Random Pictures Thread

You guys have similar weather to us. We have not had leaves for a few weeks, but Scranton is prime. Even the oak trees look great there. Reason your street looks good...most of those trees are not native. Even the USA species on the street are likely nursery grown stock, and the biggest nurseries are 200 miles or more south of you. So the stock they use leafs out earlier in the spring and last further into the fall in your area. Down side is early snow or ice storms. In 1997 Penn State lost over $100K in landscape trees because of such a case. However, in the landscape trade, they still argue the offset of pluses out weigh the negative and continue the trend.
Interesting. Similarly, I just learned that most of the live oaks landscapers use around here (SE NC) come from Ga/Fla - and they don't tend to spread long/low branches like our natives. There is a guy here who has started a tree farm dedicated to growing "heirloom" live oaks. He gathers acorns from well-known (and not so well known) big oaks and grows them from seed. Part of his promise to current tree owners is that if they lose the tree due to storm or disease, he'll get them a descendant. He's been growing for a few years, I think is a year away from being able to start selling to developers/landscapers. I'm going to be interested to see if the idea works, but if I were planting a live oak in my yard I'd much prefer to have one out of a local tree that proved successful.
 
Interesting. Similarly, I just learned that most of the live oaks landscapers use around here (SE NC) come from Ga/Fla - and they don't tend to spread long/low branches like our natives. There is a guy here who has started a tree farm dedicated to growing "heirloom" live oaks. He gathers acorns from well-known (and not so well known) big oaks and grows them from seed. Part of his promise to current tree owners is that if they lose the tree due to storm or disease, he'll get them a descendant. He's been growing for a few years, I think is a year away from being able to start selling to developers/landscapers. I'm going to be interested to see if the idea works, but if I were planting a live oak in my yard I'd much prefer to have one out of a local tree that proved successful.
Speaking of growing oak trees from seed, these are from a huge native white oak that went down next to us last month. Three of these six are poking their heads up so far. I’ve got another 6 in outside containers to see which might do better. And a bag of acorns in the fridge.

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Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks. No matter how many pictures you take or see in books (remember those), you just cannot capture the majesty of these trees. You must stand with them.

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In another 500 years this tree will consume the rock.

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Yosemite National Park. Picture of a guy painting a picture of El Capitan and Half Dome.

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Manzanita, I have root ball wood on the shelf but never knew what the source looked like.

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Death Valley National Park, Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the US. This was a “once in a lifetime” view according to the Park Rangers because there is water in the dry lake, what remains of the gift from Hurricane Hilary on August 20. Most roads remain closed.

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View of Death Valley and Badwater from Dante’s View about a mile (I think) above the valley floor.

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Salt that looks like snow.

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Yep, it got over 100.

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Much prettier than around here. Since we've been so dry, we're having a bunch of early leaf fall with little to no color.
 
We seem to be fairly normal on color and timing, if anything we are a slightly late on leaf drop.

We were dry too, early, but have had fairly normal moisture since mid July.
 
Death Valley National Park, Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the US. This was a “once in a lifetime” view according to the Park Rangers because there is water in the dry lake, what remains of the gift from Hurricane Hilary on August 20. Most roads remain closed.

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View of Death Valley and Badwater from Dante’s View about a mile (I think) above the valley floor.

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Salt that looks like snow.

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Yep, it got over 100.

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That's what Texas looks like, either it's frozen over or the ground is cracked from the heat of h e double toothpicks. There's a decent time of the year but it lasts about as long as the perfect ripeness of an avocado.
 
Yosemite National Park. Picture of a guy painting a picture of El Capitan and Half Dome.

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We were there in August. Truly amazing! Unfortunately, the early morning sun didn't allow me to take the shot that you got without too much glare.
 
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We were there in August. Truly amazing! Unfortunately, the early morning sun didn't allow me to take the shot that you got without too much glare.
Timing and clear weather are everything.

When we were there they we doing controlled burning in Yosemite Valley and the smoke could get so thick I could not see the hood of the car let alone the mountains.
 
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That's what Texas looks like, either it's frozen over or the ground is cracked from the heat of h e double toothpicks. There's a decent time of the year but it lasts about as long as the perfect ripeness of an avocado.
Somehow I missed that “decent time of year” when I lived in Texas.
 
Another gatlinburg trip. Saw 3 cubs and a momma bear in the road today


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