Iris hexagona var. savannarum - Dixie Iris

Iris hexagona has the widest range of the Irises in Florida.  It is found throughout much of the state except for the southeast and northwest portions of the state.  I have seen it growing in various places around Manatee County, FL.  Here are some that are growing around the neighborhood:

Iris hexagona, late in the afternoon in a wooded area adjacent to a stream and sometimes floods.  These plants are shaded by Live Oaks (Quercus sp.) but get some filtered light. The plants look very inconspicuous when not in bloom.

Iris hexagona about to bloom - perhaps tomorrow.

Iris hexagona growing in a sunny streamside area.  The soil is very sandy, which you can see in the stream. 

A close up of the same flowers.

Iris hexagona has three varieties.  These are Iris hexagona var. savannarum which hold their flowers above their leaves.  They should also have a smooth circular seed pod when viewed from above (instead of a hexagon) but I have not observed this yet since this is the first time I've seen them flower!

If you live in Florida this would be a great addition to a water garden or pond. My Mom moved a plant up to the garden from our pond and its been growing and blooming without wet conditions - which really surprised me. Just to be safe though, keep it on the moist - wet side.  

Harrisella porrecta - Threadroot Orchid

Hello!  I just got back from my week long trip to South Florida.  It was a very  nice trip like always and I cant wait to go back!

During my trip to FL I visited my parents house in Bradenton, FL.  Usually during my visit I explore the woods in their backyard and around the neighborhood.  Every time I find some interesting plant or animal.  This particular time I went in search of Tillandsia species; specifically Tillandsia utriculata.  I had seen the adult plants in the area before but failed to find any this time.  I did find 3 small plants on a Viburnum in a shady wetland area and while examining them I found an unusual orchid.  

Harrisella porrecta - I first noticed the seed pods and then the roots. 

That's when I knew it was an orchid.

I found around 30 orchids with seed pots on this dead portion of a Viburnum obovatum.

I could not see any plants anywhere else other than this particular tree.

Some more Harrisella porrecta with lots of seed pots.

Another Harrisella porrecta.  This tree also had Tillandsia utriculata, T. balbsiana, T. recurvata, T.useneoides, and T. setacea growing on it.

Harrisella porrecta common names are the Threadroot Orchid and Needleroot Airplant Orchid.  

Sometimes it is placed in the genus Dendrophylax along with Ghost Orchid. 

It is a theatened species in Florida and should not be removed from the wild.  

There are many other orchids around these woods which are primarily Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) and Scrub Palmetto (Sabal etonia).  These other orchids are all terrestrial. 

Pinguicula lutea blooming

My Pinguicula lutea is finally blooming! The first flower was somehow destroyed and now the second flower stalk that has been slowly growing has started to bloom.  I think it is still growing - during the day it opens and nights it droops and closes.  There is another flower bud that is also forming in the center of the rosette. I pollinated the flower after I photographed it this morning and in about four weeks they should be ripe. It also looks like this will be the last act of my P. lutea. They are a short lived perennial and usually bloom themselves to death.

Just like my P. planifolia I grow my P. lutea outside all year with sun during the morning and shade in the afternoon. They are grown with the tray method. I tried undrained pots previously but they succumb to rot easily. P. lutea can tolerate somewhat drier conditions in the wild than some other Pinguicula.

Pinguicula lutea flower "sleeping" at night.  This movement is called nyctinasty.

Pinguicula lutea blooming in the warm sun. 

A side view showing Pinguicula lutea's spur.  It looks like a bee could fit perfectly in there. 

It is really starting to feel like spring! 

Pinguicula planifolia blooming

Spring is in just a few weeks and here in Houston, TX we are seeing many signs of spring.  Many of my native wildflowers are blooming and other trees and shrubs are sprouting new leaves.  The carnivorous plants faired pretty well this winter (I did loose a few Sarracenia to rot) and all are starting to wake up.  Some of the Sarracenia have flower stalks growing and the SE Pinguicula have started to bloom.

My Pinguicula planifolia are the first to bloom!

Pinguicula planifolia - grown outdoors all year.  They receive full sun for half of the day and then shade for the rest of the day.  Of all the things I've tried here in Houston, TX, this seems to work the best. Our  afternoon temperatures are often over a hundred in the summer and the water evaporates before the day is done; especially if left in full sun throughout the day! 

