I hate coming up with titles.

So I won't come up with one. :)

After spending only a half hour outside I accomplished very little but obtained at least a dozen or so mosquito bites. Apparently I need to invest in some bug spray...very soon so that I can get back to my outside work. But in the meantime I took some pictures while I was out there, so here they are.

Oh wait, OMG! I forgot to tell you! I checked on my ladybug friend today since he was still hanging out in the same spot. I was afraid he was dying or something, but apparently he is just fine.

HE IS METAMORPHOSING!!!

See: ladybug friend two days ago.

I can't wait to see him tomorrow. It is so strange that they just do this out in the open. No cocoon or secret hiding place. Out in the open on my climbing hydrangea. It will be sad when he is gone: one morning I will go out to water and he will just be gone. Hopefully he will stick around and eat some of the aphids that plague me every year.

Anyway, on to less exciting things. I have acquired two kinds of spirea, one of which has the cutest little white flowers on it as do a lot of them, but I am not sure of the actual variety. Me and my camera aren't agreeing on how to focus on small objects so things are not working out like I would prefer but we are going to have a little chat and figure this whole thing out soon.

And I have 24 moon vines that I am not sure what to do with but I am thinking that dressing up Riley's ugly cyclone fence kennel may be an option even though it may be short lived. And yes, they bloom at night. Hence the name: which I think is pretty awesome since they also smell like vanilla (so i've read) which sounds amazing for those warm summer evening BBQ's....

OMG, super exciting thing number two: I got an amazing Laceleaf Japanese Maple for a corner in my backyard. Bad news: totally didn't take a picture because I have lost my mind. I will show you soon I promise. :) You are going to LOVE it just as much as I do.

Um, lets see what else I took pictures of.

Oh yeah, I replanted my hanging basket on my front porch. The dried sticks remaining from last year weren't making much of a statement.

Me and my mom were just talking today about how Fuscias always remind me of my grandma's house in San Jose. She always had the most beautiful Fuscias hanging on her front porch.

And yesterday at the Plant Barn (my favorite plant place to visit) I got a new daylily. It's just too bad that each bloom only lasts one day.

Like I said, me and my focus aren't getting along right now and it didn't quite get the spot I wanted but I just need to work on it. I also need to work on choosing better backgrounds because I usually have stupid things behind my subject that I don't even realize are there.

And I think that concludes my adventures for the night...yep, that's it. 

Busy Bee

So much has happened in such a short time but I still feel like I have nothing to blog about. I have developed a serious Craigslist addiction. Now that I have an app on my iTouch that makes it easy to view ads and their photos I am on the hunt for everything and anything. As a result of said addiction I have aquired picket fencing for the front yard (super duper YAY!), two swivel chairs, a ceiling fan and a new coffee table. It may sound like a lot, but I can tell you that if every item I had called on/looked at would have made it home with me I would have a few more. Oh yeah, did I mention that this has all happened in like the last 2 1/2 weeks...
I told you I had a severe addiction. I only check for new listings like a dozen times a day, it could be worse. :)
So lets start with the chairs since I don't have pictures of the fan or the fencing.

For such a small space I sure had a lot of furniture. We got rid of the gigantic sectional which has given the room so much space. Whatever, boring...moving on.

So other than that I got a really cool carnivorous plant.

Not a great picture but I love my little sundew. Best thing about it is that it just sits in a little tray of distilled water and that's about all I have to do since it feeds itself. :)

I also planted my window box again today. That's right again. Not sure if I posted pictures the last few times I did but it is a pretty frequent occurence.

It will be interesting to see how it looks in a month. I am hoping it will be robust and out of control and falling all over the place. We will see if the sun bakes this one.

Oh yeah, and I found this little guy outside too.

I will never forget the uh-huh moment I had in class one day when we talked about beneficial and predatory insects. This little guy is an adolescent lady bug. As with a lot of little buggies that I find while gardening I used to squish these kinds of bugs all the time always wondering what they were. It's true that I always seem to have a lot of lady bugs around and I love them. I feel a little sad every time I think about how many I must have killed. :(

But, I don't do that anymore so hopefully they forgive me.

I have a million projects going on, not started yet and half done so there will be a lot to come. I have like a million plants that still need to be transplanted and I think the vast numbers of plants that I started this year is really starting to sink in. Anyway, this was a strange post and I should probably erase it but it's better than nothing so here it goes.

The Journey of Plant ID

Even for a plant lover it can be hard to cram 15 new plant scientific/common names into your head each week. That doesn't even include the bonus plants. By the end of the semester I will have memorized approximately 270 plants...you heard me right: 270 plants!!! It's nice to walk around outside and play with plants all day at school, who knew school could be fun. Too bad they make you take other not so fun things like math and English and such.

Well anyway: since part of my job is to take pictures, most of which are for me to study off of and not very impressive, there are some good ones once in awhile. Also I have learned that I have a serious issue with taking like 90% of my pictures vertically. Not actually sure if this is a problem but it does seem a little unbalanced. It's totally not my fault though because plants like to be photographed vertically.

Mentha x piperita 'Chocolate Mint'

Chocolate Mint

This is what happens as I walk around in the world: I look at plants and name them in my head....no seriously, not joking.

Ginkgo biloba 'Autumn Gold'

Maidenhair Tree

Kind of funny that the first two pictures I chose are horizontal after I made such a big deal out of it; whatever.

Thymus pseudolanuginosus

Woolly Thyme

I just like to show off my big words so there will be some not so cool pictures with some really cool names. READ THE NAMES!

Acer palmatum 'Dissectum'

Laceleaf Japanese Maple

I love these trees...mmm

Betula pendula

European White Birch

Too bad you can see human shadown on the ground. :(

Callistemon citrinus

Lemon Bottlebrush

Cercis occidentalis

Western Redbud

Go natives!!!

Come on, even you know this one!

Hydrangea macrophylla

Garden Hydrangea

Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Dawn Redwood

Not much of a picture but it's one of the best names. It has quite a ring to it don't you think?

Parthenocissus tricuspidata

Boston Ivy

Iconic fall plant for sure.

Picea pungens glauca

Colorado Blue Spruce

That's right, I have to ID like a million different kinds of pines and junipers and a bunch of things that look the same. Ok not the same but only because my trained eyes know what to look for. : |

Fraxinus angustifolia oxycarpa 'Raywood'

Raywood Ash

Oh yeah and until about two weeks ago we also had to be able to differentiate about 20 different kinds of sticks. That's right: sticks without leaves or anything else to speak of. Glad spring is in full swing, no more sticks. :)

OMG, this is one of my favorite pictures and names mainly because the name is so long for something so simple.

Wait for it...

wait for it...

Solenostemon scutellarioides

Coleus

Fun huh.

Wisteria sinensis

Chinese Wisteria

Ok, the leaves belong to something else, but the flowers are Wisteria for sure.

Hosta

...

Yeah, that's it. I haven't learned this one yet so it's just Hosta. A freshly rained on Hosta too.

mmm...rain

And while not listening to the instructor blab forever (that's another story) I looked around and appreciated the freshly washed outdoor surroundings. Thank goodness the rain took a long enough break this afternoon for us to do our plant walk out to the creek.

That's me...off in lala land.

Well congratulations, you made it to the end. Twenty pictures later I bid you adeiu.