May 17, 2020. Good bye frost- hello outside

I often write early on Saturday morning.
I am up with the birds, usually by 5am.
If I sleep until 5:15 I feel like I am late.
It is discouraging to be late at 5:15 in the morning.

We slept with the windows open last night.
(When I write on Saturday morning, to publish on Sunday morning, sometimes my verb tense along and my time sense get confused.)
The last temperature in the 30's has disappeared from the forecast.
We are officially past the frost free date.
We had another good rain midweek. The local consensus of the rain gauges was a little over 1.5 inches.



The pressure is on to throw the last house plants outside.
I took the two biggest orchid cactus plants outside several days ago.
They are quite heavy. But I did it myself.
I staged their move from their winter home upstairs by putting stools at 10 foot intervals. If they got too heavy I could put them down at the next stool.

I still need to be careful since the Sycamore and Walnut trees do not provide leaf cover yet. And there are 80 degree temperatures coming. Sunburning is a concern.


There is a lot of work to do in the garden. The bluebells are done. The scilla are done. They can all be cleaned away. It does not hurt them to just pull up the old foliage. Then there are the dandelions.

In a way May in the garden is a time of transition. In addition to the masses of blue flowers being finished so are many other things. Most of the spring bulbs are done. That includes the daffodils and tulips and crocuses. As of this weekend the flowering trees are finishing. That would be the crabs and even the redbuds.
It is time for the next step as time continues to march somewhere.



Last week in the voting the question was what was your favorite spring flower.
The message from the last two weeks is clear.
You like tulips.

This week

How about a vote with the contestants all from this last week. I really have five wonderful pictures, all that might appear this coming...well you know when I mean.

#1 White Tree Peony

All four of these white tree peonies opened within a day of each other, this week.
Please see the videos in the bonus section.
This particular plant has a very slight pink tint to it.
Whether it was the size of the flower, there were lots of bees.
People would lean over to smell the flowers and I would worry a little about those bees.

#2 Camassia 

You should learn about this spring bulb.
There are a few late blooming spring bulbs. Camassia is one of them. It was originally found in the pacific northwest, where it was cultivated, with many uses.
It is in the asparagus family.
I have had these clumps for probably ten years.
They are tall, perhaps 18-24 inches.
They also come in an off white which blooms a little later than the purple one.

#3 Tulip duo

Often tulips open really wide by the end of the day. This pair was like that at 6 Saturday morning. I take this as a sign they are about done. While you cannot tell much about their size from this picture, they are quite large.

#4 Cypripedium Gisell

You saw the clump last week. Here is an individual flower. I love those twirly things on either side of the pouch.

#5 Red Amaryllis

What a great color.
It waited until it got outside to send up the bud this spring.
As a reward it will get to go spend the summer in the sun, over at the sunny plot. I would like to see how it fattens up for next winter.

#6 Pink Tree Peony Seidai

You can judge the size better by looking at the bonus section. These flowers are fuller than the white ones on the street.
I have had this plant for almost 20 years. It has enough sun to come back each year and give about a dozen flowers. Tree Peonies just 10 yards south of this plant are not flowering at all at this point. I think I am going to move those plants. They get shaded by the white crabs so only get 3-4 hours of sun.
Maybe I will try something radical and move them now.


So there you have a great voting contest with flowers from this week.

Bonus section

The white peonies are now about 7 years old. I got the seeds from my sister in Maryland. She says she thinks the parent is called Phoenix White.
There are four plants all about the same age.
I do have one seedling that is now in its second spring. It died to the ground this winter. I expect this coming winter it will start to have a small stalk that stays above ground. Maybe there will be a flower in the fourth spring.
I threw all the seed from the 2019 plants into the ground. I have looked carefully for seedlings. So far none. The really are something that you just cannot wait for.

How these flowers will do depends on the weather. These survived the gentle rain from midweek. The cooler temperatures help.
Sunday am update: It rained almost all night last night. The flowers might be done.
So beautiful. So fleeting in their beauty.




This is the biggest plant. It had ten flowers this year.

















The centers of the flowers are really wonderful.











A short video with bees.

The pink peony has been with us for twenty years. Its name is Seidai.


This all was yesterday.(Saturday)
I cut one of the ten buds on this plant to bring inside. I knew it was going to rain in the evening. (It did.)
I did not know if the rain would hurt to flowers.
I also wanted to see how long the flower would last inside.


Do you know one advantage of cutting tree peonies to come inside? For whatever reason tree peonies do not attract ants. If you cut a regular peony to bring inside you need to check it for ants. They have some symbiotic relationship.














The flower found its way to a vase.




The darker colored peony below is another tree peony. It is found on the side of the house. It gets about 5 hours of sun. That is enough for it to bloom and stay the same size for 20 years. It has maybe 3 flowers each year.










This is one of the first Iceland poppies. I remember last year several white ones had that little reddish streak.

Julia's recipe

Cheddar Cheese Pie

Quiche is a reasonably fast (at the front end) and easy main course, especially if you already have a pie crust on hand. We like quiche alsacienne, a version of quiche lorraine, both deriving their names from French provinces on the German border. I am sure there is a story there. Those quiches feature Swiss cheese and bacon with or without the addition of sauteed onion. Cheddar cheese pie is less fussy but also very good.



