The Flowering of Earth Home Garden...

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Saturday, June 19th, finds our native plant garden erupting with the local colors of summer. The above photos picture the flowering of penstemons, Indian Paintbrush, Blue Flax, and California Poppies.

Yesterday's Iris Revisited

~Wild Blue Iris~

Click on image to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

To fully appreciate the detail plus size the enlarged image

In yesterday's post I implied that I could've happily spent more time with this lovely flower, so I spent another hour or so caught in its beauty this morning as I created this digitally painted graphic image from my photograph.

This new image has a taste of Georgia O'Keefe inspired eroticism, dramatic light & saturated color reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish, and elements of my own surrealistic leanings in the texturing of the flower and the suspending of it in blackness.

An artsy-fartsy hodgepodge, but it works for me...

Created with a Canon S10IS camera and Photoshop CS3

Wild Blue Iris

Iris missouriensis

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

A Wild Blue Iris (Iris missouriensis) blooms near the shore of the Stanfield Marsh this morning.

I sometimes find myself blushing in the presence of such sensual beauty, so feminine in its expression.

I spent half an hour with this Iris today and that wasn't near long enough.

I laid down close to it, touched its soft tender petals, took in its delicate scent, and painted its graceful beauty into my memory. And then I photographed it to share with you.

Georgia O'Keefe was inspired by flowers like this to create some of her most passionate and controversial work.

I share Georgia's love for the passion and sensuality in nature, it's what drives evolution and the perpetuation of life.

~Long Live Sensuality, Passion, And Life~

Monarch Butterfly on Narrow-Leaf Milkweed

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Milkweed is the host plant for the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Here a male Monarch feeds on one of three Narrow-Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) growing in our garden.

Misted Poppy

Eschscholzia californica

Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstrom

After watering some recent transplants in the rock garden this morning I accidently turned the hose nozzle to mist and oversprayed a nearby poppy plant which left the poppies decorated with tiny jewels of H2O.

In The Garden...

Yucca glauca

Click on image to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstrom

One of several Yucca glauca (Soapweed Yucca) begins to bloom at Earth Home Garden.

Soapweed Yucca

Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstrom

Soapweed Yucca adds a striking visual impact to our garden, especially when the flower stalks emerge. Click here to read more about Yucca glauca and its usefulness to indigenous people.


Palmer's Penstemon
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstrom

A native to our Southwest Deserts Penstemon palmeri closely resembles our Big Bear native, Penstemon grinnellii (Bumble-Bee Penstemon) except that Palmer's grows much taller and has strongly fragrant flowers where Bumble-Bee does not. The two seem to be hybridizing in our garden.

Echinocereus triglochidiatus

Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstrom

A Hedgehog Cactus flower photographed in the native plant garden yesterday.

Botanical Scans From The Garden...

Please Click On The Following 'Botanical

Prints' To Enlarge For Viewing

© 2008 jim otterstrom


I was looking at some old botanical prints this morning and decided it would be fun to try and re-create something similar by scanning native plants into the computer.

So I picked a few fading flowers from the late summer garden and scanned them with our HP Photosmart C7180 All-In-One printer.

Even though we had some pretty substantial thunderstorms here today, I managed to keep the computer up & running long enough, between lightning strikes, to make some rather nice looking botanical art out of them.

Scanning flowers can give very nice results but it's a bit of a messy process.

As careful as you might try to be, it's inevitable that pollen, bugs, and plant detritus will get all over the scanner screen, becoming part of the image, so considerable time is required in cleaning up the pictures in Photoshop, or some similar program.

Scanning gives three dimensional objects an almost painted quality, the subdued lighting and shadowy details creating life-like impressions.

I spent most of the rainy day working on the pictures, time well spent if you ask me. They are rather large images so you'll need to scroll down to view them in their entirety.

Flower Of The Day - Sunday, August 24th

Zauschneria californica

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Zauschneria californica (Epilobium canum), or California Fuschia as it is commonly known, is a profuse late-blooming Big Bear native which thrives in poor rocky soil and full sun at our 6,750' elevation.