P. planifolia - the rosettes of my plants are pretty small.  They might appreciate more water but I wanted to keep them on the dry side to keep them from rotting during winter.  Wild plants are often submerged for short periods of time. 

The flower stalk has an unusual shape.  Perhaps because of our drastic weather changes lately.  Almost 90 degrees in the day and 30s at night.

My P. lutea was also going to bloom too but some critter bit off its flower bud.  Thankfully its growing another one. 

Martha Lighting at JCP

After reading the Martha Moments post about the Martha Home and JCP launch I decided to see if any of my local JCPs had any Martha Home items or signage in store.  I did not see any signage or area that might become a new "shop" but there were a few lamps that are part of the Martha Home line.  Some areas of the JCP home section do look quite empty so perhaps once the legal battle is over they can proceed with setting up the new shops.

So here are the lamps.  All with the new MarthaLighting tags.

Rippled Mercury Table Lamp

Metal and Marble

Modern Cage

There is another lamp available in two different colors shown on the Martha Moments blog. ( I really like the black one with gold under the shade.).  In addition you can find window treatments on the JCP website:  MarthaWindow

By the way! If you haven't visited Martha Moments you really should! It's a wonderful blog dedicate to all things Martha! It's well written with a refreshingly optimistic tone. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a fan of Martha!

Vegetable &Tofu Pad Thai

I'm loving all of Sara Carey's new videos! I like her style and fun attitude while cooking. Hopefully she does some more vegetarian / vegan recipes!

Pencil Urchins - Eucidaris tribuloides

Pencil Urchins are a common sight in the marine aquarium trade. They are usually pretty inexpensive and make interesting pets. These urchins are not reef safe! They eat anything they can catch or mount. They're sharp "teeth" on the underside of the urchin are capable of scraping coral polyps and algae right off the rock. They are also able to push over coral and rocks that are not strongly affixed. I have found these urchins to be very easy to care for; surviving through times of bad water quality. I house them with various reef safe fish, shrimp, brittle stars, snails, small crabs, and other urchins. My oldest urchin I've had for over 5 years, but it is probably a few years older than that. My other two are about 3 years old. Together they are an algae eating army...

Galveston Birds in Winter

We've had some really pleasant weather this winter along the gulf coast of Texas.  Its nice to be able to go to the beach for a walk while there are few tourist and not many crowds or traffic. There are many resident birds here on Galveston Island and also quite a few winter visitors.  

Roseate Spoonbills - Platalea ajaja,  in Galveston Island State Park

Mottled Ducks - Anas fulvigula maculosa, can be see year round on Galveston Island. Many other waterfowl winter here such as: Mallard, Pintail, Northern Shovelers, Blue & Green-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Ducks, and Red-breasted Merganser.

Neotropic Cormorants - Phalacrocorax brasilianus.

Similar to Double-crested Cormorants but have a longer tail and smaller size. They also have that V-shaped border on their chin patch clearly seen on the bird in the middle of the picture.   

Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus

You can see its short tail but also in real life it looks larger and huskier than the Neotropic. 

Snowy Egret - Egretta thula

Forster's Tern - Sterna forsteri

Royal Tern - Thalasseus maximus

A unfortunate sight...  And sadly there were a few other dead birds along the beach: Laughing Gulls, Ring-billed Gull, & Brown Pelican; that I could identify. With all the runoff from Houston and surrounding cities there was an abundance of visible pollution as well as lots of fishing line and other gear discarded on the beach.  

Great-tailed Grackle - Quiscalus mexicanus

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias 

Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres

One of the few shorebirds I have seen lately.  On previous trips this same spot had many other species present including the endangered Piping Plover.

Savannah Sparrow - Passerculus sandwichensis

Quite a few here birds in the grassy areas along the shore.  These are winter visitors.  

American Pipit - Anthus rubescens

Another winter visitor.

Glaucous Gull - Larus hyperboreus

A rare bird from the north.  Common around Alaska.  This gull stuck out like a sore thumb with pale plumage and its huge size among the already large Herring Gulls.  It's interesting that it found its was all the way down here. 

