December 4, 2022- Hello December- It is Week #2 of the contest

Let me welcome everyone to the picture contest. I especially welcome new people. I do so appreciate people finding the blog, liking the blog and of course, there is voting.

I also like to hear from you. You can do that in a comment, or just in a reply email, if you are on the email list.

Let me talk garden.

December is here. That is something of a turning point in the garden-inside season. In a few weeks, the days will start to get longer. It is time to think about getting some seeds to start. I try to start at least some seeds right at the first of the year. 

Plants have been inside for over a month. 

The first cuttings, rooted above the kitchen sink, have been put into dirt. They were 

tradescantia Nanouk.

It is cold outside, but sometimes not so cold.

On the warmer days the late fall crocuses struggle to open.

Last week's vote, in Week #1

The winner in a close contest was the dwarf yellow iris. While a winner was chosen there was strong support for every picture. 

The full vote was

When I select the pictures I try to balance the field. Sometimes there are pictures that will knock your socks off. Those can be clear winners.

In Week #1 there was a balanced field. 

I should note that the wildcards that advance in 12 more weeks are selected by the percentage of the vote. 

Week #2

#1 Pink double fall anemone September 17, 2022

I love fall anemones. They are also called Japanese anemones. (I understand they were imported to Japan a long time ago.)

This picture is probably a variety called Prince Henry.

Anemones comes in a variety of colors, but are mostly from red to white. There are singles and doubles. In our garden they grow right along Fairview Avenue.  The garden is on the corner of Fairview Avenue and College Street. Fairview is only one block long. I have no idea why it is "Avenue" rather than "Street." It does not get much traffic. The fact it has little traffic allows people in cars to drive by slowly and look at the garden. 

Here are a few things to know about Japanese anemones.

They will grow in partial shade. 

They are rather tall, growing to almost two feet.

They will establish a rather dense clump or whatever is larger than a clump. They are dense enough to crowd out any competitors. I say that in a good way.

Apparently they will grow from any piece of root left in the ground after you dig up a plant. One of my top ten garden images is Micky Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I think about  the original movie Fantasia, dating from 1940. I love the part where Micky chops up the broom he has brought to life. He was trying to kill it. But then all the pieces of the broom grow into brooms. The music of course is one of my favorites.

I think about this image sometimes when I try to dig up certain weeds.

 

The first ones to bloom are the single pink ones. They can bloom as early as late August. Prince Henry is later. Single white ones, which are good, bloom into October.

Here is an article that tells you a little about this plant

https://www.finegardening.com/article/fall-blooming-anemones

#2 Trillium pusillum 'Road Runner' April 30, 2022

Trillium are wonderful. This is one that is quite small. (See the bonus picture of the full clump.) I got this one from Jan and Marty at Joe Pye Weed Garden, outside Boston. 

http://www.jpwflowers.com/

Roadrunner is a cultivar within the species pussilum. It is now a nice clump. I should mention that I started with 4-5 plants of the variety.

Trillium are slow growers. They make up for it by living a long time. I have pictures of some of the ones in the bonus section going back 15-20 years. (That is how far back my picture library goes.)

Here are ten things to know about trillium. 

https://nativeplantherald.prairienursery.com/2015/02/ten-things-to-know-about-trilliums/

#3 Pinkish Shirley poppy May 30, 2022

The first year for Shirley poppies was 2021. Last winter was their first time in the contest. They took that contest by storm. Not only was the winner a Shirley picture, no fewer than 3 Shirley pictures made the knock out round of 15.  I suppose they are like the Yankees or the Celtics or maybe the Patriots (of old). 

I grow Shirley poppies from seed each year. In past years I grew Iceland poppies the same way.  I start them right after the first of the year. I do think I will maybe wait until the first of February this time around. Some were blooming in the pots before I set them out. 

I may also save some seed to put in the ground at the same time I plant the seedlings.

 

What is there to like in any picture? There of course is the color, or perhaps the color contrast. The yellow, white and red work well in this picture. Then there can be symmetry or lack thereof. Would this be a better picture if it was perfectly round?

So what can I tell you about Shirley poppies? 

They are a cultivar in the species Papaver rhoeas. Those are the red flowered poppies known as the Flanders poppy.

 

They are mostly annuals, but they can self seed if there are enough of them.

They last until about July. The hear does them in. 

They were developed by a vicar in England name William Wilks. That was in the 19th century. He was the vicar of a parrish named....wait for it.... Shirley.

