December 24, 2023- Week #5- Happy Holidays

It is dark, but the days are getting longer. Daylight today will be 9 hours, nine minutes and 27 seconds. That is 14 seconds longer than Wednesday, which was the solstice. By the end of the month we will get to 9:12:27. Not exactly numbers that would have you change your schedule.

In Iowa City here is a surprise: it is unseasonably warm.  Friday was a day that felt so different. There was light rain, most of the day. (We have been in a drought.) I even had to find the umbrella, several times. We officially had .39 of an inch of rain. The predicted highs for the next three days will be in the 50's. More important for the garden, the lows will not go below 40. Things are waking up. 

Wait. Wait. It is just December. Go back to sleep. I guess it does not work that way.

One of the first bulbs to surface always is the colchicum. That is the fall crocus that is not really a crocus. 

It has been my experience that early emerging bubs are not really hurt by showing up early.

Last week in the contest

As they say, there was no contest. The purple Siberian Iris led all the way, staying close to 50% mark the entire week. Any picture that gets close to that number is likely to be seeded. The top three winners over the 13 weeks get seeded. That is to ensure that those pictures do not face  another seeded picture in the 3 weeks of playoffs. 

That deep purple is a wonderful color. 

We will see if a striking color picture wins this week.

I do wonder why people like one picture over another. Is it color? Or a fondness for a particular plant, which you might have in your garden.

This past week for eample I voted for the zinnia. I actually liked the somewhat unusual color in a flower-green.

I do appreciate when you tell me your thoughts.

The full vote was

This Week which is week #5

#1 Twin Leaf 

April 13, 2023

Twin leaf is also known as Jeffersonia. That is the genus.

It is a wildflower, native to the eastern part of this country. For what it is worth Wikipedia says it is protected by some state laws, as an endangered species. Wiki said that included Iowa. I have no idea which plants are so classified in Iowa. I will have to investigate.

Twinleaf is rather uncommon. I have never seen it in the wild. I bought two plants at least 10 years ago. I planted them in two places in the backyard. It flourished where it go more sun, which happens to be in a raised bed.

It spreads by underground rhyzomes. I think it also spreads by seed.

The flower looks a little like bloodroot, which is readily found in the wild in Iowa, in the spring. 

In fact it blooms right about the time bloodrot blooms.

The flowers are short lived. 

The shape of the leaf gives it the name.

See the bonus section.

#2 Anemone Blanda 

April 11, 2023

I love how this plant, named blanda, is purple. Apparently blanda can also mean "mild or charming."

It is in the genus Anemone. The spring bulb come from eastern Europe, through the Balkans.

It comes in several colors, including white and pink.

#3 Lupine glory 

May 19, 2023

I had difficulty deciding whether to select this picture for the contest. If I had some fancy photoshop program, maybe I could erase the utility poles. But I wanted to convey the glory of these lupines. A picture of a single plant or flower was just not going to do it.

As you will see in the bonus section I took a lot of lupine pictures this year. It was a good year for lupines. That means the temperatures did not get hot in May and June.

Like many plants you can reach a tipping point. That means you have enough plants that they will self seed and take care of maintaining their numbers or actually spreading. I think about pulmonaria as another example. 

The main thing about lupines is that you should not think of them as perennials. They will winter over but not really last more than 2-3 years. I suppose the expression tender perennials applies.

Each year there are new seedlings. That is in part because I do not deadhead until the seeds have come open and spread in the immediate vicinity. I also grow them from seeds, inside starting in January. I will try for several dozen new plants each year. I put them on the sale table (for the food pantries) and plant those that do not sell.

What else to say?

They like sun. In April and May the mature trees in the yard do not stop the sun. In particular the Sycamore tree in the backyard is perhaps the last tree to leaf out. (It is also the last tree to drop its leaves in the fall.)

Lupinus is the genus.

There is a bush lupine. The Botanical Garden in Dubuque has one. One more reason to visit that marvelous garden.

We see the wildflower when we visit the Rocky Mountains. 

Many of the varieties we grow are called Russell hybrids.

They are named for George Russell, a British gardener who lived from 1857-1951. He began his work with lupines in his 50's.

He created plants with better colors and taller spikes.

Here is wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Russell_(horticulturist)

#4 Pink Shirleys 

June 10, 2023

These plants look like crepe paper.