It's a perfect plant for the rock garden and an excellent butterfly & hummingbird attractor. Ours are from locally collected seed.

California Fuschia

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

The above photos are from one of several patches of Zauschneria blooming in the garden today.

For The Contrary Goddess...

Buddha and the Mushroom Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Fellow blogger, The Contrary Goddess, gave me a "tiny challenge" I couldn't resist.

"Name 100 species which live in your neighborhood", she asked.

Well, here's 117 native (or migratory) species which are residents or visitors to our own yard, and I've barely scratched the surface of the bird and insect visitors.

As I find the time I'll be adding the scientific names to the list below and will include links to various botanical websites for plant profiles.

Earth Home Garden Species

1. Common Yarrow

(Achillea millefolium)

2. Wild Onion

(Allium sp.)

3. Indian Hemp

(Apocynum cannabinum)

4. Rock-Cress

(Arabis pulchra)

5. Prickly Poppy

(Argemone munita)

6. Crimson Columbine

(Aquilegia formosa)

7. Narrow Leaf Milkweed

(Asclepias fascicularis)

8. Green Striped Mariposa Lily

(Calochortus invenustus)

9. Wild Morning-Glory
10. Indian Paintbrush
11. Ash Gray Paintbrush
12. Thistle
13. Miner’s Lettuce
14. Virgin’s Bower (Pipestem)
15. Wild Hyacinth (Blue Dicks)
16. Fireweed
17. California Fuschia
18. Stream Orchid
19. Fleabane
20. Yerba Santa
21. California Buckwheat
22. Pine Buckwheat
23. Sulfur Flower (Sulfur-Color Buckwheat)
24. Wright’s Buckwheat
25. Western Wallflower
26. California Poppy
27. Wild Geranium
28. Gilia
29. Rydberg’s Horkelia
30. Western Blue Iris (Blue Flag)
31. Granite Gilia (Prickly Phlox)
32. Mountain Aster
33. Humboldt Lily
34. Lemon Lily
35. Blue Flax
36. Brewer’s Lupine
37. Grape Soda Lupine
38. Dwarf Lupine
39. Giant Lupine
40. Tarweed
41. Pineapple Weed
42. Coyote Mint
43. Coyote Tobacco
44. California Evening Primrose
45. Anderson’s Penstemon
46. San Bernardino Beardtongue
47. Firecracker Penstemon
48. Bumble-Bee Penstemon
49. Scarlet Penstemon
50. Mountain Bugler
51. Showy Penstemon
52. Desert Blue Bells
53. Mountain Phacelia
54. Sticky Cinquefoil
55. Buttercup
56. Southern Goldenrod
57. Apricot Mallow
58. White Hedge Nettle
59. Stinging Nettle
60. Hedgehog Cactus
61. Beaver-Tail Cactus
62. Cane Cholla (Snake Cholla)
63. Prickly-Pear Cactus
64. Utah Service-Berry
65. Greenleaf Manzanita
66. Silver Wormwood
67. Great Basin Sage
68. Rubber Rabbitbrush
69. California Flannelbush
70. Fremont’s Bushmallow
71. Western Choke-Cherry
72. Antelope Bush
73. Sierra Currant
74. Rose Sage
75. Apricot Mallow
76. Snowberry
77. White Fir
78. Incense Cedar
79. Mountain Mahogany
80. Western Juniper
81. Jeffrey Pine
82. Singleleaf Pinyon Pine
83. Quaking Aspen
84. California Black Oak
85. Pygmy Nuthatch
86. White-Breasted Nuthatch
87. Mountain Chickadee
88. Western Bluebird
89. Steller’s Jay
90. Northern Flicker
91. White-Headed Woodpecker
92. Anna’s Hummingbird
93. Rufous Hummingbird
94. Western Tanager
95. Wilson’s Warbler
96. Yellow-Rumped Warbler
97. Mourning Dove
98. Acorn Woodpecker
99. Hairy Woodpecker
100. Violet-Green Swallow
101. American Robin
102. Black-Headed Grosbeak
103. Rufous-Sided Towhee
104. Band-Tailed Pigeon
105. Lesser Goldfinch
106. Dark-Eyed Junco
107. Cassin’s Finch
108. Mourning Cloak Butterfly
109. Giant Swallowtail Butterfly
110. Painted Lady Butterfly
111. California Sister Butterfly
112. Monarch Butterfly
113. Western Gray Squirrel
114. California Ground Squirrel
115. Merriam Chipmunk
116. Western Toad

