Since we did something a little different for Wednesday let’s continue the trend for a Friday. Today’s blast comes to you in the form of a blog rather than an email blast, the difference being the blast lies dormant in your computer while the blog will continue to span the globe like the wide world of sports.

Today’s blog features the spectacular, multi-flavored dahlia, a summer and autumn flowering perennial plant that is native to the mountains of Central America and Mexico. It is also the national flower of Mexico. In the 16th century Spanish conquistadors, while busy conquering the vast Aztec Indian nation, also made some interesting explorations-one of which was the collection of new world plant life.

The dahlia is named after Swedish 18th century botanist Anders Dahl. In 1872 a box of dahlia roots were sent from Mexico to the Netherlands. Only one of the plants survived the long journey but it produced brilliant red flowers with petals that were rolled back and pointed. Nurserymen from all over Europe bred from this plant and these are the progenitors of the thousands of varieties of modern day dahlias. Colors include orange, pink, purple, red, scarlet, yellow and white with some flowers striped or tipped with a different color.

These dahlias were shot in a couple of local gardens on the westside of Santa Cruz, where some varieties grow to six feet in height and over a foot in diameter. So that’s our look at the dazzling dahlia, next time we’ll check out surrealist painter Salvador Dali, the notorious unsolved murder case of the Black Dahlia and Clint Eastwood’s classic movie “A Fistful of Dahlias.” Enjoy the blog, the colors and the weekend.

Let’s start off the new month with some color and head about a mile north of my lovely abode.

Situated on what is now the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz and what was once the vast holdings of pioneer settler Henry Cowell, the Arboretum occupies one of the most propitious (that’s highly favorable) horticultural sites in the world. The unique weather, soil types and topographic diversity can scarcely be matched anywhere. The Arboretum was officially begun in 1964 with a gift of 80 species of eucalyptus, then started focusing on plants from the southern hemisphere and broke new ground in the propagation of the exotic South African protea (which can be seen in shots two, three and four) formerly believed to be difficult horticultural subject. Hundreds of Australian plants were sent to the Arboretum and grown for the first time in America. Many people, including the famed photographer and conservationist Ansel Adams had a hand in created this arboretum on the choicest site in a region famed for its horticultural potential (just ask the Haze Brothers.) This is a location well worth visiting and another part of what makes Santa Cruz the unique and exotic place it is.

So that’s it for today, tune it next time when we’ll look at June bugs, June gloom, and my personal favorite, June Cleaver. Enjoy the last shot of the face on the tree and if you caught the LeBron James show last night, you witnessed truly amazing NBA history.