September 6, 2020-Fall is here.

September is here.

Fall is here.

I know that because the "fall crocuses" have begun to bloom.

Fall crocuses?

Really?

Really!

Here is the same clump in slightly different light.





Here are 10 things to know about fall crocuses. I have studied up as I have a big order of these plants arriving this coming week.

1- "Fall crocuses" bloom in the fall. Duh. But they are not just "forced" spring crocuses. That is how they are.

2- "Fall crocuses" include two different families of plants.  There are actually two different genus. You actually find them on separate pages in the bulb catalogs. One group includes plants in the genus Colchicum. It is in the lily family. The other group is actually the genus, wait for it,  Crocus. This genus includes the spring blooming flowers we mostly know. This genus is in the iris family.

3- All parts of the Colchicum plants are poisonous. It has a history of being a poison.  As such it has a history of medical use. The earliest reference appears in something called the Ebers papyrus, "the oldest known medical text, prepared by the Egyptians around 1550 B.C."

4- There are no leaves with the flowers. The leaves for some plants come up in the spring, being quite large. (8-10 inches.)

5- Prices vary by variety. You can get some for less than $1 and some cost $10/each. Some are as low in price  as 50 for $16.

6- The "saffron crocus" is Crocus sativus. These are those plants that have their stigmas harvested for that very expensive spice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron

7- You can plant them now, and have them bloom in a few weeks. There is none of that delayed gratification you have to experience with the other bulbs that get planted in the fall. Yes- you can even order some of them right now.

8. Nobody knows about fall crocuses. You can continually impress and surprise your neighbors, even those who garden.

9. Some have foliage in the spring and then die back and have the flower bloom in the fall. That sounds a little like "naked ladies" or "surprise lilies." Those are not fall crocuses. They are in the genus "lycoris".

10. Since they are dormant during the summer, you have to be careful not to dig them up planting something else. I do not have a particular tip for this at the moment. Remembering is a good start. I suppose writing it down is a close second. I will pass along my thoughts as I plant many of them in the next 2 weeks.

11. I know this was to be a list of ten things. I just saw something that was interesting in a wikipedia article. Colchicum have 6 stamens. Crocuses have 3. Who knew?


Articles
https://wimastergardener.org/article/autumn-crocus-colchicum-spp/
https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/238
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicum




Another hint that it is fall is that the arrival of the first toad lilies.




I will write more about toad lilies in the next few weeks.

Speaking of toads there are frogs or toads in the pond. They squeak and jump when I approach. I will have to try being quieter.

The drought continues. We had an hour of some very gentle rain mid week. Unfortunately it was hardly measurable.
As I write this early Sunday morning there are storms to the north of us. Maybe....

More pictures of crocuses



They pop up without warning. One day all of a sudden you see one. Then when you look you realize many are coming up.





















I have some fall crocuses planted along the shelf under the walnut tree.
















There is always the question about whether they look better in a clump.

You can naturalize them in your lawn. That is easier to do someplace like Longwood Gardens where you know people will not walk on the lawns.
With my postage stamp of a lawn that is not possible.













The lantana continue to shine, even when the sprinkler does not get that far.
A neighbor said that next year lantana might be all that he plants.









These plants will shine until frost. That could be in two weeks or 8. Nothing is certain with gardening. Except maybe the enjoyment.


I continue to plant about a dozen annuals every day. My cuttings continue.






News flash- it is now raining. At 6:10 on Sunday morning. A beautiful sound. Now it is picking up. All those parched plants will be so happy. Some were really looking desperate.
This will keep me inside for a while. Of course it is still completely dark.
I could make a sound recording of the rain. It is such a comforting sound.
It is still raining and it is 6:20. Go rain.
Now thunder.
It is still raining at 6:34.


Pansies



I got 3 flats last Sunday at the Farmer's market.
A flat had 36 plants. You can do the math. I am planting about 10 of them each day. I prepare a place each time.
They will last until Thanksgiving. They can get through a frost.
Then they will come back in the springtime.

