mears garden

Week 12 February 12,2012- Happy Valentines Day

2012-02-08T05:49:00.010-06:00

Welcome to week 12 of the Mears Garden Picture contest.

It is February. February, for good reason is the shortest month. We saw spring a week ago. Now it is cold again and impatience starts. Why can’t it be 50 today? What’s this with a sprinkle of snow? Why do I have to wear my winter coat?

So I wish you a Happy Valentines Day. February is almost half over. It is only about 5 weeks until spring is officially here.

So let’s get on to the contest.

In last weeks voting the winner, which was somewhat of a surprise to me was the daisy. Real quick movie trivia question. Who said “I love daisies”?

The full votes were

Daisy 24
Pansy 14
Tiger Kitten daylily 14
Triumphator lily 10

For this week’s contest I have quite a color selection.

First up this week, is the center of this poppy. Gosh it looks like a satellite picture of some structure on Mars. That center thing is some big tent or rising balloon. Poppy interiors are really wonderful as you can tell from several of the bonus pictures this week. The picture was taken on June 6.

The next picture is a bluebell clump. Bluebells. I can’t wait for their April show. This picture was taken on April 24. I am fascinated by the fact that bluebells start off pink. What is with that change of color? I guess having spring flowers called pinkbells just wouldn’t work.

Third we have the color yellow. This Siberian Iris, called Tom Schaefer, wears it with such success I believe. The picture was taken on May 30.

Finally you have the color pink, as exhibited by this clump of fall crocuses. The picture was taken on September 14.

Vote away. Will it be pink or blue or yellow or whatever color is that poppy-red/orange.

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For your bonus viewing this week I want to show you all the pictures that I liked this past year that did not make it into the contest. The way I select the pictures each year is to make a file on my computer of all the pictures I have really liked during the year.
I need 48 pictures to go into the contest. I like to start with a group of 60-70. As late November approaches, I find the pictures that clearly belong in the contest. That usually gets me maybe 30. I then start narrowing the field.
Some of the pictures were too similar to pictures going into the contest. I could not have two pictures of the center of poppies. Some pictures were too similar to pictures from last year. The nice leucojem picture was in this category. Sometimes I just needed more color for a particular week.
But here they are. Enjoy.

First up are the other poppy centers. I really had a hard time picking the one to go into the contest.

This next picture is the leucojem, the winner a year ago.

This is hosta Liberty. It was just named 2012 hosta of the year. If you have to have only one hosta this might be it.

Have a good week. Next week the finals begin.

Comment on the times: I read in a garden magazine this week about a new product I had not seen before. The hook, as they say, was to ask if you were tired of watering your hanging baskets. This product was a shepherd's crook that was hollow. YOu could then hook up a hose and water would come up through the crook and rain down from above the basket. There was the observation that you could add a timer and never have to do anything with the basket at all. Please....

One final afterthought.
It was down into the single digits this week. This will test the cellular structure of the snowdrops and aconite. I will report next week.
Philip

Week 11 February 5,2012- Flowers in real time

2012-02-04T16:51:00.008-06:00

Welcome to week 11 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

My goodness. It is barely February.
And there are real time flowers. There are snowdrops all around. On the other hand I have had snowdrops bloom in January before. I should add that when that happened before, it was remarkable then.

On Monday and Tuesday of this last week, the last two days of January, we again had record or close to record high temperatures. It was sunny with highs of 61 and 59. So the winter aconite, also called eranthis, actually bloomed.

I went back and looked through my spring pictures on my computer. I have pictures back to 2002. The earliest in the year picture of any aconite was on March 1, 2006. Think about it. This year this aconite was blooming at the end of January. So it was a month earlier than the earliest it has ever been. Wow.

What was almost as amazing was the fact that on Tuesday there were bees. I had my camera out and was taking pictures. One flew up and buzzed around the camera. It was early in the season. The flowers were out so I guess it was time to wake up.
I have said this before. When I see that first bee I am reminded of the story of the dove on Noah’s ark. When the flood was nearing an end Noah sent out a dove. The first time the dove came back with nothing. A while later it was sent out again. This time it came back with an olive leaf. This showed there was life somewhere. Well I imagine that each late winter some bee is made to go out and look around. Its mission is to see if there is any reason for everyone else to get up. If the bee reports in that there are flowers everyone else goes out.

Bees are not the only critters out. My personal aerator, called Mr. Mole (actually it could be Ms. Mole) has been awake. I need to remind myself that moles look like they are doing bad things but mostly do not.

Dare I mention rabbits? We have some tough neighborhood cats that generally keep down the rabbit population. On the other hand rabbits can be a fact of life. I looked to see the place where some of the first crocuses bloom. After all, crocuses are not far behind aconite on the spring schedule. Sure enough, I found the one early crocus clump. It was eaten to the ground. So it goes.

So what happens next? Will we have daffodils by Valentine’s Day? Probably not. The weather is settling down to being just a little bit above normal. That means 35-40 as the highs and 20 as the low. I certainly can live with that for the start of February. Perhaps we will have the longest lasting aconite season in history.

So on to the contest.

In last week’s contest the winner was the Iris. There were also strong showings by the Coneflower and the Fritillaria.
The full voting was:
Iris 22
Coneflower 15
Fritillaria 14
Daffodil 8

Here are this week’s contestants.

First up is this dramatic daylily, called Tiger Kitten. The picture was taken on July 19. I wonder when this flower will bloom this year. Will it bloom in June?
Daylilies really are great. They are pest free. They come in all kinds of colors and shapes. There are big ones and little ones. They also will do well with limited sun. This plant, on the northeast corner of the house, gets maybe 5 hours of sun each day.

Your second picture this week is a great lily, called Triumphator. The picture was taken July 6. This of course is not a daylily. Sometimes I refer to this group of flowers as lilium. Actually wikipedia tells me that this is the name of the genus.

(Pay attention or skip this part- because this is the educational part. On the other hand there will not be a test.) The family name is Liliaceae. The genus includes Asiatic and Oriental lilies. And Trumpet and Martagon lilies and more. And then the hybridizers get busy, as some of these types of lilies cross with each other. There are Orientpets, one of my favorite names. They are also referred to as OT lilies. Those are crosses between Oriental lilies and…guess what…. Trumpet lilies.
So Triumphator is an LO lily. That’s a cross between an Oriental lily and a Lilium longiflorum, which is the Easter Lily.
The daylily is not in the same genus as these lilies. It is in the genus hemerocallis. Here is what wikipedia says about daylilies.
Hemerocallis is now placed in family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae, and formerly was part of Liliaceae (which includes Lilium, True Lilies).

The third picture is a daisy. The picture was taken June 26. I have decided that this week I like the picture. I went back and forth. It is certainly not red and yellow. I have several clumps of daisies. Some have names. Some originally came from a plant from a fast food restaurant. Daisies like other white flowers have their places, amidst the color. When I like this picture I really like it. I like the absence of color. The deep green background so sets off the flower. If you look at the center closely you can see those same patterns that were in the center of the coneflower.

The last picture is the sentimental pansy. This picture was taken on October 21. What a wonderful face. I should add that the pansies lived through the winter, such as it was, and are starting to grow. The old flowers from December are still there, looking a little tattered. I really am looking forward to them putting on a nice show in March.

So vote away.

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Amusement of the week- Other title.
Sign of the times-
Here is this little feature which is off to a slow start. It started last week. Come on folks. Help me with this. Send me your ideas.