Here are the ingredients: a pre-baked 9" piecrust (about which, more later); 3 eggs; 1-3/4 cups milk or 1/2-1/2 or some combination; 1 cup grated (not coarse, not fine, just medium) cheddar cheese (sharp is best); a bit of grated onion (maybe 1/2 teaspoon); 1/2 teaspoon of salt (kosher is fine) and 1/2 teaspoon of paprika.  That's it.

Philip made me a piecrust earlier. Having a piecrust on hand is good. Makes one feel well-resourced. As I have said before, there is nothing wrong with buying a frozen piecrust. Pre-baking a piecrust involves the use of weights to keep the crust from bubbling up. Also the piecrust is pricked on the bottom and side with a fork also to prevent bubbling up. We use a piece of foil (parchment would be fine) covered with a cup or so of dried beans (the weights) that we keep in the cupboard for this purpose. Bake a weighted down pie crust for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Then take the weights out (by lifting out the foil or parchment) and bake for another 2 to 5 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. 





I started by grating a bit of onion. It takes a surprising amount of onion to get 1/2 teaspoon grated. I used the rasp grater that I also use for things like lemon zest and nutmeg.

I turned the oven on to 325 degrees.

And I grated the cheese. We have a local mennonite cheesemaker (actually, from southeast Iowa - the Milton Creamery) who makes spectacular cheddar cheese. That's what we use for all cheddar cheese purposes.

Then I put the milk/cream into a small saucepan and heated it up a bit. Not boiling - but making some tiny bubbles around the edge. Maybe about 180 degrees.

When the milk was hot, I whisked in the cheese bit by bit until it melted, then added the grated onion, salt and paprika. More whisking. It will not be perfectly smooth. That's okay.





Then I cracked the eggs. I put some of one of the egg whites in a little dish. I used a pastry brush to apply some of the egg white to the bottom and sides of the piecrust, to prevent sogginess.
















I transferred the milk-cheese mixture to a bowl and whisked in the eggs one by one.

















Then I poured the mixture into the piecrust. You should only fill the piecrust to the bottom of the fluted edge. There are two dangers in overfilling - some of the filling may slop over the side when you put the pie in the oven or some of the filling may slop over the side when the pie bakes, as it will puff up a little in the oven. I speak from experience.

If you have too much filling, lube up a ramekin or other small oven-proof baker and pour in the extra filling. Instant breakfast for the next day. Such a little ramekin can be baked at the same time as the quiche. Check it earlier as it will not take as long to bake.






I put the filled piecrust on a rimmed baking sheet, which makes the process of getting the pie in and out of the oven less nerve-wracking.

I baked the pie at 325 degrees until a table knife came out clean when inserted into the pie. In my oven, that took maybe 35 - 40 minutes.

If the filling jiggles when you pull the oven shelf out, it's not done. This is the jiggle test, a precursor to the clean knife test.






Here it is on the plate with some nice broccoli. A heap of green vegetables complements any quiche. Asparagus is the obvious alternative, but roasted green beans would also be nice - after all you already have the oven on to bake the quiche. Plus a green salad and some raspberries with plain yogurt and you have dinner.

You need to let the quiche cool for a bit before serving. This dinner does take some time - mostly hands-off time for baking and cooling. Leftover quiche - whether cold or at room temperature - is excellent.

Odds and Ends

Have I mentioned that we have a neighborhood fox? There has been a family around  for  perhaps ten years. They live down by the creek. That is maybe 100 yards to the west of our house.
I believe I saw one of them last year. I saw something out of the corner of my eye that was bigger than a cat. But this year the sightings have been rather frequent. Bob saw it. Martha saw it. Bob took a grainy picture of it. I was told the other day that we just missed it. It almost is becoming a comedy routine. But there are no rabbits. Coincidence?
This is just another reason why I need to get out into the garden early in the morning. I could be out there now, and it is not even 6 am.

The deer seem to be gone. I will keep a careful watch. I have my smelly application ready at the first sign. But they left the neighborhood tulips alone which is a good sign.

But in the game of Garden Jeopardy there is a category of 'There is always something'.
In this last week we have that pair of ducks who would like to take up residence in the pond. This is really not good for anything in the pond. When I see the ducks by the pond, I have donned my Mr. McGregor attitude and chased them away 3-4 times this week. I need to hire a neighborhood 10 year old to do the duck check and the duck chase, while we are gone during the day.




I have discovered that I must chase them away with a particular approach. I have to come at them from the east. Then they fly away toward the creek, where they might have to deal with the foxes. If I come at them from the west they fly over the fence that is right there. And from the other side of the fence it is a too easy hop right back to the pond.
Update- I think I chased them away 4 times today. I do not think they are getting the message.



It really is time for everything to go outside. Many of the crotons on the front porch made it all the way to ground yesterday.

I got replacement peppers yesterday. The ones I had planted  had really toasted whenever we had that freeze.
I guess that was about 8 days ago. Officially it got down to 26 degrees. I think that set some sort of record for the month of May, at least going back 50 years.
I learned my lesson.

That's it from Iowa City.
It was a busy day in the garden yesterday. And I do mean Saturday.
Many plants last night had their first rain in 7 months.
I have much more to write but it is time to go to print.
It looks like today will be an inside day.
But good weather to pull weeds, when it actually stops raining.

Stay safe.
Philip