Inter-Ocean Parabolic

Garden Monsters

2012-01-29T18:38:00.004-08:00

Because I have a small yard and I like a lot of different plants, I've planted too many plants too close to one another. As these plants grow, that has begun to cause some conflicts. And, since my garden is only three years old, I'm anticipating that these will intensify in the future, as many of my small woody twigs grow into full-blown shrubs. Here are a few of the more egregious examples:

This is a Cheirolophus burchardii. Annie's Annuals says that it grows to "2-3 feet tall & wide," but mine is currently at 5' x 5' x 5' and shows no signs of stopping. If you look closely, you can see a poor 2-foot tall Illicium henryi in front of it. I imagine that the Illicium's ancestors, clinging to a cliff in western Sichuan, never anticipated having to contend with this giant from the beaches of Tenerife.

It looks like the Cheirolophus is about to bloom, so I'll soon see if it justifies its girth:

In my back yard, I randomly planted a hybrid marguerite daisy in an empty spot next to a small meiwa kumquat tree. I thought that the daisy would be a short-lived annual, but it didn't die this winter and is now beginning to overshadow the kumquat:

Finally, I knew that this Geranium maderense was supposed to get bigger than any other geranium, but somehow I didn't picture it completely swallowing up a box shrub. I've had to move the cactus in front of it a couple times, because it keeps on getting shaded by the huge geranium leaves:

Oakland Freeway Plan of 1947

2012-01-26T22:23:00.000-08:00

A while back, I was browsing old freeway plans for the San Francisco Bay area, and I came across this map of the Metropolitan Area Oakland California Proposed Major Street and Freeway Plan of 1947. What fascinated me about the map was this detail section of my neighborhood, Maxwell Park:

It shows the MacArthur Freeway, which currently runs north and east of the neighborhood, cutting directly through the heart of Maxwell Park, a couple blocks away from my current house. It's unimaginable now to think of an eight lane freeway in that location--it would have destroyed the neighborhood. But neighborhoods filled with just as many houses were destroyed by the eventual route. Compare this aerial view of the Laurel neighborhood (just down the hill from Maxwell Park) from 1946:

With the same overhead view from 1968 after the freeway was built:

Woody Plant Update: Arbutus, Hydrangea, Rosa, Ugni, Rhododendron

2012-01-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

When I first planted the madrone (Arbutus menziesii) in my backyard, I was resigned to the fact that it would most likely die. Now, I am a worried that it is growing to vigorously. I didn't water it all summer, and we've been in a drought for most of the winter--but I think it's grown about three feet in the past couple months. Madrones can grow as tall as 100 feet with an 11 foot circumference, something I didn't plan for when I planted it right next to my fence.

Unlike the madrone, the oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snow Queen') is not happy with the winter drought conditions. Even though I've been watering every weekend, the leaves, with their wilted and distressed demeanor, are showing how thirsty they are:

This is an unidentified rose that was in my backyard when I moved in. In addition to its good looks, it smells great:

Around the same time I planted the Luma apiculata in my front yard, I planted one of its close cousins, an Ugni molinae in the back yard. The luma has grown much more quickly than the ugni, but this winter I noticed the ugni beginning to fill out, with reddish green new leaves covering the entire shrub. Unlike the luma, which produced a crop berries this fall, the ugni has yet to show any sign of flower or fruit:

Morgan hates having her picture taken:

The Countess of Haddington Rhododendron is covered with buds this year, unlike last winter, when only one or two buds formed. A promise for a hopeful spring:

Looking toward Candlestick Park from my backyard--a spectacular sunset just as the 49ers beat the Saints:

Oakland Walk--Tuxedo, Glenview & Dimond

2012-01-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of my New Year's Resolution to update the Inter-Ocean Parabolic at least once a week--and with the realization that I am already a day behind on that resolution--I carried my camera phone with me on a walk this morning. Oakland was named one of the 45 places to go in 2012 (just below London) by the New York Times, so I thought I'd take a picture of some less frequently visited areas. Here is the route I walked:

