August 28, 2016- a special week with a little vote

Voting alert

I ran into a friend at a wedding yesterday. She told me she liked the blog but she really liked voting. (In the winter there is picture contest with competition and audience participation.)
So why not a  vote this week? These three  pictures were from Friday night/Saturday morning.
Do you like the night blooming cereus or the waterlily or the pink hibiscus? I am going to assume you now know which picture is which. Here are the three pictures.
In the comment section you can tell me why you voted for the particular flower.

#1

#2

 #3












Voting is open for the week, closing next Saturday.

Ho hum. The night blooming cactus bloomed again this week. It bloomed Friday night. It was just about a month after the first bloom. I will see in a week whether there are more buds coming. If there are any I now assume they would bloom about the end of September.

This time there were only 6 flowers. The second plant had 1 flower and the bigger plant had 5. They all magically bloomed on the same evening.
Here are pictures,

How about a side shot. The pistil is sticking out.

Words are not necessary for this picture.
I think I told you before I discovered last fall that these plants can be pruned before they come inside for the winter. You can then grow those pieces into new plants. All I did was put the cuttings into water for 4-6 weeks until they grew roots. I planted them all in one pot and this year they are doing fine. No flowers but a healthy plant.

This is the seedpod from the jack in the pulpit. Each one of those little corn like segments will make a new bulb for a jack. The bulb is a corm. You can look up the difference between a bulb and a corm.















Orchid update.
Seedpods and surprises

Now there are 3 flowers.

Remember that blue orchid from July 17. It has set 4 seed pods. I will have to find someone who wants to play with them. That is a little out of my league.

As a surprise I just discovered this spike on the cymbidium.
We will see when it blooms. I think about September 20. It is a good yellow color.
















Resetting a bed or a plant

One of the tasks in late summer is resetting a garden bed, or sometimes even a plant.
Here is a bed that is almost as exciting for me as a wonderful flower. This is a bed ready for planting. It is an empty space. I do not have many of these. When I have them they do not last long.
I moved some hosta out of this bed. They had been sharing the bed with daylilies. Because a few trees were cut down nearby, the area is sunny enough for daylilies. Well, I was going to put all daylilies there until...... my Japanese Iris order arrived. Now they share.
The bed is so wonderful. We prepped it with peat moss and cow manure. The plank in the picture is to allow me to walk in the bed without compacting the soil where I step.
That big hosta there on the right will need to come out too.

For the moment I am so excited about reset beds that I am starting on 2 other  places.
I reset a clump of Siberian Iris. That means I dug up the clump that had not been disturbed in 10 years. There were weeds in it, and even a small tree. I pulled the clump apart, even sloshing the pieces around in a bucket of water. That got all the dirt out so I could extract some of the evil weed. It made me think about water play for pre schoolers. I had worked in a preschool for 2+ years after college.
So after the clump is removed the bed is prepared. It is dug up and supplemented. Then about 1/3 of the original plant is returned.
The downside is that  the reset plant may not bloom next year. I suppose we will find out.

More pictures

This caladium, Gingerland, is like an abstract painting

Garden idea
I like  morning glories. Sometimes it is too dry right by the house to grow them on the trellis. In the interest of dry basements you like it to be dry by the house.
So this year I planted my morning glories in pots, right by the house. They is easier to water than the entire area.... by the house.
Please note that in this never hose summer it is still necessary to water many potted plants.




Hosta for the taking- As I play musical chairs with plants there are plants that do not fit into the future plans. Let me know if you want some.

Here are garden pictures from yesterday.










Here is that same waterlily from the upstairs room. I gave you this picture so you can see the waterlily from way on high.











September 13- a date to anticipate- That is the date when apparently there will be Iowa City compost available.

Let me close with this closeup of the lantana again.
It could provide a phto album by itself.

Have a good week. The blog post will be a little late next weekend. We are going to Chicago to see Julia's family. I hope to have all my new iris in the ground before I leave.
Philip