Plant of the week: Giant sequoia tree

The Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

I'm writing about these absolutely massive, badass, hunks of tree because I spent a bit of time staring at a mini version in someone's garden on Tuesday and fell in love with their rusty bark, chubby trunks and lumpy feet.

They are only native to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, which is also the location of  The Sequoia National Park where the largest Giant Sequoia - and also one of the oldest trees in the world - can be found; General Sherman. The General is around 2,300 years old, almost 85m tall and weighs approx 1225 tonnes. 

Less famous Giant seqouias will be 50-80m tall but they're all incredibly tough; their bark is fire resistant (in fact, fire handily takes out weaker specimens and opens sequoia cones), it laughs condescendingly at wood-boring beetles and has inbuilt tannic acid-based protection against fungal rot. Even lightning very rarely kills them. They spend about half the year covered in snow and - instead of delicately recovering from being frozen - grow furiously as soon as it melts, with more growth happening in very old age than when they're young whippersnappers. Practise of felling stopped when it was discovered a lot more money could be made from tourism than trying to flog their often shattered carcasses.

Despite being overwhelmingly humongous and incredibly tough; they seem to be beautiful, endearing, trustworthy, comforting trees. Though I've only met a mini version and looked at photos, I'd probably be terrified if I came across the General...

Plant of the week: Saguaro cactus

I made this last week:

Which prompted me to research the Saguaro a bit more and discover that they are only found in the Sonoran Desert, in southern Arizona, USA and Western Sonora, Mexico. Here's a handy map showing the Sonoran Desert in yellow:

The Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) is very appropriately latin named, as they can grow up to 18m tall, although they also grow very slowly; a ten year old Saguaro can be only 1.5 inches tall, so it's estimated that massive Saguaros can be up to 150-200 years old.

Some Saguaros never grow arms, which must be quite disappointing and make it difficult to catch buses. The stripey appearance of these plants is caused by woody 'ribs' that expand and contract as water is taken on and used, dead Saguaro 'ribs' are used - in a horror film fashion - for roofs/furniture/fences etc.

 
White flowers in late spring                                Red fruit in summer

George Finch 1930-2013

In February I read George Finch's obituary in a newspaper (unusual, I buy a newspaper maybe once every two months) and instantly added him to my list of inspirational people; his desire to create interesting and playful designs for ordinary people to comfortably live in makes me very happy. Luckily morbidly, his recent death means it was fairly easy to read lots more about him.

George began studying at North London Polytechnic where he found the teaching uninspiring;  behaving in a "wayward and impractical" manner and running off to join the Architectual Association (AA) and then win their only London county council (LCC) scholarship in 1950. 

Architecural Association students (George is working the bow tie)

While with the LCC he developed his skills and beliefs in utopian socialism and good quality building; in the 1950s he designed the first mixed housing block of flats in Central London and in the early 1960s, refuted claims that pre-cast housing construction was quicker and cheaper than conventional methods.

Lambeth Towers (opened 1965) - designed while George was working for Lambeth council, funnily enough -  is probably his finest housing design; providing good quality at reasonable rents for people who lived and worked in London while being visually playful, stacked maisonettes provide each of the 35 dwellings with dual aspect and a balcony. 48 years later, residents still like living there! Which is a lot more than can be said for most tower blocks built in the 60s; a lot of them aren't even still standing, let alone enjoyable places to live.

Lambeth Towers on the front cover of RIBA Journal July 1965

Brixton Recreation Centre (opened 1985) - Finch's last design for Lambeth council - recently avoided demolition, despite being the only built part of a giant design called Brixton Towers, which accompanied eventually abandoned plans for an overhead ringroad through south London (thank god! Overhead ringroads are hideous! (Can you tell I lived in Birmingham for 4 years?)). The Recreation Centre design links facilities with a stepped internal atrium and includes a pool so high you can watch trains on the adjoining viaduct while swimming, unsurpisingly it became the hub of Brixton's community.


After leaving Lambeth council, George indulged his love of the theatre - designing Derby Playhouse and Wolsey theatre, Ipswich - and collbaroating with his partner Kate Macintosh (as Finch Macintosh Architects), designed the RIBA award winning Weston adventure playground.

Weston Adventure Playground

George Finch designed to bring dignity and pleasure in to people's lives, which should always be the top priority of design - definitely higher up the list than shock tactics and landmarking. His site specific buildings are still enjoyed, proving that good quality, people-centred design doesn't date; long live architecture with a heart!


Written with a little help from AJ, Utopia London, Guardian and The Independent 
AND NOT WIKIPEDIA! My ex-tutors will be so proud!

Plant of the week: Heath/Heather confusion

Technically this post should be called 'Plants of the week', but you can't really talk about Heather without getting confused and talking about Heath.

 Heather (Calluna vulgaris)

Heath (Erica carnea)

Heather (Calluna, the one traditionally found in Scotland, name sounds a bit like 'Candida' and reminds me of vaginal thrush) and Heath (Erica, the one with the prettier latin name) are almost identical; Heather handles cold weather better but they are both well behaved and low maintenance, evergreen shrubs with white or pink flowers.

I'm talking about Heather and Heath because my local SSSI lowland heathland (Lindow Common) celebrates 50 years since it was first designated this year, which is great excuse to remind everyone that lowland heaths are rarer habitats than tropical rainforests, and for me to go and see if the Heather there has started to wake up after winter. Photos soon!