View January 8, 2012 Walk in a larger map

This is a picture from the Tuxedo neighborhood, looking down 28th Street toward downtown Oakland:

Tuxedo is a middle class area on a hill above Highland Hospital. I believe the old wing of the hospital is being gutted as part of a seismic retrofit:

The mayor of Oakland is not very popular right now:

Next I crossed over into Glenview, which is a more upscale neighborhood across the freeway:

The spirit of Mitt Romney loomed over us for much of the walk:

Just below the Mormon Temple, I came across this great panoramic view of Oakland and San Francisco. The air seemed especially clear this morning:

Back in Maxwell Park, here is Walnut Street, leading up the hill toward my house:

Back home again:

Best 9 min explanation of the Healthcare Reform Law

2011-12-16T21:10:00.002-08:00

From the Kaiser Family Foundation and I think, pretty non-partisan.

Health Reform Hits Main Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Ilc5xK2_E

Arrogance

2011-11-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

In my job as a researcher, I've gotten to know the peer-review system well. It certainly has it's faults: I've had papers that I didn't think were that great that got accepted, and I've had papers that I thought were great that got rejected. It depends a lot on whether the reviewers that get assigned to your manuscript have a similar world-view as you do. Although most times I get the review, my initial reaction is, "Who is this idiot! Doesn't he/she realize that if I choose alternative A, then Problem Z gets bigger?" After letting the review sit for a few days, I'm able to come back to the review and rework the paper. And almost always, it's better.

This process has made me realize how important it is to be able to communicate things clearly. Often, when a reviewer says, "Paragraph A doesn't make sense", the answer is that I wrote poorly and did not clearly communicate what the reviewer needed to understand what I did. The onus is on me. Beyond reviewers, when I communicate with the media, if the interviewer does not understand, it is my job to communicate more clearly (usually in 30 seconds or less).

This is in stark contrast to the only person I've ever talked with who works on Wall Street. When I asked him what he was working on in 2006 (?), he said it had something to do with bundling mortgages. When I pressed him on how bundling could lead to substantial profits, he said, "It's complicated Sei. You wouldn't understand."

I remember this conversation clearly (we were walking along the Embarcadero, it was sunny but a little chilly w/fog nearby) because I've thought about it with every newsstory trying to explain the economic meltdown (caused by bundled mortgages or CDOs). Also, his answer pissed me off. I consider myself fairly bright with a wide interests; I felt like I could pick up most things fairly quickly.

Being a researcher undergoing peer-review requires you to be humble. You never win by directly confronting your reviewers. If they don't understand, it's because you didn't explain it clearly.

In contrast the corporate/financial system seems full of incredibly arrogant people. This is Enron all over again--Remember the "smartest guys in the room." The ones who had rolling blackouts in California, causing life threatening injuries (street lights stop working) and several deaths (critical home oxygen, etc). They arrogantly convinced the world they were smarter than everyone. And the financial system had the same attitude. We're smarter than everyone and so we don't need to answer your questions or even abide by your weak regulations (that we lobbied heavily to water down).

In retrospect, I wonder if my questions made him uncomfortable. My question about how profits can be made in bundling gets to the heart of the problem with this. No matter how you slice and dice the bundle, some are going to fail, most are going to not fail. So the only way that someone is going to pay more or less for a slice of the bundle is if they don't have smarts (unlikely) or the information (likely) to make an appropriate decision. The fact that people were making lots of money on this suggested that this was not a free market with both the buyer and seller having equal access to critical information.

