December 15, 2024 Week #3 of the contest

 

Yesterday morning, Saturday, we had the first snow plow sighting  of the season. Actually we had a little ice event. It started early in the morning and lasted most of the day. As is often the case, it was not as bad as it could have been.

This part of Iowa was in the really bad color (fuschia) on the weather channel Friday night. Grocery shopping was busy Friday late afternoon and evening. Saturday morning was really quiet. 

This week illustrated Iowa in the winter. For the first two days it was in the 50's.  The neighbor was able to dig his cannas. Then it was really cold, and windy. Then finally it warmed up to the 20's. Along came the precipitation. It seems like that is always the pattern. 

Julia and I stayed home all day yesterday. Julia went out to get the newspaper. That was it.

Last Week

When the votes were all in, there was a tie.

Here is the final tally.

When there is a tie both pictures advance to the next round in 10 weeks.

This Week which is Week #3

#1 Pink Lupine (May 16, 2024)

Lupines are wonderful. I have grown them for years. Some gardeners have difficulty growing them. I do not. I have suggestions. 

First you need to find the right location. This is true for most plants. Lupines want sun but not necessarily hot summer sun. They bloom in the spring and then limp along during the summer.

The second tip is to add new plants each year. I do this by growing some from seed each winter. I then add those seedlings to the carryover plants and the seedlings that grow naturally. One reason I get seedlings naturally in the garden is that I let the plants go to seed. Sometimes I just do not have the time for deadheading.

Lupines are considered "tender perennials." That means you should not expect a particular plant or clump to last for years. 2-3 years may be the most to hope for.

But are they wonderful.

More about lupines.

The genus is lupinus. 

The seeds are a food source, which is something I did not know. Well, they are a "legume." Legumes are in the plant "family"  "Fabaceae."

We sometimes knew lupines as being in the "pea family." Well that means "legumes."

Lupine flowers turn into sort of beans, which contain the seeds. Duh.

I guess both the beans and the seeds are food sources, going back  thousands of years. Who knew?

Bluebonnets are lupines and are the state flower of Texas. There are tree and bush varieties of lupines. There are prairie varieties. 

I can remember fields of lupine high in the Rockies. Mostly those are white.

Most lupines I grow are called Russell hybrids. The name comes from George Russell, a plant person from York, England.

Here is wikipedia

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

The species I grow is polyphyllus, which comes from North America. It went to England in the early 1800's where it was hybridized a century later. Then it returned, but changed.

The  ground cover in the background of the picture is euphorbia cypress, or cypress spurge. The question that shows up on the internet is not "whether" but "where" is this considered "invasive".

https://www.gardenia.net/plant/euphorbia-cyparissias

But this spurge does not have deep roots. It is therefore easily removed. For that reason I do not consider it invasive. I can pot it up in the spring. 

It remains of interest all year. 

It blooms in the spring.

#2 Fritillaria acmopetala April 25, 2024

This is fritillaria acmopetalum. 

There is an entire group of spring bulbs that are in the genus fritillaria. Within the genus there are over a hundred species. I only have several of this variety, but they do regularly come back.

It is a good thing I have the contest in the winter. If I did this in September I would just buy many more bulbs. Of course then I remember that there are bulbs all over in the garden. Planting them whenever you get them can be tricky as you do not want to plant some right on top of other bulbs. That is easily done since most of these bulbs go dormant after May.

In the bonus section there are pictures of other fritillarias.

Fun facts about fritillaria

They are described as solitary.

They sometimes smell bad. This is particularly true for the imperials.

They are in the lily family.

The species meliagris is one of our favorites. It actually spreads over the years.

 

#3 Pink Dogwood April 26, 2024

Our pink dogwood was a birthday present for Julia oh so many years ago. At the time we were told that dogwoods were a little chancy in Zone 5, which was where we were long ago. (aside- as I do not have footnotes for the blog- We moved into the house in 1982. I think I got the dogwood within the decade after that.)