When I think about what plants to start inside I think of lupines and Shirley poppies. 

The seed pod is actually kind of nice in the lower right.

#5 Amaryllis group 

June 16, 2023

What is there to say about amaryllis. I have many bulbs which I fattened up over the summer. They are quietly resting in a cloet in the basement. They want cool and dark.

My idea is to keep them dormant, all winter if possible. Then they come out and a remarkable number send up buds and will bloom in the spring. This group shows what I was trying to do.

They can only go outside once the danger of frost is over.

Amaryllis facts:

Hold onto your hats - this is a big one.

All those plants that are called Amaryllis - are not really in the genus Amaryllis. In that genus are the belledona lilies and what are called naked ladies. Actually the surprise lilies that come up pink in August are in the Amaryllis family, but in the genus lycoris.

Confused? What is sold as 'amaryllis' in the grocery stores, along with many bulb catalogs, are plants in the genus Hippeastrum. Guess what? Hippeastrum are in the family 'amaryllis.'

True amaryllis come from South Africa. Hippeastrum come from South America.

Amaryllis are suppose to like a dormancy period, usually after they have absorbed lots of sun and fertilizer over the summer. That said, I have read that they will rebloom if left in a sunny room over the winter. I have had that happen, even though I do not make it a practice.

See the bonus section for what I did with my amaryllis over the summer.

Bonus pictures

Lupines

Here is a Slideshow. Including the music takes up a lot of space. I never quite know how many pictures I can include which will then upload to the blog. 

Here are some of the individual pictures.

The plants really are hardy. Many are still green right now.

They are one of the first perennials to show up in the Spring.

April 22, 2023

The yellow background for many of these pictures is a litte euphorbia called cyprus spurge.  It spreads quite well but can be weeded out. For that reason I do not think of it as invasive. Vigorous is a better word choice for me.

Lupine flower stems can get quite long. A heavy rain will knock them over. The fact it did not rain much in May helped the lupine show.

March 30, 2023

Colchicum pictures

This picture is from one of the bulbs that does come up very early in the spring.

Anemones

These were the white ones from several years ago.

Amaryllis, which really should be called Hippeastrum.

I have had several dozen amaryllis for years. A year ago a person in Iowa City contacted me about amaryllis she had retrieved from her father. He had grown and hybridized amaryllis for years. They had grown to be too much for him to care for. She wanted to know if I would like a bunch. 

So I got 50-75 bulbs from her. I stored them for the winter with my other ones.

In the spring I planted all of them at the City garden plot we have rented for 3 years.

This video is from July. 

The City plots are fenced to keep out deer and other critters. It gets full sun, and as of 2023, has a water source right there. In fact the water is maybe 20 feet from my plot. I just brought over my crinkly hose when needed. 

Here was the harvest.

All these are now stored in boxes with peat moss in between. They have had no water since October when they were brought in.

Remarkably some will actually break dormancy on their own in winter. It is necessary to peek in at them every few weeks.

Twinleaf

You can see the seed pods in this picture.

Right Now

Yesterday was another warm one. I did a little bit of raking but decided not to uncover too many little sprouts. There were more colchicums. 

Any picture is enhanced with water drops.

Look at these before and after shots of the kale group.

The first picture is in early September, after we grew the plants in a greenhouse for a month.

September 3, 2023

This is now.

December 23, 2023

Lupine plants are hanging in there with the kale, and hellebores, and pulmonaaria and some epimedium.

Inside

The latest Arctic Snow orchid opened the last few days. That made at least 4 plants that bloomed this year. Another one, that was in spike a few weeks ago, has a new home.

Julia's recipe

Pecan Bars 

Maggie likes pecan pie, and for years, we made a small pecan pie as one of the Thanksgiving pies. But other people (me, for example) are not fans of pecan pie, and so (I am sorry to confess) we never finished the Thanksgiving pecan pie. This year, I decided to look into an alternative pecan confection that might be less gooey and pie-like. I found this recipe for pecan bars in the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. The pecan bars were a big success, not just as a more attractive alternative to pecan pie but as a positively tasty dish worthy of repeating. Which I have done. I invite you to try them, regardless of your attitude toward pecan pie. 

The ingredients for the crust:

1 cup flour;

1/4 teaspoon baking powder;

1 teaspoon salt;

1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar (light or dark);

1/4 cup toasted and coarsely chopped pecans; and

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut up into little pieces. 

