Tag Archives: san diego botanic garden

Friday Flower Fiesta (12-8-17)—San Diego Botanic Garden in December

Friday Flower Fiesta

I like to take my photographs and kind of mess them up in Photoshop and various other programs so that they don’t look like photographs anymore. That means I’m always on the lookout for new digital photo editing programs. One I discovered a few days ago is called “Impresso Pro” by a company called JixiPix. They claim to have

“a long and lucrative history developing well-known 3D, Video and Multi-Media software, not to mention an industry of iOS and Android apps. Thanks to the response from our users, we have been recognized as one of the top developers from Apple, Mac World, USA Today and other industry leaders.”

Yet they don’t have a page on Wikipedia….

Nonetheless, following are 24 photographs from my December visit to the San Diego Botanic Garden, messed up a little bit in Impresso Pro.

Which one is your favorite?

1 – Bromeliad San Diego Botanic Garden

2 – Agave San Diego Botanic Garden

3 – Aloe San Diego Botanic Garden

4 San Diego Botanic Garden

5 – Passionflower San Diego Botanic Garden

6 San Diego Botanic Garden

7 San Diego Botanic Garden

8 – Day Lily & visitor San Diego Botanic Garden

9 – Fig San Diego Botanic Garden

10 San Diego Botanic Garden

11 – Bamboo Tunnel San Diego Botanic Garden

12 San Diego Botanic Garden

13 – Agaves San Diego Botanic Garden

14 – Bromeliad San Diego Botanic Garden

15 – Woodpecker tree San Diego Botanic Garden

16 – Aloe San Diego Botanic Garden

17 – Aloe San Diego Botanic Garden

18 San Diego Botanic Garden

19 – Cycad San Diego Botanic Garden

20 – Bromeliad San Diego Botanic Garden

21 – Aloe San Diego Botanic Garden

22 – Shaw’s Agave San Diego Botanic Garden

23 – Aloe San Diego Botanic Garden

24 – Sunflowers San Diego Botanic Garden

Los Angeles Arboretum — Gone to the birds

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When Jim went to bed Saturday night (he goes to bed much earlier than me), he told me we were going to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena for our 19th anniversary.

When Jim got up Sunday morning (he gets up much later than me), he told me we were going to the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia (next to Pasadena) for our 19th anniversary.

I guess he had a dream…………..

The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden (herafter, LACA) comprises 127 acres whereas our San Diego Botanic Garden is 37 acres. Of course, we have the San Diego Zoo, also an internationally recognized Botanic Garden, at 100 acres, so there…………..

LACA had a huge Australia garden, probably covering half of the arboretum. That’s about 60 acres. Much of our Southern California climate is very similar to Australia, and Australian native vegetation does exceedingly well here. Walk through Balboa Park here, though, at 1,200 acres, and you’ll see everything in LACA’s Australia garden.

One thing that LACA had that San Diego Botanic Garden does not have is birds. Particularly Peafowl and Canada Geese. More than you can shake a stick at, and if you were to shake a stick at them, some might take the stick out of your hands!

I think if I were around Peafowl (remember that male Peafowl are Peacocks and female Peafowl are Peahens) more often, they could easily become my favorite bird. They are so much fun to watch.

Following are 15 pictures and 5 flash videos of the Peafowl at LACA. Be sure to watch the last video if you don’t do anything else here today; he’s a little tease! The 15 pictures are of 15 different birds.

Lastly, I would like to dedicate this post to my blogging friend Julie, her husband Anthony, and their son Ming (jmgoyder) in Australia. They are the only ones I know who might have more Peafowl than the Los Angeles County Arboretum.

Peacock (male Peafowl) walking the grounds

Mom and baby Peafowl

Peacock jumping from tree to fence

Peahen giving herself a dirt bath

Peacock showing off

I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I approve this post.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Architecture, designs, and landscaping by Mother and Father Nature

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A selection of pictures from the San Diego Botanic Garden.

Architecture, designs, and landscaping by Mother and Father Nature.

