Week # 2 December 5, 2021

Week #1 of the contest is in the books. It was good to get the contest started again.  It has a familiar rhythm after all these years. I do so enjoy it, and I hope you do too.

December continues here in Iowa, as the days  get even shorter. We seem to be in the quiet before the storm. It just does not seem like Winter. The temperatures have stayed above freezing and the ground is not frozen. I thought I saw the tip of a snowdrop emerging the other day, but I cannot find it now.  

I continue with outside garden cleanup. I try to do a little each day. As I have mentioned before, our 5 different mature trees drop their leaves from September to December.

Actually it was so warm yesterday that I went to the landfill and got some city compost. The piles the City maintains were not frozen. It costs $20 for a ton. A ton of compost is a lot. I just got $2 worth. I will use it for potting things in the spring, when for sure the landfill piles will be frozen. 

I am finding a watering rhythm with all the indoor plants. I watered all the hoyas last weekend. They will get watered once a month. I liked the instructions I got for watering the clivia. It was "do not water until January at the earliest." I can do that. 

Last Week in the contest

the winner was...the Iceland poppy.

The Iceland poppy jumped out to a big lead, getting half of the Sunday vote. The daylily picked up support. At one point it had crept within 4 votes at 14-10. But the final margin was not that close.

Here were the totals

I will confess that the poppy was one of those pictures you think would do well.

I should explain how the playoffs work. There will be 13 weeks where you pick the winner. All 13 advance. If there is a tie then all that tie advance.

There will be several wildcards that advance. The number depends on the number of ties.

Wildcards are selected based on the percentage of the runner up vote throughout the season.

For the moment Tiger Kitten with 24% sets the standard to meet.

Here is Week #2

I must say I am really at a loss in predicting this week's results. There is a nice color balance. The first orchid makes an appearance. 

The choice is now yours.

#1 Anemone Blanda 

April 17, 2021

Anemone blanda is a great spring bulb. Everyone knows daffodils, tulips and crocuses. Anemone blanda is in that second group of spring bulbs. You should get to know them if you do not know them already. Anemone blandas are easy bulbs to grow. Over time they makes wonderful clumps. 

I planted a group of these white anemones behind the pond maybe 5-10 years ago. This picture shows what I had in mind. It took a while for the clump to form, but there it is. Now you have to avoid the common garden expression- I must get more.

The genus for anemone blanda is Anemonoides. The family is Ranunculaceae. "Family" is one step larger than "genus" in the formal botanical description. It goes species, genus and then family.  A. blanda is in the same "family" as the Japanese anemone I grow that blooms in the fall. The Japanese anemone however is in the genus Eriocapitella. 

Remarkably anemone blanda comes in a number of colors. I have clumps in the front yard that are blue and pink. I know that blanda normally means white. I suppose if I really had time I could learn why there are blandas that are other colors. Sometimes you just have to draw a line.

#2 Orchid Yellow Bird 

January 1, 2021

Orchids play an important part in the garden. In fact they do some heavy lifting from December to February when all the action is inside. This picture was taken on January 1, 2021. Orchids  have some internal clock.  They tend to bloom about the same time every year. The plant has got some small buds now. 

The orchid in the picture is called Potinara Love Love 'Yellow Bird." I think of it as a small Cattleya.  Cattleyas are what we think of as the corsage orchids. I love the color of this flower. And that lip is special.

I would have thought that Cattleyas were hard to grow. That is not correct. I have found them rather easy, if given some artificial light and a regular watering. I have several larger ones. The smaller ones are easier, because they are....smaller. 

Keeping up with the botanical terms with orchids is hard. To make things complicated the grouping sometimes change and there can be new genera. 

There are certain genus that many of us know. Phalanopsis. Dendrobian. Cattleya. With practice we can remember the name. With more practice we say the name. After that we might be able to master spelling the name.

A potinara, I read, is an intergeneric grouping of hybrids where the parents were from the different genus of either Brassavola, Laelia, and Sophronitis. or Cattleyas. 

I have about 30 orchids. A number of them I have had for more than 5 years. In the winter they grow under various light stands around the house. I just use regular LED lights, rather than the more expensive grow lights. In the summer they all go outside. They would do better if I was not distracted by everything else in the garden. That happens even during the winter. 

But orchids, like most plants, are rather forgiving. 

It is hard to find flowers that are more impressive.

#3 Red double tulip 

April 24, 2021

Tulips

This particular flowers is from an unknown tulip that comes back every year. The name perhaps is Miranda. It grows by itself. It has none of its kind nearby. It is the sole survivor of a clump planted years ago. 

The color in this picture gives you an idea why tulips have been a star, if not the star,  of the spring garden for centuries.

