Picture contest- Week 2- November 18

Welcome to the Second Week of the Second Annual Mears Garden Picture Contest for 2007. We are absolutely going to get through the garden winter. And we will have a good time doing it. This week it will be Thanksgiving. In Iowa, fall is just about done. There were white and pink things on the wether radar today. At the same time the ground is not yet frozen. It is still time to check out the bulb sales. I just remembered there is this place up by the elm tree without any bulbs. There is not much left blooming in the garden, except the pansies.

For those of you that missed the information about the Contest please either read last’s week Blog entry or the information at the bottom of this post. Remember voting is open until the end of Saturday.

Throughout the contest I do three things.
First I tell you about the vote totals from last week.
Second I tell you about this week’s pictures.
Finally I give you the bonus section, with a few extra pictures on the blog.

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So here is the voting for last week.

1 snowdrops 6+8=14 18.2%
2 oriental lily 7+7+14 18.2%
3 calla lily 19+3=22 28.6%
4 poppy 20+7=27 35.1%
Total 77
The first number in the addition above is the electronic number (voting on the blog), The second number is the email vote.


The winner is----the Poppy--- beating out the Calla Lily. The Calla Lily actually led after the first two days. That lead did not last. All you Calla Lily supporters should not despair. The Calla lily can still advance. The four second place finishers with the highest percentages of votes will advance in January to the really tough competition.
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This week’s contest:


You can vote either on the blog or by reply email. I do prefer that you vote on line. That way everyone can see the results throughout the week. At the same time sometimes there are computer problems that make high tech voting difficult. Where have I heard that before. Comments are also always good. What do you like about the picture you pick?


The first picture, taken on July 1, is a closeup of an oriental lily called Nymph. There will be some closeup pictures throughout the contest. I wondered for a while if that was fair competition. Closeups can be so spectacular. Then I stopped worrying about that. Some people will like close-ups. Some people will not. So it goes. I like the little raised bumpy parts of the interiors of these lilies.












The second picture is a daffodil, perhaps called Goblet. It was not the best year for daffodils. We had a real bad freeze in Iowa about April 8 and the very cold weather lasted for several nights. We shared this weather with much of the country. Bulbs that were up very far at the time were mostly toasted. Some never recovered (but I am told will be alright next year) and some, like the hosta, just started over and grew an entire second set of shoots. The early daffodils had the structural integrity (that’s a scientific term) of their stems compromised. They all fell over and wouldn’t stand up again. It was the later daffodils that were appreciated even more because of the freeze. This picture was taken on April 21. I find this daffodil is so simple, so perfect.












The third picture is a daylily called Red Ribbons. I like daylilies. They are probably my favorite flower. There are so many good things to be said about daylilies. They have so many shapes and colors. They are easy to hybridize. An individual flower will only bloom for a day but a big clump can have 200 flowers over a 2-3 week period.
This one is a spider daylily, despite the wrong number of legs. A spider daylily has long thin petals. They were popular 50 years ago and their popularity is coming back. For other daylily spiders garden see the bonus section of the blog.












Finally there is a picture of just about my favorite peony, Coralie. I do not have many peonies. They do want sun. There is a great deal of competition in my garden for the sunny spots. Mostly, the daylilies were there first. But I do try to find room for about a dozen peonies. This was one of the last pictures that I took with my old digital camera, an hp that was just fine for many years. All of last year’s pictures were with that hp. This year in June I got a simple Cannon with more mega somethings. I can now get more pixils or something in any picture. I just know that the old camera took some really good pictures, and this is one of them.







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So here is the bonus section. Think of it like the footnotes. The pictures in this section appear only on the blog.
Here are two other spider daylilies. Their names are Long Stocking and Rosy Lights
























Here is a full picture of the Oriental lily Nymph. This was first year for this plant in my garden. When I order bulbs in the fall I usually do not get more of ones I already have. I made an exception this year for Nymph.











Finally here is your weekly pumpkin picture. With the freezing weather coming they should really get good soon. In addition we have family coming from Chicago who because of the pumpkin shortage there did not get to carve pumpkins at Halloween. I have rounded up more pumpkins and I think after, Thanksgiving, we should try to fill all the plant hooks in the front trees.














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Here is the repeat information about the contest:
Each Sunday evening for 12 weeks I will post 4 pictures from the garden for 2007. You get to vote for the one you like best. Those 12 winners and the 4 highest finishing second place pictures will advance to a round of 16. Over the next 4 weeks you will pick the four finalists. There will then be that one last vote for the fan favorite for garden year 2007. By that time winter will be mostly done, at least in Iowa. (in theory)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.