Monday, May 27, 2013
Pink Epi Blossom

Ok, before you just dismiss this as just another flower, you should know this is a pretty cool plant. This is an Epiphyllum (or Hylocereus) Hybrid. It's a cactus similar to a christmas cactus, but bigger in every way. The pads are several feet long, and this blossom is about 9 inches across. His ancestors, were pure white and lived in one of the most unlikely places imaginable for a cactus, the canopy of Central American jungles, just like orchids (hence Epiphyllum, an epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant, like an orchid.) If that is not interesting enough, the large white blossoms of their ancestors bloomed in the evening for only one night. Why? Because their pollinators are nocturnal and some have fairly bad eyesight... bats and some large moths. I've always loved these plants. I have more than I really have room for, and each one is an amazing beauty.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Epi Blossom

One of my beautiful Epiphyllum blossoms blooming right now. These are some of my favorite plants. Imagine a Christmas cactus, with 3 foot long pads and blossoms literally 9" across.

Monday, December 27, 2010
Tendril in the Rain

The excessive ran we've had in California for the last week and a half has caused no end of problems. (Yeah, I know, if you're in the north east under three feet of snow, you probably can't feel much pity.) On the plus side the rain gives many interesting options for beautiful photos.

Friday, September 26, 2008
Passion Flower

I was looking back through some older photos to get the botanic name for this beauty and I noticed something interesting. The first flower from this vine on the site is a lot more purple. I can only assume that is from the shady cool conditions we try to keep in the back yard. I'm sure he was in bright sunlight in the nursery and probably got just the right nutrients to bring out those beautiful colors. But I think I like the variegated look even more! And since I regularly have to untangle this guy from all of the other plants in the back yard I think he is pretty happy with the arrangement too.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Canna in the Afternoon Light

This is one of my friends in the back yard. If you've been around the site for a while you have seen him before. My Mom sent me a bag of about three rhizomes over ten years ago and they (or their descendants) are still going strong. I've seen a lot of other Cannas, but this one is not so common. It's always been my favorite. When the sun is low in the afternoon it has to get through the rest of our jungle, so the lighting gets mottled and really interesting. The only problem is it moves fast and what is a great shot when we are out watering the plants, is gone once I get back out with my camera. Which, of course, leads to the dangerous practice of watering the plants while I'm holding the camera. This, like chasing bees, has worked out well for me so far but may come too an abrupt end one day.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Shadowy Bougainvillea

Most of the time the best lighting is not the direct lighting. At the same time I took this there was quite a bit of sun on the other side of the bush. Those shots were great, but this was my favorite.

It's probably a good thing I can entertain myself in the back yard so easily. When the banks all go out of business I can probably still afford my hobby. 'Course I'm going to need to look at some old Gilligan's Island episodes to design my bike generator to keep the web server on.

Thursday, September 18, 2008
Mallow in the Rain

Another shot from the back yard. This is our Sea Tree Mallow. Zoe pointed these flowers out to me on an early morning vacation walk in monterey. (She was a good dog!) Once we got home from the trip we found this Mallow, a small tree at the time, at a local nursery and brought a little piece of our vacation home.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Epi Blossoms

I love my plants, as evidenced by the huge number of them on the site. This is an example of one in particular that makes us want a bigger back yard. The flower is about eight inches across. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred Epis. They're not all as big as this one, most are still small starts at this point. But if we want them to grow up to be big strong cacti we are going to need a lot more space! Once they grow up they are probably going to need their own site too... "The Epi of the Day"

Saturday, August 30, 2008
More Garden Goodies

I just couldn't decide which veggie photo I liked the best. So I put all my fovorites online and you can choose your favorite.

Maybe this weekend I'll get out and get some more panoramic photos. It sure is too hot to sit in front of the computer, maybe a nice beach breeze would help.

Thursday, August 28, 2008
Treats from the Garden

The tomato on the right is the same on from the other day. It's a variety called a Garden Peach The yellow one on the far left with the green stripes is a "Banana Legs".

The ones that did not make the cut for the modeling job made a delicious Chili. It's been a good season for the garden, even though the tomato plants have generally not been very happy this year.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Garden Peach

We're finally trying to get back to a normal life here. We recently had a wild fire in the hills near Santa Barbara, "the Gap Fire". We were not warned to evacuate where we live, but we did anyway when the sky turned brown and it looked like the middle of the night at 6pm. I'll get some photos online from some of those crazy days, but right now I just have to say thank you to all the amazing fire fighters and the families who worry about them when they are on the job. Thanks to them not one house was lost.

