Sunday, January 19, 2020

January 19, 2020- Week 8 of the Garden Picture Contest


Welcome
Deep winter is here.


This week had it all.
On Wednesday a very thin layer of ice was on everything. Sidewalks. Streets. Trees? Not so much the trees.
This was not like a week ago when ice encased all the trees, including my little dogwoods. That ice was maybe 1/8 of an inch thick. It was very visible, but not so thick as to damage power lines. That ice melted in a few days and was all gone by Wednesday. The little dogwood stood up straight after being bent over with the ice.
I guess the timing of ice is everything. That ice a week ago coated everything, but did not particularly disrupt travel. I suppose that was because it did not arrive until Friday evening.
This Wednesday, however, early in the morning, there was ice on all surfaces, but not really on the trees. It wasn't very thick but it was a compete covering. Schools in Iowa City closed, the buses stopped, and almost all travel stopped.
By mid morning it was mostly gone. Almost gone means that some was still there. Some ice can still make a person fall.
Stories about slipping and sliding were on the front page of the local newspaper. The Iowa City paper even had a reporter out interviewing pedestrians about how they were managing. One can almost imagine the dialogue.
On Friday another storm arrived, sending everyone scurrying home mid afternoon. We had maybe 4 inches of snow, so it could have been worse.
Saturday am- the snow had ended but 32 degrees at 8am turned into 15 by 1:00,  5 by 8pm.

Now as I  look ahead we have that weather pattern that is all too familiar. It will be very cold for a while, into the single digits, both plus and minus. The it will warm up to 30. That will mean it will snow again.

Enough weather.
It does seem like there is more of a focus on weather during Winter  than during the other seasons.

Let me talk about the garden and flowers and seedlings.


Last Week in the contest- Week 7

The winner was the wonderful white anemone.
My particular choice, the fuchsia zinnia, was last.



The full voting:

White Anemone     12
Fuchsia Zinnia         4
Asclepias                 9
Pink Iris                   8
White waterlily        7

By the way, as we are past the half way point through our 13 weeks, I should mention the leaders in the wild card race. There are 3 slots to be filled.
Since we have had an unprecedented 2 ties those two slots will be filled by both pictures that tied.

Week 6 poppies/annual delight
Week 4 Dogwood/Leucojums

With two ties there will only be room for one actual second place finisher.
So the leader for that last slot would be the
Pastel zinnia from Week 2 with 32%.



This week- Week 8


#1 Orange Clivia 
(June 22, 2019)



I did not know about Clivia as a young gardener.
It turns out that Clivia are wonderful. (What is the plural of Clivia? I think it is Clivia.)
I got my first one maybe 20 years ago from a friend, Sue Davis. I am pretty sure it was at least 20 years ago because I knew about Clivia by 2002. Our daughter Katie spent that summer in San Francisco. We visited her and went to Golden Gate Park. There was an entire bed of hundreds of these plants, planted in full sun. (I do understand that full sun in San Francisco may not be the same as full sun here.) They were wonderful. To start with they were able to live outside all the time. I assume for that reason they can grow outside, in the South.
Clivia plants are bulbs, a little like amaryllis. They are not frost hardy, so they have to come inside for the winter.
Like Amaryllis,  Clivia plants make side shoots every year or so. On a regular basis Sue would divide the plant as soon as the side shoot developed.  So then she would have 2 plants. She shared. I would actually go to her house and divide them for her. This orange one, the one primarily in commerce, descends from those originals.
Over the years I shared. I gave some to my mother. I brought back to Iowa her Clivia plants last year.
I actually inherited Sue Davis plants last year too.

Those orange balls looking like buds are actually seed pods. After the plant blooms it makes a cluster of seed pods. The seeds can take two years to ripen. The seedling will then take maybe 4 years to be big enough to bloom.

Here is a link to more information.
https://wimastergardener.org/article/clivia/

They are in the Amaryllis family.
They come from South Africa. ( So do Amaryllis.)
They want a rest period. (So do Amaryllis.)
But unlike the Amaryllis they do not die back to the ground.
The seeds, those orange balls, will remain on the plant for 1-2 years. They will be really hard for a long time. Eventually they will soften. That  is when they can be planted. It is rather exciting to have a ripe seed. When it is very soft you can peel it, carefully. Often the seed within will actually have sprouted.
Of course then you have seedlings. (See bonus section.)

I have maybe 3 big pots at this point. Yesterday I went and inspected each one now that it has been inside for several months. They have been kept mostly dry, a condition that is encouraged. I would like all the plants I bring inside to go dormant for 5 months. (I guess the exception would be the orchids, which can mostly have the center of attention for the winter.)


There are yellow ones. I have several of those, some particularly special ones which were gifts several years ago. A long lived gift plant is special. (I should not dismiss short lived gift plants. They are special too.) Every time you see one of those gift plants bloom, you remember the person who gave you the plant. The garden is so full of memories, connections with the people who gave you  particular plants.

I do have 3 seedlings at the moment that I  purchased. The hybridizers are hard at work. The flowers they will have will be even better. My seedlings are one and two years old. They are probably still a few years away from displaying what I saw in the pictures.



