How's this for color balance?

I took this shot at one of my client's gardens:

Coreopsis gigantea

How does the color look in this one? Vibrant, or still a bit flat? There is some salvia in bloom at the back, but the purple doesn't seem to show at all...

Thanks for all the advice!

Last week, I blogged about my Ceanothus blue photo color problems. Thank you to all who took the time to write me with advice. I decided to start with the easiest to implement advice and work myself up to more sophisticated solutions that will take a learning-curve on my part.

I took one of the photos from the original blog - this one - and adjusted the color - see the results below:

Color-adjusted Ceanothus 'Concha' photo

Original photo:

Ceanothus 'Concha' original

So, I think that was a good start. My approach was to open the image in an editing program and adjust the color there. It took me hours to figure out how to use the software enough to get to this point. 

So, I am happy with my initial effort and feel so successful at completing something that's been bugging me for years. 

I am really excited about learning more on this topic and look forward to delving deeper. Will report back as I learn more.

Ceanothus photos: any suggestions?

Here are some garden pix of Ceanothus in bloom. The blues don't really pop as much as they do in real life.

At the recent Tree of Life Nursery Spring Plant Sale, there was a rather professional-looking photographer and I asked him how to get the cobalt color. He suggested my photos were overexposed and to start manually adjusting the exposure - not relying on the "point and click" settings already programmed into my Canon PowerShot A640 10 megapixels camera.

Is this what's going wrong with my photos? Any ideas or suggestions?

Ceanothus griseus horizontalis ‘Yankee Point’ 

Ceanothus griseus horizontalis ‘Yankee Point’ (front), Ceanothus ‘Concha’ (back)

Ceanothus griseus horizontalis ‘Yankee Point’ (front), Ceanothus ‘Concha’ (back)

Ceanothus ‘Concha’

The second and fourth photos are typical of what my shots look like - the blue is attractive, but not the fall-in-love-with color that stops my heart when I walk by them.

Is it time of day? Settings? Overexposing? 

Pix from last Gardening Committee Meeting

Will Johnson hosted our most recent Gardening Committee Meeting at his lovely home on March 13th.

We worked though some project updates and plans for the future - will post minutes soon. In the mean time, here are some photos from the group having fun:

Greg Rubin, Dave Flietner, Wes Hudson, Will Johnson

Susan Krzywicki, Sue Marchetti, Will Johnson, Lucy Warren

Susan Lewitt, Greg Rubin, Dave Flietner, Wes Hudson

Susan Krzywicki, Sue Marchetti

New Fact Sheets available

Mary Alice just published a whole bunch more Fact Sheets from the Gardening Committee - the full list is above and you can get to the sheets from this Gardening Committee link.

We are working on more fact sheets. I either write them or edit material from a variety of sources. If you have a topic you'd like us to address or would like to help writ e and edit these in the future, please  send me an email at gardening@cnpssd.org and we'd love to have the help and knowledge!

Green Gardens Group training

Green Gardens Group is running a series of educational classes for professionals who would like to use the Watershed Gardening approach in their work, or teach classes for G3 in these techniques.

The watershed approach calls for the use of at least 10% natives, so this may be of interest to our CNPS SD community.

If you have an affinity for teaching and enjoy spreading the word about native plants these classes can add to your capabilities.

Vince Scheidt's contribution...

Vince Scheidt is bringing a few plants that he will be donating to sell on behalf of the chapter.  Lavatera 'Purisima' $12.00

This photo is from the Theodore Payne wiki - a great resource if you have never used it before!

Adding to the excitement...

Our Natives for Novices talk tomorrow night will be on Wildflowers. Greg Rubin and Lucy Warren will then talk about their new book. To add to the excitement, we will have some extra-special wildflower seeds available - rare and fun to grow in gardens.

We've got:

• Hummingbird Mix
• Rainbow Mix
• Butterfly Mix
• Shady Mix
• Gilia capitata
• Clarkia unguiculata
• Laytia platyglossa
• Linum lewisii
• Lupinus bicolor
• Lupinus albicaulis
• Phacelia tanacetifolia
• Nemophila menziesii

More Home & Garden Photos - RECON

Patrick Montgomery emailed me the other day, and mentioned that RECON had "... a display (teamed up with Envision landscape studio) about two down from the Surfrider display... I was really impressed with how many native plants I saw at the show."

Above are a couple of the photos from the show and there are more on RECON's facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/reconnativeplants

RECON Plant Sale: need something new?

From Patrick Montgomery:

Only a few more days until are Spring Native Plant Sale!

We are excited to be opening our doors to the public again on Saturday March 23rd from 9 AM to 3 PM for our Spring Native Plant Sale. Everyone is welcome and we are excited to meet all the people that may not have otherwise had an opportunity to work with us. We have an incredible variety of plants at great prices that are perfectly suited for landscaping and habitat restoration. This also happens to be the perfect time of year to appreciate the natural beauty of native plants as many are currently in full bloom. We will be available to answer any questions you may have about the plants and to provide helpful tips and suggestions. We will also be hosting guided tours of the nursery to provide a glimpse into our unique growing process. For anyone with an interest in native plants, drought-tolerant plants, landscaping, or even just a love of the outdoors, this is an event you don’t want to miss!

When: March 23rd from 9 AM to 3 PM

Where: RECON Native Plants (your local native plant nursery, only 15 mins south of downtown)

1755 Saturn Blvd, San Diego, 92154

What: Great prices, huge selection and friendly advice!

Please feel free to tell your friends about this event and we look forward to seeing everyone there.

For more info go to: http://www.facebook.com/reconnativeplants


Patrick Montgomery
Account Manager

Natives for Novices - Come on March 19th!

Chula Vista Greywater

The city of Chula Vista could require that all new homes built within city limits be greywater-ready. The method has been used for years by retrofitting pipes from baths, showers and washing machines. Chula Vista would be the first city in California to mandate that all new homes have those pipes to save water — and money.

Read the full article at Channel 10 and see a short video clip. 

California Native Landscape is now available

Last night the Chapter Board met - we were talking projects and budgets...lots of fun.

We had David Kimball as a guest - he's been so instrumental in bringing natives to the Sunset Cliffs area. We discussed the linear park proposal that Dave Flietner and Clayton Tschudy are working on. I can hardly wait to see it implemented.


And - Ta Da! Greg Rubin and Lucy Warren’s book, California Native Landscape is now officially available. I bought mine last night at the Board Meeting.

The books looks fresh and full of good information. I started reading it when I got home and look forward to really digging (excuse the pun) into it this weekend.

Congratulations to Lucy and Greg!

Garden Committee meeting on the 13th

The Gardening committee is meeting on March 13th.  We will start at 6 PM at the home of Will Johnson, 7983 San Carlos Drive, San Diego, CA 92119. His home is three-quarters of a mile west of the 125 and one block south of Navajo.

More photos of Ryan's display

I am not a great photographer, so you may not be able to discern the native plants in this picture, but rest assured, they are there!

Salvia 'Pozo Blue', Salvia apiana, Ceanothus, Monardella (rarely seen in designs like this), as well as Juncus and some Carex species, and - well I've probably forgotten some....on to the pictures!

Ryan Prange shows off native plants

Ryan Prange, of Falling Waters Landscape, created a fun, modern garden that was heavily planted with California Natives. Ryan won "Best In Show" along with a number of other awards.

Ryan used the Surfrider Ocean Friendly Gardens principles - Conservation (this is where the native plants fit in), Retention and Permeability.

Natives featured: Ceanothus, Juncus, Sisyrinchium, and a bunch more. The show is on through today - congratulations to Ryan!