This week I want to talk about invasive life forms. In the garden we are familiar with garlic mustard, and maybe even kudzu vine. On a smaller scale there is creeping Charlie and crab grass. Do you remember rabbits in Australia? There were no predators. Well this last week there was the story about an invasive critter in…the Everglades. Did you see this story? The critter is the Burmese Python. On my.
Here were some of the observations.

They may grow up to 22 feet long but average about 16 feet. The snakes can swallow whole animals four or five times the size of their head. In the Everglades, the pythons have been found to eat deer and even alligators.

The snakes reach breeding age in four to five years and a female lays an average of 35 eggs during the spring breeding season, though one snake may lay up to 100. Burmese pythons can live as long as 30 years.

The bad news is that there are probably tens of thousands of the pythons at large in a remote wilderness area covering thousands of square kilometers, and despite their size they are extremely difficult to find and kill.

For your bonus viewing I give you the spectrum of daylilies 2011 from my garden. They really do come in an amazing array of colors and shapes. I do want to remind you that if you click on a picture you should get a slideshow to look at. It is kind of neat particularly with these bonus pictures.

I close with the follow-up picture of the snowdrop that has appeared in the blog over the last month. I took and posted this picture on New Year’s Day.

Here is that same little clump on January 31. It had seen quite a garden month. It has endured subzero temperatures. It has been covered with snow. It had not missed a beat. We shall see how long it lasts.

Have a quiet week.
Philip

Picture Contest- Week 10-January 29, 2012- Garden Excitement

2012-01-29T08:09:00.008-06:00

Welcome to week 10 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

Garden excitement is coming. I can feel it in the mild air. I can see it when I look at the seedlings that are finally sprouting in the plant trays down under the lights in the basement. They are so tiny. I think they are little Iceland poppies. It almost makes me laugh to see the one place where something like 6 seedlings are coming up in the same place. I could have been more careful putting down the even tinier seeds.

Yesterday I went into the backyard. It still has a few inches of snow cover. In this one bed I found these emerging snowdrops.

They had come up a few weeks ago. When I looked Friday morning, the snow seemed pushed back the littlest bit around each one. One could imagine that the snowdrop plant was a little warmer than the surrounding area, creating a small melted area. (I would have added a picture of the snowdrop in the front yard I had showed you before. Since it is near the sidewalk, the shoveled snow has it still covered completely.)

Looking through garden catalogues is a little less academic now. I should order these columbine plants and get them delivered soon. Well, maybe they should ship them on the first of April. That is not that far away.

And there is the light, the glorious light. While it is not yet here when I get up in the morning, it is here after work sometimes. I noticed that one day last week there was actual sunshine a little after 5. The other afternoon, in the twilight, about 5:30, there was a crescent moon with some planet nearby. They both were bright and for a while they had the sky to themselves. The western sky was still that rainbow of sunset colors of blue and white and orange. You wanted to freeze that moment, that sky.

But there will be other moments like that- when you find the seedlings emerging or the snowdrops melting back the snow, or the moon dancing across the colorful sky.

So how about some picture contest stuff.

In last week’s voting the winner was ….the tulip. Red and yellow are hard to beat.
The totals were
Tulip 26
Asiatic lily 16
Epimedium 11
Anemone close-up 5

Here are this week’s contestants.

First is this Siberian Iris, probably one named Jeweled Crown. What I like about this picture, taken on May 23, is the background of Cypress Spurge. Spurge is another name for euphorbia. I got to wonder about the name ‘Spurge.’ This variety of spurge is a vigorous ground cover. The line between vigorous and invasive is small. I draw the line between the two based on the depth of the root system. It is not invasive if it can be weeded easily.

This picture is the second and last daffodil picture in the contest this year. I think it might be a daffodil from a group of daffodils called Poeticus. The picture was taken on May 7. Poeticus daffodils are suppose to be one of the last to bloom. As the coming spring approaches the yearning for daffodils does begin. One dreams of the fields of daffodils that must be somewhere. In the bonus section this week I have given you the breadth of the daffodils selection from my garden this past year. (This is not meant as an inventory. Not every flower presents for a good picture each year.)

This next picture, taken on April 11, is a flower making its first appearance in the picture contest. I like to give you some new flowers from time to time. This picture is fritillaria “raddeana”. It is a cousin of the crown imperial fritillaria that has been a strong contestant in the past. Sometimes these flowers that are color challenged are striking in their simplicity.
I still am waiting to see about these bigger fritillaries. I have not found them to come back year after year like some other bulbs. They do come back but hardly ever bloom after the first year. It is a puzzlement. Is that a word?
The catalogue includes in the description of this flower that it has “umbels” of up to 20 flowers. How about that word scrabble fans?

Finally here is the old fashion coneflower or echinacea. Boy was that hard to spell. I couldn’t even get close enough on google for it to ask me if I didn’t mean the real spelling. So I resorted to ‘cone flower’ and that worked. I do find this flower amazing. It is hard to think of any other flower that in our time has seen the explosion of varieties. (Well maybe coralbells could be its equal.) There are now yellows and reds and whites and ones with tufts on their heads. I am still waiting to find any of those new varieties as hearty as the original. For that reason the original shows up in several places in the garden as a companion to everything from daylilies to hosta. The picture was taken on July 3. I really like the patterns that the center of the flower makes. It reminds me of cornfields when the corn plants are small. There can be patterns going several different directions depending on the angle of observation. Then again maybe I like the picture since it is purple.

Vote away. Let me hear from you. It is going to be a sun shiny day. Bye bye January. It has been fun.
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Before I give you daffodils I thought up a new feature. We will call it the “amusement of the week.”
It will be any observation I observe or hear about-from you all- which speaks to the condition of our world at this point. It will need to be amusing and I will rule out right here at the beginning, any observation about Republican presidential candidates.

So my first observation is the following:
At the grocery store this week we noticed that some company was marketing yogurt containing M&M’s. For real. Top that if you can.

Here are daffodils.

Have a good week. Garden excitement is coming.
Philip

Picture Contest- Week 9-January 22, 2012- garden wish list

2012-01-22T13:01:00.010-06:00

Welcome to week 9 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest. Winter flies along as do the pumpkins.

I was going to write about how I’m tired of winter. That didn’t seem right however. It just got here. There really isn’t that much snow. And it is already nearly the end of January. The days are really longer at this point.

Instead I am going to talk about my garden wish list. You should have one. They go so well with garden catalogues that arrive daily.

To start with I suppose I should tell you what I mean by a wish list is. On one level it is a list of plants I want to acquire or add to my garden. It is also a list of which plants I want to do better. Finally it is a list of plants where I want to increase the numbers.

With this as the criteria here is a partial list. Maybe I will look back at this post in October and see whether these items need to be added to the “carried over into the next year” wish list.

I would like to have more sunny annuals. Last year I did not have that many annuals. I would like to grow some California and Iceland poppies. I would also like to grow moss roses. I love moss roses. One year, many years ago, when we lived on the farm outside of Grinnell, (1971-76) we had almost unlimited sunny space. I mean we once grew 144 tomato plants. Well, we had grown moss roses the previous year. If you know moss roses they have lots of flowers and that means lots of seeds, which can mean lots of seedlings the next year. Well I sat out in the garden for hours carefully transplanting these little plants. By the time I was done we must have had 30 square feet of only moss roses. It was glorious. Colors were good back then too.
If I want sunny annuals I will have to carefully manage the sunny areas available.

