Author: Flower Roberts

Plant People Bonding

| Flower Roberts

If you are a Plant Person you know that all you have to do to make friends with other Plant People is recognize one of their plants and call it by name with love in your voice. When people know your plants, they know you.

Yin Yang riverstone art among lantana, bougainvillea and Texas sages

This happens wherever I go. I call a plant name over a wall and next thing I know, I am invited in for a tour or even a concert on a grand piano. Yes…that happened in Bramwell. (Look it up in the search bar.)

My sis and I walked most mornings in Palm Springs. We loved admiring the xeroscape landscaping. I was not familiar with most plants, but one near-by yard was full of old friends that I knew well.

One of the gardeners was outside doing some morning watering. I dropped a few plant names. VOILA!

My new friend Neal

We were invited in to tour the front gardens. We then got to enter a gate to a hidden garden around back only after Neal checked to be sure that Roger had clothes on. It was Naked Gardening Day.

Rogers reflection and a white bird of paradise, begonia, philodendron…

What a plant haven/heaven they have created. I examined every luscious plant. What a collection! Roger gave me tips on growing special plants and koi pond maintenance.

Pond in a pail

These two new friends made our morning extra special. The tour of their private botanical garden was a highlight of an already fabulous adventure. They have developed a microclimate using shade and water to grow plants that would not normally survive in Palm Springs.  Roger is a Plant Whisperer.

Begonias and Wondering Jew, impatiens, coleus

Plant People bond over plants. We have a common passion which instantly connects us. Our blood runs green.

I hope Neal or Roger messages me on this blog. I am wanting to share ‘The Gran Plant’ (redbird cactus) to see if they can get it to bloom.

FLOWER

Walking Among Windmills

| Flower Roberts

I stepped into the future last week. I walked around in a wind farm. The Palm Springs Windmills are located in the San Gorgonio Pass between two of the San Bernadino Mountains.

Wind farm in San Gorgonio Pass

The wind gets funneled through this pass. This is one of the largest and most productive windfarms in the US.

Silently swirling groups of various sizes.

The self-guided tour started with a film in a green trailor they called a building. The film described the evolution of the designs of the towers and blades. It also mentioned how Enron’s bankruptcy affected the business.

Giant tower, nacelle and blades

The best design so far is the round tower with three blades. The tips are pitchable and the motor turns the blades into the wind. The film showed a worker climbing inside the tower to the nacelle to service the generator and gears. Not for me!

Old inefficient designs of the past

Collaboration to achieve the most efficient form of wind energy is crucial. This involves various companies to promote the technology, federal and state investment in  subsidies and better battery storage of energy.

Driving tour between green painted rocks

There would be better photos but I got distracted by a toy windmill in the green building and a lizard running between artifacts.

I wanted one, but retrained myself.

FLOW

P.S. The windmills did not make noise and no birds were killed while I was there.

Mama’s Pansies

| Flower Roberts

I find different ways to keep my parents close. Plants are part of that. I have been re-habing Daddy’s neglected blueberry patch.

Five years of pruning done in one season. Yikes.

My Mama loved pansies, so I planted some in pots near the entrance. I check on them as I enter and leave.

Mama’s pansies, Daddy’s bluebird flag.

I remembered Mama’s pansy gardens on Enwood as I trimmed and fed these just now.

Pinky pansies.

This is our second Mother’s Day without Mama. The first one was a painful blur.

Mama at Enwood

On this day from now on, I will do something that I would have done if my Mama were still here…like taking care of her pansies.

Remembering Mama

FLOWER

Art Portals in Palm Springs

| Flower Roberts

A paintball pallette almost tripped me. I could have fallen into that trapdoor on the floor. That is when I knew this was a tricky museum.

A pearl pin bonnet tempted me to put it on,  but I saw those 31,863 pins and knew it was a Seer Bonnet to trap pathetic women desparate to wear pretty pearls and convert them. Vanity has its price.

Lovely pearls of pain.
Painfully pretty pioneering bonnet by Angela Ellsworth.

The tricky twin symmetry crisscross doorway tried to lure me to its middle by confusing me with its identical sides. I was wise to its ways and backed away.

Right is left is right

A melting tapestry by Faig Ahmed from Azerbaijan lured me close to the spot where I too could have been melted. I never knew museums could be so dangerous!

Too hot to hold
Melted mosaic mesmerizing art patrons.

