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Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!
Flower Power: 10 of the world's best destinations for blooms
- Thread starter James Lemon
- Start date
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for the link! I will set aside time to explore!
Did you/will you visit any of the places?
Asher
Did you/will you visit any of the places?
Asher
James Lemon
Well-known member
Looks like there are a few places in California and a few other U.S States.
Maybe next year too busy at the present.
Best,regards
James
Peter Dexter
Well-known member
Would be nice to see the lister distinguish between wild and domestic bloom sites. I would only be interested in the former.
James Lemon
Well-known member
Why would that be Peter?
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
James,
Allow me to add my observations on the significance clearing native plants can have on otherwise rich life on the planet!
My son has planted on the steep cultivated (but essentially lifeless “cleared”), hillside behind his home, only genuinely native and local California species of plants, flowers and herbs that the Chumash Indians of the locality, lived with for thousands of years.
The entire hillside is now alive with color, visiting insects and butterflies different small birds and enough for 3 Golden Hawks always circling above!
We need to invest our energies in putting back nature to a self sustainable level, as that also provide the food for the insects and birds!
That is why native plants are so important.
Asher
Allow me to add my observations on the significance clearing native plants can have on otherwise rich life on the planet!
My son has planted on the steep cultivated (but essentially lifeless “cleared”), hillside behind his home, only genuinely native and local California species of plants, flowers and herbs that the Chumash Indians of the locality, lived with for thousands of years.
The entire hillside is now alive with color, visiting insects and butterflies different small birds and enough for 3 Golden Hawks always circling above!
We need to invest our energies in putting back nature to a self sustainable level, as that also provide the food for the insects and birds!
That is why native plants are so important.
Asher
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
In South Africa, they planted pine Forrest’s to replace the low lying bushes and scrawny native trees and shrubs.
But the streams happened to dry up. Global warming perhaps? But the trees were flourishing and welcomed visitors and tourists!
They planned to plant more trees!
Then a single conservationist surveyed the hillsides and demanded all the foreign trees and cultivars be removed. She was received with cynicism and finally they agreed to return a section of the hillside to its native plants. The result was that streams originating in the repairs mountainside moved again and were fully revived.
The stalwart impressive but foreign trees the State has covered the mountainside with were simply stealing all the water! They essentially killed the entire mountain circle of life.
So the cynics now agreed and the entire area was returned to its native state.
The folk realized that what we think of as “beauty” can mean a collapse of the ecosystem by which nature hangs on to life and thrives.
With return to native plants, complex cycles between air, moisture, rainfall is rebalanced. This in turn permits life all the way down to whether or not toads, lizards, snakes, field mice, butterflies birds and then hawks and eagles can flourish!
It’s not rocket science, Peter!
It’s just Nature!
Asher
But the streams happened to dry up. Global warming perhaps? But the trees were flourishing and welcomed visitors and tourists!
They planned to plant more trees!
Then a single conservationist surveyed the hillsides and demanded all the foreign trees and cultivars be removed. She was received with cynicism and finally they agreed to return a section of the hillside to its native plants. The result was that streams originating in the repairs mountainside moved again and were fully revived.
The stalwart impressive but foreign trees the State has covered the mountainside with were simply stealing all the water! They essentially killed the entire mountain circle of life.
So the cynics now agreed and the entire area was returned to its native state.
The folk realized that what we think of as “beauty” can mean a collapse of the ecosystem by which nature hangs on to life and thrives.
With return to native plants, complex cycles between air, moisture, rainfall is rebalanced. This in turn permits life all the way down to whether or not toads, lizards, snakes, field mice, butterflies birds and then hawks and eagles can flourish!
It’s not rocket science, Peter!
It’s just Nature!
Asher
Peter Dexter
Well-known member
Well wild flowers and their habitat are interdependent and their existence in a given location can tell us much about the environment where they are found, Some require very special conditions in order to propagate. Domestic flowers on the other hand are widely adaptable, can be grown most anywhere short of the frozen north and are generally unrelated (before adaptation) to the environments where they are planted so they don't contribute much if anything to the understanding of the over all picture or ecology of a given area. That's why I don't find them very interesting.
Peter Dexter
Well-known member
Yes Asher something similar has occurred in my neck of the woods. A type of Cyprus tree native to parts of Mexico was extensively planted here in Colombia because it produces long, straight trunks that can be converted into excellent construction lumber. Unfortunately it has a shallow root system that doesn't let it hold on well in Colombian soil so healthy trees come crashing down (knocking out my electricity) during the rainiest seasons here when the ground is very wet.
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This is where cultivars can be selected. The ones with the longest roots need to be multiplied in tissue culture and they need a method to select for deep strong roots that still grows tall!
....Or else train bears to prop up the trees!
Asher
Tony Anderssen
New member
I actually have another list of the best travel destinations for incredible photographers! https://phototravelearth.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/5-travel-destinations-for-photographers/ It is full of places with lots of beautiful flowers you can capture.