My Favorite Yogi Bear Moment

2011-11-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

I've been quoting the line at 4:45 for decades:

Walking the Dog on Google Streetview

2011-07-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I was walking my dog, Morgan, when I saw the Google Streetview car go by. I was wondering if we were going to show up on Google maps. I checked today--and here we are, about to cross High Street at Brookdale:

View Larger Map

More Images of the Yard at Dusk

2011-06-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple days, I've been experimenting with taking photographs of the yard at dusk. I just uploaded a bunch of close-up images of plants to the Inter-Ocean Paratumblr:

Front Yard at Dusk

2011-06-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Winter and Spring

2011-05-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

I decided to update the picture of the backyard I took last January during a rain shower, with a picture from the same viewpoint, but this time after a rain shower in May:

This is the original picture of the yard in January.

And this is the yard on the last day of May. The most notable differences are that the Fuji apple tree and the Concord grape vine now have leaves, and the Chilean jasmine is clambering over the stairs. Also, I pruned the Meyer lemon tree quite a bit back in April.

This is a Mariposa lily (Calochortus superbus) growing underneath the madrone.

I thought this Primula bulleyana had died last winter, but it survived and is shooting up these fragrant spikes of flowers.

Morgan stands guard while Nellie takes a snooze at the top of the stairs.

Here's the other side of the yard.

Woody Plants: Rosa sericea pteracantha

2011-04-15T08:27:00.001-07:00

According to Alice M. Coats, E.A. Bowles said the thorns of this rose "glow out when lit by the setting sun like stained glass in old windows." This picture shows the effect of the rising sun glowing through the thorns on an April morning.

Dining Room Before and After

2011-04-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of the foundation repair on my house was that I was able to get rid of the stairs going through my dining room to the basement. I couldn't find a good before picture of the dining room, but here is the view of the stairs going down:

And here are the after pictures. The stairs use to be just beyond the dining room table:

This is the view from the living room:

Woody Plants: The Tree Peony Mystery Continues

2011-04-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Most IOP readers will remember the discovery I made last spring that the tree peony I bought as Paeonia lutea var. ludlowii was actually a unknown variety of Paeonia suffruticosa. At the time, based on its pinkish and purplish white blooms, I thought it might be a Renkaku. But this year, it has more flowers, and they are blooming more fully. Comparing my peony to the pictures of Renkaku I found online, I don't think it's the correct variety. Renkaku has a solid gold center, while my peony has gold and purple in the middle (what would be the pistil and stamens?)

After some cursory online searching, I'm thinking I may have a Chinese variety, maybe 蓝月亮 (blue moon) or 凤丹白 (white phoenix).

If anybody can figure out the correct variety, they will win a prize!

Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel

2011-03-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

This may overtake the Tuntex Sky Tower for the crown of super-ugliest skyscraper that is oddly fascinating:

And to get an idea of how huge it is, click here.

Woody Plants: Arbutus menziesii

2011-03-08T20:01:00.002-08:00

Two weeks ago, on President's Day, the demolition of my old foundation began. To get way from the noise of the jackhammers, I took Morgan and Nellie to Redwood Regional Park:

View Larger Map

To get there, I drove up Redwood Road, turned left on Pinehurst, and parked at the Pinehurst Staging Area, which has a trailhead for the East Ridge Trail. Although this is only fifteen minutes from my house, it felt like a completely different world as I walked along the peaceful ridge above a valley of massive redwood trees. And, even though the redwoods are the stars of the park, I was much more excited to discover a scattering of madrones (Arbutus menziesii) all along the trail:

These beautiful trees gave me hope for the madrone I have been trying to grow in my yard, in spite of being told they are nearly impossible to grow successfully in cultivation. I've had mine for a year and a half how, and it is still hanging on:

But it has yet to develop the graceful outline or the striking bark of the madrones in the park:

Here is how the bark has aged on a more mature specimen:

During the walk along the East Ridge trail, I crossed in and out of Alameda County a couple times. How did I know that? Because of these handy markers:

About half way through the hike, I saw this tree, which was one of the largest madrones along the trail:

Although it had been raining on and off all day, the sun came out as I neared the end of the hike, casting a soft glow over this pleasant vista as I made my way down the ridge to the car:

