picture contest- week 13- February 3

What does it mean if the groundhog does not see his shadow because it is snowing? It is hard to see that as a forecast of Spring. On the other hand it is February. Say it again… February. That means January is over, as is December and November. We have almost done it. We are almost through the winter.
The first of the seeds I planted last weekend are up, the red lupines. There is a picture in the bonus section at the bottom of this post.
I have started the Iceland poppies this weekend along with a bunch of the blue Japanese Iris from week 5.
For this contest it is now the next round, which will get us to March. Remember March? It can be so wonderful and so disappointing. But forget disappointing. It is a time to be positive, a time to hope.

It is time to take the big step into the elimination rounds. In the next four weeks we will have runoffs with 4 winners from the first 12 weeks.

Last week we had the final piece of the puzzle. The winner was …. drumroll please…the hosta.
There was strong and empassioned support for the other contestants. The final tallies were:

1- Crocus 15+6=21 for 23.9%
2- Caladium 14+6=20 for 22.7%
3- Hosta 26+8=34 for 38.6%
4- White lily 6+7=13 for 14.8%
The first number in the addition is the electronic vote, the second the email vote.

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So now let’s get serious about our picture choices. The field is narrowed. There are only winners (sort of) left. There has been record turnout. Last week we had more votes than any week to date. Let’s try to break 100 this week. Get your friends and neighbors and everybody vote. Bring in the letter carrier and the pool boy. Everybody vote. The more the merrier. Support the frog or the hosta or anything blue. There is excitement in the air. Let’s get some support going for the color red, even if it is only an emerging flower.

What we are doing at this point is having a competition between the 12 winners and the 4 wildcards.

So here are the match ups for the next four weeks:
Week 13
#1- Blue Siberian Iris
#8- Blue Forget me nots
#9 Yellow Orchid Cactus
#16 Poppy Seed head

Week 14
#2 Blue Fall Crocus
#7 Pink Peony
#10 Emerging Poppy
#15 Daylily Close up

Week 15
#3 Pink Waterlily
#6 Hosta
#11 Coneflower
#14 Calla Lily

Week 16
#4 Frog
#5 Blue Japanese Iris
#12 Yellow waterlily close up
#13 Blue Anemomes

Here are the contest totals- the voting by my calculations. The week is in parenthesis. On the blog you should be able to go back and see all of the weeks.
1 Blue Siberian Iris (4) 69.3%
2 Blue Fall Crocus (6) 57.1
3 Pink Waterlily (3) 55.4
4 Frog (5) 54.1

5 Blue Japanese Iris (10) 51.2
6 Hosta (12) 38.6
7 Pink Peony (2) 38.2
8 Forget me nots (7) 38.1
9 Yellow Orchid Cactus (8) 37.5
10 Emerging Poppy (1) 35.5
11 Coneflower (9) 34.8
12 Waterlily close-up(11) 33.3
Here are the 4 wildcards
13 Blue Anemones (8) 32.5%
14 Calla lily (1) 28.57% (77/22)
15 Daylily close-up- (7) 28.57% (63/18)
16 Poppy Seed head (9) 28.2%



So this week here is your contest
The first picture is the number one seed---the Blue Siberian Iris from week 4. Blue was certainly a favorite color this year. (I must really make an effort to see that I take more red pictures this year.) There are five blue pictures in the 16 remaining contestants. This is one of two iris in this round.











The second picture is the Blue Forget me nots, the winners of week 8. This is one of 3 pictures this week from the month of May. The breakdown of months in the final 16 is:
April -1
May- 5, including 3 this week
June-4
July- 2
August 3
September-0
October 1












The third picture is the Yellow Orchid Cactus from week 8. After the color blue, the colors yellow and pink have 3 pictures each in this round.
I am actually getting a little nervous about my orchid cactus at this time of year. They are getting tired of being dormant and are starting to put out new growth. Since they do not have much light I try to discourage this.












The fourth picture is the Poppy Seed Head from week 9, the decided underdog, coming in with the number 16 seed. Seedpods can be wonderful, but they do have a hard time competing in a picture contest. How would the crowd chant go? “Go seed head”. It just doesn’t have a rhythm to it. On the other hand this is the only picture in the contest that looks like a fuzzy 15 legged spider. That ought to count for something.













There you have it, the first round in this elimination round. Only one winner advances. You can vote electronically on the blog or by return email. If there is more than one of you email in the extra votes. The address would be
philip.mears@gmail.com.
In the case of a tie, the picture with the highest percentage in the opening round will advance.
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In this week’s bonus section I have decided to show you a few of the pictures that did not make the contest this year, Here are the best of the rest.

First there is another spring anemone picture. As I mentioned anemones clump up nicely after a few years.











Then there is a clump of winter aconite, or eranthus, the first flower to bloom in the spring, after the snowdrops. I remember seeing one of the first bees of the spring flying around and finally finding the first yellow flowering winter aconite. I imagine it is like the dove on Noah’s ark flying out and coming back with the news as to whether there is any dry land yet.











Here is the emerging flower of the wonderful perennial bachelor button called centaurea montana. It takes several years to get established but is worth the wait.











Here are more crocuses. How soon will we see the first crocus? I have for some time fantasized about creating a crocus or daffodil map of the country. As the year goes along people could check in with news as to where crocuses were blooming. You could then see a map with the daffodil or crocus line slowing coming northwards. It is a great idea. Someone with the technical skill should talk to me about how to do that and we will patent the idea. I guess Ruth might tell us that you can’t patent ideas, huh Ruth?











Here are the sprouting lupines in my basement.











Finally the pumpkins have not checked in for a few weeks. We lost another one to the freeze/thaw swing of last week. Now there are 6. Here are several pictures.
























Have a good week.
Philip