Turning over a new Burberry Prorsum leaf

Today I bought my very first Burberry Prorsum item!

It may not seem like a very big deal but I have been a very loyal Versace customer for the past 12 years!  Lately, I have been a bit disappointed with the items Versace actually buys... A lot of the items I want from the fashion show are not available in any of the US stores and now they have the online store but there are very few items...

Burberry and many other high-end (even mid-level) companies have wonderful interactive websites and online stores that clearly show the items.  I love how Burberry has so much information on just one item, such as:  the description of the item, what its made of, care of the item, where its made, price, what collection its from, and multiple pictures of various view and even sometimes video!  It makes buying an item enjoyable - instead of feeling like you're on a wild goose chase; if there is a goose to chase at all...

So here are my new sunglasses bought from the Houston Galleria.  The Burberry employee was very helpful and efficient.  I like that she used her iPad to bring up information about the product - using technology is a great thing!

The Splash Sunglasses in teal blue.

 These glasses feature scratch-resistant lenses!  

Why aren't all designer sunglasses scratch-resistant? 

Screenshots of the Burberry website for the sunglasses.

Runway picture from the Burberry website.

Two other runway photos from style.com.

The Splash Sunglasses on Burberry's website.  These sunglasses area also available in: gray, mustard, and dark racing green. 

So I applaud Burberry and all companies that use the latest technologies to help customer and make shopping more efficient and enjoyable!

Razorbills in Florida

Before my Christmas trip to Florida I read a very interesting news article about large numbers of Razorbills around the Florida coast.  This was extremely unusual as Razorbill usually inhabit very cold northern coastal areas. So after reading the article I thought I'd check out the area where the birds were seen which is a beach I usually go to when Im in Florida.

This beach/park is on the northern tip of Anna Maria Island, in Bradenton, Florida.  This side is facing Tampa Bay.

The Razorbills were easily spotted swimming in the clear blue water. They were fairly close to shore.  I didn't use any zoom for this picture. 

The mostly looked like they were resting.

These two were looking for fish but I did not see them catch any.

Unfortunately a dead one was found washed up. Only the wings and skeleton remained.  Perhaps it was exhausted from the long flight or couldn't find food.  A sad sight.

A last view of the Razorbills before we left.  I always thought I'd have to travel way up north to get a glimpse of them!

Here is a link to the article that I read from eBird.  It is very interesting and there is a lots of information about sightings (some in the hundred!), other unusual northern species seen,  and why this whole phenomenon is taking place:  Razorbills invade Florida.

Pileated Woodpecker's New House

You may recall that five years ago my Dad and I made a duck box to put near the pond in hopes of having Black-bellied Whistling Ducks nest there: Woodpecker Nest .  But instead of a Black-bellied Whistling Duck a Pileated Woodpecker made it its home; coming back every evening to roost.  Unfortunately, this fall some strong winds blew the box down and damaged it!  My Dad had constructed another box on the opposite side of the hard which was meant for smaller woodpeckers, such as Red-headed Woodpeckers, but the Pileated made the hole larger and attempted to make this smaller box its new home.  So my Dad built another duck box to put in the same spot as the previous one and Pileated returned that evening.  He is so smart!

Here he is.  A very handsome Pileated Woodpecker!

The new duck (or woodpecker) box.

Its so nice to provide such a small thing for this woodpecker and enjoy its presents for so many years!

Other woodpeckers in the neighborhood are:

Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Northern Flicker

Red-headed Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker (of course)

Hairy Woodpeckers and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers could possibly be in the area as well but I have not seen any.

Long time, no blog!

Hello Everyone!  Happy 2013!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are having a great start to your New Year!

I have been so busy with so many things!
First, I changed jobs and started a new business.  I have been doing a little bit of traveling and working  a lot!  I have also been busy with my hobby of carving birds from wood (my resolution is to carve 50 this year) ...and also keeping up with my garden, regular chores around the house, and doing some new years cleaning and organizing.

Anyway, the biggest news and reason I have not been blogging lately is because:  Im MOVING!!!

Im so happy to say that I should be moving to south Florida this summer.  I have been doing a lot of research into exactly where (so far I like Naples, FL best) but we shall see...