Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: A Plant’s Life

Thank you to Betty Louise, at Idaho Bluebird, whose blog I have followed for several years. She suggested the theme “plant life” for this week’s Sunday Stills photo challenge.

I am enjoying a wonderful weekend in San Diego attending my brother’s wedding. Today’s shots of plants and flowers are mostly associated with the San Diego area, where I was born and raised and lived there until age 20. With family still there, three step-children, my daughter and fiancé, and a grand-baby, you can bet I visit there two-three times a year.

Bougainvillea
I love this plant, so much so that I managed to plant one in my front yard here in Northern California, although it may struggle with the dryer, hotter summer air. San Diego is more humid with more even temperatures year ‘round.Bougainvillea are everywhere! It is beautiful, but watch out for its thorns! 

Pink and white bougainvillea
Bougainvillea

Jacaranda
This gorgeous purple tree flowers mostly in June in San Diego (and I’m sure many other places). It is a large tree and a sight to behold.

Jacaranda tree
Jacaranda tree

Jasmine
White Star JasmineAnother favorite plant is “night-blooming jasmine.” I don’t have a photo of one, although while visiting I will try to find some to photograph.

Night jasmine has a tubular yellow flower, much different from the star jasmine pictured. Since they open only at night, I never notice them, but I can smell their heady scent that is mostly apparent at night!

My grandfather had an amazing backyard filled with Bougainvillea, jasmine, magnolia, honeysuckle and two huge date palms, among other tropical plant life that prefers the even temperatures and ocean breezes. He took pride in his yard and spent hours pruning and planting.

Sadly, when he passed away over 20 years ago and the home was sold, the owners sold the two date palms! I guess they are popular trees! Even these days, when visiting, I drive by his old home and still see where the palms resided. I hope they are happy where they are now.

Thank you so much for all the participation with this photo challenge. I’m noticing other comments on Sunday Stills posts of yours which means you are connecting with each other!

Also, one word of instruction to help your blogging journey. When titling your Sunday Stills post, you do not have to use “Sunday Stills” in the title, and it is best NOT to title your post the same title as mine. Our blogs are found on google searches using SEO and having several blog posts with the same title can be confusing. Please be as creative as you wish with your titles!

Because I am traveling when this post publishes, I may not be able to share and comment until Monday evening, but no later than Tuesday!

Do you love the plants of the Earth? Share one or some of your favorites in Sunday Stills. I can’t wait to see what images you share!

 

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55 comments

  1. As I am still traveling, your pictures are a wonderful reminder of home. We have several bougainvilleas in our yard… a couple of them were there when we moved in and are probably 40+ years old. We never have to water them but they just keep blooming like crazy.

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  4. Your photos of flowers and trees are gorgeous, nearly as good as the real things. The story about your dad’s date palms reminded me of my dad’s plumeria tree. We’d lived in Hawaii twice when I was a kid and my dad loved all the tropical plants and flowers. He built a small pond in our front yard and planted a white plumeria to stand guard over it.

    A decade later, when he and mom built a huge home in Southern California, he sneaked a small plumeria cutting onto a plane and brought it back to plant in their yard. You couldn’t buy them here on the mainland as easily as you can now. It was a pink plumeria and it grew to the size of a magnolia tree. People stopped and stared first time they saw that tree, especially if it was in bloom. Plumeria are now common here, but that tree was a specimen to behold – a magnificent showstopper. My dad made me a lei from its blossoms and I still have it, dried and in a glass bowl.

    Twenty-five years later, they sold the house, and a short time later I found out the new owners cut it down. You wonder when people buy a place what do they see in it that charms them. It isn’t always the things the original owners thought were the finest assets.

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    • Oh my gosh, that is so sad about the new owners cutting the plumeria, Shari!! I love plumeria (I even got a tattoo of one on my ankle when I first visited Hawaai years ago)! I would give a lot to have my own tree, but it’s too dry and hot in summer and too cold in winter. My daughter now lives in San Diego and recently planted one…I’m sure it will do well there. Thanks for your kind words about the images! The jacarandas were still in bloom this trip!

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  8. Beautiful photos! Added my contribution to the little frog but also wanted to comment here! I remember Jacaranda trees lining streets in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). The trees arched over the street to link above it, creating a tunnel of purplish light and a cushion of flowers onto sidewalks. Still one of my favorite memories in what had been a complicated time. Love Jacarandas!

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  10. Hans Christian Andersen had it right. And you have beautiful captured some lovely plants in your photographs. We have a bougainvillea and it only blooms briefly at the end of the summer. I think it must not get enough sunshine where it is. Grows well, though. Going to put together a photo post and join you this week.

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  20. Gorgeous flowers! I started some (I think 5) date palm trees, earlier this summer, from pits. I didn’t think they took, so I was going to throw them out. When I turned one the pots I planted the pit in over, there was a long tap root attached to the pit. I carefully put it back. I still don’t see anything growing above the surface, but I am going to give all of them more time. I love dates. I usually have a few with my morning coffee. I hope the wedding was absolutely wonderful, and magical as it should be.

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  22. The jasmine reminds me of my grandmother. She had a plant near her bedroom window and I remember her bedroom smelling like jasmine. Any time I smell it now, it reminds me of her…

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