A Moss and Zen Garden

 

 

 

 

Oh how I would love to come here often and just have some time to be

 

                         quiet, breath

 

                                    and  relax

 

 

maybe just take a moment to contemplate about my life

 

                      

 

 

                     and where I’m going

 

                                      but its too easy to get

 

               distracted in this space…

 

 

 

 

 

 

- its just too beautiful here …

 

 

 

          I love this tactile environment - I want to run my hands all through this beautiful

 

                       moss, then look at all the details

                                                                    up close

 

 

 

                          down

 

                               to

 

                                  every

 

                                     little micro-organism.

                          

 

 

                     Its very green and lush here, a perfect environment for this moss to grow

 

along with these ohia trees with their peeling bark and crevices filled with

 

green fungus

 

              mold

 

                  and bumpy looking bacteria

        

 

                     growing                     

 

                                        on their stong limbs and stems.

 

 

 

                  I look up and see the focal point atop a small mound of lava rocks and moss

 

lies a beautiful and simple buddah head

 

                                               – its sits there so peacefully and

 

                 

 

invites you in to come in and enjoy this welcoming environment.

 

                                  Aaaaaaaah – yes breath in this forest

 

                                              and enjoy the moss!

 

I wish that I could visit here more often…..

Hawaiian Tropical Gardens, A New Gallery Collection

Hawaiian Tropical Gardens - Images by Noel Morata

 

Aloha,

 

Finally I have my gallery photography site up and running. Here’s a quick preview of the gallery of Hawaiian Tropical gardens. If you have time, please drop by and visit my photowebsite, there’s a lot of garden, plants and landscape oriented photography.

 

Enjoy the visit.

 

For other Sunday Flowers in Bloom go visithttp://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

A Botanical Garden at the Zoo

I just love our zoo, it has the most amazing botanical garden I've ever been to. The zoo part actually is just okay, enough to attract many families and busloads of school children on fieldtrips to the local zoo.

 


Entering the zoo is quite drammatic with the palm lined entry of foxtail palms leading to the entrance and immediately to the right is a beautiful pond filled with many types of water lillies. You then enter through a walkway filled with tropical rhododendrons with wonderful scents as you head into the various zoo areas.

The tropical gardens are lovingly maintained by volunteers and many specialized growing clubs including the local palm society, the bromeliad club, the water garden club and lets not forget the Vireya Society. Each club takes care of certain areas where their plants shine in mass profusion and it is apparent that there has been alot of care and placement to make each plant compliment and yet stand out dramatically with all the other tropical abundance from these gardens.

 

A whole stand of red sealing wax palms or Cyrtostachys renda line this pathway, its dramatic don't you think? Here's a close up of a nice cluster with their red culms showing.

A whole stand of aromatic vireyas line the entryway with the palms, its a very dramatic and colorful entrance filled with many colors of reds, oranges, pinks and yellows. Did I mention the wonderful scents these flowers give off in the morning heat?

I just love seeing all the unusual plant combinations that are put together and even changed on a regular basis to make the paths interesting and changing with every season. At this visit, I see that alot of new bromeliads have been placed in many strategic areas to add more texture and color to the pathways, while transitioning from zoo pens to another area adding to the surprise at each segment with tropical foliage and flowers.

 A nice shady area with bromeliads and these large leafed Licuala Elegans, one of my favorite palms trees.

A close up of the white tiger called Namaste, he seems a little gun shy this morning to greet the crowds.

I'm just amazed by the amount of volunteerism happening with all the garden clubs and other volunteers to this zoo. Since admission is free, the organization really relies on the generousity of the various club members to maintain and refresh each of the plant areas with their plant collections. It is truly a labor of love and I hope that if you ever visit Hawaii Island come and visit the zoo and you will be amazed by the spectacular botanical garden we have here besides the animals

This beautiful and exotic ginger bloom was just sitting above the grass, the heavy flower heads made the entire stalk drop down to the ground from the heavy weight.

Beautiful Oncidium orchids are almost on every coconut tree, its such a nice touch.

The bromeliad society has taken alot of care of the large beds of bromeliads throughout the zoo, even placing some in the trees.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, its been a nice day to just explore the zoo today especially when everything is in bloom.

