BACKYARD JUNGLE VS PASADENA WINDSTORM

Back at the end of this past November a record-breaking powerful windstorm hit near Los Angeles, and Pasadena was at its epicenter. I was in France when it hit so I missed all the excitement. But from what I read in the news and heard from friends, there was definitely excitement. Driving back from the airport, I felt like I was in a warzone, with  downed trees everywhere. The photos below show the damage that my garden sustained, as well as some trees in my neighborhood and Huntington Library Botanical Gardens.

The banana tree in the middle of the photo took a direct hit and was pretty messed up.

I've since cut it back to the ground and am hoping that it will grow back.

 

The main, center branch of this tree (Yucca, I believe) got blown down

which resulted in some damage to the fronds of one of my fern trees.

My very tall Abyssinian banana took a beating and got shredded but amazingly,

none of the leaves got knocked over. These guys are used to dealing with

tropical hurricanes so a Southern California windstorm is a cakewalk.

The tiki god was apparently not pleased by the storm. He simply turned

around and stared at the pillar during the whole thing.

Damage to an island in the middle of our road.

More island damage on our road.

One of many downed tree in our neighborhood.

Damage at Huntington Library Botanical Gardens.

This tall bamboo held up pretty well.

More damage at Huntington Library Botanical Garden. The outdoor jungle

garden get pretty beat up. Here is a closed off path leading into it.

Here's another closed off path into the outdoor jungle. Most of the trees

seem to have survived the storm but there were branches and leaves

scattered everywhere.

EXOTIC FRUIT TREES PART 2

Digging through old photos that I meant to post but never got around to, I came across some that I took back in October last year from one day's gardening session. A few months before then I had started a micro tropical fruit tree orchard in the main section of my garden. (See my August 30th  "Midnight Gardening" entry). On this particular day in October, I transplanted several of these trees out of their pots and finally into the ground. The orchard consists of these tropical trees: three papayas, three guava and several bananas. Not seen in these photos in another area of my garden, I also have avocados, fig, orange, lemon, a couple passion fruit vines and three goji berry bushes.

MONSTER PLANT SALE AT OSH!

I happened to go to OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) yesterday to take advantage of a $5 discount coupon and I am so glad I went. They currently have an insane deal: All of their tropical house plants in 4-inch pots are $1 (normally $2.99!). I bought a dozen plants. And that was me holding back! I had to fight the urge to give the cashier a couple of $20 bills and drag the entire rack of inventory out the door. The sale lasts for another week and a half so go check it out if you need plants.

ORCHARD SUPPLY HARDWARE

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY FALL PLANT SALE

Jeez, where'd the days go?! I somehow managed to go more than 2 months without doing a blog entry. In my defense, I did get laid off from my corporate hell job (not really a bad thing) and had a long vacation in France (also not really a bad thing). Although I haven't had time to do entries, I have been taking gardening photos in preparation for when ever I'd have a spare moment to blog. That moment has finally come now at the beginning of 2012. My resolution will of course be to not go 2 months without a blog entry ever again.

Let me rewind the clock back to late October, when I attended the Huntington Library fall plant sale in San Marino. In case you're not familiar with Huntington Library, it is a huge 80+ year old educational and research library steeped in local Southern California history. It consists of several beautiful buildings filled with masses of art and historical publications as well as one of North America's premiere botanical gardens. They hold bi-annual plant sales in May and October. I live just a mile away so I always try to attend the sales and pick up a few nice plants. Here are some photos from the sale.

The tall plants in the photo below are called Amorphophallus. These dubious named

plants are relatives of the infamous stinky Corpse Flower, in fact these two might

actually be corpse flowers. I forgot to note which variety they are. 

The photo below shows my one purchase at this season's sale, a large, and allegedly

rare, Anthurium from Ecuador. The leaves on this gorgeous plant are huge.

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA  91108