#2 Siberian Iris- Here be Dragons
 (May 31, 2019)




Dragons? I do not think I have any other named plant in the garden with Dragons in the name.
This remarkable Siberian Iris is also from the Joe Pye Weed Gardens in Massachusetts. They develop their own Siberian Iris. What a wonderful legacy.

Iris are a theme for the garden from March to August. They are unlike any other genus of plants in that way. I will have to think of anyone that is even close.
The first Iris are the little bulbs that appear with the crocuses
Then come the bearded iris of all heights.
The Siberians bloom next followed by the Louisiana Iris and the Japanese Iris.
Finally come the blackberry lilies, which as I said, are really iris.
From March to August. remarkable.




#3 Hosta in a field of stars
 (June 2, 2019)



Hosta are the backbone of the garden. It has always been that way. I remember starting to collect hosta 30 years ago. I would count the varieties I had. I would try to get every variety. You cannot do that anymore,  as the number of varieties in commerce is so much larger.
Hosta are grown for their foliage, not their flowers. Partly for that reason they seldom appear in the contest. I liked this picture.
The little white flowers are wild anemones. They grow everywhere. I actually wind up weeding them at times.
But they do make a pretty background, like the stars in the heavens.




#4 Epiphyllum hookeri 
(September 4, 2019)



This is epiphyllum hookeri.
Sometimes I have called it and the other one  "Night Blooming Cereus".
I think I was wrong.
In week 5 you saw epiphyllum oxypetalum.
It turns out that Night Blooming Cereus  is/was a term used as a catch all for night blooming white epiphyllum.
I will put the two contestants side by side in the bonus section.

These flowers are "knock your socks off" flowers. They could be 'oh wow' flowers except the buds develop over a month. You can predict when they will open. So they are not quite the surprise that go with an 'oh wow' flower.
I got this variety about 3 years ago. A person who had been growing them in Coralville got tired of bringing them inside every winter. I got maybe 6-8 plants from him.

These plants hang from the trees in my garden.
I sometimes say that I filled up the two dimensions in my garden years ago. Now I have to go up.
I added about 6 more ropes last summer.

A nice thing about this variety of orchid cactus that it does bloom in the second half of the outside season.
In fact there were buds in mid October when the first freeze was arriving. I tried to make them bloom inside. That did not work.


#5 Pink Dogwood
 (May 18, 2019)



The pink dogwood is one of the fixtures of the garden. There was an earlier contestant (Week 4)  from the same tree. Since I liked both pictures they are both in the contest.
I don't think I had ever thought about pictures of a single flower.
There is such a wonderful contrast between the pink petal and the green leaf. And there is that cluster in the center.




Bonus Section

Dogwood
Here are the two dogwood entries in the contest this winter. The were wonderful images, but in different ways. In the end my indecision resulted in them both appearing in the contest.




More dogwood images.





Clivia pictures
First here are seedlings from 2010.
I have stopped growing Clivia from seed. I would just wind up with too many plants.
You can start them in pots or right in the ground. Planting them in the ground does mean you have to transplant them in the fall, bringing them in.







Here is a big orange one.


















July 4, 2017
















July 8, 2017















July 12, 2017.


















This is one of the special yellow ones I got several years ago. The shape of the flower is slightly different.
















This lovely variety bloomed in my office in 2006. It has since been lost.

They are susceptible to mealy bugs. Once the plant is infected it is difficult to get rid of them.
If they are overwatered inside in the winter down at the base is where those awful bugs grow.












Here is a closeup of that 2006 flower.

















We saw this Clivia in Longwood Gardens in 2010. Yes it is variegated.
I bought a seedling that was suppose to be variegated. It is growing well but does not look like this.











Here the two night blooming white orchid cactus from the garden.
The hookeri will last until the morning.



Here are more of those hookeri flowers.
They really should be in maximum display.




Here is a video.






Right Now
I have started planting seeds.
10 days ago I planted some Iceland poppy seeds.
The tiniest little living things are coming up. Calling them a plant seems like an exaggeration.
They are so tiny that if they were smaller you could not see them.
A week ago I planted some lupine seeds.
I have grown these seeds before, sometime after the first of the year.
I grow them under fluorescent lights in the basement.




It seems like I have more cuttings that ever over my kitchen sink.
There are 2 varieties of coleus, 2 different hoyas, a croton, several asclepias, a hibiscus, and several succulents.
Some cuttings grow roots within a week or two. That would be the coleus. Sometimes the succulents come with air roots to start with.
Then there are the plants like the hibiscus that can take 1-2 months. But I currently have 3 small hisbiscus plants, grown from cuttings,  that are several years old and do bloom.








This combination of orchid and hibiscus showed up this week.







Julia's recipe
Pasta with meat sauce


Here is the link to all Julia's recipes that have appeared on the blog. Really- all of them since she started posting three years ago.
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Philip gave me the America's Test Kitchen cookbook for Christmas. We watch the show on public television, and I like to cook, so it was a natural. This is the same bunch (more or less) who produce Cook's Magazine. Those of you familiar with either the magazine or the cooking show know that these folks are obsessive, frying a zillion chicken thighs to figure out the best way to fry chicken, trying a zillion kinds of apples to figure out the best combination of apples for apple pie. This is, therefore, a slightly fussy recipe but it is doable on a weeknight and tasty. I made a few adjustments given what was available in my kitchen.