Still, through all the craziness, I have been taking the time to tinker with my camera. This is a beautiful translucent striped tomato variety called a Garden Peach. This is one of the last ones my wife coaxed off the plant and it is beautiful. It is actually fuzzy like a peach. And this one is still sitting here waiting to be the subject of more photos. But the others from the plant have been quite delicious.

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Evening Epi

It's a great time of year, time for our Epis to really start blooming. This one lasts a little longer than one evening so I'm pretty sure it is a hybrid of some sort. In the wild they only bloom for a single night. The blossom is about nine inches at the widest. The cup of petals in the middle is about four across. It is quite an amazing sight and makes for some nice night-time photography.

Friday, April 11, 2008
Lady in the Epi

The ladybugs seem to really love our epis. Probably because when they start to bloom (the epis, not the bugs :-D) there's a lot of nectar around the buds. The nectar seems to attract aphids. This time we tried to get the jump on them. We bought a small bag of ladybugs from the hardware store. Of course I was not going to let them go until the camera was ready!

I used a bellows to get close enough for this shot. The whole background of the shot is the same flower that the ladybug is sitting on.

Sunday, September 16, 2007
Fresh from the Garden

This was taken a couple hours before yesterday's photo of the day. This was the scene in the middle of the table that inspired the three hour photo shoot.

The cool purple garlic bulb is from a recent trip to Gilroy for their Garlic Festival, but most of the others are fresh from the garden.

Saturday, June 9, 2007
Calla Drops

The sun was in and out of the clouds when I took this shot. I only had about 30 seconds while the light was interesting.

Monday, June 4, 2007
Glowing Garden Rose

We recently got this rose a trellis because it was getting huge. And, like I mentioned yesterday, I hate to cut my plants! I don't believe it is a climber usually, but it really seems happy on the trellis. This photo was taken when there was just a shaft of afternoon sunlight shining down between our umbrellas. Made for a nice dappled background.

Monday, May 14, 2007
Glowing Sun Star

I have been playing with some creative lighting on my flowers lately. That's the reason that the photo of the day has been the flower of the day lately. :-D (Well, that and the fact that it's spring and there are some amazing plants out there that all seem to follow me home.) I\'m pretty happy with the results though, both in the back yard and my photos!

If you ended up here because you have one of these beauties and you are looking for care instructions, take a look at the main Sun Star page. There are more tips and discussion on the March 25, 2006 Sun Star too. If you find any of it helpful, or have questions that have not been answered there, drop us a note!

Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Hidden Violets

I'm not exactly sure where they came from, they kind of appeared in the pot of another plant in the back yard. The other day when my wife was working in the plants she found them and I heard "Hey, get your camera, I've got a photo of the day for you!"

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Tropical Swirl

I like how this rose caught that drop of water in the top. This is another shot from the backyard. Yeah, I know, it's a theme lately "the Back Yard". But my hound hurt her foot and I did not get my birthday trip to Monterey yet. Maybe later this month! Oooh the flowers that are blooming there this time of year!

Monday, May 7, 2007
Tomatillo Spider

When we were at the Nursery a couple weeks ago we found some great peppers. This Tomatillo looked so cool I just had to grab him too. I figure they'll make some good salsa together too. I just got a great book of salsa recipes for my birthday and I can't wait to try it out!

Sunday, May 6, 2007
Lily in the Shadows

I thought this photo went nicely with yesterday's cactus. Nice and shadowy.

Saturday, May 5, 2007
Wild Jungle Cactus

No it's not a man eating plant. (Well as long as I keep watering it and do what it says anyway.) The flowers on my Orchid Cacti are usually pretty amazing, but this one is particularly wild and they are not even open yet! There is nothing in the photo for size reference but the pink part of the blossom is at least four inches long. It's a good time of year to be a crazy photographer with a collection of wild plants!

Friday, May 4, 2007
Lilies in the Corner

Another shot of the Calla Lilies in the corner of our yard (cactus corner). As you can tell I have not got out of the back yard with my camera lately. Of course, there are enough beautiful things there to keep me busy for years.

Thursday, May 3, 2007
Mandevilla Sky

This is one of the plants that recently scored a new pot and trellis. We originally got this vine and one other to feed the butterflies in the back yard. The butterflies (and resulting caterpillars) almost got the best of them. But they have come back strong. A couple of weekends ago I spent about two hours unraveling the two vines from each other and putting them on their new trellises. It was like an elaborate living puzzle.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Batik Bearded Iris

This Iris has not bloomed for years. It took us a while to get it settled in to our new back yard. This is the first blossom of what looks like will be a busy spring for it. The last time it bloomed, I got a great photo that was part of my first solo show at the Santa Barbara Public Library.

We are very happy to see it coming around, they are not the easiest things to find. For several years you could not buy them anywhere.

I always thought the little fuzzy area looked like a yellow caterpillar.