#4 Orange cupped daffodil

This is a lovely daffodil where I am not sure of the name. It might be 'Accent.' Then it might be 'Barrett Browning'. Or 'Red Hill.' You get the picture. I have many daffodils in the garden. The names have gotten away from me. I have lists on the computer, but they do not have pictures or locationsattached. There are 43 varieties on perhaps my most comprehensive list. That list is 18 years old. 

A task for some early morning is  matching up my pictures with pictures from catalogs. If you use a table format that is somewhat managable on a computer. Of course then there will be the matching of the pictures to the garden location.

I looked in this fall's cataloge for a white daffodil with a small orange cup. I could not find it. It could be one named 'Accent'.

The ones with these really dark and great colors could have been developed by Grant Mitsch. He developed daffodils for decades. He developed Accent in 1961. Although he died in 1989, you could still get his specialty daffodils 20 years later. Many have reached the mass market, including Accent, with prices coming down from $50/per bulb to no more to a little over $1/ each.

For people keeping track, the genus is narcissus.

#5 Tulip acuminata May 7, 2022

This is acuminata. It is a species tulip. It is known as the Fire Flame or Turkish tulip. It was new to the garden in 2022. 

"Species" tulips are ones that are found in the wild. This is in contrast with "hybrids."

I began to appreciate species tulips a few years ago when a few showed their displays and were not eaten by the deer. (We have the occasional deer, but they seem to be limited in number. This was in contrast to a few years back when a neighbor counted at least 20 in her front yard one winter night.)

If you think about it, you would expect something that grows in the wild and is early in the year, not to taste good. "Tasty" would not be a survival trait, at least in the wild.

I also really like this tulip for its "Dr. Seuss" look. Think about your garden. There should be a few plants that just look strange and/or amusing.

There you have Week #2. Vote. Have your family vote. Find a friend. Create an office pool. Mostly...enjoy. Think about warmer times.

Bonus Section

Daffodils-

This picture from May 7, 2022 shows you how daffodils are sprinkled around the garden.

One measure of a plant's value is to think about whether you could have too many of that plant. It would be hard to have too many...bluebells. Or maybe poppies. One thing those plants have in common is that they have their season and then they get out of the way. Bluebells bloom and are gone by June 1. 

You are supposed to leave daffodil leaves in place until they die back naturally. That can sometimes be the first of July. At least in my garden I think I could have too many daffodils.

That said daffodils in mass planting are wonderful. Do any of you know about St. Louis? Some mayor 50 years ago planted daffodils all along the interstates going through the city. That is a legacy to be remembered. (Even if I have no idea who that mayor was.)

Fall anemones

I think these anemones have perhaps the most interesting buds in the garden. If I were to enter a bud ito the contest it would probably be a picture like this.

Here is that early single anemone. The species might be tomentosa with the variety being Robutissima.

Bluestone perennials, which has a nice selection of these anemones, describes this as "the most adaptable".

This next picture is probably Andrea Atkinson. One thing that is kind of interesting is that the leaf for this plant is different from the leaf on the single pink one. You can tell them apart well before they bloom.

Here is the large clump along Fairview on September 10.

This next picture was taken on October 29, 2022. The buds survived the first frost, blooming when the temperatures got back above freezing.

Trillium

Here is the Roadrunner clump, at about 5 years of age.

April 24

April 12

I thought about using this next picture in the contest. I decided against it. Sometimes there are difficult decisions near the end.

April 23

I am not sure which trillium this next one is. It is clearly a late one.

May 15

Grandiforum is about the latest trillium to bloom. It is also the tallest. Like the Roadrunner, it starts white and fades to pink.

May 8

      

May 14

This is one of my all time favorite pictures. It is from 2005. It is Trillium cuneatum.

The plant is still there, on the side of the house. It developed a second plant in 2006. It remains just those two plants after at least 17 years.

Right Now

Orchids continue to lead the blooming parade. Here is a nice little cattleya that opened this week.

This tiny little orchid is called Maxillaria variabilis. I have had it for at least 7 years. It blooms about this time of year, with the occasional bloom all the rest of the year.

This is one of the sansevieria that are sending up side shoots. They may be hiding under a leaf, but almost all have at least one side shoot coming. It is as if every plant must replicate itself each winter. This plant has 3 side shoots.

