September 3, 2023- more of the same

Welcome to September.

Let me get the weather report out of the way.

No rain. It is getting hot again. There is only more of the same coming.

Two pictures say it all.

This is Ralston Creek, near our house.  We have had no real rain since August 11. None appears in the forecast.

This next picture is a fall crocus, a colchicum, emerging with some friends near the walnut tree along Fairview Avenue.

Actually it turns out, as you will see later in the blog, the more established colchicum were already blooming, in with the Japanese anemones.  They were hiding. The first fall crocus picture last year was on September 3. They really are one measurement of garden time. 

The fact that these bulbs have been lurking beneath the surface is one reason not to have been agressive in my weeding the last few months.

Despite the heat, fall approaches. The dark certainly has shrunk morning gardening. 

There were days this past week when a jacket was needed, early in the morning. 

Let me show you some more pictures.

Last week you liked the blue Rose of Sharon... and 

the white anemone.

The full vote was

The best of this past week in pictures, which was August 27 to September 2, 2023

#1 Zinnia

I liked how the colors in the flower were similar to the colors in the background.

The picture also lets you think about how to crop pictures. I chose to leave a lot of background. In the extra pictures there will be a picture with less background.

#2 Double White Amaryllis

It turns out this is a double white amaryllis. I will try to mark this bulb as being special.

I am fattening up over 50 amaryllis bulbs over at the Chadek garden plot. I did this on a slightly lesser scale last year. They like to soak up all that sun, growing the bulbs for display next year. For whatever reason an occasional bulb just blooms. This lovely white flower was the one flower so far this year.

#3 Night Blooming Cereus

This plant bloomed Thursday night into Friday morning. I was even awake for the bloom. More pictures and commentary appear later in the post.

To take this picture I used my regular cannon camera. Mostly I use the camera on my iphone. I find the phone camera does not take good pictures at night.

#4 Tree Peony Seed Pod

What with the temperature ranging from 50 to 95 it should not be surprising that seed pods might open. This greeted us on Saturday morning. It was another one of those "oh my" moments.

This was on just one of the four white tree peony plants along Fairview. 

It is important to catch this moment. I read that to enhance germination the seeds should go in the ground as quickly as possible once they emerge. If left open they will harden. This could mean that they will not germinate until the following spring. (Not the one coming in 2024.)

I did ceremoniously plant most of the seeds not long after collecting them. 

#5 Fall crocuses

While I was carefully watching the emerging colchicum by the walnut tree, these all opened. There are 5-6 clumps somewhat hidden by the Japanese amenones. I should really transplant them to a place more visible.

I must say that I think I get the same response from most of the people I tell to look at them. "We did not know there were fall crocuses." 

As you think about the fall garden fall crocuses should be considered.

Other garden commentary and pictures

The Night Blooming Cereus large plant bloomed this past week. The flush, as I call it, was small. It was only 3 flowers. Last year it was 8-9 flowers. It was cool Thursday night. It officially got down to 47 degrees. That was in those low lying areas. 

Because of the earlier sunset there were fully opened flowers by 10 p.m.

The interior of these flowers look like something from another world. You can see the flower better in the daylight. Normally that is not availabe.

Because of the cool weather, and shortening day, all three flowers were still open when it got to be light out. They started to fade about 8:30. I think this was only about the second time that had happened in the garden, since they first bloomed about 2012.

Let me say a few more things about the NBC. Its botanical name is Epiphyllum oxypetalum.

It is native to southern Mexico and South America.

I have been amazed at why its flowers mostly bloom on the same night. I have had plants in different parts of the yard bloom at the same time.

I now read that is because of the short blooming time, no more that 6-8 hours.  They all have to bloom at the same time so cross pollination will occur. That makes sense.

I read it blooms only once a year. I have found that not always to be the case. 

I have wondered what triggers it to bloom. In my garden it can bloom from July to late September. Looking at the different blooming times over the years I can usually find a temperature dip to about 50 about a month before the bloom. 