I would like more columbine. I find these “perennials” only last a few years. You need to have them reseed themselves to keep them going. I have lost most of the interesting varieties. I really like and am going to get the Colorado state flower that is blue and white. Here is a picture from our trip out there a few years ago.

I would like to try some hepatica. This lovely little spring wildflower has promptly died on me in my efforts so far. Gardeners have to be prepared to have plants die on them. The issue sometimes becomes how many times are you prepared to start over with a particular plant.

There is an Oriental lily called Annika that B and D lilies just told me about. It is a double flower that is mostly white with green strips and red specks inside. I think I would like that for its uniqueness alone. I don’t have any green Oriental lilies.

There is a pasque flower that was in the contest earlier this year. The one in the contest was purple. I also have a red one that I showed you at the time. Well there is a white one too which I would like.

That’s it for now. If you have the time tell me in comments or email what might be on your wish list.
Let me get to pictures.

The results of the voting showed a big winner in Week 8. That was the peony. The full voting was
Peony 29
Lily 14
Fall crocus 11
Iris 6

Here is this week’s contest.
With this first picture I give you color. Somehow color is more needed when the outside view is white and grey and little changing from day to day. This is the scrambled inside of probably a Monsella tulip. This particular flower was particularly complex, hence this wonderful picture. It is really nice if you fill most of your screen with it. The picture was taken on May 7.

The next picture is a close-up of Epimedium Sweetheart. I have fallen in love with Epimedium. I have been growing them for 6-7 years. I have quite a number of varieties, as you will see in the bonus section. They are shade perennials that bloom in the spring. I have found them quite vigorous. They are starting to spread so I will soon have divisions to share. As with so many plants, just when you discover there are many varieties you learn that there are even more varieties.
They are tiny flowers as you can imagine and a low down to the ground. The pose even more of a challenge than photographing hellebores.
The picture was taken on April 24.

The third picture is a close-up of an anemone, this one sylvestris. It blooms in the spring and looks like its fall cousin. This picture was taken on May 7. In the bonus section there are side-by-side pictures of this flower and its fall cousin.

Finally there is this perfectly symmetrical Asiatic lily called, I think, Tinos. It struggles along for me wishing it had more sun. This bulb is perhaps 5-65 years old. This picture was taken on July 4. Normally Asiatic lilies bloom in June. This last year was a rather late year as we had a cooler than normal spring. I should add this to my wish list and then plant it in more sun.

That’s it for now.
Tell me what you wish for.

In the bonus section first here are the two anemones for comparison.

Next here are lots of epimedium pictures. Come to the garden in April and see their display.
Here the full plants

I like this next picture a lot. It is from 2010. Sometimes I will use a picture from a previous year in the bonus section. This really shows you how tiny these flowers are, since you have some idea how big bluebells are.

Here are more individual flower pictures.

I really like this picture from 2010 a lot. It shows how small these flowers are, since you can see the epimedium with the bluebells.

Aren't they wonderful.
Philip

Week 8 January 15,2012- Winter is here

2012-01-15T13:16:00.016-06:00

Welcome to week 8 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

Winter is here. We had 5 inches of snow on Thursday and the temperature Saturday morning was in the single digits. It feels better and certainly more normal. Then it feels cold.

It is a time to remember and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. There were other voices then. Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy come to mind.
Dr. King said the following many years ago:
There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we now have the resources to get rid of it.

On the same theme he also said
There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will… The well-off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds, and driven from the mainstream of our societies, because we have allowed them to become invisible. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.'

How those observations ring true today.
OK everyone. Just pause for a few moments.

Now I will talk about flowers and gardens and colors.
My seed order came in yesterday. I intend to start some Iceland poppies for display this spring. Iceland poppies, which have been absent from my garden for a few years, were always good for several pictures a year in the contest. They are annuals that occasionally come back a second year. They rebloom but only until it gets hot.

I also took care of my caladium order this week. If you order them early, you can get jumbo sizes. It seems that an increasing number of caladium are able to be grown in the sun. The City of Iowa City grew some wonderful red ones a few years ago in planters downtown in full sun. They really prospered in that sun. Elephant ears like sun as well. Really big elephant ears are good.

In the contest this last week the easy winner was the hellebore. The full voting was:
Hellebore 30
Red Poppy 19
Yellow tulip 7
Daylily 4

Here are this week’s contestants.

First up is this wonderful Iris. I must confess I don’t know its name. That will be a recurring theme today. This Iris bloomed on June 26, 2011, which probably makes it a Japanese iris. They are the last ones to bloom in the Iris sequence. I will give you that sequence with pictures in the bonus section. Certain iris bloom in April and others continue right through early of July. Some the bearded variety rebloom in the fall.

This next picture is one of my peonies. This picture is from May 30. Most of my peonies have struggled over the years because they do not get enough sun. I am moving them around at this point getting them to places with more sun. This one is a single, which I find attractive, particularly in contrast with the double pink that seems to be in every fifth yard in town. I will tell just a few peony facts. Peonies were bred in the 19020’s to be cut flowers. As a cut flower they last a long time when they are in bud. You can cut a bud, just when it is showing color. If you put it in the refrigerator at that point, it will remain as in that bud state for 4-6 weeks.

This wonderful lily is probably some kind of trumpet lily. It bloomed on July 9. I really liked the picture because of all the different curves. There are curves going all different ways.

Finally here is a fall crocus, one named sativus artabir. It bloomed on October 22, 2011. Fall crocuses are a must, as you look for color in the end of the garden year. I must say however that I have not found them to be tremendously reliable at coming back. What that means is you just have to keep planting them.

Vote away.

For your bonus viewing I have iris. The Iris season starts in April with the little reticulata. There was one in the contest a few weeks ago. They will bloom in April.

In late April for about a month there are the bearded iris. Some are short ones, called Dwarf Bearded Iris. Here is a surprise. They are the first of the Bearded Iris to bloom.

Then come the Intermediate Bearded Iris and finally, the tall Bearded ones. Bearded iris have a rhizome that will rot if it is too wet. I try to plant mine on slopes. A little yellow one was a contestant in week 2.

For me then come the Siberian iris in June

followed by their Japanese cousins in early July.

Both of these varieties have more traditional roots. For that reason they can grow in damp areas including right in water.

I have been discovering Louisiana Iris the last few years. They also like damp areas and come in some remarkable colors. They seem to bloom in June, with the Siberians.

Finally there are all the other iris, and there are still quite a few. There is a group called Spuria iris. Here is a picture from two years ago. It did not bloom last year as it did not have enough sun. I trimmed the trees a few months ago so we will see this year.

There are also little ones called cristada. They are wildflowers even at some level almost all flowers are wild somewhere. I have several of these at this point and resolve to get more.

As a final picture I took this picture today of the snowdrop from last week. I will keep you informed as to how it fares in the winter.

Have a compassionate week.
Philip

Week 7 January 8, 2012- Planning ahead

2012-01-08T06:07:00.010-06:00

Welcome to week 7 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.
The hanging pumpkins enjoyed the new year.

Sometimes the words just don’t want to stop. I have several things to talk about today. I should mention seed planting. I have a few things to say about the extraordinary warm winter so far. Then again there is the picture contest.

It is seed starting time. I started some lupine seeds this weekend. I am not sure whether they need to be started this early. At the same time there is something about having seeds planted that gives a good prospective on the fact that it is still so dark in the morning. I also placed an order for more seeds yesterday. I ordered mostly annuals. Each year I think about California poppies. They are a poppy that continues to bloom throughout the summer. This is in contrast with the Oriental poppies that I grow and get featured in the contest. They bloom for only a few days at most.(There is one again this week.) Poppies do require much sun, which is always a premium in our yard. So I will try them again this year.

