Week 7 January 9, 2022

In this part of the country, at this time of year, we sometimes ask

"Why do we live here?"

It was brutally cold for part of the week. Yesterday morning  we seemed to be in the middle of a heat wave. It is 15 degrees out. 

Sometimes you think of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. You just run as fast as you can...in order to stay in the same place. That certainly was my experience at work this last week. I had 2 different hearings postponed on the day before the hearing, for reasons beyond my control.  I think winter survival is like that Red Queen thing. You just get through another week, and then maybe spring is not far away.

But another week is done. We are at Week #7. That is  the halfway point. (There are 13 weeks and then the playoffs.)

The bitterly cold weather for the moment is over. It is now just "real cold." 

It is seed planting time. The Iceland poppies I planted last weekend have broken the surface. I opened a seed pack for Shirley poppies yesterday. There were just a whole lot of seeds in that packet. Then there are the ones I collected during the summer. But I will just plant a few dozen little containers each week for the month. And then I will see how it is going.

Last week in the contest, the winner was...the tillandsia.

It really did have some great color.

The full vote was

It was another close contest with the little blue flowers coming in a close second. 

Here is the wildcard standings after 6 weeks. Unless there are ties for the winning picture, 2 runner ups will advance. 

Week 3- Phlox and daylilies 29%

Week 4 Lilium fiamma 28%

--------apparent cut off-------

Week 2. Red Double tulip 27%

Week 6- Brunnera 26%

Week 5 Lupine 26%

Week 5    Double bloodroot 26%

Week 10 Tiger Kitten 24%

This Week which is Week #7

There is some good color this week. Another Shirley poppy makes an appearance. A flower that is actually an American prairie flower is one of the contestants. One of the flashiest Orchid Cactus appears, along with an old favorite, the annual lantana.

#1 Ruby Giant tommasianius crocus

 March 19, 2021

March 19 really does not seem that far away. That is when this contestant appeared in 2021.

This deep purple crocus is one of the first really bright colors in the spring garden. Snowdrops are white. Aconite are yellow. Most of these very early purplish crocuses are "tommies." They are called that as their species is tommasianius, found in the genus "crocus."

As could be expected of very early flowers, they taste bad.

This one is probably Ruby Giant, one of the tommies. 

They are named after the botanist Muzio Spirito de Tommasini (1794-1879). 

The plants come from the Balkans. 

The name is fun to say. It is one of those words you have to say about 16 times to wire it into your brain. It is almost lyrical.

#2 White Shirley Poppy 

 June 8, 2021

I wrote about Shirley poppies in Week 3. They really are marvelous. They are one of those plants that just once you would want to have too many of them. That will not happen as I never would have enough sun to grow that many. I sometimes think that by the time 13 weeks as past (and you have seen all 65 entries in the contest this year) you will wonder if we could have just skipped to the finals and had an all poppy contest.

I certainly cannot pick one favorite Shirley poppy from last year.

 #3 Pink Orchid Cactus 

June 12, 2021

What wonderful creatures are the orchid cacti. You saw the Night Blooming Cereus in Week 4.

The genus is Epiphyllum. They are epiphytic. That could be the garden word for the week. That means that the plants  grow on another plant, which can be a tree. But unlike a parasite, epiphytic plants take their nutrients from the air and the rain, and maybe the dirt, but not the 'host' plant.

Orchid cactus are from Central and South America.

Epi is Greek for "upon." Phyton is Greek for "plant."

The common name is "orchid cactus." But they are not orchids. They are actually in the cactus family, but they are not anywhere close to what we think of as cactus. Well, I suppose they are a cousin of the Christmas cactus. 

The flowers of orchid cactus are very large, measuring perhaps 6 inches across.

We saw the plant for the first time in a now closed nursery near Chincoteague Virginia. It was probably 25 years ago. We brought one back under the seat of the airplane. Then we called the nursery, and ordered some more. They did not normally sell plants in the mail. They did want to make sure we knew we would have to pay postage.

These days there are many more purchasing opportunities on the internet. It seems like most are grown around San Diego. It might be the perfect place to live, if it were not for the occasional fire that burns everything in sight. They must ask why they live there. (Of course they have an easy answer if they just look outside every day.)

