December 3, 2023- Week 2 of the contest

Welcome to Week #2 of the Picture Contest. It is December. One full month of the inside time for the garden has passed.

Last Sunday we woke up to winter.

It was only 1-2 inches. Nevertheless, it was snow.

The temperatures fell to the single digits by Tuesday.

We wore real winter coats to go outside.

It was remarkable how quickly we adjusted. 

However, by Wednesday, the sun was out and it warmed. In fact when we came home for lunch there was this faint sound of melting. As the snow melted there was the promise of what early spring would be like.

Yesterday,  Saturday, it was gray and 40 degrees. That seems to  be the ten day future, with even a few days in the 50's. I went out and raked some leaves. It felt good.

Last week in the contest

The winner was the gray poppy. That entire group of gray Shirleu poppies was really wonderful, and lasted for some time. It will be time soon to start remembering where I found those seeds. 

The full vote was

This week is week 2

#1 Dwarf Iris Blissful- May 5, 2023

This is a Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB) iris, named Blissful.  It was developed in 2016 by Paul Black.  He has developed iris in the Salem, Oregon area for 30 years. That area seems to be where nice iris are developed. I get most of mine from a company in Portland, Oregon. Paul Black's accomplishments are listed in this page from the American Iris society's website. Looking at a few of the iris he has developed over 30 years, can help pass the time before 6 in the morning.

https://wiki.irises.org/Main/Bio/HybridizerBlackPaul

I love dwarf bearded iris for many reasons. 

To begin with they are iris and I love all iris. Iris come in so many varieties, and bloom for such a long stretch.

The first ones to bloom, early in the spring,  are the little reticulata iris. They bloom with the crocuses. 

Next up are the bearded iris. They bloom in sequence, in order of their height. The smallest comes first. I chuckle almost every time I just look at the categories of these bearded iris. They are, by size:

Minature Dwarf

Standard Dwarf

Intermediate

Miniature Tall

Border 

Tall

The bearded iris last through the month of May. 

Next up are the Siberian, then the Louisiana, the Japanese, and finally the Blackberry lilies (which are really iris). The flowers of the blackberry lilies, of course, look nothing like iris, which confused the people responsible for names. The blackberry lilies (iris) bloom into August.

After that there are certain bearded varities that rebloom in the fall.

I like these short iris  in part because they bloom about the time the initial rush of spring bulbs is ending. In 2023 these short iris bloomed from April 26 to May 6.

Another reason to like these little iris is that they do not need staking. This is unlike some of the tall bearded iris.  And some of their colors are really fantastic.

#2 Tree Peony Phoenix White- May 10, 2023

These lovelies are home grown in all respects. The plant, and three of its companion blooming plants, were grown from seed in the garden. The seed came from my sister's yard in Maryland. She has now identified the plant as Phoenix White, obtained from Cricket Hill probably 20 years ago.

https://www.treepeony.com/

I carefully planted some of the seed about ten years ago and waited. Nothing. The seeds did not grow. So I just planted the remaining seed and forgot about it. Sure enough, the next spring I noticed little plants I thought looked like peonies. Well they were. Four years later the first one bloomed. That was in 2016. You can see the blog post from May 8, 2016 in the archives section of the blog.

There are now four blooming sized plants from this seed pool. One was buried by a snow pile 3 winters ago and broke off at the base. Remarkably or predictably, it grew back. It is now big enough to bloom, even though you can pick out which plant had to grow back.

Since the success with seeds I have been planting all the seed I harvest in September. Then I wait to see what happens. I have about 2 dozen seedlings at this point, throughout the garden,  ranging in age from 1-4 springs. If things take a long time to grow, it helps if you have some in various stages of development.

I even had enough seedlings to put some out for the foodbank sale. 

I do believe the oldest of these seedlings may bloom this coming spring. Pictures are in the bonus section. 

The first year seedlings die back to the ground that first winter. In the next 1-2 years they will develop a woody stem, that does not die back. The 3 of the biggest and oldest of these seedlings grew to about 10 inches tall this summer. But what is exciting is that they set a bud, or two. That is what mature plants do in the fall. They set the buds for the following spring. The bud then lives through the very cold and blooms in the spring.