A few comments on the weather. Thursday and Friday this past week were sunny and the temperatures were 57 and 60. I think at least the 60 was a record high. Tuesday morning the low was 9. This did make for a hard week for the pansies. It was also hard on the hanging pumpkins. In fact I see this morning that one fell apart and hangs no more. I still have 3 uncut pumpkins. I will wait a little longer, watching the ten-day forecast for a time when the temperatures will stay below freezing.

While there is some cold air coming midweek, it is suppose to get back to 40 next weekend. You do have to wonder when we will get winter.

The average high and low temperatures in Iowa for this time of year are 32/14.

It is getting dry in the garden. For several minutes yesterday I gave some thoughts of getting out the hose and watering.

The average temperatures begin to inch upwards as of January 25.

I found this neat website that had historical information about the weather in Iowa City. Here is a chart I prepared looking back at 2011. As you know, “mean temperature” is the half way point between the high and the low. It is worth remembering that the temperatures in Iowa City were below normal for most of the first half of the year. I should add that I tried to do this in a table for the blog but couldn't.

Month 2011 mean temp +/-from ave
January..............18.2........ -3.5
February............23.6........ -4.3
March................38.3........ -1.3
April..................49.2........ -2.9
May.................. 61.3........ -2.1
June...................70.2........ -2.6
July....................79.4........ +2.5
August...............74.2........ +1.5
September..........61.6........ -2.6
October..............53.8........ +1.8
November...........41.2....... +2.2
December ...........32.5....... +7.3

On to the contest.
The contest this past week was one of the closest on record. At one point early this week there was a 3 way tie on the poll on the blog, with 17 votes each.
In the end, once the email voting was counted, there was tie. The Bloodroot caught the Cactus with the write in votes. Both will advance to the final 16.
Here was the final voting.
Cactus 21
Double Bloodroot 21
Gazinia 17
Hibiscus 10
I should also say that I really appreciated all the responsive emails this last week.

Here are this week’s contestants.

First up is just about the reddest flower in the garden. It is the Oriental Poppy Beauty of Livermore. I have found over the years that deep red is a really hard color to capture on film (or wherever it is captured on a digital image.) Check out the bonus pictures for more of this red flower. This picture was taken on May 30.

Next up is one of the double hellebores. Hellebores are a backbone plant in the spring garden. The are very hearty and can take very low temperature. They had better take those temperatures as some of them are emerging right now. This picture was taken on April 9. They do tend to hang down, requiring a non photogenic assist from fingers. You could pick the flower and display it in water. The bonus pictures this week give you an idea of the color range available.

This next picture is San Ignacio, the daylily. While I think of Banned in Boston, from Week 4, as flamboyant, this daylily is smooth. It is tall too. The picture was taken on July 9.

The last picture is a yellow tulip that is just about the perfect tulip. I think its name is Ms. John Sheepers. I would like to see the one on one match with Shirley the tulip, from week 3. I suppose the name gives you some idea about how long the flower has been around. The picture was taken on April 23. I planted this bulb 5—10 years ago, so it has naturalized and comes back every year.

Have fun voting. Tell me what you like about your choice this week.

For your bonus viewing here are more red poppies.

To appreciate red you should contrast it with orange.

Here are more hellebores.

Perhaps the most interesting picture is the following.

I close with pictures of a snowdrop. The first picture was taken on New Year’s Day. I was not sure the bud would open. It opened on Thursday, when it got to 60 degrees. I will keep you informed as to how long the flower lasts.

Have a safe week.
Philip

Week 6- January 1,2012- Happy New Year

2012-01-01T12:15:00.008-06:00

Welcome to week 6 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

Happy New Year everyone.
Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012.
It is a time to remember the old and plan for the new.

Actually I wish to take this week to remember.
2011 was the first year in about 5 that I had to water the garden, in any regular way. I used to water the garden all the time. I have a front yard hose. I have a back yard hose. They both got a work out this year from July on. But watering can be enjoyable in itself. Watering early in the morning is particularly nice. Watering gives you a change to engage your garden without much physical exertion. You can reflect on the day to come or leave your mind blank or better yet, quiet.
2011 was a year to rediscover hosta. I recycled some. I found some new ones. I am looking forward to seeing those new ones come up this spring, including Ice Age Trail.
In 2011 I extended some garden paths. I renewed others, with the addition of fresher wood chips.
I added literally about a ton of Iowa City compost to the garden. Actually it was about 1800 pounds. The City weighs it for you. I think it cost $9. It lasted most of the garden year.
It was hot for a while. I think that corresponded with it being dry. I seemed like the hot lasted about a month, but maybe it just seemed like it lasted for a long time. It was hot but I didn’t feel that I could complaint since it was always hotter where someone else lived. And the hot has lasted into the fall. We didn’t have a killing frost until early November. And we really haven’t had winter yet. Almost every weekend in November was in the 50’s. The pansies are still blooming on December 31. It was 50 degrees on December 31. While it is to get cold for a few days the forecast says the warm weather will be back to near 50 again the end of next week. I really would like someone to ask that politician from Texas who is spending time in Iowa if he thinks global warming is real. Texas of all places should know better. But lets not get me talking about politics or the 99%. This is a time for reflection, not a time to…stop…just stop.
I think the flower of the year for me in the garden was the cactus. I will include it in the contest this week. It bloomed for me for the first time this year. I do have to wonder about how that was related to all that hot I was mentioning.

In one last bit of remembering, I almost forgot the most striking change in the garden this year. We painted out house. We painted our house a different color. We had known this was going to be necessary for a while. In September we got a bid from someone who had done some painting across the street. It was scary high. The paint job was going to be complicated by the fact that our house is tall in places but then we have all those plants. We called some other painters and then talked to our banker. We found someone but it was the middle of October. The painter knew that fall was a better time to paint our house because most plants were going dormant. So they (it was a they since there were two brothers) decided to do the south side first this fall. The south side is where there are all the bluebells in the spring. So on November 1 they put the first color on that south side. Since the weather was holding they went ahead with the east side next. And so went the entire house. They even got the back garage, finishing right before Thanksgiving. It is all done. Here are pictures. In the sun it really glows.

In the voting this last week the winner was the water lily
The totals were
Water lily 29
Asiatic lily 15
The fancy daffodil 7
Little blue iris 5

I do wonder if any of you looked at the fancy daffodil website. Maybe you have to be way into daffodils.
How do you measure if someone is “way into” daffodils?
Here would be some test questions.
Do you have way more daffodils that you can count?
Do you have some daffodils where you know their names?
Do you have a favorite daffodil?
Do you have a map of your daffodils?
Do you maintain a database where you try to keep track of which ones you purchases which year?

I think you are kind of into daffodils if you answer “yes” to more than one question.
I think you are way into daffodils if you answer “yes” to more than three questions.

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How about this week’s contest? The theme is new plants and flowers.

First up is this wonderful hearty hibiscus. It is called Luna Pink Swirl and it is a dwarf. I got it at the farmer’s market and it was worth the price just for the show it put on in early August. The picture was taken on August 6.

The second picture is the double bloodroot. I got this bulb several years ago. 2011 was the first year where it clumped for me. It is rather amazing and unlike its single cousin, the flowers last for 3-4 days. The single variety, featured in Week 1, will bloom and be gone the next day if it is a warm day. This picture was taken on April 13. For the progression of this little clump see the bonus section.

