UCR Fall Plant Sale & other Fall happenings

Aaaahhh - Fall...finally I can now let loose, unfettered, with my gusto for native plant planting. I will nevah, evah plant natives smack dab in the middle of summah again. Woe is me for having even tried. I'm mortified by all the unhappy casualties of my tragic experiments:

Arctostaphylos pringlei drupacea? POOF! Arctostaphylos luciana? KAPUT! Arctostaphylos densiflora 'Howard McMinn'? DESSICATED! Arctostaphylos glandulosa howellii? SAY IT AIN'T SO! Heteromeles arbutifolia var. macrocarpa? AUF WIEDERSEHEN! Prunus virginiana? ASHES TO ASHES Castilleja miniata? WHAT WAS I THINKING? Monardella odoratissima? ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! Salvia dorrii? TSAI JEN! Arenaria macradenia? AY CARAMBA!

I could go on and on, but it's simply too gut-wrenching. I know that conventional wisdom generally dictates fall planting for CA natives. However, my problem with gardening is and always has been unbridled enthusiasm with a touch of OCD. I simply could not resist the temptation to plant something, anything, even in the dead heat of July-August (like those boneheads who want to go camping in Death Valley when it's a balmy 130F). Whyfore hath reason absconded from thee?

But with the extremely subtle change of season upon us, I can now plant without undue fear of root rot reprisal!

Went to the UC Riverside Botanic Garden's annual Fall plant sale yesterday and scored the following:

• Winter Fat (Krascheninnikovia lanata)
• Banana Yucca (Yucca baccata)
• Mormon Tea (Ephedra viridis)
• 'Arroyo de la Cruz' Ceanothus (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus)
• 'Santa Ana Cardinal' Coral Bells (Heuchera hybrid)
• Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)
• Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)
• Island Oak (Quercus tomentella)
• Cedros Island Verbena (Verbena lilacina 'De La Mina')
• 'Magenta Hope' Autumn Sage (Salvia x jamensis)
• 'Dancing Dolls' Autumn Sage (Salvia x jamensis)
• 'Ruby Cluster' Rockrose (Cistus hybrid)

So am I satiated? Nope...already drooling over the goodies to be had at the upcoming Fall native plant sale next month at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont. Oh yeah, baby!

Today was a phenomenal, quintessential Southern California Fall day. Got all the above planted without too much hassle, other than the occasional need to ward off the swarming yellow jacket wasps with my extremely stylized but still impressive (at least to my dog) hover-jump-kicking Keanu-Matrixesque moves.

According to Wiki, "In late summer, foraging [yellowjacket] workers change their food preference from meats to ripe, decaying fruits or scavenge human garbage, sodas, picnics, etc., since larvae in the nest fail to meet requirements as a source of sugar. This is why yellowjackets are known largely as pests that are capable of ruining picnics."

All I can say is, don't leave your unscreened doors or windows open this time of year, unless you want to find a few morsels of uninvited black & yellow-striped insect proteins floating around and flavoring that pot of soup you've been simmering in the kitchen. Believe you me - BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. Really tips the scales on the Yuck meter.

10/18/09 Zen Arbor partially draped by Anacapa Pink Island Morning Glory (Calystegia macrostegia) and some cool clouds

10/18/09 Mt. San Jacinto sort of visible today...

10/18/09 Angel's Trumpet Brugmansia in full bloom. A couple years ago, this plant was just a wee sproutling that my Mom had commandeered from their previous residence in West Covina. The scent emanating from those ginormous blossoms are absolutely heady in the evening hours.

The 'La Cresta Fire'

This one really scared the crap out of me.

I'm usually off from work on Thursdays so just happened to be home last week on September 24th. Around noon time, Hana had trotted over to the kitchen door, looking really alert, like she wanted to bark at something. I thought it was probably the gardeners' truck pulling up the driveway, since they typically show up around this time. I peered outside and didn't see anything. Not surprising, with Hana's extremely vivid imagination. But just for the heck of it, I also took a quick peek up towards the hill to the right (east) side of the house. Well, for the love of Hana...

OMG - there was a huge plume of smoke directly behind the house. My first primeval, knee-jerk reaction thought? No *@$%&^%% way could this be happening!!!!. And at that very moment, the space-time continuum in my normally simple simon universe literally screeched to a stunning, unambiguous halt.

Ran up the hill to see exactly where the fire was. I was stricken with two simultaneous, conflicting thoughts as soon as I was able to catch my breath and assess the situation. The point of origin for the smoke column was actually about 3 miles away - fantabulous. But let me tell you, 3 miles away is like 3 inches away when you are in panic mode.