#3 Asiatic Lily John Hancock -June 22, 2023

I love lilies. I am talking about lilium lilies. I also love daylilies but they are something different.

Lilium are a genus of plants called...wait for it...lilium.

They are found around the world. There are some that are wildflowers in North America. I remember encountering some in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here is the wikipedia page

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

John Hancock is a "tetraploid Asiatic" lily.

Tetrapolid has to do with the number of chromzomes. It is sort of like a plant on steroids. There are tetraploids that are lilium or  hosta or  daylilies. Mostly they are bigger and stronger. But this gets close to real science which is beyond me. I am a lawyer who has a big garden.

All lilium want full sun. That is a limited commodity in our garden. But they do well in 5-6 hours. 

Lilies are listed as having a vase life of 10-14 days.

Asiatic lilies are a group of lilium that appear to be all hybrids. They do not appear to be in a particular set of species. They are mostly defined by their characteristics.  

Asiatic lilies bloom first, before the rest of the lilies, usually in June in Iowa.

They have no scent. This is in real contrast with the Oriental lilies.

They vary in height from 2 to 5 feet tall. 

Recently they have been developing dwarf lilies. They apparently are for the front of the garden. (My daughter Katie, at the age of about 4, explained to a neighbor that the secret of gardening was "tall things in back.")

Asiatic lilies have the widest color range of all the lilium.

#4 Japanese Anemone Prince Henry

September 16, 2023

Japanese Anemones are a major flower for the fall. A simple pink one leads off, at the end of August. See Bonus section.  It grows so thick that weeds have little chance.

By October those more common anemones have given way to several hybrids, including this beauty. The hybrids are not so vigorous.

They still grows nicely and comes back every year.

Here are a few things to know about Japanese Anemones.

First, the botanical name is Eriocapitella japonica.

I read that it was introduced to Japan from China and Vietnam.

Deer do seem to leave them alone. Deer will nibble on the toad lilies however.

Bees love them, as they privide lots of flowers at a time when there may not be many flowers.

#5 Toad lily - September 30, 2023

Do you love spots?

This is the toad lily.

Keeping the garden going in the fall is always a challenge. The two main perennials are Japanese anemonies and toad lilies.  Toad lilies were developed in Japan.

The botanical name is Tricyrtis hirta. They are known for their spots. There are white flowered varities which are on my "get one' list. There is also a yellow one, which I had for a few years but probably would have prefered a different location.

Tony Avant of Plants Delight Nursery has a nice piece if you want to know more about them.

https://www.plantdelights.com/blogs/articles/tricyrtis-toad-lily-bulbs-hirta

I have found that I can pot up toad lilies in the spring. I have these big clumps. I just dig up pieces all around the edges. 

One thing I love about gardening is introducing other gardeners to new plants. Many people do not know about toad lilies.

There you the contestants for week #2. Thank you for voting. That you for the comments or the reply emails. Spread the work. Find someone else to vote. 

I do really love to hear back from you. Tell me why  you like particular pictures? 

Bonus Pictures

This is a favorite section of mine. I do like to write about particular pictures. However in the bonus section I can show you many other pictures that relate to the contestants. Sometime, as with little bearded iris, I limit the bonus section as other dwarf iris will be in the contest later in the winter.

Tree peony seedlings

October 21, 2023

Other pictures of tree peonies

This next picture is my white peony's parent plant, growing at my sister's garden in Maryland. She lost a nearby fruit tree in 2022. This gave her peony much more sun. It responded with this show.

Tree peonies can be magificent. With adequate sun and moisture they can live for hundreds of years.

Here are the seeds getting ready to be harvested.

September 2, 2023

Toad lilies

This year they bloomed in the garden for about a month. At the same time they were just one or two plants that were blooming at that time.

Here are more pictures

When the clump is in full bloom there are a lot of flowers.

More Japanese anemonies

This is the single pink one that grows in a large clump along the street.