.

This is my contribution to My world, to visit other worlds go to http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

A Rare Bird in Bloom

 Its been awhile since I've been to our zoo which really is more of a botanical garden with a zoo as a complement. It is quite spectacular.










And this time it is really exciting since we have a rare occurance happening with a bloom of the exotic Amorphophallus titanium. This unusual plant originating from Sumatra is also known as the corpse plant and I'm sure you can assume, the noxious smells that would emanate from the blooming flower to attract its pollenator to come and visit

The edges of the giant flower are starting to color a deep purple, giving us hints that the flower is ready to open its bloom soon.

Fortunately at this point, the flower has not yet opened and there are no offensive smells. Its very unpredictable to know when this will occur since blooms have been registered sporadically and in many other environments that does not mimic each other. So although this state of budding has been in this stage for over a week, it is anyones guess when this will occur.

 

The plant shown is over seven foot in height from the top to bottom, making this quite a large specimen. Hopefully, I will be able to photograph the plant, but since the blooms only happen within a twenty four hour timeframe, the timing is always crucial. But in any case, this show and exotic plant is still amazing at this stage and I'm in awe of its presence.

Here's some more information on the Amorphophallus titanium http://www.gardening-advisor.com/corpse-flower.html


This is my scenic sunday post, to view other scenic sundays go to http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

To see other beautiful flowers in bloom go visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Time for Mushroom Picking

Mushroom picking in Hawaii is very unique in that the over 300 + varieties in Hawaii are truly unique and some not even named.  It was very helpful that we had the guide of one of the premier mycologists from the Big Island, Don Hemmes, with the University of Hawaii lead our photo enthusiasts on a tour along the puna  coastline to discover some of the rare, dangerous and even edible mushrooms.





Apparently you would think that the cooler and higher elevation locations where most of the larger trees are located would be an ideal mushroom hunting area which it is true in some cases. But we assembled at Issaac Hale State Park which is on the most eastern part of Hawaii and along the shoreline, it is dotted with huge Albizia trees, coconut groves and other shoreline flora that actually is quite lush in this natural habitat.
What is unique to this experience was having a gaggle (at least 20) of avid photographers follow Mr. Hemmes around this exciting area to find many of the abundant mushrooms growing here. 

The park is quite rugged with cliffs battered by the rough seas, there are beautiful lava tubes and coconut groves that go on endlessly along the shorelines and it is quite stunning to walk through.






we learn that Mr. Hemmes has in fact lead and named many of his discoveries in this area, and he has published many of the endemic varieties found in this zone into books.  He encourages us to look for some of the rare mushrooms that we are on the hunt for like the earth stars and the Geastrum Lycheeforum.
One of the more abundant mushrooms coming up from the flush of heavy rains were these white Amanita Marmorata mushrooms. Found mostly under the huge albizia trees, these mushrooms are the cousins of the extremely deadly white death caps that many mistake for an edible variety, and can become very ill or even die from a very small sample. Needless to say no-one wanted to even try any of the edible varieties after some discussion about careless forays.



We came upon a variety of really unique mushrooms including some of the following below:


Netted Stinkhorn or Dictyohora Cinabarrina which smelled like rotting manure but also has edible stalks and are grown extensively in Asia for food.








Here is the beautiful Earth stars or Agaricomycetes mushrooms under some leaves.




These edible Geastrum Lycheeforum were name by Mr. Hemmes because they resemble the delicious Lychee fruit. They are supposed to taste similar to puff ball mushrooms.





Here is another type that is supposed to have a shiitake like flavor, it grows very well under this secret canopy of coconuts in an area Mr. Hemmes considers the holy grail of rare mushrooms.




Our photo group pausing for a photo op before we go on our mushroom hunt.





Hope you enjoyed the tour along the coastline, isn't it a beautiful area to discover the treasures low to the ground?


To see other beautiful blooms for fertilzer friday go and visit http://www.tootsietime.com/

This is my contribution to scenic sunday to visit more go to http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

The Hot, the Loud and the Proud #8

Show us your tropicals and exotics, your hot Mediterranean colors and wild combinations, amazing discoveries and unusual variations. Or how about something exciting you just saw, a crazy garden,  amazing garden art or design, an inspiring visit or hike?

