December 17, 2023- Week 4 of the contest

Saturday morning, 6 a.m.

It is dark and will be dark for a while. That is even more so as it is cloudy with a little drizzle.

When this goes to print it will be 4 days until the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice. Check your Stonehenge calendar. It is a special day. After that day, the days will get longer.

In Iowa City not much has changed. This week was a carbon copy of last week. Thursday and Friday were in the 50's with no real cold or rain in the forecast. We gathered more leaves for the city. The little yellow crocus persists. 

As does the kale, dusted with a lovely frost.

It is a busy time of the year. The to-do list is long. 

Now it is time to think about pictures and talk about a real cliffhanger of a vote.

Last week in the contest 

The winner was the violet, by a nose. After several blowouts, this contest was close from the start. The daffodil took the lead. Then lost it. The third place picture was the Shirley poppy. That picture also had good support.

The full vote was

For all you daffodil fans, you should remember that it should stay alive as a possible wild card. There are 13 weeks of new pictures, followed by 3 weeks of playoffs. The 13 winners advance to the playoffs along with 2 wildcards.

46 votes was the most so far this year. I really like to see that number grow. Share voting with someone. You can vote on the same device by refrshing the cite.

I also do appreciate the comments or reply emails. I do like your explanations for why you liked a particular picture.

This Week- Week #4

#1 Purple Siberian Iris May 27, 2023

In the iris progression, the Siberian Iris bloom right after the bearded iris. This purple flower is one of the best purples of the year. The contrast with the little touch of yellow is striking.

Iris siberica is the name of the species. The genus, wait for it, is Iris. Remember that genus is the bigger grouping. Each genus has many species.

One major difference between the Siberians and the Bearded iris is in the roots. Bearded iris have rhizomes, that are the size of your fingers. The rhizomes then have some roots.

Siberian iris just have roots. 

Bearded iris will rot (not do well) if they are too wet. Siberian iris love the moisture. They also love the sun.

While Siberians comes from lots of places in Eastern Europe and Asia, there is a similar wonderful wildflower found in the mountains of Colorado. (See bonus section)

 

#2 Dark Hoya flower cluster May 29, 2023

This is the flower from one of my growing number of hoyas. It probably is "Red Buttons."  Publicalyx is the species. It is a fast grower and has this amazing flower. It is described as a good plant for beginners.

I have become fascinated by hoyas. My collection is up to about 16 varieties. Julia describes me as a serial enthusiast. My current enthusiasms include hoyas, sansevierias, snowdrops and martagon lilies. I probably have forgotten someone.

Hoya plants differ in several ways. As it takes a while for them to bloom, mostly I notice the difference in size and shape of the leaves. I suppose they differ as to whether they are big or little.

Some leaves are long. Some are round. One is heart shaped. Most are like succulents. Some that are popular are variagated. There is one cultivar called Crimson Princess that is quite attractive. A relative is Crimson Queen.

Then there are the flowers. That is actually what got me hooked.

They bloom repeatedly throughout the season. They will bloom inside. My mother kept two big plants over her kitchen sink forever. I now have those plants.

When they are inside they do have a resting period. I try not to water them much, and do not fertilize until spring. 

The flowers come in colors other than the one in the featured picture. Some are red. Some are almost black. I am growing some of those plants, which have yet to flower. You always need something to look forward to.

Many hoya plants are from the species Hoya carnosa. One is Hoya carnosa compacta which is the Hindu rope plant. The flower clusters look similar. The foliage is all crinkly. 

Hoyas provide an opportunity to learn new words. 

The flowers grow in an "umbrel". It means there are short flowers that spread from a common point. The word is related to the word umbrella.

The flower clusters develop on a part of the plant called a "peduncle." That is a part of the plant, attached to the stem, where a flower will grow. It appears on a stem. Flowers grow from the same peduncle. You will not have a flower until you first have a peduncle. At the same time the wait can take forever once you grow one.

#3 Caladium July 15, 2023

Over the years caladium have been an important part of the garden. They are a bulb that is not hardy in Iowa. In that way they are like cannas, calla lilies, amaryllis and dahlias. They are tropical. They say the bulb will not germinate until the soil temperature is not 70 degrees. Over the decades I would plant the bulbs inside in early April. 

Caladium will do fine in the shade. Most of our trees are mature. That means we have high shade. 

They are a good companion to hosta. They will last through September. 

I do not save the bulbs. I do save the calla lilies and of course the amaryllis. Instead I have bought my caladium from Florida in groups of 25, and the price was reasonable.

You do need to order your plants as early as possible. The last few years by the time I ordered them, they were sold out. This past year I was told the harvest had been disappointing.

This is marked on my calendar to start checking in January.

#4 Zinnia July 29, 2023

Zinnas may be my favorite annual. Well, of course, there is lantana and kale and Persian Shield. I should say zinnias are one of my favorite annuals. 

This picture just blew me away. The quite unique color combinations. Then there are all those things in the middle. 

Given more time I could tell you the variety. Here is a revelation: there is no more time.

#5 Gold Crocus

 March 15, 2023

March 15. As of today that is only 89 days away. 

I have sometimes marveled at the different shades of yellow. 

The wonderful color in this picture springs out at you given the dark background.

I did try to look up the variety. Bulb companies have mostly taken their fall bulbs down from the websites. I do see that the bulb sales have reached 75% in many places.

Bonus pictures

Hoyas

This is the rope hoya. The picture is from several years ago. It got a touch of bugs last winter. I pruned it a lot and sprayed it a lot. No blooms this last year. I planted the cuttings and everybody was/is fine. 

