Week #6- January 2, 2022

Happy New Year's Day everyone. 

2022- will be a better year

Winter finally arrived in Iowa. We had a little snow in the middle of the week. Then yesterday we had 5-6 inches of shoveling snow. Winter Storm Frida. Fortunately I had just arranged with a person in the neighborhood to shovel our walks. 

Other signs that winter is here: 

Julia finally has gotten her winter coat out. 

We have the heavy quilt on the bed.

I have started counting the days until spring. 

Last Week

The winner was....

the red Poppy- Beauty of Livermore.

The full vote was

Actually, as of yesterday, there was a three way tie for first place. Two votes for the poppy came through in the last day,

This Week- Week #6

This week's group of pictures covers from March to November and includes red, yellow and blue.

I hope you enjoy.

#1 Winter aconite

 March 13, 2021

It is only appropriate to start this new year with a flower that has "winter' in the name.

Winter aconite might be my favorite flower in the garden.  Certainly for the next 2 months it is my favorite. While a snowdrop might edge it out for the first blooming flower of spring, aconite is a close second, and it outnumbers the snowdrop by a lot.

In 2020 I actually planted 900 of the aconite bulbs in the fall. There is a video in the bonus section of the bed with all those new ones that bloomed in 2021.

What was the secret to planting so many aconite bulbs? Well there really were two hints. First it was very helpful that the bulb does not have a right side up. Second, after the first several hundred, I started putting 2-3 bulbs in one hole.

Facts about winter aconite:

The botanical name is Eranthus hyemalis. As you should know by now that means Eranthus is the genus and hyemalis is the species.

The plants are native to Europe and began as a woodland plant. As such, it grabbed up all the sunshine before the leaves came out on the trees.

All parts of the plant are poisonous. When you think about it that makes sense for any early blooming thing. The ones that tasted good would have been eaten out of existence before they got established.

They grow from tubers, not bulbs. I suppose next week I might tackle the distinction. They sure look like...well they look like little rocks. They are certainly not the bulb you have with daffodils or tulips.

#2 Trillium cuneatum 

April 4, 2021

This is the earliest trillium to come up in the garden. This particular plant is a good sized plant that must have been in the garden for 10 years. Actually I just found a picture of this very plant from 2004. It was a gift from a person who lived in the woods. Each year it comes back strong, but it does not spread. I guess some plants are just solitary.

T. cuneatum has some marvelous nicknames. They include Little Sweet Betsy,  Large Toadshade, and Bloody Butcher. What?!

There must be a story somewhere.

Wikipedia says it has a banana scent. I did not know that. I understand this is where "Sweet Betsy" comes from.

It is reported to be native to woodlands in the SE part of the country.

#3 Little blue flowers- Brunnera 

 April 18, 2021

This is a brunnera that grows in the backyard, under the white crabapple trees. Brunnera is the genus. The species probably is macrophylla. It is known as the Siberian bugloss. It is from Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is sometimes called the False forget-me-not. 

It is a woodland plant so it does well in shade. Remember shade does not mean much in April and May.

Unlike some other spring flowers, the plants do not die back in the summer.

Think pulmonaria.

Brunnera spreads. I really should pot up more of the little plants that do come up.

It is listed as deer resistant.

The picture in the bonus section gives a better idea of how tiny the flowers are.

#4 Dwarf bearded iris named Martian

 April 29, 2021

The little dwarf iris are just about the first multicolored flowers in the spring. This one is Martian.  I really am excited for these guys. I had greatly expanded the little iris bed this fall. And then they were threatened by those digging utility people. The worst did not happen. See "odds and ends" section.

Now all they have to do is get through the snow and ice from the winter. The bed is right next to the street. That has been where they have been for quite a number of years. 

Look at that "beard." 

You will see more beards in the rest of the contest

I also have about 70 little bearded iris in the back garage, waiting for warmer weather.

Maybe I should take a few out in February and see if they can be forced, like some bulbs.

#5 Tillandsia, the air plant  

November 1, 2021

I got this little air plant about 6 years ago. It is a tillandsia, This is a picture of the flower. 

The plant is probably tillandsia ioantha 'Rubra.'

The plant actually hangs in a globe, put together by some merchant. There are probably 10-12 plants wired together, with growth coming out from all sides. (Do globes have sides? I think you know what I mean.)

Mostly the plant is green. An individual plant in the globe turns bright red when it is going to bloom. Then there is that bright purple thing with the yellow pollen. 

I do not know that much about air plants. Here is some help.

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

Here is some information

They are in the Bromiliad family.

Wiki says they bloom and die. There is some name for that.

They do not need frequent watering. In the same paragraph it says that means four times a week. I keep a spray bottle nearby and spritz them almost every day. The globe consisting of many of these little guys lives over our kitchen sink during the winter. It gets sprayed whenever I think about it when I wash the dishes. There are some people on the air plant facebook page (really) who believe in dunking their air plants.

Bonus Pictures

Aconite

February 27, 2021

In my experience the flower is about the first thing to emerge. There is no green leaf first. 

By the way in this picture you can seeds the little sprouting seeds of the blue squill that are all over the place from December to March.









Just 4 days before that picture was this picture.

March 5, 2021

This picture is perhaps my favorite picture of all time.

We had a fair amount of snow in January and February of 2021. Katie and family were lived with us for that time, escaping the virus. They were still here for the great snow melt, which coincides with the early spring flowers. That memory is priceless. 

At least in the back yard (which faces south) the aconite can get transplanted. Or potted up. Christopher, who was just 4 at the time, helped. With enthusiasm.

I think what you had in that picture was boundless enthusiasm and boundless energy.

Look at this video.