This third picture is a rarity for me in this contest. It is an annual. Its name is gazinia and I don’t know the variety. I grew it in a pot and brought the pot inside. We’ll see if it lasts the winter. I will order seeds. The picture was taken on October 22. Annuals are a way to get color in the fall.

The fourth picture is the cactus. I don’t know the name beyond that. I got a plant from a neighbor a few years ago. While it got big enough to divide it had never bloomed. Well this year it did. It was absolutely amazing; all the more so since it had never bloomed for me before. The progression on the bud on appears in the bonus section. In a way it is very reminiscent of the orchid cactus, which is probably why they are called orchid cactus. This picture was taken on August 16. It really did liven up August, which can be a challenge for gardeners.

That’s it. Enjoy and vote. Find a friend to vote. Support your favorite flower or color.

In this the bonus section there are more pictures of this week’s contestants.

First there is the full picture of the hibiscus plant. I included the picture of the label as a gardener tip. When you take a picture of a flower or plant you like, make the next picture on your camera be the label. On the computer you will then have the name right next to the picture.

Second here is the progression of the bloodroot over the course of a few days in April.

Third is the progression of the cactus.

I close with these honorable mention new plants in the garden. They are a couple of Louisiana iris that bloomed for the first time this year. They are keepers. I could imagine getting many more Louisiana iris over the next five years.

Have a great week.
Philip

Week 5 December 25,2011- Merry Christmas everyone

2011-12-25T17:00:00.006-06:00

Welcome to week 5

Merry Christmas everyone, from all of us here at the Mears Garden including, as of this week, the hanging pumpkins.

As some of you know I hang plants in my trees. From May to October there are orchids and orchid cactus and a few other indoor plants, outside for the summer, hanging from the branches of our trees. We have trees all around the yard. Particularly when you have already used up the gardening space in two dimensions, up is the only place to go.

Where there are plants hung in trees, there are often plant hangers. Well a few years ago I thought that I would hang pumpkins from some of those hangers. They were, after all, empty in the late fall. So we hung some pumpkins and they were a success. If you wait late enough in the year the pumpkins will freeze solid and last all winter.

After missing a few years we hung pumpkins again this last weekend. In the bonus section there will be most of the group.
I will tell one pumpkin story and then get on to the picture contest. We all have our own identities. We think of ourselves as a gardener or a therapist or perhaps, a sports fan of a particular team. With those identities we give ourselves, there are the identities that others give us. You walk down the street and you are recognized by one of those identities. There goes the best cookie maker in the neighborhood.
I was at the grocery store a few years ago, waiting in the checkout line. Right behind me there was a family I did not recognize, with a parent and a few children. The parent, pointing me out, told the children that I was a person who lived in their neighborhood. She explained that I was the person who put the pumpkins in his trees. That was who I was. It was awesome.

So let’s talk about pictures.

In last week’s contest, week 4, in another nail bitter, the winner was the picture of the white crocuses

The full voting was
White crocuses 19
Monsella rising 18
Banned in Boston 13
Blue anemones 9

I have another good group for you this week.

First up is a picture of a fancy daffodil, taken on May 7. I do not know the name but it was hybridized by a person named Grant Mitsch. He started hybridizing daffodils in the 1930’s. His business was taken over by the next generation. If you want to give yourself a treat, go to this website and check out these real fancy daffodils.

http://www.mitschdaffodils.com/history.html

I was given this daffodil in 2010 by a garden friend who had a few to spare. It did not disappoint.
We grow daffodils. We see them all over. Mr. Mitsch has taken daffodils to an entire different plane. Let’s just say that you don’t mass plant them. I would observe that a few of his hybrids do occasionally get into the bulb catalogues.
As a special treat I wonder about getting one bulb of a variety named Hawaiian Skies.

The next picture, from April 2, is a lovely little iris riticulata. These tiny early iris grow from regular bulbs, not the rhizomes that give you the beard iris. The iris family is interesting in that the flowers are what are similar and the roots are all different kinds. There are round bulbs, giving you the riticulata and Dutch varieties. There are long rhizomes from whence the bearded iris come. Then there are just regular roots for the Siberian and Japanese iris. The regular roots for those varieties allow them to grow in wet areas. Bearded iris would rot in that location.

This next picture is an Asiatic lily, called Sunshine glory, I think. The picture was taken on June 26. Asiatic lilies are the first of the lilium to bloom. They mark the beginning of the high color of July when the daylilies and Orientals dominate the landscape.

Finally I have one of the nicest water lily pictures in a few years. This picture, taken on August 21, positively glowed for some reason. Water lilies are a rewarding plant, as weeding and watering are not a big issue. They do of course require a pond, which fortunately has been there for me for a while. Katie dug it for us in the early 90’s. It has held up rather nicely.

That’s it for this week. We will enjoy our sunny day with temperatures in the lower 40’s.

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In this bonus section there are more pumpkins. Follow the pumpkins throughout the winter. Watch how they celebrate the New Year. Some are already planning for Marti gras.

Remember these words from a wise gardener. There is nothing that says Christmas like doing a little yard work.
Not

Have a good and short week.
Philip

Week 4 December 18,2011- Pansies?

2011-12-17T07:32:00.010-06:00

Welcome to week 4 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

Time marches on. It is already the second half of December. Here is the upper Midwest, where it is suppose to be cold, WE STILL HAVE PANSIES. Remember this next September, when you are thinking about closing down the garden. There can be little bits of color at least until Thanksgiving, if not beyond. We are now in that beyond.

In the voting this last week, the winner by a write-in nose was the baptista that looks like a mouse. What I mean by a write-in nose is that there was a tie in the electronic voting on the blog, but there are still a few email write-in votes, which made the difference.
The full voting was
The baptista that looks like a mouse 22
Shirley, the tulip 21
The slipper orchid 13
Dog tooth violet 3

As I mentioned last week, there are wildcard pictures that do advance to the next round. I will get the sliderule out at the end of the 12 weeks and see which second place winners also advance. Do you know that the auto spell program on this computer does not recognize the work “sliderule”? We sometimes think about words that are added to the vocabulary over time. Sometimes there will be an announcement that some dictionary has added certain words this year. Don’t you just wonder about which words drop out? Here is a parenthetical to the parenthetical. It may be that the reason that the auto spell program does not recognize sliderule is because that was never such a word. Wikipedia seems to say that the mechanical device I am referring to is a “slide rule”. Two words? Who would have known?
Let us go on to week four.

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The first picture this week is what I call “Monsella rising.” Another favorite tulip in the garden is Monsella. It has appeared several times in the contest before. Sometime after the contest is over I might just post all the winners from all the contests just to have them in one place. Monsella has a wonderful combination of yellow and red, that is particularly pleasing when set in with the bluebells. Remember bluebells? Monsella is one of those tulips that really does completely break down after about 2 years. You have to get new ones to get this color in the spring garden. This picture was taken on May 7.

This second picture is banned in Boston. Actually the daylily is named “Banned in Boston.” It also is one of the most photogenic flowers in the garden. Daylilies can have that color in the throat that sometimes is in nice contrast to the color in the rest of the flower. The picture was taken on July 9. Fill your screen with this picture and the flower really stands out.

The next picture is another group of crocuses. (croci?) Do you realize that crocuses are not that far away? In 2011 the first crocus bloomed in the garden on March 16. That is just about 90 days away. This picture was taken on April 2. Crocuses are the third bulb to come up in the spring. First there are snowdrops. Then there are the aconite. Then crocuses. As I think about it I will put a bunch of pictures from mid March in the bonus section. Use that new slideshow feature (click on a picture on the blog) to run through all those early bulbs.