OC's do have to come inside for the winter or more precisely the even longer cold time.

I grow them in large hanging planters, hung from the many trees in the yard.

In the winter I encourage them to be patient and go to sleep.

They cannot go outside until the danger of frost is over, and the trees have enough leaves to avoid sunburn. Sunburn can be a problem for any plant that goes outside for the first time in a 6 months. I hang about 6 of these big plants in the front yard under the walnut tree. It is one of the later trees to get its leaves. Of course the sycamore in the backyard is about the last tree.

Mostly this is a good thing as most spring bulbs and other plants want that sun.

So much of life is a trade off of good with the bad. (Sorry to go all deep on you.)

I do not know the name of the contestant. 

#4  Yellow Coneflower

 June 27, 2021

If there is one plant that has come a long way in the last 25 years it would be the echinacea or coneflower.

The purple coneflower was the principle plant a while ago, and it was a nice one. It is a prairie plant found in north America. But first they developed  a yellow ones and then white one. Now I think the varieties take up more room in the catalogue that anything else. There are peach ones and pink ones. Red ones and fluffy ones. Some of the names are good too. I got cantalope this last year. There was also tomato soup.

There are so many that I have not been as careful as I should to label the ones in the garden.

Bluestone perennials, which sends me many catalogues has 48 varieties listed.

This could be sombrero granada gold.

#5 Lantana 

June 17, 2021

I love lantana. It is an annual that has a regular place in the garden. It was the favorite flower of my aunt Elsie, who maintained the family home in Chincoteague, Virginia all those years ago.

Lantana is the genus. It is in the verbena family. I read that it is native to the tropical parts of the Americas and Africa. You do wonder about how that happened.

The leaves are apparently poisonous, but the "fruit" is a delicacy.

In warmer climates it can become a perennial. (It is difficult to even write the words "warmer climates" when it is -6 outside on this Friday morning.)

It takes sun, as do so many thing. I try it as a companion plant to daylilies. It might be a good companion to the much taller lilium. 

Swallowtail butterflies are attracted to lantana.

I read that they are often grown in hanging baskets, sometimes thought of as "trailing." I also read that they can be overwintered by digging up the plant and putting it in a dark place where it will be dormant for the duration. I suppose I might try that next year. Of course it is suggested that the temperature should not get below 50. 

More to read about lantana can be found at:

https://www.thespruce.com/add-a-florida-touch-with-lantana-plants-2132142

There you have the contestants for this week, Week #7. Please be sure to vote, and get your family to vote. 

And those comments are so appreciated. If you get the email each week, giving you the link, there is always the "reply." 

Bonus pictures

Sometimes I crop pictures in order for them to participate in the contest or even go on the blog. There I have admitted it. I am not even the least bit guilty about it. (Why does the word "crop" in that context mean to cut around the edges. Are alternative meanings not related to one another?)

I sometimes struggle when trying to decide which version to present. Here is one version of the first picture this week, that almost was the one chosen. I think the contrast does give you an opportunity to think about what makes for a great picture.

In this version there was much more of the green background. Look at the following picture. It was the original.

This was the original.

Any comparison would have to do with how sharp is the picture. At some point, with my technology, a real closeup begins to lose focus.

This is nice but I wish it was sharper.

 

Epiphyllum pictures

2021 was not the best year for the OC's. Part of that was because I had some physical problems in May and June.

I thought I would share some pictures from previous years.

 

This is the seedpod which looks like a Kiwi. It is apparently edible. In a time when I had more energy I took out the seeds and grew some plants. They lived for a while and then could not take the lack of attention.

Here is a seedpod on the plant.

Plant Word for the week

So today I have chosen to tackle  the term "corm."

I read it is a short swollen plant stem. Right. Let me try again.

Corms are sometimes confused with true bulbs. I am there.

Corms are stems that swell and are solid.

Bulbs are layers of leaves.

 If you cut one in half you see the difference. (This would not be recommended as planting half of either a bulb or a corm might not work.)

Think onions. They are "bulbs." Lilies are like onions. They sort of flake. Think artichoke.

Crocuses are corms. Tulips are bulbs. Winter aconite are corms. (Actually when I looked it up it said they were "tubors." I am about ready to stop this.

