September 19th, 2015 I planted Bird of Paradise seeds.
I have been watering the flats, patiently waiting for some sign of life.
Then I found two very small plants emerging. Should be interesting to see what they become. Well, if they survive.
Can’t believe that they could possibly be Bird of Paradise. So what are they? Volunteer plants and oak trees pop up in my potted plants and gardens, thanks to the blue jays.
Now I wait. Gardening does require learning to be patient.
Brachychiton Pods
Brachychiton Seeds With Fuzzy Coating
Brachychiton Seeds, Fuzzy Coating Removed
Bottles for Soaking, Seeds, and Smoke Primer.
Removing Smoke Primer Paper
Empty Pods. Seeds Soaking in Smoke Water. Seeds Soaking in Hot Water.
The Seeds Were Soaked for 24 Hours Before Planting. Seeds in Planting Mixes.
One Tray for Seeds Soaked in Smoke. One Tray for Seeds Soaked in Hot Water.
Planting Mixes Used
Brachychiton Empty Pods
Have you ever been standing in a shop looking at what is on the shelf a few feet away, suddenly someone walks in front of you, and in between you and the shelf? You step back, out of their way, because you were not seen. Have you ever walked up to an automatic door and found yourself standing there waiting for the door to open? Your presence was not recognized by a sensor. How many times have you touched your iPad screen to open an app and nothing happened? Could you be invisible?
Got to thinking about, well being invisible. And since most of the time I don’t really care if I am noticed, I started thinking about things of substance in nature that are hidden or invisible. Things that have an important function, but remain hidden to the casual viewer.
I am in the process of using plant parts that are typically hidden in my invisible series. The parts are beautiful, often with patterns imprinted on them as the result of their function in the life-cycle of the plants.
These are the interior bits of Pandorea jasminoides. I collected some pods that I thought would be fun to use. When I opened the pods and removed the seeds, I found these beautiful shields.
I recently purchased a Pandorea jasminoides, specifically to harvest the pods, seeds, and other interior bits. This is the first harvested pod.
The Pandorea jasminoides bits were soaked in a glycerin solution to make them more pliable and easier to stitch.
Code to be used on Pandorea jasminoides bits.
The Pandorea jasminoides bits were stitched with Alpaca Lace yarn. Each piece was stitched with a letter of the quote–accustomed to being invisible.
The current plan is to make a page with the coded pieces on one side and a bound small round mirror of the other side. I seriously thought about making knitted and fulled pages, but I am not pleased with the results, yet.
Decided to try using some embroidered pieces for the pages.
The right side has–take notice in code. Not sure that I like it.
Each embroidered piece is 45 squares (11.25″) wide and 58 squares (14.5″) high. The openness of the stitches is one of the reasons for using the roofing felt in between. I love roofing felt–the way it feels, smells, and looks. I started using roofing felt when I was investment casting. Some of the roofing felt that had been used in the casting process had lovely plaster stains. I liked the used roofing felt so much I used it in my Headbox series.
Blooming and Fragrant Brugmansia.
Original plant was grown from seed that I purchased from seedman.com .This plant is a cutting from the original plant. The plant needs to be pruned often because it tends to want to grow 15 feet or taller.
This is my first Solandra Maxima. It has large gorgeous flowers that smell delicious.
I have taken numerous cuttings from the plant. There are Solandra maxima growing in several locations in my gardens.
Brugs in the Garden
I removed several Brugs because of water rationing. These look slightly wilted, but the majority of the time, limited watering does not seem to be a bother. A large part of the day they are in filtered light.
For whatever reason this bird feeder is not attracting birds. After the rain I found sprouted seeds.
The bird feed has been taken down and cleaned.
The Agave Today, 8 March 2016
First Photo of Agave Taken 24 March 2015
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the agave next door is still standing.
There was rain. And there was what seemed to be strong wind through the night. But it still stands.
I visited sloweather.com to find out what the agave survived.
The wind speed was a tad less than 25 mph.
The highest wind gusts were approximately 34 mph.
A tad windy, but not enough to topple the agave.
Over the past few months the agave has developed quite the tilt. It is difficult to actually see the tilt from my studio because the Brugmansia have leafed out, started to bloom, and are obscuring my view.
This is the first image that I shot. It is dated 24 March 2015.
Will the agave still be standing 24 March 2016?
Mushrooms, Moss, and Hellebores
Agave has narrowed in width and has more of a tilt.
Recently we have been seeing hawks in our neighborhood. The past week there was one perched in the top of the agave. Yes, the agave still stands. I watched the hawk for several minutes. It was grooming itself until a pair of doves attempted to land on the agave. Suddenly, it stretched out its wings and took flight after the startled doves.
Yesterday there was a thump on the kitchen door. We found this little hawk.
We have a bird feeder in the courtyard that attracts finches, sparrows, blue jays, and doves. Perhaps the hawk came for breakfast. After several minutes the hawk flew away.
Just when I thought my dollar find Acacia was not long for this world, it started to bloom.