We planted it in a somewhat sheltered place, on the south side of the house closer to the street. It reached the kitchen windows first. There was the year when cardinals built a nest and raised a family out the kitchen window.

Now it reaches to the top floor, out our bedroom window. 

#4 Dwarf Iris Golden Ringlet

Bearded iris are just about the best. They are part of the iris progression. 

Reticulata

Bearded iris- by height with the dwarf followed by the tall and taller.

Siberian

Louisiana

Spuria 

Japanese

Blackberry lilies

I particularly like the dwarf bearded iris. The tall ones are impressive but tend to blow over just when they are at their best.

The Bearded iris take sun. In the spring that works since the leaves are not out on the trees. These iris are noted for their...beards. In the picture it is blue, looking a little like a fuzzy caterpillar. 

The  three petals on which the beards crawl are know as the falls. I have a full chart of the different parts of a bearded iris in the bonus section.

There are reblooming bearded iris. I had one once. It was rather special. It is on my list of plants to acquire. 

#5 Caladiun Gingerland August 8, 2024

It was a good year for caladium. I had grown them regularly 15-20 years ago. Then I mostly stopped. This garden year I bought 150. They were a big hit with the food bank plant sale. I bought these non hardy bulbs, grew them in pots, and then put them out for sale. I probably sold 125 of them. The rest were planted in pots in the garden, or at the end of the year, planted in the front parkway.

This variety is Gingerland, one of my favorties.

I always buy jumbo bulbs. I get them in quantities of 25. They are sold by size. Jumbos are the biggest.

An important lesson in dealing with caladium. You should buy them as early as they are available. This year I ordered the first 100 on January 5. There were several years when I would wait a few months. The jumbos sold out early.

I  ordered them in January, for delivery in early April. 
These are tender tropicals. They will not germiniate until the soil temperature is 70 degrees. In Iowa that would be June, if you planted the bulbs directly outside.So I start them inside in 2 quart pots.

What else to know about Caladium?

They grow in the shade. As such they can be a perfect combination with hosta.They will last until the end of September, when the temperature gets to close to freezing.You can try to winter them over. I do not bother. I find the jumbo bulbs break down into smaller bulbs. I do think if you planted them in pots, you could just store the pots as you would do with an amaryllis.They come from South and Central America. They are listed as being zone 10. The companies that sell them are located in Florida. Caladium grow from tubers, not corms or bulbs. Some cold winter night I will try to understand the difference.

This video is rather remarkable, showing one of the caladium fields in Florida. For plants that grow well in the shade, and prefer that, they are grown commercially in full sun.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Florida+Caladium+Showcase%2C&oq=Florida+Caladium+Showcase%2C&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAjIHCAcQIRirAtIBCTIwNDRqMGoxNagCCbACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:559059c5,vid:rLI8cLmZLAo,st:0

Bonus Section

Here are a few pictures of little bearded iris. You will see more of them over the next few months.

Here are the different parts of the bearded iris.

Right Now

The current kale hangs in there. Last year it made it through the winter. That might be a tall order this year with smaller plants.

Another orchid- cattleya type.

There have not been many bulbs poking up. This early riser is a fall crocus, a colchicum. It sends up its foliage in the "spring" and then flowers in the fall. I expect it to show up in the winter, and then sit there for months.

One thing I do in the winter is grow new plants from cuttings. Yesterday I potted this croton cutting. Some cuttings grow roots in a week. Others, like this crotons, often take months. 

Julia's recipe

More Baked Chicken

Here's another NYT traybake with chicken and other things all in a sauce. I am reminded of a recipe from a cookbook from my college days called something like the impoverished student's guide to eatery, drinkery and housekeepery. I will have more to say at the end. For now, this recipe is pretty fast and flavorful and easy. 

The ingredients:

4 chicken thighs;

1 fennel bulb;

1 onion;

1 Granny Smith apple;

4 sprigs rosemary;

2 teaspoons fennel seed;

3 tablespoons olive oil; and

salt and pepper.

I started by turning the oven on to 375 degrees.

