Scents of the garden

The Star Jasmine is an evergreen vine that can easily climb 40 feet high, covering fences, trees and just about anything.  So choose your location carefully!  I have heard it can be used as a ground cover also, but mine likes to climb and is always reaching up.  It is very hardy and can survive the drought conditions we often see in the summer months.  It really is a lovely plant in the right location.

It has nice dark green pointed leaves which form a great backdrop for the clusters of small white flowers that appear on the end of each branch.  The small buds appear twisted, and the open flowers resemble pinwheels with yellow centers.

I always know when the flowers are in bloom because they fill the air with the sent of Root Beer.

Capturing a flower

I seem to be working on a series of garden views from our back porch.  It didn't begin as a series.  The porch was just a comfortable location to work from.  I just keep spotting new things to sketch and paint.  Now that there are 11 finished journal pages and two more in process, I realize it has become a series.

The first journal entry was done last March, shortly after I finished the Watercolor Journaling workshop.  It is all about lines and shapes and almost monochromatic due to the lack of flowers and birds.  A winter garden view.

The latest entries in the series were started on July 4th, and include a Lavender Crepe Myrtle in full bloom.  As I was working on inking the sketches today I realized the Crepe Myrtle blooms are fading and may all be gone before I have time to finish them!  So I decided to spend my 'paint time' today doing a study of the Crepe Myrtle flowers.

I have always liked the soft lavender color of these flowers.  Each flower emerges from a pea sized green pod.  The petals are pinkish-red at the base, lighter lavender at the crepe-like crinkled edges, and have darker lavender veins.  In the center of the flower are numerous stamens topped with bright orangish-yellow anthers.  The mature stamens extend above the others on thick red filaments.  Filaments of old stamens grow thin and pale, and coil back toward the center of the flower.

Groups of these flowers form large clusters at the ends of each new branch on the bush.  The young branches are reddish-brown, while the older branches and trunks have a mottled appearance due to shedding bark.  The dark green leaves are simple and opposite.

Butterflies of Costa Rica

We spent one morning at the Si Como No Resort & Spa Butterfly House, during which I had the opportunity to get a close view and sketch several of their beautiful butterflies.  Inside the house is a garden of plants selected to provide each of the different butterfly species food and a place to lay their eggs.

The butterfly eggs are gathered each day and carefully incubated until they hatch.  The hatched catepillars are individually raised on their food of choice until they pupate.  When the pupa are ready to hatch they are taken to the upper deck in the Butterfly House.  When the butterflies first emerge they have to pump fluid into their wings to expand them.  Once expanded, the wings have to dry before the butterflies can use them to fly.  This takes quite a while.  From our vantage point on the deck we could watch the butterflies emerging from the pupa as well as view all the others flying around the Butterfly House.


Before leaving, we wandered the trails viewing the butterflies up close.  It was a very relaxing and fun morning.  I had a great time sketching the different species we saw that day.