This meme is open to all (you do not have to live in an exotic location to participate)  and will be on the last day of each month…so mark your calendars and lets do something fun on the hot, the loud and the proud meme. I’ll have the link available early, east coast time (USA) to catch you early birds and even earlier for those of you in other countries.

This month, I would love to take you to one of my favorite garden meccas in Northern California and that is Cornerstone in Sonoma. This beautiful place showcases some of the most innovative gardens of local and international landscape architects and designers into small and walkable gardens. Besides the gardens are beautiful high end garden shops, wineries and galleries with imported asian treasures, imported garden artefacts and bookshops, art/sculpture galleries, and cafes. You will spend an enjoyable day just browsing and getting inspired with all gardening related activities and of course beautiful gardens. I’ll highlight some of the most exhuberant themes to visit in the gardens.

Here’s a contemporary take on a garden titled “ Garden Play” with local garden designer, Topher Delany. The backdrop is a barcoded wall in beautiful blue/black bars adding a burst of color to this minimal garden and the graveled grounds contain large twined balls along with smaller silver balls. I almost want to play a contemporary version of bocce balls, but could not find the instructions on how to play.








One of my favorites is a simple and colorful tribute to the playful pinwheel. The pinwheel daisy border by New York Garden designer Ken Smith evokes the innocence and playfulness these pinwheels generate. It creates wonderful patterns and different moods with the wind, sun or rain adding to this installment. I can just stay here for awhile and watch the wind blow through these and create this joyful experience in mass.






The prairie garden by John Greenlee is a Sonoma tribute to various grasses growing in the valley, creating wonderful texture and patterns. Along dreamy pathways mowed out for visitors to follow, it lends to a nice experience like one was going to meadows and nature inspired walks in this free flowing space.













“ The Garden of Contrasts” by designer James Van Sweden offers a new paradigm to the American garden.  Under a canopy of old olive trees this minimal palette of grasses, herbs to dramatic agaves show us the wonderful textural play and how color, pattern, bold forms and scent can lead to a dramatic and quite visually stunning design.























There are quite a few more gardens at Cornerstone and I would love to show you these in the next post.  Meanwhile, let me temp you with some of the amazing sculptures that I saw at the New Leaf Gallery – such a wonderful art and sculpture gallery.


 























Hope you enjoyed the tour to Cornerstone. Please do visit some of the other amazing Hot, Loud and proud posts below, you will be amazed.











This is also my contribution to scenic sunday, go visit http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

It’s a Carnivorous World Out There

I happened to run into this special exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park and what a wonderful show they put on. The members that put on these amazing temporary shows really go all out.  With the help of specialty grower California Carnivores in Sebastopol California, we get to see some of the most amazing Nepenthes or carnivorous plants in the world.


The famous venus flytraps…take a look and see if you spot any critters in their red traps.




Here’s a huge pitcher plant dangling from the rafters of the conservatory, I was only able to capture a small portion of this one huge plant, it must be quite heavy as a potted plant. These highland Nepenthes grow in higher and cooler elevations of the tropical rain forest.





This collection contains some amazing creatures like the well known Venus fly traps and pitcher plants to the more exotic cobra plants and corkscrew…take a look at some of these unusual specimens.




The Cobra Plant (Darlingtonia California) is a local native growing native to the far northern California to Oregon borders in meadows and along river banks.

 

This exotic wonder is called a tropical Sundew, they come from all over the world and need a constant humid and hot temperature to grow.












American Pitcher plants are the most ravenous and showy of the pitchers and are truly magnificent. They have very beautiful flowers  and leaves, and they are extremely easy to grow and from these pictures some of the most rewarding to have in a collection.




There are a lot of these carnivorous plants that are easy to grow as indoor or outdoor plants. You should give some a try when you see them in your local garden centers, you just find another new plant to add to your exotic collection.


For other views of Today’s Flowers go visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

This is my contribution to Scenic Sunday, to see more posts go to http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/