February 17, 2019 February is slipping away

This week it is a struggle to stay positive.
There are going to be times like that every winter.
The days go by.
The days mostly seem the same.
There was one day this week that was different.  For part of the day the sun came out and it was almost 50 degrees. For that short time there was a glorious snow melt.

But winter has another month to go.
It is still here.
We will get through this.
February is more than half gone.

The garden picture contest

In last week's contest we had a real horse race. It was certainly the best race of the year.
All week the three top contestants were within a vote of each other. Finally a vote came in on Thursday that put the butterfly ahead. That was it.
More people voted this past week than in any week this contest. Way to go group. Find someone else to vote this week, and maybe we can break 50.

I should add that I do so appreciate the comments.
Here is your winner.

The full vote was

Week 12

Here are you contestants for this week.

#1 Toad Lily (September 22, 2018)



Toad lilies are great, in addition to having a great name.
Their botanical name is tricyrtis hirta.
They are from Japan.
They are perfect for my garden in that they love shade, and bloom in the fall.
They are apparently called toad lilies since they are spotted, like toads.
Here is a good article about them:
https://www.plantdelights.com/blogs/articles/tricyrtis-toad-lily-bulbs-hirta
They come in yellow.  I have that one called Lemon Twist.  There are pictures in the bonus section.
There is a white one I would like to find. I think I got it at one time but it did not survive.
I find them hardy with some varieties spreading gradually.
I really need to try to pot up some this spring.


#2 Little 'Orange Bird' orchid (April 24, 2018)



I have several of these orchids that look like small cattleyas.
The label said

"Pot. Love Passion ‘Orange Bird’"
I had to ask for help.
It is Potrina Love Passion 'Orange Bird'
It is a cross between 4 different orchids; Cattleya, Laelia, Brassavola and Sophronitis.
The actual cross is
Rhyncholaeliocattleya William Farrell x Cattlianthe Trick or Treat


Mostly I just think of it as a little Cattleya.

When you are looking for some really vibrant colors, this should be near the top of the list.

Orchid can give you a splash of color for the dining room table.


#3 Night Blooming cereus (September 23, 2018)



What is unusual about this picture? It is a Night Blooming Cereus, the variety I have had for years. It reliably blooms 2-3 times a year in the summer.
Well, this September it bloomed quite late in the year. September 23 was about the latest it has ever bloomed.
To appreciate why this time was unusual you need to understand that this variety does not bloom in the daytime. It starts to open at dusk. For years it has been fully open about an hour after it gets all the way to dark.  Then it is done before dawn. No one could ever see it during the day.

Well this particular time is was late in the year and it was cool. It got down to the mid 40's that week.
That combination gave us bloom that was available in the morning. It bloomed over two days.

You should actually go to the archive for the month of September, 2018. The September 30 post will be the first one to appear. You can read right there my amazement at finally seeing the Night Blooming Cereus, in the daytime.

With that understanding you can appreciate why the flower with blue sky in the background was special.

By the way this is the second NBC as they are called to appear in the contest this winter. The two appear side by side in the bonus section.


#4 Blue scilla or squill (April 12, 2018)

What a glorious blue.
Mostly I think of the little blue flowers in the spring as being observed in a carpet. Here is a little clump that I found that made a really nice picture.
As with the red Iceland poppy last week,  the brown makes the perfect background for the bright blue spring bulb.

The scilla, also know as squill, comes up everywhere in the spring. That includes the paths. I always invite people to come and weed my paths and take the bulbs home.



#5 Monsella tulip (May 1, 2019)

This is one of our favorite tulips. You can see why. Red! Yellow! Kind of all confused. Perfect.
The only thing that would be better is if it came back every year. It doesn't. The hybrid breaks down. You really need to replace it after the second year, if not after year one.

So it is an annual. OK.
It is wonderful anyway.

I should add that this is one of Julia's favorite flowers. This picture was taken on her birthday.



There you have the contestants for Week 12.
Join me  again this week in predicting the winner.
The place to do that would be in the comments at the end of the post.

Bonus pictures

This is what the Night Blooming Cereus  usually looks like  in the early morning.

It has a very short flower time.
Virtually all my pictures in the past, or earlier in 2018 have to be taken with a flash.

But not this year.

This was another zinnia butterfly picture I did not show you last week.















Here are more toad lilies.


