I read that they make a tuber underground that might look like a turnip. What?

Here is wikipedia. Besides letting you know that the plant's pericarpels are nude, it does not say much. I decided not to look up "pericarpel."

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

This is a little more helpful.

https://thisistucson.com/summerguide/5-things-to-know-about-the-mysterious-queen-of-cacti-the-night-blooming-cereus/article_f9230392-914e-11e9-9a7f-07727648889d.html#:~:text=%22The%20flowers%20are%20not%20self,pollinated%20and%20produce%20viable%20seed.%22

The 2 bougainvillea are starting to bloom. (What is the plural of bougainvillea? Is it like deer? ) My guess is that blooming also has something to do with shortening days.

I shouldwrite more about this great plant.

This was from Wendesday morning, less than 48 hours from when they would bloom.

Here are two cactus buds developing.

Here are two of the eggplants from the Chadek plot. I really like the white outline around the top.

Julia's recipe

Green beans with tomatoes, onion and blue cheese

More farmer's market-driven preparations. On this occasion, I had both green beans and cherry tomatoes from the market. I had been watching a cooking show on cable in which the first step of a recipe was to make the salad dressing and to add some of the ingredients early on to let them slosh around in the vinaigrette. Sounded like a good idea, so I took that approach to the ingredients at hand. The result was very good. I am not sure it would be quite so very good with frozen green beans in the winter, but it was delicious with thin-nish fresh green beans. We'll see how it goes in February.

The ingredients:

4 cups green beans, cut in 1/2 or 1/3, depending on length;

1-1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in 1/2 or 1/4, depending on size;

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion;

1/2 cup olive oil;

1/4 cup wine vinegar;

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese; and

salt and pepper.

As stated at the beginning, I started by putting the olive oil and vinegar into the eventual serving bowl. I started to add the cherry tomatoes. Then, on second thought, I dipped some of the vinaigrette out into a small ramekin. 

I added the blue cheese to the oil/vinegar in the ramekin and mashed it up so that the blue cheese (although not completely pulverized) was well-distributed. 

I added the blue cheese mixture back into the bowl and added all of the sliced cherry tomatoes. And stirred it up. 

Next, I chopped the red onion and added it. I used red onion because I like the color. White or yellow or vidalia if you have one or even scallions would be fine. 

Here are the ingredients, all but the green beans, getting acquainted in the serving bowl. I did add about 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper prior to mixing everything up. 

While the dressing sat, I cleaned and cut the green beans and cooked them in a pot of salted (1/2 teaspoon of salt in the water). 

I brought the pot to a boil then turned it down to a lively simmer. I think I cooked the green beans for about 10 minutes. Maybe longer. I can't remember. I do remember that I sampled the beans and took them off the heat when they were just tender. 

I wanted to stop the cooking so after I drained the beans, I added a big handful of ice cubes to the colander. I let the beans sit in the ice for about 15 minutes. 

When that time was up, I fished the unmelted ice out of the colander and dumped the beans into the ingredients in the bowl. And mixed. 

On the table! We had this with zucchini baked eggs and hollandaise sauce (for which you can find the recipe on the kitchen blog), as a friendly neighbor had given us a pair of good-sized zucchini.  And salad and raspberries with yogurt. A nice vegetarian meal. 

We had the salad at room temperature. The leftovers were good cold.

For those of you who do not like blue cheese, and you know who you are, substitute crumbled feta. 

Odds and ends

Butterfly news from Maine

That's right, caterpillar news has become butterfly news. First, as anticipated, a swallowtail. Then a monarch.

Bot news

On Thursday there were 8,420 page views, of which 8,140 were from Sinapore. On  Friday the total was 10,824.

One tries not to think about the greater world. 

War persists.

Hurricanes happen, with high water temperatures to make them worse.

Republicans are all nuts. Some of them have a lot of people fooled.

What kind of world will we leave to our grandchildren?

Pray for peace, a cleaner world, and a place where the people will learn the truth about Republicans.

Philip