Now, two weeks later, the excavation of my old foundation continues. But by the end of the week, they should be done removing the old, and start adding the new:

Woody Plant Families

2011-02-16T21:52:00.001-08:00

Tonight, I decided to create a pivot table of the woody plants in my yard, classified by their botanical family. Not surprisingly, the rose family came in first place, due to representation from the apples, roses, flowering quinces and cotoneasters. But I was surprised to see also the mint family tied for first place--not due to the one mint plant I have, which I classified as a herb, but from the various thyme, lavender, sage and savory sub-shrubs I'm growing. In third place is the heather family, followed by the honeysuckles in fourth place. Here is the full list:

Mid-Winter Yard Update, Part VI

2011-01-30T15:01:00.002-08:00

To begin the final part of this update, here is Brachyglottis 'Leonard Cockayne', with leaves covered with rain:

The Berberis darwinii is beginning to flower again:

This is Wahlenbergia species, from South Africa:

And here is the aforementioned Rosa centifolia muscosa, which is now the highest rated rose I have. It scores a 9.1 in the 2011 ARS Handbook:

Mid-Winter Yard Update, Part V

2011-01-30T14:48:00.004-08:00

Here is a bud forming on Corylopsis spicata:

I planted this Escallonia illinita on the boulevard strip. Afterwards, I read that the flowers of this particular escallonia have a deep rich smell that has been likened to that of a pigsty. It hasn't flowered yet, so I can't comment, but I hope it doesn't give the neighbors the wrong impression when they are walking by my house:

I planted another Chilean plant out on the front strip--Luma apiculata--but as a relative of myrtle, this one is supposed to have a much more pleasant smell. It's now growing vigorously:

Rounding out my collection of ericaceous plants (after the enkianthus, arbutus and rhododendron) is the Arctostaphylos manzanita 'St. Helena' in my front yard, which I think is about to shoot out some blooms

Mid-Winter Yard Update, Part IV

2011-01-30T14:40:00.002-08:00

Here's the status of the front yard, as I slowly get rid of the gravel. I just added the middle section, which looks pretty barren right now:

The Arbutus menziesii is still chugging along, in spite of my fears that it would have an early demise:

Here's the back yard in the rain:

One of the plants I put in the new section of the front yard is this Clematis chrysocoma, with the idea that it will twine its way through the Moss Rose and 'Tour de Malakoff'' Centifolia Rose I also planted there:

Mid-Winter Yard Update, Part III

2011-01-30T14:29:00.003-08:00

In this picture from front to back: Drimys winteri, Fuchsia boliviana 'Alba', Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snow Queen', Viburnum plicatum tomentosum 'Mariesii', Thuja plicata 'Sunshine', Hydrangea anomala petiolaris. Behind the lemon tree is the Rhododendron 'Countess of Haddington'. I think I may have planted these all too close together:

Raindrops on lemon buds:

This camellia was almost dead when I first moved in:

Geranium maderense 'Alba':

Mid-Winter Yard Update, Part II

2011-01-30T13:45:00.002-08:00

I tried to grow Salvia corrugata when I first moved into my house, and it died almost immediately. This plant is doing better, and now has these strange blueish flowers:

I've been determined to try to grow Enkianthus cernuus var. rubens since I read this by Ernest Wilson:

I fell in love with this shrub long ago in the garden of a friend who lived at Winchester, Massachusetts. Years later, when on a visit to Japan, opportunity came to see it on its native heath on Ashitakeyama, one of the lesser peaks of the Fuji range. The road was bad and it rained heavily most of the time but I was well rewarded when I reached my destination. Growing among lava blocks were groves of this beautiful bush all laden with a multitude of fringed, dark red blossoms. The flowers vary a good deal in shape but all the bushes agree in being abundantly floriferous. The autumn tints are red to crimson.