For the filling:

4 tablespoons butter, melted;

1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar (light or dark);

1/3 cup corn syrup;

2 teaspoons vanilla (or more, see below);

1/2 teaspoon salt;

1 egg; and 

1-3/4 cups toasted and chopped pecans. 

The recipe called for 1 tablespoon of bourbon or rum to be added to the filling. I didn't. Rather, I doubled the amount of vanilla. The filling was not affected. If you have bourbon or rum on hand, feel free to use it. 

This is your usual crust plus filling bar cookie. So I started by making a sling of aluminum foil in a 9" square pan and then spraying the sling with cooking spray. 

I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. 

I put the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar) in the food processor.  Both the crust and the filling are made in a food processor, which is handy. 

While the oven was heating, I put all of the pecans (2 cups altogether) in a pie pan to toast. I think it took maybe 5 minutes. Remember that nuts go from toasted to burned in short order so keep an eye on them. They should be a bit golden and smell a little nutty. 

When the nuts came out of the oven, I added 1/4 cup to the mixture in the food process and set the rest aside. I pulsed the mixture for something like 5 or 6 or 7 pulses until the nuts were broken down and the mixture looked mealy. 

Then I added the cold cubes of butter and pulsed some more - maybe 8 to 10 pulses until the butter was in smallish bits. 

I dumped the crust mixture into the prepared pan.

I patted the mixture into an even layer, with clean but tie-dyed hands. 

We had done some tie-dying earlier in the day. I have never engaged in tie-dye without emerging looking murderous. 

I put the pan with the crust into the oven and set the timer for 18 minutes. I think it actually took about 20 minutes to get done. "Done" means golden brown around the edges and soft but not gooey in the center. 

While the crust was baking, I used the food processor (no need to wash it!) to make the filling. 

I melted the butter then put all of the filling ingredients into the food processor - except for the pecans. 

It took only a few pulses for the filling to get nicely blended. Use as many pulses as you need to attain a smooth consistency.

When the crust was done, I took it out of the oven and poured the filling over the hot crust. 

The filling oozed around, but I did use a rubber spatula to make sure the filling was even and got into all of the corners.  

Next, I used a 1/4 cup measure to sprinkle the pecans all over the top. 

I bought chopped pecans at the store - no need to buy pecan halves when they were going to be chopped up anyway. My pecans did not need much additional chopping. 

Pouring the last of the pecans onto the filling. 

I put the bars back in the oven and baked for another 20 minutes or so. The filling should be set (that is, if you touch it, it should not be gooey, but spring back). 

I cooled the bars for about 1 hour in the pan, on a cooling rack. 

Then I used the sling to remove the bars from the pan and put the sling onto a wooden cutting board. I ran a metal spatula under the bars all around to make sure they weren't sticking to the foil anywhere and then pulled the foil out. 

And here they are. The pecans in the crust plus the pecans on top ensure good pecan flavor. The filling is kind of caramel-ly. Chewy, not gooey.

We ended up cutting the bars into little pieces that could be popped into one's mouth whole.

And we took some to the office to share. They freeze nicely too. 

I don't think we will make pecan pie again.  I may experiment with adding a little cocoa to the crust or to the filling (or both). Chocolate pecan bars!

Odds and Ends

We always wanted a Christmas tree that would last for several weeks after Christmas. It does have something like 12 days according to the song.

So we would wait until the last minute and then get a tree. That meant we would always get one that was cut a month or longer ago.

We found a new local source, that had reasonable prices (compared to what we had been paying) and had only been cut a week ago.

It arrived Thursday evening.

Our Christmas tree anxiety is now gone.

Decorations will come this evening.

Before we got the tree I had looked at the local garden center where we had gotten a tree the last few years. For several years they have been naming their trees. Maybe if your tree has a name you will pay north of $150.

I kid you not but this was one of the names...

I thought about swinging by the store yesterday just to see if Princess Bubblegum had sold.

It was a nice looking tree, but really.

With the Republican caucus in about 20 days we are getting campaign ads several times in a 30 minute slot. I am embarassed and saddened that any person would support any of those candidates.

We are now about 63 days from March 1. At that point, if it is this warm I will start raking to let the early bulbs truly emerge.

Pray for peace. Find a little way to brighten someone else's day.

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.

Philip