December 10, 2023 which means Week #3 of the contest

Welcome to the picture contest. Welcome to this little place to escape and move towards Spring.

Goodness gracious. Look what appeared out of nowhere on Thursday.

It was a little Sternbergia lutea. It is sometimes called the winter daffodil. It is marketed with fall crocuses. For that reason it was not really out of season.  Fall crocuses will bloom in the same fall that they are planted. No waiting around for winter to be done. 

In fact I planted 5 of these guys this September. They are listed as zone 6. (Wikipedia lists that as a 7.) We are 5 or 5b. I can never remember. I think that means we are moving toward 6. I have to decide if I think that is a good thing.

One reason is it was late in blooming was that we continue to be very dry. We should have had 34.7 inches to date. We have had 22.3 inches. None is in the forecast. I guess one positive to that forecast is that there is no snow. When I first noticed this little guy, I brought out the watering can and gave it a good drink.

But we certainly were moving towards zone 6 this week. Thursday and Friday, it was sunny with temperatures in the 50's.  Not so much yesterday. 40 with a stiff breeze meant a heavier coat.

Lutea means yellow.

Sternbergia  is/are in the Amaryllis family.

With that significant warm up, we did fill up our cans with leaves for the City to take away. 

I have to confess having that little bit of color did make me wonder what other plants might be stirring. There have been years when we had a snowdrop on January 1.

Last week in the contest

 the winner was...Blissful, the dwarf iris.

What a wonderful color.

The full vote was

This week is Week #3, 

as we do slowly move along toward spring.

#1 Daffodil Tahiti 

April 15, 2023

Daffodils are just so cheerful. 

I sometimes forget about daffodils. In the early spring there are crocuses and aconite and snowdrops. Then there are the daffodils. They come in all sizes and shapes.

This is Tahiti, a very nice double. 

#2 Shirley Poppy, in red

 June 20, 2023

Why do you like a picture? Is it the color? The composition? 

In this picture you see the flower, the seedpod, and the bud, all right together.

What remarkably hairy stems these plants have.

And there is that golden center, all the more pronounced with the red in the petals.

#3 Blackberry Lily 

July 23. 2023

This, for lack of a better name, is a blackberry lily. It has spots to make a toad lily envious. I particularly like the fact that after they roll up, almost looking like a caterpillar.

When is a lily not a lily? When it is an iris. There are these plants that bloom in late summer. They all look like each other but the precise name can be confusing. There are Blackberry lilies and Candy lilies and something called pardancandas. 

What exactly are these obviously related plants?

Are pardancandas the same thing only with a fancier name?
Are they Blackberry lilies or Candy lilies? 

Are they even a lily? The answer is no. DNA was actually involved in switching the genus about 20 years ago. Who knew?

Here is Dave's Garden discussion. However I will then give you the condensed version.
https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2866

There have been Blackberry lilies for a while. They have been around long enough for some of them to run away from gardens and become wild flowers. (But apparently not in an invasive way.) They were called Belamcanda chinensis. That name was reworked in 2005 when they became Iris domestica. Mostly they bloom orange with some spots.

There is a yellow one that is Belamcanda flambellum. Actually now it would be called something else.

Theses plants are called Blackberry lilies because of the seedpods. After they flower, they look like...blackberries. (See bonus section)

Along came Samuel Norris. It was 1967. In addition to dabbling with paw-paws, he crossed the Belamcanda plant with a Vesper Iris. For a while it was called pardancanda x. norissii. At least as of 2013 when the Dave's garden article was written it was being called Iris x. norissii. Are you paying attention?

Samuel Norris came up with a plant that looked about the same, made the same seedpods,  but had many more colors.

In the garden I have had several varieties, including some that are clearly the early blackberry lilies, and some that are the norissii type. Some are the original orange. There is a yellow one. Then there are crosses, including many that have a wonderul maroon.

So what can you conclude?

These plants really are iris.

They self seed. Each year I pot up ones that are growing in the woodchip paths.

Other than reblooming bearded iris, these are the last iris of the season - a season that lasted from March to August.

They do provide color and interest when many of the other perennial plants of high summer have ended.