The yellow one is called Lemon Twist.














Here is a closer look.



























They bloom all along the stem.


















The foliage of this one is almost yellow.














Here are the two NBC's I now have. You can see how they are quite different.



Here you have the Night Blooming Cereus in the contest over the course of September.

September 1

September 22

September 12

September 23

September 23

September 23

September 23

September 24

Julia's recipe

Red Lentil Soup

Some soups are a whole meal: beef barley soup, Tuscan white bean soup, chicken paprikash, potato/corn/scallop chowder, to name a few. Others are soup-and-something-else soups: mushroom soup, gazpacho, lentil vegetable soup. This is a soup-and-a-sandwich soup, which has the advantage of being quick to fix and pretty. The recipe came from the New York Times website, I think. Philip reads the NYT on-line and sometimes they have recipes. But no comics. Odd.


Here are the ingredients: 1 cup red lentils; 1-1/2 cups diced onion; 1/2 cup grated carrot; 1 teaspoon smushed garlic; 4 cups chicken stock; 2 cups water; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon ground cumin and 2 tablespoons lemon juice (not shown).

You do want to use red lentils in this dish, as they cook the fastest. Red lentils are actually the greenish-brown lentils with their skins rubbed off. Like white rice to brown rice.




First I prepped the vegetables.

Then I heated the oil in a pan, and when it was warmed up, I added the onion and the garlic. While they were cooking, I measured the salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin and tomato paste into a little bowl.

When the onions had begun to soften (say after 5 minutes), I added the spice/tomato paste mixture and cooked the mixture for another couple of minutes to give everything a chance to get acquainted.





Then I added the lentils, chicken stock and water. I brought the mixture to a boil and then reduced the heat so it simmered. I let it cook for about 30 minutes, at which point the lentils were soft.












Next, I zizzed the soup up with the stick blender, stirred in the lemon juice and it was ready.

If you don't have a stick blender, I think you could achieve a pretty smooth soup by whisking the soup vigorously with a regular whisk. The lentils will be that soft. Or you could forgo the zizzing or whisking and eat the soup with a bit of texture.







Here's the soup on the table and below, in a bowl. We served the soup with tiny crackers. We also had made croutons for the salad, and they were even better in the soup than tiny crackers.













We rounded out dinner with tuna salad sandwiches and a nice green salad.

If you are a vegetarian or vegan, all you have to do is swap vegetable stock for the chicken stock.

And be sure to taste before serving to see if the soup needs more salt, as the amount of salt needed will depend in part on the salt content of the stock that you use.

This soup serves 4 people. If you have leftovers, they heat up just fine for lunch.

Real time
This is the section about what is going on now, with the garden.

This amaryllis opened this past week. I think it is called Apple Blossom. That is about the
only name of an Amaryllis I know.

By the way I operate a small scale  amaryllis rescue service. If you got one over the winter and don't want to keep it after it blooms, bring it by. I will care for it and try to make it bloom next year.
That includes getting it to Spring and then giving it full sun for 4-5 months.




I had this wonderful coleus this past garden year.
Since coleus will not survive a frost I brought in some cuttings.

October 12

Here they are, 4 months later. They grew roots, were put into small pots, and now live in bigger pots.




Since yesterday was a somewhat stay inside day I touched every plant in the basement, where there are grow lights. I watered all those in back. I gave a few with bugs some insect spray. I moved some to bigger pots.
Today I will try to do the same with all the plants on the second floor.
You really have to pay attention to those plants way in the back.

Odds and Ends

This was last year on February 19, 2018.

I do not think we are going to have snowdrops this year in February.

Julia has been in Maine this past week. Here is a picture.

I have been on my own for most of this week. Yesterday I did a small grocery shop. I looked for the "blue jello." That is an expression in our family that came from my dad. He lived with my mother for over 50 years. She hardly ever went away by herself during that time. There was one time. I do not even think it was when I still lived at home. My dad later told us that he had gone shopping and purchased some blue jello, already made.
Well the story turned into an expression.
It is what you might purchase at the grocery store if there are no external controls, external controls that normally exist.
For my blue jello I got a small container of spicy hummus and some artisanal bread, with raisins and nuts. (They were not to go together in case you think I have entirely lost my mind.)
Do you sometimes look for the blue jello?

I close with this look from warmer times.



Warmer and better times are coming.
Philip