The ingredients: 1 lb. lean ground beef; 2 tablespoons of water; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 cup (about) chopped up bacon; 1 cup chopped onion; 1/2 cup chopped carrot; 1/3 cup (about) chopped celery; 3 tablespoons tomato paste; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 cup dry wine; 1/2 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese; 2 cups beef stock (your own or store-bought or reconstituted bouillon); some salt and pepper.

Plus 1 lb. tagliatelle or papperdelle.


I started by putting the meat in a small bowl with the 2 tablespoons of water, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and the baking soda, mixing it up and setting it aside. The ATK people do this, and they say it makes the meat stay tender. I did it, but I am not convinced it is necessary.

Next I peeled the carrot and cut it into chunks. Then the celery and the onion. And I cut the bacon into chunks too.




I put the vegetables and the bacon into the food processor. And I zizzed it up until it was pretty thoroughly ground up, as shown below.
















Here is the stuff, ground up. There were a few bigger bits of bacon. I did not worry about it.
















Next, I put the butter and olive oil in an enameled pot and heated it up. I do not think it would matter if you used 2 tablespoons of butter or 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Fussy recipe, as I said.














I cooked the vegetables and bacon for a while - about 20 minutes total - over medium heat. The idea is to have the vegetable/bacon mixture cook until it's pretty well-browned.

Then I added the tomato paste and cooked for 2 more minutes, until the mixture was mostly thoroughly browned, including the tomato paste.










Next, I added the meat, which had soaked up the little bit of water. I cooked it until it was not pink anymore, breaking the meat into little bits. No big blobs of meat. This took about 5 minutes on medium- high heat.

Then I added the wine. They said dry red wine. I had dry white wine. Use what you have. But not sweet. I stirred that around for a couple of minutes.








Next I added the parmesan and the beef broth. I stirred them in and let the sauce come to a boil. Then I turned the heat down to low, put a lid on the pot and simmered the sauce for 30 minutes, checking once or twice to make sure it was simmering but not boiling.


While the sauce was simmering, I brought a big pot of water to a boil for the noodles, adding 1 tablespoon of salt to the noodle water. I cooked the tagliatelle per directions, fished out 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water and drained the pasta. Then I put the pasta back in its pot to wait for the sauce.

After 30 minutes, the sauce looked thin but tasted good. It needed some salt and pepper. So be prepared to taste and add some of each.





Next I poured the pasta into the pot with the sauce and tossed it all around with tongs. The bit of pasta cooking water is for use if the sauce is too thick. Mine wasn't. Interestingly enough, the pasta did soak up the liquid-y part of the sauce. Not sure why. The recipe said to use tagliatelle or pappardelle, because other shapes of pasta would not soak up the sauce. I am not sure I believe that.









Here it is dished up. We had parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top. And green beans with tomatoes and salad.

Leftovers were good. Next time I make this, I will add a bit more tomato product of some kind.  You will have observed the small amount of tomato paste. This is a recipe with pretensions to Italian authenticity, but I am not Italian and do not care so much about authenticity.

Also about the beef broth. The recipe wanted one to start with 4 cups and boil it down to 2 cups. I had 2 cups of pretty intense broth from another cooking venture (pot roast in the slow cooker) so I did not boil my broth. If you use bouillon, change up the bouillon to water ratio a bit.


Odds and Ends

The strangest thing has happened with several coleus cuttings.
Keep in mind I grow many cuttings and have for years.
I clip off a stem, making it about 3-4 inches long. I put it in a little glass jar. The ones that held capers is about the best.
Then I wait for the roots to develop.
It takes about a week for the fast ones.
It can take months for something like a hibiscus.

Well this particular plant, that lovely orange one from the sort of winner last week, did something strange.




In first first three cuttings, the bottom of the stem curved up to the point it was completely out of the water. Then of course the cutting would not work.






I will keep trying as I really would like more of that variety of coleus.








This coleus, spending the winter at the office, has started to bloom.
Coleus blooms are not much.
But they are interesting nonetheless.
This variety is called 'bananas".

This plant is interesting as it has the bloom at various stages.
















Here is stage one. Where it just looks like a bud.




















At this next stage the bud is developing a long nose.











This next picture seems to be the final stage.
I will make it a full screen image.
If you notice the bud has opened up.
But it also seems to have made a tiny drop of something.
It seems that the drop is really part of the process.
I have never heard of that in a flower.






























Maybe even closer.
The circle of something is with each and every 'flower'. In exactly the same place.
You might say...that is kind of odd.







As I was going though old pictures, looking for bonus shots, I found this.
These monarch caterpillars showed up on the perennial asclepias.













That is all for this week.
I will try to get my hands in the dirt every day.
While it is deep winter spring is out there. Coming.
Philip

1 comment:

Pat said...

Delicious-sounding recipe! Are you sure you should be so public about this? You may find strangers casually dropping by at dinnertime.