But for some reason, I couldn't find the variety of Enkianthus cernuus anywhere, although many types of Enkianthus campanulatus seem common. I was finally able to order one shrub from Arbutus Garden Arts in Oregon this month. Let's hope it does okay here in Oakland--far away from it's home on Ashitakeyama:

This is the bean of a Mandevilla laxa:

If you look closely, you can see my first kumquat:

Mid-Winter Yard Update, Part I

2011-01-30T12:48:00.001-08:00

I want to start providing more regular woody plant updates, beginning in February, but first, here's some general updates from photographs I took today. Now that the days are growing longer, buds are beginning to form. First, here is Chaenomeles 'Kingishi' in my front yard:

One day when I was weeding, a woman walking her dog asked me what type of plant this Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Tricolor' was. She didn't seem to believe me when I said it was a star jasmine:

The Nandina domestica is beginning to grow:

This is Cuphea micropetala:

Take a Trip

2010-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

to Inter-Ocean Parabolic Island!

Rose War

2010-11-30T19:07:00.005-08:00

Last month, I was reading the autobiography of the dadaist, George Grosz, and I was intrigued by the following passage about the type of work he took on to establish himself in New York:

My best commission--from George Macy, the publisher of Limited Editions--was illustrations for O. Henry's selected short stories. I did many full-page watercolors. I still look at those pictures and that whole beautifully made book with pleasure. I drew Interregnum for Carresse Crosby and her famous Black Sun Press, a sixty-page album of political and partly prophetic caricatures at a time when Hitler was still considered a fairly local, harmless, transient problem. These two assignments, though they paid well, got practically no attention; today they may be collectors items.

I wanted to see if he was correct about the O. Henry book being a collectors item, and I found that editions in good shape sell for at least $200.

But then I found a copy on Amazon for just $8. I thought that sounded too good to be true, but I decided to take the chance and order it. When I received it, my fears proved sound--it was a cheap edition of the O. Henry stories from 1917, not the Grosz illustrated version from 1935. When I emailed the sellers to complain, they said I could choose another book from their inventory for the same price to make up for the error. I picked pretty much at random a book called Growing Fragrant Plants, by Rayford Clayton Reddell and Robert Galyean. This turned out to be a book about a nursery in Petaluma, California and the commercial potpourri they produced in the 1980s. Offhandedly, they mention that the American Rose Society produces a comprehensive annual ranking of commercial rose plants and sell it for only $1. I looked online, and this pamphlet is still available, but the price has increased to $5 in the past twenty years.

I'm a sucker for ratings, and I wanted to see how the rose bushes I've planted stack up, so I ordered the handbook. So far, I've planted the following rose bushes:

First, an alba semi-plena, in the middle of my front yard.
Second, a floribunda "Sun Flare" in the back of my front yard.
Third, a rambler "Silver Moon" along my side fence.
Finally, a Rosa sericea pteracantha near the "Sun Flare."

When the handbook arrived in the mail, I quickly paged through to see how the roses I selected ranked among the rose growing cognoscenti. Each rose gets a score from 1-10, with a score above 9.3 indicating "one of the best roses ever." As far as I can tell, no roses are currently judged to belong to this category. Next is a score above 8.8, which indicates an outstanding rose, followed by 8.3, which is a very good to excellent rose, 7.8, a solid to very good rose, 7.3, a good rose, 6.8, an average rose, 6.1, a below average rose, and finally below 6.0 a rose that is not recommended.

I'm going to take pictures of each rose this weekend, but to tide you over, here is how my shrubs ranked in ascending order:

Silver Moon: 8.0 (The handbook calls this a Hybrid Wichurana, because rambler is not a category. But the Taylor's Encyclopedia of Gardening from 1936 says that Silver Moon is a hybrid of R. laevigata, not R. wichuraiana.)
Sun Flare: 8.3
R. sericea pteracantha: 8.5
Alba Semi-plena: 8.9

So, I have one solid, two very good and one outstanding bush. Not bad!