6, then dropping off said pants at the tailor in my friend’s building to get some minor adjustments, then over to FedEx Office to pick up some large format plans for work. By then I was getting hungry again, but instead of stopping at Taco Deli (delicious vegetarian tacos), as tempting as that was, I took my groceries home to make lunch.
In between all of the above activities, I stopped to photograph a couple of interesting gardens along my route. First, at the La Cañada Flintridge Library (conveniently next door to the Bargain Box Thrift Store operated by the Assistance League of Flintridge) there is a lovely demonstration garden full of native California plants with a few non-natives mixed in.
Ceanothus in bloom
Ceanothus, Agave, Fescue
Cercis and a bumble bee
Ribes and Juncus under an Oak
Verbena and Salvia spathacea
Second, just a little ways down Foothill Blvd., there is a vertical garden planted right into the retaining wall. The wall is made of stacked manufactured block, some with built in pockets to hold the soil and plant roots. It is filled with Centranthrus ruber (also known as Red Valerian or Jupiter’s Beard) and some Lantana that form a living wallpaper. These are two tough plants, sometimes invasive, that can thrive and spread in harsh conditions. They do get a little help from supplemental irrigation in the form of drip tubing that is woven through the wall (see the black hose in the photo below).
Vertical garden
You dont see the brown bits when whizzing by at 50 mph
OR, you could just have this instead (right across the street):
It makes me appreciate the effort involved in putting together the planted wall, even though it’s more trouble to do it.
(Also, I’m happy that I finally remembered how to do the ” ñ ” on my computer or this post might never have been published.)
