I got into plants by learning about evolution, and I got into evolution by
learning about geology. Geology, interestingly enough, I started paying
attention to after travelling - scamming rides around the country for four
or five years.

I'd see these crazy rock formations and squiggly lines in the sides of
cliffs in the middle of northern california, or goddamned wyoming, and
be baffled as to what the hell they were and how they got there. When I
started to learn what they were, I realized I was ignorant to a whole
world of knowledge concerning shit that surrounds me, shit that I see
everyday but am blind to.

Pretty soon, one door opened ten more, and I had a desire to learn like
your average american has a desire to burn cash on stupid shit that
they don't need.

I saw redwood trees for the first time - that is, really saw them, had them
pointed out to me and paid attention to what they were, gazed up at
them - a year or two ago. I'd lived in california for seven years and
never paid attention to them, or realized that they were all around me.
Seeing the redwood tree made me wanna learn about all sorts of
different types of trees, namely conifers - that is, trees that don't have a
flower but have a more "primitive" and earlier-evolved method of
reproducing. The scientific name for these is "gymnosperms".

Pretty soon, I was hooked. I read books and pilfered the internet for
knowledge. One thing led to another and pretty fucking soon I had a
whole new thing to be obsessive compulsive about.

I hung out at local nurseries and annoyed the clerks with tons of
questions (I also got grossed out at the idea of "landscaping", namely of
the part that includes horticulture as a craft geared towards tending the
gardens and property(s) of rich douchebags). I rode around to different
parks and looked closely at the types of trees growing in them.

Plants made me feel a way I had never felt before. They opened up a
whole new world to me that had been there, right under my nose, all
along. They put another option in my life besides drawing fucked up
pictures, bullshitting around, getting drunk, and hanging out at the show.

A year later I've learned about the phylogeny (the evolutionary tree that
describes how all plant and animal species have branched off of
eachother and descended from common ancestors) of a huge number
of classes, orders, families and genus' of different trees and plants, and
I'm still learning new things everyday. I got a hundred and fifty different
seedlings coming up from over twenty different species of tree. I been
planting trees in punk houses and community gardens all around the
area, and I've developed a bond to and an appreciation and love for
something much larger than myself or my dinky little world. I want to
share this shit with as many people as possible.
COAST REDWOOD SEEDLING
Dawn Redwood Seedling
Metasequoia seedlings. These were later very GENTLY separated
using a knife, then placed and watered into separate containers..
Coast Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) Seedling.
BALD CYPRESS (taxodium distichum) seedling with small dawn redwood
(metasequoia glyptostroboides) seedling in front part of same container.
Four Year old Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron Giganteum)
seedling in the wild, YOSEMITE Natl. Park.
Above: Metasequoia Glyptostroboides
seedling. Age is six months. Of about
seventy seedlings I started this one grew
the fastest. Maybe because I fertilized the
hell out of it from early on. Who knows,
either way, it's now about a foot and  half
tall.
ABOVE: GIANT SEQUOIA
(SEQUOIADENDRON GIGANTEUM)
SEEDLING, THREE WEEKS OLD.
Seedlings of this species are very
susceptible to "damping off" fungi until a
few months old. Must not be over-watered.
ABOVE: Cutting (I initially thought it was a seed-grown plant but later found out it was a
clone) of the critically endangered "ALERCE" (Fitzroya Cupressoides) tree of Chile, also
dubbed the "south american redwood" for their massive size and age of up to 3700
years. Species was heavily logged to hell by human beings (one more to chalk up for
our species) and is now critically endangered. Almost no old growth is left, far less
than is left of the Coast REdwoods. This tree can be purchased from Stanley and Sons
Nursery in Oregon - http://www.stanleyandsons.com/. Dude who runs the joint is kind
of a libertarian weirdo but is also passionate as hell about plants, which I admire, and
they have some really rare shit, like Athrotaxis ("TASMANIAN REDWOOD"), etc.