Julia's recipe

Pasta with cherry tomatoes and basil

As readers of Philip's blog know, we have a little sunny garden plot in the city's community garden
this year. As it happens, we ended up with 6 healthy prolific cherry tomato plants. That's a lot of cherry tomatoes, the tomato equivalent of planting 6 hills of zucchini. Some fall to the ground before we can get to them, but we still have a lot to eat. We also have 3 or maybe 4 basil plants, plus mint and parsley and sage so we are able to cook with big handfuls of really fresh herbs. It's a treat.

This receipt comes from the Six Seasons cookbook by Joshua McFadden, which I highly recommend. He's about vegetables and seasonality, and so he is a resource when you are wondering what new thing you can do with whatever is plentiful in the garden or at the farmers market at the moment.




Here are the ingredients: about 3 cups of cherry tomatoes (assorted is good); about 1 cup of basil leaves; 3 tablespoons (or so) of olive oil; 8 oz. (1/2 box) of linguine or spaghetti; 2 garlic cloves if large-ish or more if small; 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes; 1/2 teaspoon of salt (plus salt for the pasta cooking water); 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 tablespoon of butter (not shown).

I had red and a few green (under-ripe) cherry tomatoes and some sweet tiny yellow-orange tomatoes. Use what you have, including a few underripe tomatoes for the color.


I started by de-stemming and rinsing the tomatoes and also de-stemming and rinsing the basil leaves. And then I peeled and smashed the garlic. The next time I make this dish, I will smush the garlic with my garlic press.





I heated 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a big skillet. When the oil was warm-to-hot, I added the garlic and turned down the heat. The garlic should get golden brown and fragrant, best achieved with moderate heat and a little bit of time - say 4 or 5 minutes. If the garlic had been smushed, it would have taken maybe 2 to 3 minutes.











With the heat still set at medium, I added 1/2 of the tomatoes (whole, no need to cut) and 1/2 of the whole basil leaves to the garlic and oil. It sizzled and spattered, and I put a lid on the skillet to control oil-spattery mess.

I put a pot of water on to boil and salted the water.

It took about 8-10 minutes for the tomatoes to break down and get what the cookbooks call "jammy". I turned the heat up a little as the spattering subsided so as to evaporate off some of the wateriness in the tomatoes. And sure enough the texture of the mixture became sort of syrupy.

I turned the heat off and used a wooden spoon to gently flatten any still-round tomatoes. And I added the red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper and stirred them in.







When the pasta was almost done (by package instructions), I dipped out 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and then drained the pasta, not quite fully cooked.

I added the pasta, the rest of the tomatoes and the rest of the basil to the skillet along with another tablespoon of oil and the pat of butter. Then I turned the heat on again to medium-high and stirred everything around. I wanted the newly added tomatoes to get warmed through and the basil to wilt.

To my surprise, the amount of liquid in the skillet decreased considerably, as the pasta absorbed it. I ended up using about 2/3 cup of the pasta cooking water to maintain the slightly syrupy sauce.


Here it is in the serving platter. Very pretty and flavorful. We served it with the traditional parmesan cheese and a green salad and watermelon for a light dinner on a warm late summer day. This recipe would serve 3 average or 2 very hungry people as a main dish. You could, of course, grill a piece of fish or roast/grill some pieces of chicken and serve this as a side. Leftovers: few but delicious.

Odds and Ends

When fall arrives so does temperature watching. There are plants that have to come inside at some point. It seems like we have had many nights when it stayed in the 70's.
At the moment the rain that might arrive signals a cold front.
The forecast for this coming week includes temperatures in the mid 40's. That would be the mid 40's each night, starting Tuesday.

Oh please rain. I suppose I could put my car outside with the windows down.
Was that thunder?  Or just a truck?
We are 15 minutes into a real rain. Hurray.
I remember how wonderful the garden is after a rain. It smells so good.

The backyard sale continues.
Yesterday, out of nowhere arrived 2 wonderful geraniums.
The big hanging spiderwort sold early in the morning, not long after I posted a picture on Facebook.
We have now raised over $3100.

Enjoy the long weekend.
Better times are really coming.
I feel it, just like I still hear the rain.
But there is work to be done.
A lot of work.
I suppose that will have to wait until some daylight arrives.
Philip