Sometimes you just have to indulge a grandparent who is looking back at pictures.

Christopher and Katie are carrying on the tradition of planting many bulbs. They moved into a new house in November, a house without much gardening. After getting a truck load of new dirt, they planted over 2000 bulbs.

Here is the video of the bed with the 900 aconite. They were later blooming for two reasons. First they were newly planted. The first year for any bulb will be later than in subsequent years. Second this is in the north side of the house. The beds in the back yard are always a few weeks ahead of the front yard. For one thing the snow melts on the north side of the house last.

February 17, 2012

This picture is from February 17, 2012.
That year was about the earliest spring we had in my memory.  What about this year? 

Here is the weather data from that month, February, 2012. This website is so helpful at times.

Here was February, 2021, in Iowa City.

That website is located at

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/sites/hist.phtml?network=IA_COOP&station=ICYI4

Unfortunately it only does towns in Iowa.

Here is a picture of the aconite late in its season. It almost forms a carpet. It will disappear by the end of May.  While it is not tall (like the bluebells), it does have to be moved from around anything small. 

April 28, 2021

Trillium

Brunnera

This picture gives you a better idea about the size of the flowers. 

Hint - they are tiny.

Airplants

Here you see the full ball of these wonderful little tillandsias.

I had thought to use on of these pictures in the contest but settled for the closeup of the blooming flower.

This is another tillandsia, called cyanea. I think it will be really wonderful in about a month.

November 6, 2021

December 27, 2021

Right Now

One thing I do in the winter is grow cuttings. Often these are cherished annuals where plants are brought inside in October.

I have some Persian Shield, with the cuttings from a mother plant grown in a pot all winter. Right next to that are some annual asclepias. I also make cuttings from certain perennial houseplants. Sometimes that would just be plants from trimmings. I trimmed a hibiscus the other day and had some room on the cuttings area. That would be in the window over the kitchen sink.

The clivia is a seedling that I planted 2 years ago. It is getting its fourth leaf. It is one of those yellow ones, Pat.

Orchids

Several new orchids just opened in the last few days. Some remain in bloom and have been blooming for a while.

Here is the inventory as of January 1, 2022.

Mystery word

The word for the week is "peduncle".

A peduncle is the "stem of the inflorescence." I do not know why they do not just say "flower" 

Mostly I know about peduncles because of hoyas. 

Hoyas are rapidly becoming my latest enthusiasm. Julia has described me as being a "serial enthusiast."

Here is one of the hoyas in the computer room, with a peduncle.

Once you grow a peduncle you can begin to think about a flower.

Here is the rope hoya, which is also known as hoya carnosa compacta. I am trying to learn names. I think that is harder at 72 than at 40. It is also harder when plant stores just label plants as 'hoya."

Here is a little Youtube about hoyas and peduncles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDT2_2N8W_U

Julia's recipe

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

I found myself with a cauliflower for which I had no plans. I had changed my mind about making curries, and so there was this cauliflower with no place to go. Fortuitously, a recipe for spicy roasted cauliflower showed up in the newspaper, adapted from a recipe from the Milk Street cooking empire. It seemed like fate. 

The ingredients:

1 cauliflower, in the 2 lb. range;

1/4 cup regular oil;

2 tablespoons ketchup;

2 tablespoons chili-garlic paste;

1 tablespoon garam masala;

2 teaspoons salt; and

2 teaspoons black pepper. 

Chopped green herbs or scallions to garnish, which I did not bother with. 

Sounded weird to me. Although, ketchup and cauliflower is also a bit odd. But good.  

I trimmed the cauliflower, cutting off the leaves and cutting out the core. I put the head on a rimmed sheet pan and turned the oven to 425 degrees. 

Next, I made the sauce, measuring all of the ingredients into a small bowl and then mixing thoroughly.

I used 2 tablespoons of chili-garlic paste. If you are not so big on spicy, use 1 tablespoon. I have something called chili-garlic paste and something called sambal oelek. I think they are pretty much interchangeable.   

Next I slathered half of the paste all over the cauliflower. This is a weirdly angled picture. 

Into the oven. I think I starting checking after 30 or 35 minutes. The goal is to have a skewer or knife stuck in the middle meet only a little resistance. 

I think I hit that point at about 40 minutes. I took the pan out, slathered the rest of the sauce over the cauliflower and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

Done! As I said, I could have sprinkled with some chopped greenery. The dish was a big hit with Philip and Maggie, cut into wedges to make each serving have some spice and some not. Who knew they would go for roasted cauliflower? Spicy on the outside, tender and mild in the inside. 

Odds and Ends

Early in the week there were three trucks from the new cable company next to the garden. That company had been the ones that had put out the flyers about digging along the street, in the parkway.  They had placed many of those utility flags  all along the part of the garden with all the new dwarf bearded iris.

So I talked to one of the workers. He told me they were mostly going underground so should not be digging much. There was still the question of where they were going to put the boring holes. It looked promising.

I expected they would need to work fast since the ground was going to freeze real soon. I checked and the ground was not frozen at all. I had actually given just a little thought to moving one of the tree peonies. 

So I on Wednesday  we came home for lunch and found this.

This is up by the corner on College Street. There was actually a nice Liberty hosta there. When you looked at the dirt that was dug up it was mostly clay. That is often the case along the street. 

If that is the extent of the damage I will take it. It looked like they bored down to the telephone pole 50 feet south. A piece of that red piping just emerges at the pole. 

I think that means they are done. 

There is of course what they are going to do heading east on College Street. If they go that way they will have to deal with the 100 year old elm tree.

Now I will just have to worry about something else.

There are  79 days until the Spring equinox.

Be safe.

Philip