Photo: Gerbera Daily from the garden today via #instagram

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

Video: Honeybees on Lemon Blossoms from Animalbytes

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

My friend Keri, over at Animalbytes and The Earth Minute, captured this great video of honeybees on her lemon tree.

Products: In the Woods – Fir Tree — my photography on smartphone cases, cards, totes and more!

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

iPhone and Samsung Cases | Cards and Wall-sized photographic prints

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This photo, and more, available on a variety of products from RedBubble. Order directly online.

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Video: In the garden…February 22, 2015: Birds, planting a new pomegranate tree and more!

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

An interesting project to map all the trees in Los Angeles, Juncos and Hummingbirds in the garden and Planting our new, free, pomegranate tree to add some more fruit and productivity to the garden.

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“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.

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Interesting Project: TreeMapLA

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

I came across this interesting project via a neigh or’s post on NextDoor.com and wanted to share it here. I have signed up and already marked a few trees in my own garden to test it out.

What is TreeMapLA?

TreeMapLA is an ambitious collaboration of nonprofits, local governments, businesses—and you—to map every tree in Greater Los Angeles. By entering every tree’s location, species and current size, and updating its needs, we create a powerful tool to learn about our urban forest and its value, including specific environmental and economic benefits.

This information will help us to manage the well-being of our region’s urban forest and make our city more livable: shadier, cleaner, safer and more beautiful, and better able to meet climate change impacts including heat, flooding and drought. Users of this information include government agencies, arborists, landscape architects, planners, students, civic organizations, and everyday citizens.

With TreeMapLA, concerned citizens and tree enthusiasts throughout Los Angeles can learn, communicate, and take action on behalf of the trees around us.

Garden Alphabet: Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)

Another in what I classify as the “alien” plants that grow here in Southern California. They do look so other-worldly, exotic and fascinating. We see a lot of strelitzia in the landscapes here in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, including a “giant” form that grows to the size of a tree.

Strelitzia /strɛˈlɪtsiə/^[1] is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae.^[2] The genus is named after the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, birthplace of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom. A common name of the genus is bird of paradise flower / plant, because of a resemblance of its flowers to the bird of paradise. In South Africa it is commonly known as a crane flower and is featured on the reverse of the 50 cent coin. It is the Official Flower of the City of Los Angeles and two of the species, Strelitzia nicolaiand Strelitzia reginae are frequently grown as house plants. ^[3]

The species S. nicolai is the largest in the genus, reaching 10 m tall, with stately white and blue flowers;^[4] the other species typically reach 2 to 3.5 m tall, except S. caudata which is a tree of a typically smaller size than S. nicolai. The leaves are large, 30–200 cm long and 10–80 cm broad, similar to a banana leaf in appearance but with a longer petiole, and arranged strictly in two ranks to form a fan-like crown of evergreen foliage. The flowers are produced in a horizontal inflorescence emerging from a stout spathe. They are pollinated by sunbirds, which use the spathe as a perch when visiting the flowers. The weight of the bird when standing on the spathe opens it to release the pollen onto the bird’s feet, which is then deposited on the next flower it visits. — Wikipedia

More information on Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia):

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Previously in Garden Alphabet:

Art: Waiting for Spring and …the wind does blow…

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

A couple of modified pictures from the garden using the ToonPaint iOS app — one of my favorite tools for putting a new spin on existing photos.

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Video: In the garden…February 18, 2015: Onion flowers and bees!

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Douglas E. Welch

The bees are loving the onion flowers on the green onions I am letting go to seed. I hope to be able to gather a bunch of seed when they are mature.