Who has not heard of Tulip mania, in Holland, almost 500 years ago? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

I do not grow many tulips.

Actually I planted almost 150 this fall. But that number was unusual.

Most tulips are extensively hybridized. Perhaps for that reason they do not do well after the first year. Many need to be treated as annuals. They bloom and then you throw them away. Gardening can be brutal at time. 

There are what are called "species tulips." Calling them that mostly means they are found in the wild. Species tulips more reliably come back every year.

Some  particular bulbs of the hybridized tulips just come back every year. There must be something different about that particular bulb. I have 6-8 of these gems scattered around the garden. The bonus section has some pictures.

I should add that deer love tulips. When the deer path is running through my garden I use the smelly spray on the tulips, right when they are emerging. This past year that seemed to work.

Apparently the species tulips do not taste as good to deer. Partly for that reason most of my new purchases were species tulips.

#4 Cactus 

August 9, 2021

I have grown these cactus plants for 10-15 years. The first ones were a gift from neighbors. If you look at the base of the plant you will see the side shoots. One cactus became many. This one is one of the older plants. It is maybe 15 inches tall. I think it takes 4-5 years for the plant to get big enough to bloom. I guess you can say that about many plants. I suppose that is why people buy established plants.

I can still remember that first time years ago when the first bud formed. At that time I did not know how long it would take for the bud to develop or what the flower would look like. There was something special about that moment.

The cactus is a welcome addition to the garden for several reasons. White it does need to come inside for the winter, it mostly goes dormant and is no trouble to overwinter. It also blooms later in the season, from July to September. Plants get extra points for blooming that late.

Often the cactus plants will set several buds at once. When that happens they usually all bloom at the same time.

The flowers last at most 2 days. They open after sunset. Unlike the Night Blooming Cereus the flowers will last throughout the next day.

#5 trillium grandiflorum 

May 12, 2021

I love trillium. Who would not love them. This is one that blooms later in the spring. It is the largest. I have had the particular plant a long time. I have a picture from 2006, which is one way to keep track of dates.

This is T. grandiflorum.

It is the latest blooming trillium. It certainly has the biggest flower.

What is particularly interesting is that while it opens as a white flower it then fades to pink. It also remains open a long time. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium_grandiflorum

Trillium get their name because they have 3 of lots of things. There are 3 leaves, and 3 petals. There are even 3 sepals. What is a sepal? It seems to be some part of the  flower that is for protection of the sexual parts. Go figure. That knowledge seems destined for what is known as "in and out."

There you have it for Week #2. Which picture do you like...and why did you pick that one? I always like to hear from you beyond your vote. You can "comment" at the bottom of the post, or send me a reply email.

Bonus Section

Here are more anemone blandas.

Little spring bulbs can be a challenge in the busy year long garden. They will mostly disappear by June. You then have to worry (a little) about where they were. Mostly I do not give spring bulbs labels. Sometimes I rely on videos of a particular bed for that remembering.

Can you plant an impatiens or a coleus right on top of the clump of particular bulbs? When you have a whole lot of bulbs that does present a problem. What about weeding?

Annuals are usually planted near the surface. If your bulbs are at least 4 inches deep you do not need to worry. But little bulbs are only 2-3 inches deep. 

In general here is my theory. When bulbs are dormant they are rather hard. They are almost like a pebble. For that reason even if you disturb the bulbs it is not going to matter. You will just move them around a little.

One exception would be the bulbs you particularly care about. Bloodroot, for example, is perhaps the one spring bulb I label. I have at times disturbed some bloodroot, while weeding or planting other things. I quickly put it back in the ground and apologize. 

So I guess the lesson would be to label the bulbs you particularly care about. Or at least put a colored straw there, marking the location.

This is the trillium grandiflorum in its white phase. You can see some of the flowers turning to pink.

I can not tell you these are the same flower. But they might be.

May 12, 2021

May 1, 2021

   

Let me show you other trillium.

This beauty was in the back yard sale plant this year. Someone contributed a couple plants.  They sold rather quickly.

Trillium are rather hard to find at the local garden centers.

This is a small one that is forming a nice clump.

I should add that when I remember where a clump is established I try not to plant anything on top of it.

This little one does that white to pink thing too.

I think about other flowers that change color. Bluebells for example sometimes start out being pink, before they are fully open to blue.

This is trillium luteum.

Here are some of those tulips that overcame their hybrid background and just keep coming back every year.

It never hurts the tulip display that they bloom about the time bluebells do. The colors do well with blue.