Cork Oak (Quercus suber)
The primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and cork flooring

Aloe

Plantus unknownii

Bamboo
The Garden has the largest selection
of bamboo groves in the United States

Berryus unknownius

Nest-building Bird

Flowerus unknownii

Dinner Plate Fig (Ficus dammaropsis)

Banana (top)

Banana (bottom)

Unknown flowers

Ficus tree and staghorn ferns

Aeonium

Probable Sedum or Jade

Peas In Pods

Bird’s Nest Fern (Asplenium sp.)

Cactus Flowers

Leafus unknownius

Seed Pods

Epiphyte

Fire Sticks

Bottlebrush

Spent Protea Blossom

Unknown Protea or Grevillea Flowers

Dragon Tree (Dracaena cinnabari)

View Larger Map

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

My relatives, the succulent people

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Back in 1966, shortly after my wise old grandmother had adopted me, I asked her if I could have a small plot of land for a garden. She had the most beautiful gardens in all of Kingsville, Texas. Something was always growing and blooming — morning glories, Christmas cactus, poinsettias, oleanders, nandinas, ligustrums, roses….. and that’s just the stuff planted in the ground. Her hanging gardens were second only to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

She said, “Yes,” and gave me the hottest spot in her yard, right around the air conditioning compressor. Air conditioning compressors put out a lot of hot wind, and she never got anything nice to grow there.

Enter Russel Ray Kirk Jones Kirk, the 11-year-old juvenile delinquent from Utah.

A friend, Richard Schmidt (whom I would love to find some day!), had a garden in his yard, and he introduced me to cactus and succulents. He and his parents took me down to McAllen, Texas, one Saturday to a cactus nursery. I came home with a box full of cactus and succulents. Those plants loved it in the hot sun by the hot, windy air conditioner, and soon I had cactus flowers and succulents blooming right along side my wise old grandmother’s beautiful flowers.

By the time I graduated from high school, my friends were calling me the Cactus Man. When I dropped my “Kirk Jones Kirk” last names and simply became Russel Ray, I also switched from cactus to succulents. Many of my friends now know me as the Succulent Man. Succulents are my speciality.

Yesterday I went for my annual summer visit of the San Diego Botanic Garden:

View Larger Map

I found my long-lost relatives, the succulent people:

Look at that last picture, at the lady’s chest, and you can see a necklace, a broach, and two boobs created by the succulents. Don’t believe me? Proof:

Vision, people, vision! Use your creativity, just like the succulent people creators did! 🙂

I also loved her dress:

The San Diego Botanic Garden is where the Sapphire Tower is, and there were several blooming yesterday.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray (that’s me!)

No need to wait for Fall — We have Spring colors!

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When the trees turn colors in the Fall, people like to say that we don’t have Fall colors here in San Diego. Why wait ’til Fall? We have Spring colors.

Those are pictures from three diffrent years of a Flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius) at the San Diego Botanical Garden. It normally blooms from mid-May to late July, so now might be a good time to go see it!

View Larger Map

If you missed the purple Jacaranda trees, click on Update on the 2012 Jacaranda blooming season.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County? I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor with Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re just looking for a home inspector,
I can highly recommend Russel Ray; that’s me!

Sit Stay Heal

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I see benches everywhere but no one sitting on them. Even at the bus stops, people won’t sit on the benches, for some reason preferring to stand.

1 – Wagon bench

2 – Old Town San Diego bench

3 – Back yard bench

4 – Park bench at SeaWorld San Diego

5 – Tijuana River Estuary bench

6 – Park bench on Catalina Island

7 – Park bench at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park

8 – Bench at San Diego Botanic Garden

9 – Bench at San Diego Botanic Garden

10 – Park bench on Catalina Island

11 – Bench at Cuyamaca Water Conservation Garden

12 – Bus stop bench at 70th Street Station

13 – Hotel bench near the San Diego Convention Center

Maybe my next set of bench pictures will require a tripod and camera remote control, to be titled “Self portraits on benches.” Or something like that.

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Russel Ray Photos

Life from Southern California, mostly San Diego County

Tag Archives: san diego botanic garden

Friday Flower Fiesta (12-8-17)—San Diego Botanic Garden in December

Los Angeles Arboretum — Gone to the birds

Architecture, designs, and landscaping by Mother and Father Nature

My relatives, the succulent people

No need to wait for Fall — We have Spring colors!

Sit Stay Heal

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