Firebush / Hamelia patens

Firebush is a first-class tropical plant / butterfly and hummingbird attractant. Though it freezes to the ground most winters, in late spring when temps warm it returns faithfully to its flawless form, not one brown leaf, not one spent flower. 

It grows to 7 feet high and slightly less wide naturally, and I don't trim it at all until frost, when I cut it to the ground and leave the trimmings to insulate the roots during winter. It has survived 15 degrees for 2 consecutive long nights here in zone 8b south Louisiana just fine.

 It loves full sun and drip irrigation, but I have one in a dry spot that does almost as well. In fall leaves develop red specks to complement its special color. It looks particularly well next to Musa Thia Black banana you might see in the distance.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamelia_patens 

Musa Siam Ruby Banana Tree

I purchased 4 tissue cultures of this plant a year ago, kept them through the winter in a window in my house along with other small ornamental bananas, where I learned Siam Ruby is a bit more fussy.

In March I planted 3 plants in different environments in my garden, and one in a container inside my shade house.

So far it is my opinion that they are cold sensitive, do not like the low humidity inside a house, leaves are tattered easily in the wind, and stalks are weak. The plant in the shade house under drip irrigation fares best, and is a joy to grow.

The tissue cultures in this batch were not consistent in color as some are a bit more green in coloring than others. I prefer this one that is almost entirely red.

 Plant yours out of the wind or harsh sun. It loves ideal conditions, where it grows to 8 feet high and 5 feet wide in one summer. In the spring I will let you know how it fares zone 8b temperatures in the ground.

OK, spring 2015 is here and Siam Ruby is coming out of the ground like a winner. It survived a colder than average winter in zone 8b.

Hummingbird Moths

 White Lined Sphinx Moth

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyles_lineata










Pink Spotted Hawk Moth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrius_cingulata










Hummingbird moths do look to be near the size of hummingbirds, and resemble them remarkably while hovering above there favorite food, but on silent wings that do not hum.

Even their wings appear to be made of feathers. A special gift here in my zone 8b South Louisiana yard in late summer and fall, they feed near or after sunset, and are highly attracted to  White Hedychium (butterfly) Ginger.

The humming bird moth insists, that no one's garden is left without_  beauty in alluring complexity_  the man need not look for splendor, but paradise will seek the man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedychium_coronarium

White House Ruin / Canyon de Chelly, AZ

Young Man,

Hidden messages/freedom live in travel, sufferings, mistakes, learning, experimentation, endeavors. They comprise the definition of each unit of distance by event, occurrence, location, inspiration_ a measure far more meaningful than ticks of a clock/time, a value/opportunity wasted without action.

The whole of understanding resides in earnest question, afforded by this great unknown/vastly underestimated allowance/distance/chance we know.

The value of our best work/art/gift is limited to this exact degree of understanding/action. The spirit/intellect/person is formed/shaped/harvested/encouraged by the beauty of nature and deliberate acts of teachers who kindle interest in the devotion of hands on learning/doing/discovery by action/sweat/sacrifice/blood.

In conversations of men, abrupt off topic terms/subjects/links ( of which White House Ruin is one ) and off topic phrases ( facts unfamiliar to men  ) are uncomfortable, superficially denied, foolishly criticized, considered disconnections in the simple means of human communications ( complacency )...

 However in nature our greatest teacher, contrasts are commonplace,  undeniable, and accepted _  where these visual off topic terms/subjects become shortcuts through doldrums of information useless to the moment  ( travel through space is relative to mans acquisition of knowledge, the universe is equal to the mind, the man is equal to his lessons learned/travel/action ).

People for the sake of being on topic create a waist of word time, ( on topic being what feels good ) a modern day replacement for a repeated chant/repeated chorus of a song/obsolete form of courtesy,  which can be ridiculously slow and limit a learning process detrimental to the survival of a people. It must be amended. It's ballsy and borderline arrogant I know, but necessary for our descendents.

In the future, when two human beings address one another to exchange information, we must make it possible that more is conveyed in less time, and this can only be possible with a greater knowledge base, a greater respect and admiration of absolute truth. This will be the universal language of peace, and must be spoken sufficiently fluent to provide the connectedness we desperately need to become a type 1 civilization. We can not survive ourselves without it.

Looking into the night sky, the testimony of such vast possibilities overwhelmingly suggests highly intelligent neighbors who speak this language. Numbers among us must assume this responsibility on behalf of the whole of Earth's People/all things Good and Beautiful.  

White House Ruin is one classic example of a vanished culture (Anasazi). These talented architects disappeared without a successful written language, or descendents to tell their story. It is a lesson plainly visible in many places in the Desert Southwestern U. S. from which we must learn, or chance to follow.

