‘Horridculture’ meme, which normally posts on Wednesdays, will be postponed while I am unable to compose new content. I will continue to recycle old articles until my schedule allows me to write new articles.
Blue Ribbon
This will be the first year in which I will not compete in the Jam & Jelly Competition at the Santa Cruz Mountains Harvest Festival. With all that has been happening (and preventing me from writing) I have been unable to cook any jelly and jam. Besides, there will be no Harvest Festival this year. Such crowds are not allowed; and Boulder Creek is only beginning to recover from the CZU Lightning Complex Fire.
via Blue Ribbon
What Is Killing The Box Elders?
Most of the box elders that died back when this article posted are rotting on the ground by now. Those that survived are doing will (although presently defoliating very prematurely because of the weather). Necrosis has been minimal for quite a while. Nature can be confusing.
Six on Saturday: Urban Flight
The CZU Lightning Complex Fire continues to burn. Consequently, I had been unable to return home until just a few hours ago. My garden survived the abandonment better than expected. I will get pictures for next week. These pictures are from where I was in the Santa Clara Valley. I noticed a few features that I forgot that I disliked about urban situations. Of course, Rhody found something to appreciate about our situation there. He was in no hurry to return home.
1. Breeze in the silver maple should be appreciated on a warm day. While the fires are burning in the Santa Cruz Mountains just several miles away, an absence of breeze would be preferred.
2. Raindrops should likewise be appreciated. Unfortunately, there were no more than a few, and certainly not enough to slow a fire. They only indicated that more dry lightning was possible.
3. Smoke was thicker over the Santa Clara Valley than I can ever remember. All those utility cables crowded by too many trees are normal though. I thought this picture was rather artistic.
4. Fences are a bother too. This one shades lower branches of a nearby pear tree, that grew up with a shorter slat fence. The neighbor’s garage shows how close the homes are to each other.
5. Soil is fortunately as awesome as it has always been in the Santa Clara Valley. It is unfortunate that so few of the more than a million who live here now will never bother to experience it.
6. Rhody expressed his opinion of my request that he stay off of the sofa while here. Does the floral pattern of the upholstery qualify this as a horticultural subject? We all want to see Rhody! 
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
Automotive Horticulture
This most certainly fits into the ‘Horridcutlure’ theme! Things used to be so much simpler!
Felony Garden
I believe that the Statute of Limitations applies here.
via Felony Garden
The Coffee Shoppe That Grows Its Own
It just occurred to me that I have not visited this coffee shoppe in more than a year!
Six on Saturday: Do You Know The Way To San Jose?
These six are not from my garden or landscapes, since I am away from home for now.
Before the evacuations, and before I was even aware of the local wildfires, I came to the Santa Clara Valley for unrelated obligations. Evacuations started in a neighboring town the following Wednesday morning. By Thursday morning, my region was evacuating. I have been here for several days and may be here longer than I need to be if I am unable to return home afterward.
1. Plumbago auriculata – looked pretty when I planted it here, and before I knew how rampant it can get. It really wants more space. The blue is almost too bland. The foliage is rather pale.
2. Pelargonium peltatum – is the only one of these six that I did not plant here. I have no idea where it came from. I know this species is nothing special, but this color is too pretty to ignore.
3. Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘nidiformis’ – is rare here, perhaps because it dislikes a chaparral climate. This specimen is not much bigger than it was when I installed it three decades ago.
4. Juniperus chinensis ‘Shimpaku’ – sound as if it is related to Pikachu. Bonsai artists appreciate it more than I do. It is sculptural like a diminutive Hollywood juniper, but grows very slowly.
5. Juniperus chinensis ‘Hetzii (Glauca)’ – is known by a few species or hybrid species names, including X media, X pfitzeriana and virginiana, rather than chinensis, most without ‘Glauca’.
6. Acer saccharinum – is not one of the favorite maples within its native range; but it happens to be one of my favorites. I grew this one out front by layering a stem from its parent out back.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
CZU Lightning Complex Fires
Lightning is very rare here. For half of the year between spring and autumn, rain is also very rare. Summers are long and dry. Weirdly though, if a storm passed through between spring and autumn, it usually involves lightning, and is usually within only a few days of the Feast of the Assumption, on August 15. This time, it arrived just about an hour after midnight on August 16.
It was warm that night, so the windows were open at home. There was a gust of wind in the cottonwoods that sounded like the Santa Ana Winds of the Los Angeles region, and the electricity went out, likely because the same gust knocked a tree onto cables elsewhere. The lighting might have started earlier, but became visible without electrical lights outside. I heard no thunder.
Lightning worries us while the weather is so warm and dry. It came without rain. Previously, humidity had been minimal. There was a faint aroma of smoke in the morning, but nothing was mentioned about fires during the day. That was Sunday. Monday was warmer and less humid, and smelled notably smokier as I left for the Santa Clara Valley, where I have been since then.
Fires that were started by the lightning in Bonny Doon was finally mentioned in the news on Tuesday, but did not seem to be a major concern. By the next morning, Boulder Creek was being evacuated! Brookdale and Ben Lomond were evacuated later on Wednesday. By this morning, Felton and everyone at work were being evacuated! Scott’s Valley and environs could be next!
It all happened so fast and I am miles away. Even if I were not miles away, I would need to go miles away with everyone else who was evacuated. I was told that ash and burned leaves were falling from the sky around my home this morning. I have never seen so much smoke over the Santa Cruz Mountains, or filling the sky of the Santa Clara Valley. I hope to never see it again.
This reblogged post is from my other blog at ‘Felton League’.
White Supremacy
This recycled article fits into the ‘Horridculture’ category only because some might find it to be VERY objectionable. It is still one of my favorites.
via White Supremacy
Tony Tomeo 