Right Now

This is an ornamental kale I grew from seed. Kale are annuals that might overwinter with a mild winter. I grew this variety, called Crane Kale, in 2021. It was not a successful venture. The plants spent time at the rented sunny location. They do need sun.  There were long dry spells so plants there this year did not work out so well. They did give a little hint at why they might be worth trying again.

This variety is like ornamental kale on stilts.

Here is one Iceland poppy trying to make it to next spring. (This picture was taken yesterday.)

I belong to the local orchid club. While there have not been many in person meetings in the last 22 months, there was the end of the year meeting where every member got an orchid. I picked this lovely small cattleya like orchid. It is sort of an interesting color.

Julia's recipe

Couscous with spinach

Spinach again! This is also a NYT recipe for a one-pot pasta and spinach side dish. I have been disappointed in one pot pasta dishes, which sometimes turn out gummy. Not good eats, as Alton Brown would say. This recipe works beautifully, and is not exotic in technique or ingredients. It works well with a dish you can find on the recipe blog for panko-bakes cod with roasted mushrooms, which we had for dinner last night as a matter of fact. Or baked chicken or pork roast or steak or for that matter, grilled tofu.

The ingredients:

2 cups big couscous (sometimes called Israeli couscous);

1 bag (16 oz.) frozen chopped spinach;

1/4 cup diced (smallish) shallot if you have one (or two) or onion if you don't;

1 teaspoon smushed garlic (2 big cloves for me);

5 cups milk - whole or 2%;

2-4 wide strips of lemon peel (I used 4);

2 tablespoons (or 3) of lemon juice from the lemon from which you took the strips; 

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese;

2 tablespoons butter;

salt and pepper.

I have used grate-it-yourself Parmesan (as shown above). I have used pre-grated from the Co-op. Both were just fine. Don't use the stuff in the green shaker. I've used shallot when I had one lying around, and I have used onion. Both fine. One could use orzo or ditalini instead of big cous cous. I had big cous cous.

I started by prepping the shallot and garlic. I melted the butter in a Dutch oven and added the veggies. I turned the heat to medium and stirred now and then for maybe 2 or 3 minutes until the onion and garlic were soft but not browned. 

While the onions and garlic were cooking, I used a vegetable peeler to peel off several (4) strips of of lemon peel. And I measured the milk. 

Next I added the milk and the frozen spinach and the lemon zest strips. I stirred it up and cooked it on medium heat until the spinach was thawed and the milk was simmering. 

While the pasta was cooking, I juiced the lemon. I ended up with 4 tablespoons, but I only needed 2 so I poured the rest into the lemon juice bottle in the refrigerator. It is tempting to use whatever amount one ends up with, but I think it would have been too tart.

Here is the pot when the simmering-milk/thawed spinach stage had been reached. This took maybe 7 or 8 minutes on medium heat.  I stirred in about 2 teaspoons of salt because I forgot earlier. The salt can be added with the milk and spinach.

Next I poured in the big cous cous. More stirring. 

It took maybe 20 minutes for the cous cous to cook. The recipe said to stir vigorously from time to time to encourage release of starch from the pasta, and I did that. Maybe every 4 or 5 minutes - about 1 minute of vigorous stirring with a wooden spoon. 

When the pasta was done, I turned off the heat. Then I stirred in the lemon juice followed by the Parmesan. I also fished out the strips of lemon peel.

 In fact, the cous cous absorbed most all of the milk and spinach thawing liquid. We put extra Parmesan on the table to allow individual lily-gilding. 

When I was a kid, we always ate spinach with lemon juice which was added at the table, each diner to his or her preferred state of tartness, as that was the way my mother liked spinach. In this dish, between the lemon peel and the addition of a little juice at the end, one achieves a pretty good balance of creamy and spinachy and lemony. 

As I said at the top, this is an excellent side for the cod with panko and roasted mushrooms, a recipe to be found on the mearskitchen website. 

One last thing: this recipe makes a lot. It is good reheated in the non-stick skillet with a little water. But still. You can easily use half of all of the ingredients and you will have plenty for 2-4 people. The timing and method are exactly the same.

Odds and Ends

While surfing the net for plants I encounter many nurseries I have never heard of. I have to wonder how many have survived the pandemic. Of course many such stores were already difficult business ventures. In Iowa City there was a wonderful store called Pleasant Valley. It closed about 6-7 years ago. There are apartments where it had been located. Pleasant Valley had an attached greenhouse where you could visit in January and find all sort of things growing. They had hundreds of poinsettias this time of year, with many varieties. Early in the year you could then find all the seedlings started. 

 I should publish this now and wait to hear from you. It looks like the colder weather arrives tomorrow.  But I will plant some seeds for 2022 in a little over 3 weeks.

Be safe. 

Philip