Called Gilbert & told him to get his hiney home. Shortly after, our neighbors, Hermina & Woody, drove up the hill in their golf cart and, together, we watched the fire progress over the next 45 minutes or so. Amazing aerial attacks by several water-dropping planes and also a helicopter.

At 1:30pm, Gilbert called me and said he had arrived in Murrieta, but unfortunately, the police had completely blocked access up Clinton Keith Road to La Cresta at Bear Creek. He, along with everyone else who had been trying to drive into Bear Creek or the Santa Rosa Plateau, were routed over to Ralph's supermarket on Calle de Oso Oro. At Ralphs, Gilbert called again and said he was going to use the GPS in the car and find his way back home by 4-wheeling it on a dirt road connecting to La Cresta from Deluz/Tenaja Road. Amazingly, he did make it home around 3:30pm. So I won't ever diss GPS again...

At the end of the day, the fire was contained within 24 hours, with a total of about 20 acres burned, no structures damaged or any casualties. A true testiment to the skill and dedication of our brave firefighters and amazing air support.

And now, for the 'Dumbass' award of the year: the fire was apparently caused by a tractor mower that was, what, mowing bone dry brush in chaparral foothills, in the middle of the day, in 100F temps, and Santa Ana wind conditions? WTF?!

You Tube videos posted by a La Cresta resident on the La Cresta fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE8lubuggyE

9/24/09 La Cresta (Bear Creek) Fire

As seen from the top of the hill behind our house.

9/24/09 Fire at Bear Creek, from Gil's perspective on his drive home.

Random Weekend Stuff: a cool sunset, an uppity Cooper's hawk, and more of those bloomin' natives

Blue skies, mild to occasionally blustery breezes, and fall-like temperatures. All in all, a beautiful weekend here in La Cresta. Even got nippy last night, with some fog rolling in around 3am. And how do I know that? Because I had insomnia and also because all the windows were open, so I could literally smell the cool, damp air wafting through. We may get more of that fog again tonight - it's only 7:50pm but the temps have already dipped down to 60F.

On Saturday, high level clouds overhead created the perfect atmospheric foil for a cool sunset.

Lately, there's been a juvenile Cooper's hawk hanging around the bird feeders where all the hapless and generally clueless song birdies congregate.  This unruly teenage accipiter is obviously staking out the area for some easy pickings. Luckily, there are plenty of trees & shrubbage for his potential victims to scatter to.  These pix were taken this evening around 7:00pm. The Cooper's was perched on the oak tree above our pond, feathers tousled by the brisk late afternoon wind.

I know we're on the cusp of autumn when the California Fuchsias start putting forth their shamelessly crimson floral dispays. It's just driving all the hummingbirds absolutely nuts! A few of the monkey cultivars are also (surprisingly) reblooming.  Here are some shots of those bloomin' natives, all taken today.

'Richard's Red' Monkeyflower cultivar.

'Sunset' Monkeyflower Cultivar

'Ghostly Red' California Fuchsia (Zauschneria californica)

9/13/09 'Uvas Canyon' California Fuchsia     

'Route 66' California Fuchsia. RSABG Intro.

'UC Hybrid' California Fuchsia

 

'Catalina' California Fuchsia

   Rose Mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpa)

'Burgundy' Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis)

Chinese Chives (ok, they're not native, but just had to throw them in)

Of wildfires, rainbows, and...bugs?

Just gave Hana a bath, which is a 2-person job. She likes to shake the water off her like a salad spinner every few minutes, so Gilbert and I also got showered. But, that's ok. It's August.

Been watching the local news stations on and off all day on the huge fire (aka the 'Station Fire') that's been burning up in the San Gabriel Mountains since Wednesday. Over 35,000 acres burned, 6,000+ homes evacuated, and the fire's only 5% contained. They're also keeping close watch on JPL and Mt. Wilson, which is home not only to the observatory, but also to a ton of transmitters/communications towers. We've been wondering if the fire has burned any portion of the Arroyo Seco, a favorite hiking spot of ours when we used to live in LA County. But in the overall scheme of things, that's not important. I feel mostly for all the residents, human or otherwise, who have been displaced by this terrible conflagration.

So far this year, we've been lucky in our neck of the woods, with only a few minor fires in Temecula, some smoke wafting over the ridge from Camp Pendleton (I think they ignited some small brush fires on the base as a result of their gung ho, seemingly 24/7 testing of an accoutrement of 'top secret' armaments and munitions), and most recently, on August 28th, a 2-acre fire at Tenaja Road and Avenida Escala, which was quickly contained by our most excellent firefighters.

For all of us here in Southern California, October can be the cruellest month because of those devilish Santa Ana winds combined with the exceptionally tinder dry chaparral in our local mountains. I do NOT want to revisit those horrible fire storms of October 2007 that raged out here in Riverside County and Northern San Diego County.