This fourth picture, taken on April 9, is a blue anemone blanda. Isn’t that funny? Blanda means white. We all know that. Yet anemone blanda is a group of spring flowers, also called Grecian windflowers, that comes in all colors, including…white. These anemomes do clump up over time, and like many little spring bulbs, they don’t cost much.

That’s it for this week. Vote away. Comment away.

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In this bonus section enjoy the first flowers of the spring. These pictures start with March 6 and go to March 20, 2011.

This first picture is an early snowdrop. The little sprouting things under the snowdrops are squill seeds (see the little blue flower down aways) that are everywhere. Some of them are actually starting to sprout right now as the temperatures get back to the 40 and the sun makes that feel even warmer.

This is the emerging aconite.

These are the winter aconite, or eranthis, in full bloom.

This is the first squill or silla in the spring. In a matter of weeks after this there was a carpet of blue in part of the yard.

Have a peaceful week.
Philip

Week 3- December 11,2011-Plant catalogues

2011-12-11T05:46:00.005-06:00

Welcome to week 3 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

The first plant catalogue arrived this week. It was from Bluestone Perennials, one of my favorite plant companies. As I think about it there was the hosta catalogue for 2012 that came in early October. Maybe that was the first. But there was the bulb catalogue in September, to entice fall planting. I will now pronounce that catalogues are a year round business. Somebody, in addition to organizations asking for money, needs to support the poor postal service.

I can read plant catalogues over and over. I go through the catalogue and identify what I would like to buy if I had an unlimited budget. I wait a week and do it again. I compare that list with the first one. If a plant made it to both lists it goes on the third list.
But I don’t have an unlimited budget. For that reason I can then put the list in some kind of order, depending on how much I could spend at the time. If I can only buy one plant, which one would it be?
Only about that time do I start to think about where I would plant them and whether there really is room to put the plants I want. I really like the red phlox on the cover of the Bluestone catalogue. Where would I plant any phlox I were to buy? How much sun do they need? (Is phlox singular or plural)? How many would I need to get?

If I have 3-4 catalogues I can spend unlimited amounts of time in this fashion. It’s a good thing there is nothing to watch on TV.

But let me get to the contest.

Last week the winner was the pink poppy. I had already told you what I thought about this picture. I have ordered a big print of this picture to see how it looks. I will let you know whether it is as good as I imagine it will be. As the votes first came in I thought the poppy would win in a landslide. By late Monday the hairy pasque flower had pulled within one vote of the poppy. In the end the poppy prevailed with a narrow win. I would remind you that there are wild card places for some second place finishers. (That means that in the contest I pick the 12 weekly winners and 4 wild cards, to advance to a round of 16 in February.) I expect that you will see the pasque flower again.

The full voting was
Poppy 28
Pasque flower 23
Yellow iris 8
Trillium 4

This week there are more spring pictures.

The first picture, taken on May 22, is perhaps the most antic picture this year in the contest this year. It is a single baptista flower. Baptista, sometimes called “false indigo”, is an interesting plant. It comes in several colors, including blue, purple, yellow, and there are several native prairie plants that are white. One of those plants with branching white flowers is on my wish list. I wish I could have it in the garden. I wish it would not die after I plant it, which is what happened with the first attempt.

The second flower is the tulip called Shirley. The picture was taken on May 7. I like flowers with single word names. It is kind of like sports figures. At the point when a sports figure achieves some level of success, you the person begins to be know by the single first name. I think the best examples in the sports world is Michael Jordan who was /is still, known as “Michael.” I just planted a daffodil this fall named Rick. I would like to get the peony named Bob, but it was too expensive at the one place I could find it this fall.
Shirley is one of Julia’s favorite flowers. Tulips are mostly short lived. In most cases the hybrids are good for maybe 2 years. There are some that do come back every year. Certain varieties are known for that feature. I think the more a plant is hybridized, that is developed away from the original species (meaning grows in the wild), the more the hybrid will not last. On the other hand some individual tulip bulbs seem to have the capacity to come back. I have several Shirley bulbs that do come back. This of course is one of them. This flower is always good for great photographs. Think about it. It is pink and white and you can then get blue or black backgrounds.

The third picture this week, taken on April 13, is a little spring flower called a dog toothed violet. Its botanical name is Erythronian. I like this picture since it has a bluebell and some scilla (squill) in the background, giving you a good sense of the size of the plant. We have the native white one in the woods in Iowa. I have a patch of those white ones in the garden, which does spread over time. There are pictures in the bonus section. The plant comes up in early spring, blooms, and then disappears, along with most other spring bulbs. We’re talking tiny plants and flowers here. Photography can be a challenge.
With Erythronian the plant developers have been busy. I am not sure of the name of this yellow one. There is a yellow one called Pagoda. It clumps up with plain leaves, while the plant in this picture has mottled leaves similar to the native. Suffice to say you can get many different varieties in several different colors, including red and purple. If you are thinking about trying a different spring bulb, I nominate the dog toothed violet. I do mean to try some more in the future. (Caution- some of the hybrids are a little more expensive than just crocuses or daffodils. You should be prepared to try one or two at the $6/builb.)

The last picture, taken on May 15, is an orchid that grows in our cold country. It is Gisella and it is a cypripedium. That’s one of those plant words that you need to say about 200 times to imprint it in your brain. I got this plant about 4 years ago and it has come back reliably each year. I get 2-3 flowers. I am waiting to see about further clumping. There are several varieties of cypripediums (cypripedia?). I have the small and large yellow ones. The pink and white one is the state flower of Minnesota, I think. It is. Google told me so. It became the state flower in 1902. There is a google contest question for you. Which state has the oldest state flower?
These cypripedium plants are quite expensive ($40 is about the least expensive I can find) and they do die on me. They are worth the occasional effort when your budget has some discretionary flexibility. That gets you back to rank ordering your plant wish list. You can get a lot of red phlox for $40.
Maybe a cypripedium plant is a good gift idea for that reason.

That’s it for this week’s contest. Vote away and get me those comments. Take some time and think about plants and flowers and catalogues.

By the way there is a new feature on the blog. If you click once on a picture you sort of get a slide show. I thought about this feature a month ago and tried to set it up. I guess it worked. It gives you a slideshow of all the pictures for that post. I wish I had more control over what pictures would be in the slideshow. If I understood or could work easily with this technology, I would be somebody else.

Here in the bonus section are more dog tooth violets. (Should the plural be dog teeth violets?)

Here are more pictures of cyripedium orchids.

Have a safe and quiet week? (Have you noticed that you never would wish that someone have a loud week? Maybe you would if they were going to a rock concert.)

Philip

Week 2- December 4,2011-December is here

2011-12-03T06:35:00.011-06:00

Welcome to week 2 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

December-It is a month that invokes so many different emotions.
There is of course the holidays, with the office party and baking of a million cookies.

Then there is "dark". What a great word. It really fits the time of the morning when I was writing this. More and more I find myself writing these words in the early morning when it is…dark. It is hard to remember that in June and July it is getting light out by now.

As to December, there is also weather and driving.
When we left the office on Thursday,December 1 there was a light rain and it was 35 degrees. For just about the first time this fall I started to worry about driving in the winter. We live in the upper Midwest. We have lived in Iowa now for 45 years, having come here for college in 1966-67. You would think we would be used to it.
We do seem to have crossed some weather line with the arriving of December. The 7-day forecast shows days when it will not be above freezing. There are lows of 11 degrees coming.