Siberian Iris

Here were some of the iris that were all over wet places in Rocky Mountain national park. 

These are from the garden in 2023.

Caladium

All these pictures are from past years. 2023 just had about 15 plants, purchased in May from one of the bulb companies. I need to look and them and remember to order plant in January, if possible.

This one is called Gingerland, and is really nice.

Right now

Violets  play a nice part of the inside season. This is Birth of a Galaxy. It was in the contest last winter. It advance to the playoffs but was not the winner. I like the sparkles in petals.

I understand this Christmas cactus is probably a Thanksgiving cactus. It was a really nice plant until the deer took a big chunk out of one side of the plant. It still bloomed nicely from the parts that were not pruned. That little pink thing on the end is wonderful.

This next is the corn plant, aka dracaena fragrans. I have had the plant since 2009. It bloomed for the first time 3 years ago. It skipped a year and started to bloom again last December. I hope it will now be on a regular schedule. I put it in a bigger pot, where there are 4-5 branches. So far only the oldest has started to produce a bud.

Julia and I can certainly attest to the fact it is named "fragrans" for a reason.

You will recognize this next flower from several weeks ago. The plant is inside where it is starved for sun. Yet it will bloom off and on all winter. This was from Thursday.

This next picture is orchid Bc Mackni Mayumi. Bc stands for Brassavola and Cattleya.

I have had the plant for 6-7 years. I divided it 2 years ago. Then I had three plants. Next year I will put at least one out on the sale table.

This picture is at the office, where we have a light stand.

Remarkably the one at home started to bloom within 24 hours of the one at the office starting.

Violets do make a real presentation with the leaves edged in white.

Julia's recipe

Udon noodles and spinach

I was thinking about how many starch plus spinach recipes I make. Some have appeared on this blog. Some have not, and I will be posting some more in the next weeks. Here is another spinach and noodle dish - Asian influenced. It's from the NYT; it's fast; it's tasty and it's a nice companion to simply prepared protein like roasted salmon or baked chicken pieces.  

The ingredients:

1 pkg. (8 oz) wide udon noodles;

1/2 lb. baby spinach;

5 tablespoons butter;

1or 2 or more tablespoons soy sauce;

maybe 1/2 teaspoon sugar;

maybe 1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper; and

2 or 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds.

No vegetables to prep, except for rinsing the spinach. I put a pot on the stove, and when it came to a boil, I added the udon noodles. 

They cooked for maybe 10 minutes (as I recall - I tasted them when they started to wiggle in the water). I fished out a cup of the water when the noodles were almost done. 

We had the noodles with salmon roasted with just olive oil, salt and pepper. While the oven was heating up, I roasted the sesame seeds in a pie pan. Keep an eye on anything like seeds or nuts when roasting as seeds or nuts can burn more quickly than you might think.

When the noodles were almost done and after I had fished out the cup of cooking water, I added the spinach in handfuls. 

When the spinach was just wilted, it was done. 

I drained the spinach/noodles. 

I then melted 4 tablespoons of the butter in the pot that I had just emptied. 

I melted the butter over medium-low heat. Then I continued to cook it until it began to brown. At that point, I added the black pepper and stirred it in.

I think this is a video ot browning the butter and stirring in the pepper. 

After the pepper was stirred in, I dumped the spinach and noodles into the pot, followed by the sugar and the soy sauce. I stirred it up and then added a bit of the retained udon-cooking water, maybe 1/4 cup. The idea is to have the sauce cling to the noodles. The recipe called for 1-1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce. Not enough. I doubled it, and then added a little more. So the advice I have is - soy sauce to taste. 

I took the pot off the heat and stirred in most of the sesame seeds and the last tablespoon of butter. Then I put the dish is a nice serving piece.

I sprinkled the finished dish with the last of the sesame seeds and it was ready. 

As I said, we served it with simply roasted salmon. And salad and berries and yogurt. 

Maggie joined us for dinner, and we did not have any leftovers.

If you are feeding more people, double everything! 

Odds and Ends

This story was somewhere this last week. The project is out at the old Johnson County Poor farm. That is on the west side of town, west of the highway. They do have quite the set-up out there.

https://practicalfarmers.org/2023/10/thinking-globally-growing-locally/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=12.10.23&fbclid=IwAR33Q72qMWaDZmck6a0WK9oltyEhAcPtzKDkWr_bSQFiDhwiy6xehdb4s78

For whatever reason "Rainbow Mountain" also crossed my screen this past week. Do you know about this place? It is not some Walt Disney movie. It sounds like a great place to visit until you read that it is 5,200 meters in elevation. I can just hear you doing the calculation. Yes, it is 17,000 feet. I remember Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mount National park. That is 12,000 feet. This Peruvian wonder is a full mile higher than that.

https://www.rainbowmountainperu.com/

One more white orchid is about to bloom. It is getting some help. This is the rare ladybug in the inside garden.

The amaryllis remain in the garage. That stays close to the target 50 degrees. I did bring in one that wa potted and dormant inside. We will see if it wakes up. 

I try not to think about the condition of the world, which trickles down to the country and the state. We are having to weather through the R politicians, who are preparing for the caucus in less than a month. Lots of TV ads to mute.  Guess what? We do not get robo calls from politicians. We are not on their list.

It is a busy time of the year. I have to really work to find the time for my plants. I must remember to check the less obvious corners.

Pray for peace. Find some little thing to do to make the world a better and kinder place.

Philip