November 3, 2025-A plant called Hope

Welcome to November -the time of maximum anxiety

While many hosta are done- this one still looks good. 

It is Hope Springs Eternal

What a collection of emotions this week. Scared. Tired. Hopeful. That sort of sums it up. The order is rather accurate. 

And then there is the garden.

The rain is back. We had over an inch the middle of the week. It has been raining for the last 10 hours. It has been a while since there was a rain that lasted this long.

Yesterday I worked in the garden. It was therapeutic. I transplanted a few plants, anticipating the rain. Here is one of the ornamental kale. The worms are in the past, and some are starting to look good. I should give them some fertilizer.

It is a little hard to tell in this picture, but this little kale is 10 inches high. It is also 

in the front yard bed. 

This is the very large lantana, that overwintered last winter.  Time will tell whether the plant recovers from the transplant. This next week's weather should help. It will be in the 50's for most of the week. As I check, that is about normal for the first of November. Normal drops from 56 at the beginning of the month to 42 by the end.

Mostly there has not been a frost. I still have some plants outside. Colin brought in the last of the really heavy ones Friday. That included the two large Night Blooming Cereus. The darn plant vines. Sometimes I have trimmed them when they come inside. However they do bloom on last years growth. 

Gem of the week

There are not many "oh my" moments this time of year. This little hoya gave me one of them this week.

It is Hoya nummularioides Porcelain Flower. It is one of several new plants that was healthy but small. 

I brought it inside with the hoyas about a month ago. 

Monday of this past week I must have picked up the plant for some reason. Then I noticed the bloom.

This picture gives you a better idea of the tiny size of the flower.

Let me give you more  perspective.

Different plant.

I would like to write a little about Jade plants. They are still mostly outside. 

The official name is Crassula Ovata. It is native to South Africa.

This time of year they do really well in the cool sunny weather. We brought the big one inside yesterday.

Here is the group on the back driveway yesterday.

In the sun they can develope a nice red edge.

In the fall I make cuttings, starting a few dozen plants for the coming years. In the second picture above you can see the cuttings and the one year old plants.

Here is the cutting that is going to bloom. I will continue to have pictures eack week until it blooms.

At this point it has a dozen other new plants with buds.

Here is what a jade plant blooming looks like. This is a picture from my niece Julia's yard in southern California. 

More pictures

Our sycamore tree had some branches that were either touching the top of our roof, or close to it. Our insurance company insisted that we get them cut. We finally had the tree guys come, with their big machine. It had to go in the garden. They were careful. I did have to pull up a bunch of labels. Matching the labels with the plants will be a task for the spring time.

In this picture you can see the bucket way up in the air.

Most of the zinnias are done. It was a touch year for the zinnia group. 

I really liked the color on this next picture.

A few toad lily flowers persist.

Another zinnia.

Julia's recipe

Hummus

Although I grew up eating Greek food, I did not have hummus until later. I associate hummus with middle eastern food, around the corner of the Mediterranean from Greece, past Turkey toward Lebanon and Israel and Palestine. I remember, maybe 35 years ago, eating in a small middle eastern restaurant in Mount Prospect, Illinois (the suburban neighborhood of my family). That's where I remember having hummus and baba ganoush and pitas for the first time, as well as the more familiar shish kebab and tzatziki. All terrific. We have bought hummus from time to time ever since. Recently we were having pita pocket sandwiches with ground lamb and tsatziki and spiced cashew rice. So I decided to make my own hummus. It was way easy and very good.  

The ingredients:

1 can of cooked chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans);

6 tablespoons lemon juice;

2 tablespoons water;

1/2 cup tahini;

4 tablespoons olive oil;

5 medium to large garlic cloves;

1/4 teaspoon cayenne;

1-1/2 teaspoons paprika;

1/4 teaspoon cumin; and 

some salt - maybe 1/2 teaspoon, maybe more to taste. 

I peeled and flattened the garlic cloves. Sometimes I have to smash them to get the papery skins off. No need to do more than that. This is a food processor project. 

I drained the chickpeas. I never know what might be in the liquid of canned beans. 

I added everything to the food processor work bowl. I approximiated the amount of tahini, which is hard to measure precisely. 

After everything was in the work bowl, I clamped the lid on, eventually remembering the trick to that. I pulsed the mixture a few times then let the food processor run for maybe another 30 seconds. 

I took the lid off and tasted the hummus. I thought it needed a little more salt, which I added and then briefly zizzed again. 

And that was it. I ootched the hummus out of the work bowl and onto a plate. 

I had been cooking the rice dish in a Dutch oven in the oven. It was done, and I turned off the oven. I put the pitas in the turned-off oven to warm up for a few minutes. 

I poured a little olive oil around the top for looks. One could garnish with minced parsley or a little paprika or minced kalamata olives or minced roasted red peppers.

It was very good. Smooth and savory but not harsh (despite the garlic). The leftovers held up in the refrigerator for the few days until they were all gone. 

Hummus is also good cold.

The only odd pantry ingredient (maybe) is tahini, which comes in handy in various middle easter or asian recipes. And it keeps pretty much indefinitely in the refrigerator. 

Odds and Ends

I had an extra hour this morning to work on the blog. I usually get up at 5. So of course my body woke up at what is now 4. There was plenty of time to check on spelling and add a picture or two. I also read encouraging news in Iowa about the election. I am old enough however, to only go so far with that news. It will be a long next 3 days.

I will appreciate the extra daylight in the morning. I will not like going home from work in the dark.

I need to start thinking about the picture contest. It started in 2005. How long ago was that? 

But the outside garden is not done yet. With no frost in the future there will still be things to do for a while. How will we all feel next week at this time?

The winter farmer's market starts today in Iowa City. The wonderful Saturday's market is over. The violet person should be there.  

My rocks arrived. Here is one orchid that is now stabilized.

Our favortie inflatable is over on Court Street. I do believe it glows.

The dreaded leaf drop has arrived. It hit several crotons rather hard. It was probably my own fault. I am working on that watering schedule.

It was 85 degrees on Wednesday. I was able to avoid the temptation to turn on the airconditioner.

The prayers for rain have been answered.

Let us work on that whole war thing. Remember Ukraine? Remember children?

While we are at it, let us pray for voters to have some good sense. The emperor really does not have any clothes on.

I mentioned I was scared, tired and hopeful. 

Maybe hopeful can move up to seond place.

Philip