But this is not a blog dedicated to Iowa’s weather. I suppose I should not be defensive about mentioning the weather. I do think gardeners, like farmers, always obsess about the weather. Is it too hot or dry or humid? There is always something.

This is a blog about getting through the winter. When we get to December that is progress. In 90 days it will be March. That is time to look for snowdrops. In a month it will time to think about seeds and starting a few plants under lights. How’s that for positive?

But lets talk flowers and pictures and colors.

In week 1 there was a spirited contest between the primrose and the daylily. The winner was the primrose. It is hard to deny red and yellow when they get together.
The full voting was
Primrose 23
Margaret Seawright, the Daylily 18
Crocus 13
Bloodroot 10

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Have I got a contest for you this week.

First up is the big white trillium. Trillium are wildflowers that come in a number of varieties. This white one, grandiflorum I think, turns pink over time. There are a number of flowers that turn color over time. Bluebells for example can start out pink. The picture was taken on May 1.

The second picture is this purple pasque flower. The official name is Pulsatilla. After a few false starts, that means the plants died, I have a couple clumps that do come back for me. This picture is from May 7. May is a glorious month. We could have a vote sometime as to our favorite garden month. There would be so many strong candidates. I think April might get my vote.

There are also red and white pasque flowers. I have the red one. There is a picture in the bonus section. The white one is on my wish list.
Almost every flower is wild somewhere, or somewheres. What is the plural of somewhere? There are flowers that are found in the woods. One place on the Internet talked about pasque flowers being found on the tundra. That’s not the woods. Then again someplace else on the internet lists the pasque flower as being sometimes called a prairie crocus. Go figure.
It also has neat seed heads later in the spring. The pasque flower is the state flower of South Dakota.

This next picture may well be my favorite picture for years. I will be interested in seeing your response. It is of course the pink poppy. This picture was taken on May 30. I am not going to say anymore. Fill your screen with this picture and just relax.

The fourth and final picture for the week is this little yellow bearded iris. I love little bearded iris. They are cute. They do not need staking. I separated most of my little bearded iris this fall. They do need that care every 5-6 years. I may miss out on some bloom this coming spring, but you just wait for 2013.
This picture was taken on May 7, giving us an all May month. I did not intend that. It just happened. May is a good month.

So that’s it for this week. Give me your comments. Tell me why you like a particular picture. Tell me what you think about December. As I finish this writing it is still dark. At least I do not mention that four-letter word that starts with c or that other word that starts with s.
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For your bonus viewing I have just a bunch of pictures.
Here are more trilliums. These first two are the grandiflorum first white and then pink.

The little one with the black center is T. simile. It has come back for me 2 years now, but it has not spread. Do you know that gardeners are sometimes greedy. If you have something nice, you want more of it. There really is only so much space.

Here are more pink poppies. They do not need comment.

Here is the red pasque flower.

Drive safely.
Philip

Week 1 of the picture contest- November 27,2011- Let's get started

2011-11-26T15:22:00.011-06:00

Welcome to the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest. It is that time of year again.
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Each Sunday for 12 weeks I will post 4 pictures from the Mears garden for 2011. You get to vote for the one you like best. Those 12 winners and the 4 highest finishing second place pictures will advance to a round of 16. By that point we should be well into February. Over the next 4 weeks you will pick the four finalists. There will then be that one last vote for the fan favorite for garden year 2011. By that time winter will be mostly done, at least in Iowa. (In theory)
You can vote two ways. I would prefer that you vote on the Mears garden blog located at
http://mearsgarden.blogspot.com/
There should be a place to vote at the top of the page. Voting will be open through Saturday at midnight.

There is a place for Comments at the bottom of the post. Tell me what you think of this week's pictures.

Each week on the blog I will do several things. I will give you the four pictures for that week’s event. I will tell you how the voting went the previous week. And I will tell you something about the garden. Oh- there is also a bonus picture section each week.

I hope you enjoy the contest. Let’s begin.
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Week 1 November 27, 2011

I really love the process of going back and selecting the contestants for the picture contest. It gives me an opportunity to revisit and remember all that color. Despite the heat and the lack of moisture since July there were great moments. During this winter I hope to pass on some of those moments to you.

Here are your first week’s pictures.

Picture number 1 is the crocus called Tricolor. I do not think you can have too many crocuses. This picture was taken on March 30, 2011. March- that is really not that far away. I have found a way to plant another 125 this fall. Scroll down for some bulb planting tips.

Picture number 2 is the daylily called Margaret Seawright. The picture was taken on July 9. I particularly like this picture because of the black background. The picture was taken at 3 in the afternoon. I wish I understood how I got that background. It just happens.
Margaret Seawright is one of my favorite daylilies. It is just about the only daylily where I bought a second plant of the same name.
Don’t you sometimes wonder who a plant was named after? When you google (has google reached the dictionary as a verb?) Margaret Seawright you discover that the plant was hybridized by a person named Stevens-Seawright. I am going to guess that Margaret was somebody’s mother or wife. The plant was registered in 1985. On the web you can also find a place called “r. Seawright Gardens” in Carlisle Massachusetts. The home page says they are in their 35th year. I think the person(s) at that garden developed another favorite daylily of mine called Sandra Elizabeth. Who was she? Ms. Elizabeth is a wonderful late blooming, tall yellow daylily. It was blooming in mid September for me this year.

Picture number 3 is a bloodroot, group picture. I love bloodroot. It is a native wildflower, which grows in the woods in Iowa. This picture was taken on April 9. The single variety (yes there is a double, which you may see later in the contest) pops out of nowhere. If the weather is warm the flower will not last more than a day or so. I have really enjoyed how the plant is spreading over the years. There are bonus pictures down below.

Picture 4 is a primrose. The picture was taken on May 7. I do not know the particular name, but the color combination of red and yellow is one of the best. As I make a “wish list” for the garden, I write “more primroses”. They seem vigorous, surviving the wet weather and the heat. They grow in partial shade, which is abundant in our garden. What more can you want in a plant?

So there you have the first week of pictures. Vote away. Get some friends to also participate. This is a way to get through the winter. If a friend would like to receive the emails, just send me the address. Suggest that your friends subscribe to the website.

For your bonus pictures here are more primroses.

Here are more bloodroot pictures. The first picture almost made it into the contest. I sometimes think about the aesthetic difference between a single flower and a group picture. Sometimes I like the group, sometimes the single one.

As to bulb planting tips- here are two.
First- you should take pictures in April of the places in your garden that have bulb holes. A bulb hole is a place in the yard that has no bulbs. I have a little feature on my inexpensive camera that allows me to take movies with sound. I take a picture and narrate it.
I then can go back in October, review the pictures, here my own comments, and place my bulb order for those holes.

Second- save those plant trays from the garden stores- the ones with all the holes. After you plant bulbs, like crocuses, that are a taste treat to the squirrels, cover the space with the trays until the ground freezes. Did you know that daffodils taste bad to squirrels and deer?

I hope to see and hear from many of you this winter. I close with pumpkin art. I love how pumpkins deteriorate. There will be more about pumpkins in the weeks ahead.
Happy winter.
Philip

Monday, November 14, 2011- Getting ready

2011-11-14T19:34:00.002-06:00

While you might not know it from the temperatures, which reached 60 again this weekend, it is almost time for the annual picture contest. We have a picture contest on the blog, to get through the winter.