117. Western Terrestrial Garter Snake

Yesterday's Garden Pictures...

Calypte anna with Salvia pachyphylla

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Currently a daily visitor to the garden, this female Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) was feeding at Rose Sage (Salvia pachyphylla) near our porch yesterday afternoon as I took these few pictures of her just after 4 P.M.

In order to capture some detail in the fast moving hummer (on a cloudy day) I used a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second which created images that were between 1 and 2 stops underexposed. I then lightened the images in Photoshop to closely approximate their natural appearance.

Canon S5IS with Canon TC-DC58B tele-converter lens, manual mode, f /3.5, ISO 80, 1/500th second.

Our Little "Slice O' Heaven"...

Yesterday In The Garden

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

A Good Part Of The Fun Is In...

~Sharing The Magic Of A Garden~

Click on the above letter to enlarge for reading...

Thank you Fran!

Finding your letter in our mailbox this morning put a smile on my face and reminded me, once again, how important it is to be part of your community by sharing what you love with friends and neighbors. Our garden exists today because of friends inspiring us with their love of native plants and we simply passed that love along to you.

It is a joy and a pleasure to know you have found inspiration in our humble efforts.

We were not part of the 2008 Xeriscape Garden Tour because we have several unfinished projects that need our attention this year but we hope to be back on the tour for 2009.

Much Love, Jim & Peg

Today's

flower of the day

Malacothamnus fremontii

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Fremont's Bush Mallow blooms today at Earth Home Garden.

A Peggy Picture...

Indian Blanket Flower

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 peggy otterstrom

Peggy caught this image of an Indian Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella) yesterday evening as the sun was lowering in the sky over Earth Home Garden. Indian Blanket Flower (also known as Firewheel) is a hardy drought-tolerant perennial wildflower native to the Plains States. It's also the State Flower of Oklahoma.

Ours come from a wildflower seed mixture I planted over 20 years ago about where the giant rock birdbath is now. We've enjoyed their reliable profusion of summer color scattered throughout the garden ever since.

Paradise Lives...

...all around us

The closer we look...

...the more we see

Click on photos to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

A vivid Beaver-Tail Cactus-Flower (Opuntia basilaris) caught my fancy today, in the soft-filtered afternoon light, revealing ever more sensual beauty as I moved in closer with my camera to discover that I wasn't the only one intoxicated by the attractive powers of this stunning display.

Mariposa Lily

Calochortus kennedyi

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

A Mariposa Lily with attendants.

Photographed on May 19th at Cactus Flats along Highway 18 about halfway between here and Lucerne Valley.

Thanks all, for your kind comments on the previous post, it's nice to be missed.

Sorry for the long absence, but I just haven't been in the mood to sit at a computer lately. It's too beautiful outside and there's always so much to do.

Remember the post from December 5, 2007 about the mountain of dirt I acquired from a construction site down the street? Well, right now I'm occupied with moving that small mountain, by wheelbarrow, to a new rock garden area I'm creating.

Everything is fine here and I hope you are all enjoying spring as much as we are.

Spring Has Sprung...

Western Tanager with Cassin's Finch

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

A Cassin's Finch greets a male Western Tanager at our little home-made Badwater Springs solar powered waterfall. Tanagers are rare visitors to Earth Home Garden and this one was moving fast, making it difficult to get a decent shot.

Linum lewisii Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Blooming in the native plant garden this morning are Blue Flax (above), Grape Soda Lupine, Indian Paintbrush and Western Wallflower.