Then I mashed the fennel seed in a mortar and pestle until the seeds were broken into pieces. I mixed 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the fennel bits and some salt (1/2 teaspoon) and pepper (also 1/2 teaspoon). 

I put the chicken in the bowl and moved the chicken pieces around and patted them so that some of the spice mixture stuck to each piece.

I put the chicken pieces (and the 4 sprigs of rosemary) on a silpat-lined rimmed baking sheet, and I stuck the baking sheet in the oven. It had not quite hit 375 yet. Fine. The chicken cooked while the oven was heating up. 

As I have said time and again, I like my chicken well done. So I put it in the oven early, giving it a head start of 30 minutes before I added the other ingredients. 

While the chicken was getting started, I turned my attention to the other ingredients.

I peeled the onion, cut it in half through the root and sliced it into 1/4" halfmoons. 

I cut the apple in half pole to pole and cut each half into 6 wedges. 

I cut the top off the fennel, took off the outer leaf and cut the root in half pole to pole. Then I cut out the little wedge-shaped core and slice what was left into 1/4" slices. 

I put all of these things into a bowl with the other tablespoon of olive oil and some more (1/2 teaspoon each) salt and pepper. 

I took the baking sheet out of the oven after about 30 minutes. The chicken looked good and the kitchen smelled of rosemary. 

I discarded the rosemary sprigs, and I dumped the fennel, onion and apple (with the olive oil) in the middle of the baking sheet and ootched everything around. 

I put the baking sheet back in the oven and baked it for another 25 minutes. At that point the veggies and apples were softened. 

I took the baking sheet out again and turned on the broiler. I put the baking sheet under the broiler for maybe 2 minutes. More browning on the chicken and the other stuff. 

All good. We ate all the veggies etc. The leftover chicken was good cold, as cold chicken always is. 

On the table.

So what insight came to me that reminded by of the impoverished student's guide? That there can be formulas for certain dishes. 

The ISG had a formula casserole: one layer of starch; one layer of vegetable; one layer of protein. Then a can of cream of mushroom soup. We skip the last step. But this formula works for tuna casserole or shepherd's pie or taco casserole, where you make a sauce or use cream of mushroom soup if you like. 

So I think chicken pieces (or slices of pork loin or salmon or cod) plus some vegetables (or fruit) plus an olive oil based sauce makes a traybake dinner which can be ready in about an hour. You have to think about roasting times with the veggies or fruit. In truth, also for the protein. Chicken takes longer than fish or pork loin slices. Winter squash or carrots or turnips/rutabagas are hard, but would work if cut small. Onions and pieces of sweet pepper are always good and roast pretty fast, as so apple wedges or slices of orange. Potatoes and sweet potatoes work in wedges. Experiment! 

Odds and Ends

How long can a bird live? The NYT had something of an answer earlier in the week. It identified one of the world's oldest moms.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/science/wisdom-albatross-bird-egg.html

This Layson albatross was banded when Eisenhower was president, in 1956. She recently laid an egg. Apparently she was on a nest at the time she was banded. Those birds do not do that nest thing until they are 5 years old. So. Wisdom was maybe born in 1951. 

Albatross spend most of their time at sea, Researchers estimate this bird, named Wisdom, has flown 3.7 million miles.

I am sometimes amazed by how many interesting things there are out there.

One thing to do in the cold dark season is think about "How long is it until..."

Spring? March 21 is 96 days.

First Major League Baseball game March 18 - in Japan- 93 days

Midterm elections in 2026- 688 days

First snowdrop of 2025?  who knows- last year it was February 1- that is only about 47 days away.

Days until I plant the first seeds- 19- but I better order the seeds

I often think about how fortunate I am to live in a nice house with electricity and plenty of water. Sometimes when I take a shower I think of all the people who do not have a shower, or food, or safety.

It is a difficult world out there, facing an uncertain future.

Be kind and pray for a better world.

Enjoy the pictures of warmer times.

It is always good to hear from you.

Philip