For pix of some of the fire hazards we've gone through, check out: http://camissonia.smugmug.com/Events/FIRE-WIND-RAIN-SNOW-Other/3702089_3njAk#217540243_cDPsT

And now, for a diversion from the dire meteorological forecast, here's a Kodak moment captured as we were leaving for work at 6:35am on August 4th. Monsoonal flows (although we never really got any measureable rain here in La Cresta) along with a good dose of morning sunshine, created this virtual kaleidescope-in-the-sky. Wonder why I don't miss LA more than I do.

As for bugs, we have plenty of them out here. However, anything that resembles a grasshopper is, IMHO, evil incarnate and MUST be destroyed, killed, smashed, obliterated, and utterly annihilated.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am neurotically, pathologically, insanely, phobically, opposed to anything that remotely emotes 'grasshopper'. Crickets (or the brown grasshoppers), as long as they are less than 1" in length, are marginally acceptable. Everything else? KABOOM!! DEAD!, RAID! Gilbert, kill that thing or else you're not getting any dinner or even allowed back in the house! BLECH!@!!!

I can't imagine why I'm so mortified by these things. Short of paying a shrink to explain it to me, I will self psychoanalyze and say that I probably transferred my childhood fear of those enormous flying cockroaches in Taiwan to the grasshoppers of Southern California. I also vaguely recall an old black & white sci-fi flick I had watched as a small child about aliens from outer space which somehow tangentially involved the discovery of enormous pods of grasshopper-like thingies. Towards the end of the movie, there was this ghastly giant Lucifer-like image that emerged, obliterating the skyline, ready to destroy the world. Thankfully, the abomination was destroyed only after a beam or crane made of iron went crashing into it (and I think with somebody actually riding on it!). As an adult, I'm sure I would have found the plotline of this movie pretty hoaky, but as a youngster, I was just too darned naive and impressionable. So, the unfortunate dye was cast, and I am now cursed with this life-long inability to differentiate between grasshopppers and the evil spectre of Satan.

Religio-neurotic implications aside, all I can say is give me a rattlesnake any day over a freakin' grasshopper!

However, there are other bugs that I absolutely love, or at least am intrigued by, including spidders and the bootiful butterflies. Here are a few I happened on, both in and out of the house.

8/12/07 Tarantula (Aphonopelmus reversum). We found this guy in the garage, and had to catch & release him back into the wilds...

7/23/09 Silver Orb Spider (Argiope argentata), webbed between the Spanish Lavenders

8/13/09 Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) on Butterfly Bush

9/30/06 I think this is a Stripe-tailed Scorpion (Paruroctonis silvestrii). Gilbert almost stepped on this guy when he got out of the shower. He started screaming like a girl, and I thought he was messing with me when he said there was a scorpion in the bathroom, so I totally dismissed his cries for help. Ooops - my bad! Anyhoo, we managed to get him (the scorpion, not Gilbert) into a gladware container & then set him free in the chaparral hillside behind the house.

3/31/01 Bramble Green Hairstreak (Callophrys dumetorum)? Photographed this little cutie on a visit to the property several years before our house was built. Looks like he or she is imbibing on Popcorn Flower (Plagiobothrys or Cryptantha species?)

6/3/01 Mormon Metalmark (Apodemia mormo) on Deerweed (Lotus scoparius). Again, photographed on one of our trips to the property before our house was built.

A PLETHORA of Hanny Toys

Only a Pet Parent would understand. We treat our pets like we gave birth to them...

A 'Plethora' has been variously described by some lexicons as: "an embarrassment of riches," "an excessive amount or number," "an overabundance: not problematic, but more than required," "in humoral medicine, the condition of too much blood, resulting in an imbalance of the humors... usually treated with phlebotomy."

Ok, I will concede that the last definition is neither here nor there in the context of this post. Particularly the reference to 'phlebotomy', which I believe involves the ancient medical practice of bloodletting, totally not my (nor Hana's) cup of tea.

HOWEVER, I am embarrassed to admit that Hana (aka "Hanny") does have too many toys. Whose fault is that? Her mom and dad's, but primarily her mom's.

I confess that I am afflicted with an addictive need to purchase poochie toys wherever I can find them, and especially the ones that produce the most obnoxious noises, because I think Hana/Hanny needs them. How's that for anthropomorphizing?

But, just look at how contented she seems here, shredding Turkey while surrounded by her entourage of resigned groupies!

Hana's toys are:

Turkey (her favorite)

Fishie

Bunny

Squirrel

Skunky

Hedgehog

Chipmunk
Ball Ball

To see more of Hana, go to her website at http://www.hanabanana.homestead.com/