There was a spaceship that tempted me to tilt forward and look inside. I could see to infinity and beyond. I straightened up and slowly backed away from the otherworldly display.

The Rhombicosadecahedron Spaceship

Next thing I knew I was back on the front steps of the Palm Springs Art Museum with my friends.  We could have ended up in some weird places, but we know art portals when we spy them. Whew!

FLOOOOOOW

Flamingo Pink

| Flower Roberts

I was never a pink girl, but flamingo pink gets me. I must pause for that pink.

My family has several flamingo stories. One is about Daddy and the other about little Rose.

Daddy said if there were jobs in heaven, he wanted to help birds. He paused. We waited for him to say bluebirds, but instead he said he wanted to help the flamingos. Mr. Bluebird turns pink!

My son and I distinctly remember the Rose and Flamingo Pink story. We were out on our deck making a model of a flamingo out of trash for his first grade project. Four-year-old Rose wanted to be involved. I gave her all the paint squirt bottles and told her to mix up flamingo pink for our future bird on a paper plate. We turned our attention back to our big pop bottle body, paper towel roll neck and assorted trash for legs, beak, feathers and feet.

Rose was busy mixing paint unattended. I assumed a mess was being made. My son and I were bending the wire legs when Rose announced she was done.

Her brother and I looked over at Rose and the plate. It was full of the perfect Flamingo pink! No mess. No other colors just that pink with a hint of peach.

We were stunned. We looked at each other and then little Rose. The irony is she does not even like pink. I hope she will wear these socks I bought for her anyway.

Socks souvenir for Rose

So flamingos will always hold my attention and bring back memories of little Rose and my Bluebird Daddy.

Flamingo art made of BEADS.

The house in Palm Springs had a Flamingo Pink theme. So we now have another set of pink stories. Here are pics of the Palm Springs Pink.

Close up of beads. Amazing!
WOWZA
Too cute to use.
Our pink door
Pink private patio. Flamingo friends.
Pink and white chairs with lovely shadows.

FLOW loves Flamingos

Rescue from the Road

| Flower Roberts

This plant in a crack kept me up one night. The next morning, I set out with a plastic spoon to find and rescue it.


It seem to be a metaphor for life’s struggles. It has struggled to survive in a terrible set of circumstances. Then one day a tire smashes it flat.

In need of rescue.


It was a terrible truism that I could remedy. So I did. This tiny Donkeytail Spurge will be pampered from now on.

I do what I can to bring justice to this world.

A Rotating Ride in the Sky

| Flower Roberts

We took a trip up to the top of the San Jacinto mountain on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

I loved that some windows were open to let in the breezes as we ascended to cooler temperatures. I appreciated that the tram innards slowly rotated, so everyone got to see the surrounding views without moving about. I wanted to hold on to my window, but it moved.

Photo by Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

The rotation and dips at the towers took some getting used to. I did not take photos during the ride. I was busy staying vertical.

The views from the top were spectacular.

Palm Springs Wind Farm

I was more relaxed on the trip down due to prior exerience. While my friends hiked down this trail and back up again my sis and I watched a short movie about the biodiversity of the mountain wildlife and the wind conditions between the two mountains, thus the wind farm.

Here they come!
FLOW

Stay tuned for Sunnylands. I am stoked.

FLOW on the move.

Red Yucca Blooms and Seedpods

| Flower Roberts

I love the structure of the red yuccas.

A spiky sea urchin- like base with a slender stalk rising high above the plant body to offer its blooms to hummingbirds.

The real name is Hesperaloe parviflora. May be called Hummingbird Yucca or Red False Yucca. I have seen the term false yucca several times here.

Red Yucca blooms and pods

I was happy to see it will grow in Zones 5-11.  I would love to add a drought tolerant plant as I purge my needy plants in the future.

Rock mulch xeriscaping

There are many examples of xeriscaping here. It is necessary to have plants that are drought tolerant here in Palm Springs California.

Functional and lovely

FLOW  liking low water land-scaping

The Rhombicosidodecahedron

| Flower Roberts

This amazing piece is near the entrance of the Palm Springs Art Museum. It was designed by Anthony James in 2020.

Rhombicosidodecahedron by Anthony James

The rhombicosidodecahedron is made of steel, specialized glass and LED lights.

My hypothesis is that the glass is one-way glass with mirrors on the inside surfaces. The reflected shapes inside repeat to infinity.

Mesmerizing!

The name was too hard for me to say, so I called it the Buckyball Mirror Ball.

FLOW