Julia's recipe

Turkey Pho

The recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens, from the November issue which had lots of Thanksgiving content, including both recipes and decorating ideas that were too much for me. But this recipe is okay, addressing what to do with leftover turkey and turkey stock. I always simmer the turkey carcass (blunt but what's a better word?) after the feast so I always have turkey stock. Turkey stock is pretty much interchangeable with chicken stock, so it's useful. Nonetheless, I thought I'd try what BH&G was suggesting. The resulting soup is a bit unusual in flavor, due to Asian spices, but good. Also pretty fast: a keeper. 

The ingrediants:

2 cups of turkey cut into small chunks;

4 cups of turkey stock or chicken stock or better than bouillon;

1/2 package (4 oz.) of rice noodles;

1 teaspoon fish sauce;

1/2 teaspoon sugar; 

2 cups water (not shown);

a bunch of parsley stems;

1-1/2 teaspoon coriander seed;

1 whole clove;

1 whole star anise, broken up;

1 2" piece of cinnamon stick

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns;

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed;

a small (1"x2") piece of ginger;

2 scallions.

Plus some salt. 

As you will have noted, most of the ingredients are spices. I started by putting the coriander seed, star anise, cinnamon stck, peppercorns and fennel seed into a pot, with NO oil. 

Next I cut the ginger into slices and whacked them with the side of a knife. I added the ginger and turned the heat on to medium. The idea is to sort of toast the spices. Because the heat was only medium, I could turn my back on the pot to prepare the scallions.

I cleaned the scallions, cut them into 1" pieces and also whacked them with the side of a knife. Then I added them to the pot. 

The next couple of steps did not get pictured; not a problem. About 2 minutes after I added the onions, I added the broth and the water and the parsley stems. 

The soup was heated on medium until it simmered and then kept it at a simmer for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I put on a pot of water and cooked the rice noodles according to the instructions. Then I fished the noodles out of the water in a big clump and set them aside in a bowl. 

The recipe said to use the turkey cold from the refrigerator which seemed like a suboptimal idea to me. So I dumped the chopped up turkey into the rice noodle water and heated it up for just a few minutes. Then I poured the water through a sieve and put the turkey in another bowl.  

Here, I am pouring the turkey bits into a bowl and the other bowl has the noodles in it. 

After the noodle pot was empty, I used the sieve again to strain the soup into the noodle pot. 

I sliced up some more scallion for garnish. 

 

This is a video of soup straining!!

By this time, the noodles had cooled off a bit so I put them back in the sieve and ladled some hot broth over them 

I divided the noodles into two bowls.

I divided the turkey between the bowls, followed by the scallions.

Then I added the fish sauce and sugar and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the broth and gave it a stir, before ladling broth over the stuff in the bowls. 

As always, check for salt, as tastes (and stock) differ.

In the bowl. If you like, you can garnish with sliced raw hot peppers, cilantro, parsley, sriracha, hoisin, etc. etc. 

We actually found that 2 cups of turkey was really too much. So we had about 1/2 cup of turkey and about 1 cup of broth left over. As it happens, later in the week, I found 1 cup of rice in the refrigerator so I had leftover leftovers for lunch. 

Odds and Ends

As to the weather November really was odd. Look at this chart for Iowa City, courtesy of Iowa State University. In the chart there are lines that represent the "average" temperatures. There was that rediculously warm period at the beginning on the month. There was many of those temperatures were 20 degrees above average. Then it was cold. Then it was back above average. 

Here is the webcite for this weather information. It has many places in Iowa. The data goes back to 2008. You can change the month and the year. It can be fun at 5 in the morning.

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

Here was something odd during garden year 2022.

On April 30, 2022 we had a morel mushroom in the garden. It showed up in the front sidewalk bed. That really was a first. In all my life I have never had a morel in any garden. For that matter I do not recall I had ever seen a morel, growing. 

We did not eat it. I will remember to watch that area this spring. Are morels perennials? I do not think so. Will that plant (or whatever it is) come back? Will it have seeded that area?

It was certaily one of the top ten odd things in the garden for 2022.

 Last week, when I talked about tree peonies I forgot to mention something else that is odd.

Regular peonies, also called herbacious peonies, always have ants, as in this picture.

As I look it up I learn the term biological mutualism. 

Ants feed on peony nectar. In return they apparently provide protection from other bugs. That is sort of odd.

https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2018/5/antsOnPeonies/#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20myth%20that,from%20other%20floral%2Dfeeding%20insects.

When you pick a regular peony for the table you have to make sure all the ants have departed.

But here is the really odd thing.

Tree peonies do not have ants.

That is it for this week.

Be kind. Do some small thing to make your part of the world better. Remember people who are struggling in some way or another.

Pray for peace and reconciliation. 

Philip