Some other time we might tackle the term "rhizome."

Right Now

Remember the starfish sansevieria at the office?

November 30, 2021

November 30, 2021

Look at it now.

January 7, 2022

January 7, 2022

Julia's recipes

Salmon and rice bowl

Here is  the link to the other blog with all of Julia's recipes.

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

I like the idea of rice (or grain) bowls, but I have not been particularly impressed until now. This recipe is from the NYT, and it is terrific. It does have a few more ingredients than usual, but the recipe itself is pretty fast and easy. And tasty.

The ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sushi (or other short-grained) rice;                                        1/4 cup plain rice vinegar;

3 tablespoons sugar;

1 teaspoon kosher salt plus; 

1-3/4 cups water;

1 lb. or so salmon filet;

1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil;

1/4 cup soy sauce;

3 tablespoons white plain vinegar;

2 tablespoons regular oil;

about 2 tablespoons grated ginger;

some sliced scallions;

some shredded cabbage; 

some peeled and sliced                            cucumbers; some peeled and sliced;      some peeled and sliced avocado.                       

                                                                                                                       

I measured the sugar, rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt into a big sauce pan and whisked a bit. Then I added the water.

Next I poured the rice into a sieve and rinsed it some. I don't usually rinse rice, but I did this time. The water got clearer as I rinsed. I did not have the patience to rinse until the water was altogether clear. I could not tell that there was anything deficient with the rice at the end of the cooking process. 

I added the rice to the liquid, brought it to a boil, turned down the heat and covered the pan. A gentle simmer is the idea. 

Next came the only part of the recipe that I thought might be tedious: removing the skin from the salmon. Turned out not to be hard at all. 

Our salmon comes, frozen solid, from Sitka, Alaska. It often has pin bones. The Sitka folks have a theory about freshness which means they don't remove pin bones. 

So I tweezed out the pin bones and then tackled the skin, which pretty much peeled right off, with just a bit of help from a sharp knife. 

You want skinless and boneless salmon. If it comes that way from your fishmonger, so much the better. 

Next I cut the fish into small cubes, put the cubes in a little bowl with 1/4 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and a little salt and set it aside while the rice cooked.

Next I turned my attention to the sauce, which somehow did not get photographed. 

I grated the ginger, sliced the scallions and put those things plus the other 1/4 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and the white vinegar and the soy sauce and the plain vegetable oil and a little salt into a small bowl and mixed it up with a fork. 

When the rice had absorbed most of the liquid (about 20 minutes after the heat was turned down), I put all of the salmon cubes on top of the rice, put the lid back on the pan and turned the heat to low. I set the time for 15 minutes. 

Here we are 15 minutes later. The rice is done and the salmon is done. 

Time to assemble the bowls. 

While the fish was cooking, I peeled and sliced a little cucumber and peeled and sliced 1/2 of an avocado. The rest of the avocado and the other little cucumber went into the green salad. 

Salmon-rice bowl assembly. I put a scoop or two of rice with attendant salmon into a bowl. Then I put a handful of shredded cabbage on one side and cucumber and avocado slices on the other. 

I added a generous spoonful (or two) of the dressing. 

And here you have it. This was very tasty and kind of pretty. The salmon was tender; the rice, a little seasoned; the vegetables, a contrast to the rice and fish and also to each other. The dressing topped it all off. 

We had it with green salad. And I cut a couple of apples up into little bits and baked the bits with a little sugar and butter in a lubed up pie plate. So we had apple bits and plain yogurt for something like            dessert. Lots of different flavors and textures.                                                                                                              

We did not finish the whole pot of rice and fish. We put the leftovers in a pint container with the last of the sauce, and I had it for lunch the next day. It was excellent. 

Odds and Ends

The are getting longer in Iowa City. We are now gaining a full minute, each day. We have gained 12 minutes of daylight since the solstice. However sunset is now a full 15 minutes later than on the solstice. You can for a moment be a little confused by the math. Yes, you are correct if you realized sunrise is in fact 3 minutes later in the morning than on December 21. That is odd.

It is now 72 days until March 21, 2022.

Be safe and stay warm.

Philip