They like sun, but will grow in part shade.

Here is the wikipedia page for iris domestica, aka blackberry lilies.

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

More information, with pictures is found here:
http://amycampion.com/candy-lilies-why-i-love-em-how-to-grow-em/

#4 Cattleya Arctic Star Snow Queen

October 1, 2023

I have had this cattleya orchid since at least 2015. I divided the plant in the last year. As a result I have had one blooming plant after another for the last 3-4 months. There is one blooming in the living room at the moment. There is another in spike under lights in the basement. "Being in spike" means there are buds you can see.

Remarkably an orchid can be in spike for months.

#5 Violet Mermaid Kisses 

March 17, 2023

We discovered African violets last winter. Iowa City has a winter farmer's market. It is at the Fairgrounds on Sundays, from November to April. It takes place about every other week. There was a person selling African violets, complete with the wicking already set up. I would get one almost each market.

Do you know about wicking? You dangle string out of the hole in the pot, into water. The water then wicks up the string and keeps your plant watered. Some people use the technique for other house plants. (You do need to be careful with your potting mix. There should be lots of perlite.) 

Remarkably the plants were inexpensive too. Our coffee table on the south side of the dining room is now full. I am not sure where more will go. There will be more.

More information about African violets:

They are not related to the violets that grow outside.

They are in the genus Streptocarpus. That sounds like a disease. 

They come from East Africa.

New plants can be grow from leaf cuttings. I have done that. Of course, then what happens? You have more plants.

Bonus Pictures

Other violets from 2023

Sometimes you just have to marvel at the leaves on some of these plants.

This gives you a view of the wicking process. You do have to have a small enough pot, where the bottom will fit in a pint jar.

More Arctic Star-Snow Queen

Here is the bud, for the plant that bloomed in early October.

I should add that having grown some orchids now for probably 30 years, I find cattleyas to be about the easiest, and most dependable to rebloom. They are also easier to spell.

9-16-23

Here are early blooms, on other plants.

7-22-23

1-19-23

More blackberry lilies

This is why the are called blackberry lilies.

The people at Joe Pye Weed Gardens have been hybridizing these iris/lilies.

I have had grown some before, and had some bloom in the past. My expeerience is that there were not as hardy as their more common cousins.

But you should see what they have done.

Maybe I should try them again, giving them a little extra care. They also really do well with lots of sun. It is interesting to see which plants do need extra care. That is important to know when time in the garden is limited.

Right Now

This pink cattleya is dominating the living room.

Here is a still picture. It is fragrant, particularly in the morning. This plant is a testiment to how some orchids/plants will survive some neglect. This sat out all summer on the ground. I had thought about repotting it but did not. At this point I will just think about a trim, when it is finished blooming.

Outside the kale is still going strong. It is already quite frilly. When the frost comes along it just gets better.

This is a nice little orchid called Coelogyne viscosa. 

It always starts to bloom in December.

I divided it 3 years ago so now it has company.

Julia's recipe

Cranberry Lemon Bars

It's the New York Times again, this time with a bar cookie that is seasonal and tangy. Tangy was something of a trigger word when the children were young. They did not like tangy. Apple pie with a handful of cranberries was tangy. Fruit salad with a generous allotment of grapefruit was tangy. I, on the other hand, like tangy things - lemon tarts, cranberries in almost anything, grapefruit in salads. These bar cookies include both cranberries and lemon. They're very good, unless you don't like tangy.

They take a little time, as do all shortbread-based cookies, but not so much hands on as baking and cooling. Give them a try. There will be plenty to share if you're having a holiday gathering. 

The ingredients:

For the crust:

1-1/2 cups flour;

1/3 cup white sugar;

1/2 teaspoon table salt;

1 teaspoon vanilla; and

3/4 cup (that's 1-1/2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled to room temperature.

For the cranberry layer:

1 12 oz. bag of cranberries (frozen is okay);

3/4 cup sugar;

2 big lemons; and

3 tablespoons water (not shown!)

For the lemon layer:

1 cup sugar;

1/4 cup flour;

a pinch of salt;

3 eggs at room temperature;

1/2 cup lemon juice.