White House Ruin Is one of several Indian Ruins within Canyon de Chelly National Monument Arizona, one of the most beautiful of all the canyons I've visited. The canyon has been the home of The Navajo People for some 300 years. One of Whom is my good friend Adam Teller of Antelope House who took me to these sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_de_Chelly_National_Monument

Musa ''African Red '' Banana

I acquired this ornamental banana as a very healthy corm this past fall from Zone 9 Tropicals in Houston, Tx.. I overwintered it in a greenhouse during the very cold winter and put it in the ground where it will stay, in early spring here in zone 8b South Louisiana. I am advised it does well here, even though it freezes to the ground most winters, it returns to full form every summer.

 It's a promising specimen, appears true to name, and is one of those plants you'll want where you can see it's deep rich red often. It should reach maturity next summer at I'm thinking 10 feet high and 8 feet wide, as the grove becomes acclimated to its new environment. It is now about 7 feet high and 4 feet wide.

Caesalpinia Pulcherrima / Pride Of Barbados

Pride of Barbados, sometimes called Dwarf Poinciana or Peacock Flower, is surprisingly unknown to many long time gardeners.  I've seen it growing  throughout the Southern U.S. Gulf Coast region  as far west as Phoenix and Tuscon Arizona in city flower plantings, as pretty as pie in the Sonoran Desert heat, yet, it loves the wet weather here in the cooler rainy season of the Southeastern U. S... It's remarkably uncommon for a plant to tolerate both environments.

Though its been around a while, it's true value as a 1st class tropical plant is largely unrecognized. Possibly because it's a plant for larger yards at 4 to 6 feet in height 6 to 8 feet wide, but it also has the ability to overpower everything but the classiest creations of nature.

The red orange and yellow flowers grab the attention of human beings, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds  before any other color, across distances far past mans ability to identify what In the world it could be. This is an attribute very few subjects possess, and it is undeniably powerful. It's fern like leaf texture and habit, it's airy suggestion of peace and harmony are specifically wonderful. If you only get to grow 10 plants in your time on Earth, this should be one.

The plant pictured here is one I've grown for about 8 or 10 years in a hard and dry spot, in my Southwestern Louisiana zone 8b yard, in full sun, on the south trunk of a Long leaf Yellow pine tree, in acidic infertal sandy soil, where it's roots have survived 2 consecutive winter nights of 15 degrees F for 10 hours.

Seeds sprout easily for propagation purposes, but the plant is not invasive. It loves heat, pine needles around its base, ample rain but has endured drought, likes a little fertilizer but doesn't usually get any. It just sits there and looks like this from late June until mid-Septmber when seeds demand all Its energy, freezes to the ground in most winters here, and returns to full form every year to make us happy again. It is a living Prayer with healing capacity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesalpinia_pulcherrima

Moso Bamboo / Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens

This is Moso Bamboo as it is most commonly called. This particular plant is a 2002 seedling I acquired from a fellow bamboo enthusiast, bamboo expert, and Nurseryman Gib Cooper of Gold Coast, Oregon ( Tradewinds Bamboo Nursery ).

 I'ts  been in the ground for about 10 years, has grown to 35 feet in height and 2 inches in diameter on a infertal Pine ridge in Southwest Louisiana, way out in a meadow in the woods where it gets absolutely no attention. I take people to see it every now and then, everyone loves it.

 In it's native environment in The Mountains of China, it can grow to an impressive 8 inches in diameter and 80 foot in height in it's man like  life cycle of 80 years, after which it flowers and then dies, sending it's hopes, dreams, and love into the future in unimaginable numbers of prayer-like seeds, each and every one possessing the power of oneness, to be of different shape, form, color, and behavior.

 Likened to men, what the power of many cannot do, the one has all power over. A sort of Benevolent Dictatorship is true.

 In the baron brown confusion of the dying bamboo forest, while the impatient man believes the world has ended, countless wise little seeds see an eternal beauty, an unbeknownst new garden in a distant time.

tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllostachys_edulis

Yosemite Valley

When the spirit of Beauty passes, the physics of time is altered in five seconds of magic. An ever-returning symphony plays, to an elusive summoners call.

  
In the presence of its glory men are forced to remember its sovereignty, in the purest form of question_ the instinctive fire of the crucible states it's case, 
   
followed by an awe inspired affirmation_ the light in which we men must all agree and admire. 

It is I believe, after a life of ponderance, a time within a realm. .

http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm 

Musa Velutina Banana

Musa Velutina is an ornamemtal banana that has  grown outside my Southwestern Louisiana zone 8b  kitchen window for 15 or 20 years, freezing to the ground most winters and returning to this form every summer. The mature grove is 6 foot high and almost as wide. It loves rainy weather or daily drip irrigation, inexpensive 13-13-13 fertilizer 2 or 3 times a year, temperatures from 57 to 90 degrees F. , but will tolerate more heat. Bananas love full sun early May to end of September, then get sleepy in this climate. Over all a most gratifying plant to grow here.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_velutina

Lake Louise, Victoria Glacier

Photography is a math equation of how to create joy in your life and that of others, a great learning experience, in a lifetime's walk down a long garden path.