Asiatic lilies

Unlike daylilies, lilium flowers can last quite a while in the garden. The orange lily is Fiamma. I was really disappointed when the international sellers of lilium took Fiamma off the market. I understand they came up with something better.

Sometimes they can form a big clump.

Right Now

Outside

I have lots of lupine that keep their foliage into the depth of winter.

Inside

This is a large cattleya orchid. It regularly blooms about this time of year.

Another orchid

This is the little airplant that is really a bromeliad. It will get much bigger.

Julia's recipe

Spanish rice with Cheese

This recipe, from NYT, is a variation with Spanish rice, but with sharp cheddar cheese on top. I made the recipe more or less as it was written, but I have thoughts about making it better and easier. That said, even as written it is pretty quick and flavorful.  

The ingredients:

3 cups cooked rice;

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes;

1 serrano chile, seeded and sliced thin;

1 cup chopped onion;

2 tablespoons olive oil;

1 teaspoon kosher salt; and

8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese. 

The recipe called for basmati rice, but I used regular mediume grain rice. The floral fragrance of basmati would be lost here. Regular rice is also less expensive and more available. It was fine. I had cooked rice in the refrigerator, which shortened the prep time. 

First, I peeled and diced the onion. Then I halved, seeded and sliced the serrano.

I won't bother with that again. Dealing with a serrano (or other hot pepper) is always a bit of a bother. I do it when I think it will make a difference. It did not make a difference in this recipe. The pepper's heat was barely perceptible.

Next time, I will use a drained little can of chopped jalapenos. I like hot jalapenos. But they are sold at various heat levels so you can pick your heat level. Whatever heat level you choose, the jalapenos will be perceptible in the final dish because there will be more of them.

I put the olive oil in a big skillet and added the onion and serrano. I cooked the aromatics for about 6 minutes on medium-high heat. With a little salt. 

When the onions started to look a little brown around the edges, I added the tomatoes. 

My next quibble: I think a 28 oz. can of tomatoes is too much. A 14 oz. can plus one-half of a second 14 oz. can plus a bit (say 1/2 cup) of water would be less intensely tomato-y. And therefore better. 

I cooked the tomatoes for about 5 minutes on medium high heat until the tomatoes were saucy. 

I had turned the oven to 400 degrees. Which was fine because we were having salmon and 400 degrees is a good temperature for salmon. 

And I got out an 8" square baking dish, which I sprayed with cooking spray. 

I stirred in the rest of the salt and the rice.

Next quibble: 1 teaspoon of salt is not enough. In my opinion. After you stir the rice in, taste for salt. 

I dumped the rice mixture into the baking dish.

And grated some nice sharp cheddar cheese. I used a coarse grater, which is faster. The cheese melts so coarsely grated cheese is fine. 

Ready for the oven. I baked it for about 10 minutes until the cheese was melted. Then, summoning up my courage, I switched to the broiler and broiled it for about 3 or 4 minutes to start browning the cheese.

I do not like broiling. Feels dangerous. And spattery. I know it doesn't have to be dangerous or spattery, but feelngs are hard to dispel. 

And here it is. Cheesy, tomato-y, not spattery or dangeous. 

We had it with salmon which I roasted while the oven was heating up. And broccoli, salad and berries. 

The rice kept just fine and reheated well for lunch. 

Odds and Ends

I did like that Japaese anemones are not from Japan.

There are many sales of bulbs at the moment. Of course you would be gambling that the ground would not freeze.

We did carve a few pumpkins over Thanksgiving. The recipe for hanging pumpkins is to carve them right before a good freeze. Well we had the predicted hard freeze for 48 hours. Only now it is going to warm up again.

It is a new month. By some measure the inside time is 1/4 done. March 1 is the date I point to.

 

It is so dark now.

Wars go on endlessly. We see many ads for republican politicians in Iowa, as the caucuses get closer. They do all preach division. They want to lay blame.

Pray for peace, and reconcilliation.

But make some good trouble.

Do what you can to make the world around you a kinder and better place.

And think about the flowers.

Philip