The same ingredients turn up more than once, so the ingredients list looks busier than it acutally is. I always use salted butter. If you use unsalted butter, increase the salt in the crust layer to 1 teaspoon. I did not measure the lemon peel (you'll see why below) but I think it was between 1-1/2 and 2 teaspoons. I juiced the self-same big lemons and got 1/2 cup of juice. If you run short, make up the difference with the bottled stuff.  

First, I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. Then I started with the cranberry layer. I looked over the cranberries and removed the few questionable (shrunken) ones. I put the rest in a saucepan with the 3 tablespoons of water and the 3/4 cup of sugar. I grated the lemons right into the pan. 

The suacepan with all of the ingredients for the cranberry layer. I gave it a stir and put it on the stove on medium high heat. When it came to a boil, I turned it down a little and set the timer for 8 minutes. I kept an eye on it and stirred a few times. 

Then I put the butter in a little pan and melted it. I forgot to do this first so after it was melted, I put the pan on a trivet in the refrigerator to cool off. 

Cranberries cooking away. The goal was for the cranberries to get "jammy". I used a wooden spoon to mash any berries that remained whole. Because the cranberries had much less water than one would use to make sauce, the mixture did get thick and jammy.

While the butter was cooling and the cranberries cooking, I prepped the pan. I lined a 9" x 13" pan with a big piece of foil and then I sprayed the foil. This arrangement is referred to as a foil sling and it really does help get the bars out of the pan and then off the foil.

I put the dry ingredients for the crust in a big bowl and whisked them together. I stirred the vanilla into the butter.

Then I poured the butter/vanilla mixture into the dry ingredients. I mixed it with a spoon. Too thick to whisk.

Then I dumped the crust mixture into the prepared pan. 

By the way, the golden/orange stuff in the pint container is thawing mashed up pumpkin. We needed to make pumpkin bars for the free lunch program later in the day. But I digress. 

I used my hands and an offset spatula to spread the crust into a thin layer, all the way into the corners. 

And then I put it in the oven for about 15 minutes. I think it ended up being 16 or maybe 17 minutes. 

The crust is done with the edges are slightly golden brown and the crust is set. What's "set"? If you touch it lightly in the middle it is not even a little bit gooey.

When the cranberries were jammy, I took them off the stove onto a trivet.

Last up - the lemon layer. I used the same bowl as I had used to make the crust. I juiced the lemons; put the dry lemon layer ingredients into the bowl and whisked to combine. I added the eggs and the lemon juice. This seems to be an artistic shot of the stream of lemon juice being added.  

I whisked the lemon layer ingredients together. 

When the crust came out of the oven, I dolloped and spread the cranberries over it, using the offset spatula to make a smooth layer. 

Lastly, I ladled the lemon mixture over all. The lemon layer was thin and so it poured without needing to be smoothed out. I used the ladle to make sure the whole surface was covered. 

Back in the oven for maybe 18 minutes until the lemon layer is set. 

Then out of the oven onto a cooling rack until room temperature. Then into the refrigerator for an hour or two to firm up. 

Out of the oven. 

Out of the pan (after refrigeration) and off the sling. Slid right off with a little loosening help from a pancake flipper. 

On the plate. A better picture would probably be a side view so you can see all three layers. 

This recipe makes a lot of bars. Of course, this depends on how you cut them. I think we got about 24 bars. They keep well; they do not need to be refrigerated after the initial firming up period. 

I think they would be a good addition to any holiday festivity. 

Odds and Ends

With the very warm weather there was the beauty of the little yellow fall crocus.

I would be remiss if I did not show you this other yellow flower. It also bloomed on Saturday.

I really have mixed fellings about the warm weather. I see just this morning that next weekend will get back to 50 degrees. 

Another week and more of the same in the world. We struggle to even think about the middle east. Mostly I think it is very complicated. So much simplistic thinking. On all sides. The problem is that thinking becomes reality.

That is why I need to spend time with plants, and flowers.

Not much odd/funny this week. If you find something tell me about it.

Pray for peace. And find something to do to make your little part of it, kinder.

 Philip