 A child becomes a man, who's purpose is to study the world around him, and quickly learn his rightful role as subordinate to an infinitely wonderful teacher of art, math, science, ideas unknown and grand, and that accordingly, a formal respect is due.

For the man to be complete, to see God, he must become a child again, proficient at being little. These are exactly the things, for what the depths of your soul is looking through the viewfinder, I can assure you. Don't believe less. Remember as you ponder the frame, the greatest photographer of all, looks back.

Learning to see the subject takes many years, it takes sufficient tears, requires long suffering, a lifetime maybe, understanding life's hard lessons, the depths of many fields, sorrows of great loss, assumptions of difficult responsibility, hard failure's resolve, far ranging vistas outside the self, an absolute confidence in beauty and truth, a seat of your pants knowledge of the illusive golden light, the power of clouds for light reduction, and to define the vastness of the sky, count the distance perspective and provide a degree of hope that is new and mysterious.

Only one brief little picture so short, a sparkle on a distant sea. What could it say ? What should it ?

Lake Louise is fed by the melt-water of Mount Victoria's receding glacier. The blue green color of many Northern lakes is due to suspended rock dust ground by the force of gravity on rivers of ice with embedded boulders grinding down glacial paths.

In the far Northern U. S. and Canadian Rockies, during periods of drought, mountain forest fires caused by natural forces are always burning, creating a haze in the landscape. It's possible to see from one vantage point, several separate fires burning at once, mountains apart in different directions. There are no fires in this image, but the haze from them is definitely present. Everything white is clouds or glacial ice.

Canadian Rockies   Banff, Alberta Canada 

https://www.google.com/#q=banff+alberta 

Nymphea Wanvisa

Don't take your eye off the prize. Everything you will ever do in your life_ will be more trouble than you thought, cost more money than you figured, take far longer than you had hoped... If your plans are justifiable and your heart is true, you will succeed. If your heart is untrue, you will always loose.  


Created  2009 by waterlily hybridizer Dr. Nopchia Chansilpa of Thialand.


http://iwgs.org/wanvisa-earns-best-new-waterlily-2010/

Solar Calendar Pictograph

Young man,

If you cherish a special idea rightfully yours, hold it close to your heart. Keep it secret if you must. Nurture it, scrutinize it, purify it, educate it, keep it safe all your life. Until which time you will know_  and only then give it purpose, make it fly. Don't let them kill your dream.

______________________

Solar calender pictographs are few and far between in the rock art of the desert Southwestern U.S... Standard pigments used in pictographs include red iron oxide, charcoal, white clay, ground malachite, and azurite mixed with saliva or  vegetable extracts to make a paste.

Photo By Paula R.

These basic concoctions have endured millennium beneath alcoves and cliff overhangs protected from the elements, conveying their messages across time. 

These people were far more advanced in their understanding of the patterns of the Earth and its seasons than we. They understood the power of written words, and that men lived within them. They personally knew death, and life giving sustenance, thus called them by rightful name. They appreciated the simple design of life and fluently spoke its pure language.

Canyon Pintado National Historic District  -  Sun Dagger Site
Rangely, Colorado

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%C3%B1on_Pintado

Musa Ruby Red Ornamental Banana

Ornamental Bananas are a joy. Most bloom all summer long, right up until frost. Others are grown for their fantastic leaf color, downright spectacles worthy of conversation.

Though they perform much better in the ground here in South Louisiana, they can be grown in pots in doors or out.

Small in stature, most are under 8 feet tall, half as wide, non invasive, and non edible. The small hand of bananas on this flower ( left ) will turn a ruby red color ( lower right ) in a few days.

Ornamental banana plants are no mess, easily trimmed or cut to the ground after freezing in the fall, which most will do during winters in zone 8b and cooler. They return to near full form  every year from the corm, to make you happy again darling.

Bananas love daily watering, full sun, mulch around base, and fertilizer 2 or 3 times a summer. However, they can do with less when your busy. In the Southeastern U. S. after established, their not fussy and can withstand pure neglect and rebound. I know this see. Huh.

The ornamental banana is a messenger poet. It has such the way with its few words of preciseness, a short recital in a summer's time, a tale of the expert witness of The High Court_  that beauty is complete in its smallest state.

.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_ornata

Magnolia Grandiflora Blossom

You will be my home,
the truth that I seek,
my ambitions, my peace, my rest.

I will know your heart,
honor you in your house,
where I wait for you all my days.

Search my soul,
cleans my thoughts.
Keep me humble,
so I will hear your voice.

Make me whole,
that I might see your face.

It's what the bee said.