I am in the process of going through the pictures for the year, getting down to the 48 pictures to put out there for the 12 weeks, starting about December 1.
I really do have a great set of pictures. To give you some idea of the quality this year, here are two rejects.

So sharpen those pencils. Alert your friends. The Picture Contest is coming.

I will bid farewell to the fall with this picture of our daughter Maggie’s car, which was parked under a ginkgo tree.

See you soon.
Philip

Tuesday November 2, 2011- Happy Halloween and welcome to November

2011-11-02T20:49:00.004-05:00

Happy Halloween

These were at one time part of the same pumpkin. So many people do not realize how the tops and bottoms of pumpkins can work nicely with carved images.

While the October garden slowed down quite a bit I want to post some comments about one of the flowers that was around, providing the occasional amazement that we all want in a garden. I am talking about fall crocuses.
These are crocuses that…bloom in the fall. Now please understand that I am not making a botanical observation. I do not know whether they are cousins of the spring flowering varieties. I do know they look like crocuses and will bloom from September until November.
Here are pictures with some observations as to varieties.
The first pictures are from an early blooming pink set that I have had for 3-4 years. I suspect that the name is Crocus sativus speciosus.

For the educational part of the program here is some botany. Garden catalogues divide fall blooming crocuses into two groups. One is the genus Colchicum, which is in the liliaceae family. The other is just listed as Fall Crocus and is in the Iridaceae family.
Here is more specifically what is said about crocus in that great source- wikipedia.
Crocus
Kingdom:
Plantae
Superdivision:
Spermatophyta
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Monocots
Order:
Asparagales
Family:
Iridaceae
Subfamily:
Crocoideae
Genus:
Crocus

Here is what is said about Colchicum
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Monocots
Order:
Liliales
Family:
Colchicaceae
Genus:
Colchicum

Here are pictures of a wonderful late white crocus- Crocus speciosus ‘Albus’

Finally here is a real gem, which has been blooming for several weeks by the walnut tree in the front yard. Of some interest is the fact that when one bloom is finished another will emerge apparently out of the same place. They have multiple blooms sequentially. That is kind of weird.

So there you have some fall crocuses. You can actually buy and plant them in August and they will bloom that fall. Buy a bunch next year. They will give you springtime rewards in amongst the leaves in the fall.
Philip

Sunday, October 23, 2011- First Frost?

2011-10-23T06:08:00.005-05:00

The First Frost
I don’t think there is a more anticipated specific date in our garden than the date for the first frost or hard freeze. I have thought about it as we sort of went through this in the last week. Up until Friday morning we had not had a frost this year in Iowa City. This is not that unusual. Starting about a week ago the weather predictors said the temperature Friday morning was going to get down to 26 degrees. 26 is not just a dusting of frost that does in the impatients. 26 would toast many plants, both potted and not potted. This was a date that was practically circled on the calendar.

What does this first frost really mean?
At our garden it means that many, many plants have to come in out of the cold. All those pots need to get under some roof or another before they are killed by the cold. (Did you know that frost comes out of the sky, like rain? Frost will appear in open places, but not under trees. This is science.)
Most of the orchids had already come inside. Someone had to come in first. I can tell you that there was a steady progression of plants inside all week. Many just made it to the garage. Weather permitting, they will go back outside this weekend.

Some plants can take a frost. The orchid cactus (I refuse to call them orchid cacti) are pretty tough. I do not worry about them until the temperature gets to about 26 and stays there for a few hours.

One yearly ritual is deciding which plants are literally going to be left out in the cold. I grow these agaves. I bought one ten years ago, which has become 30. Isn’t that how it is sometimes. This year I potted up 20 of them in the last two weeks. Those 20 are now inside. The remaining ten were left in the ground to make it through the freeze….or not.

This frost or freeze also means a fond farewell to certain annuals. The few pepper plants we grow will toast at 31 degrees. Any impatients will be finished I think at 31.9. I also grow castor bean plants. They really do become wonderful this late in the year.

They will not survive much below 32.

Think about it? What could compete with the first frost as a garden event?
We all anticipate the first snow of the year. While this might be the occasion for putting away some tools, we don’t circle the date on the calendar. Well sometimes we do, with the help of the weather channel. It is certainly the occasion to stock up with groceries.
If the snowfall is significant, as it sometimes is right after Thanksgiving, it will mark the actual end to outside yard work. This can be good. But that first heavy snowfall is usually after the first freeze, so mostly the garden is already shut down.

The first thaw is greatly anticipated, but usually happens gradually, and really will only reward you with a few spring flowers.

There are bad weather events for the garden. These mostly are not circled on the calendar. I suppose a hurricane might be a little like the first frost. But I live in the Midwest.

I guess one of the things about the first frost/freeze is that it is sort of predictable. At least you can see it coming, as you find yourself watching 16 different weather broadcasts. This last week, one day the 26 had changed to a 28. Then it is down to 27. Is that number really for Iowa City, or just the TV stations ”viewing area”?

So what happened? Thursday afternoon the prediction was still for a hard freeze. I had broken down and brought out my winter coat. But as we left work at 5:30, leaving a little early to pick up the pot stragglers, it just didn’t feel the way I remember the afternoon of the first freeze feeling. Often there is that cold wind, letting you know that the freeze is coming. Sometimes it rains. That is really bad. For one thing the pot stragglers are heavy.
So I filled the garage full of plants. I moved the heavy orchid cactus to the back garage, and closed the sliding door. Then we waited.
At 5:30am I checked the weather channel for the temperature in Iowa City. It was 32. At 6:30 it was down to 31. I knew by then we were we not going to get much of a frost/ freeze. This time of year we still have leaves ob the big Sycamore in the back yard. It really does provide protection.
So everything was fine. There was frost in the open field across the street. There was frost on the car windshield across the street. There was not frost in the garden. The peppers and the castor beans were standing tall.

I have the new ten day forecast. There is a predicted 31 degrees for this coming Friday. That’s the coldest temperature listed. I have cautiously moved some plants back outside. My sense of panic has receded. The garden continues with glorious sunshine and a few crocuses. (Another post coming soon.)

Did I mention pansies? No. Pansies are tough. They can survive the hard freeze. They will give us color through Thanksgiving. Here are some more pictures.

Enjoy the frost free weather.
Philip Mears

Tuesday, October 18, 2011- Fall- week 4

2011-10-18T06:51:00.004-05:00

Hello again. Through a combination of factors I haven’t found the time and/or energy to keep up this blog. I am prepared to try it again.

It is major fall at this point, as you all know. Fall has a long list of meanings in the garden. Let me talk about one of them.
It is a time for cleanup.

It seems as if there are the leaves constantly coming down. We have a wonderful set of trees, and they are mostly different. The buckeye tree drops its leaves and its buckeyes first, in September. Falling buckeyes and the early football games go hand in hand. Then in succession come the walnut tree, the elm tree and the linden tree. I am not done. We have this great sycamore tree in the backyard that holds onto its leaves as long as it can. There will be falling leaves for months. One of the sounds of fall is the hum of the city leaf sucking machine out there somewhere.

Part of “cleanup” is cleaning up the beds. That means trimming the old foliage. I find it interesting, one of those science things, how the old foliage for plants so differs from plant to plant. The variegated Solomon’s seal in the front yard gets a blast of cold air, drops its leaves and you can just rake off the old stalks without any effort at all. Hosta foliage will be killed by the frost, and after it goes through a slimy stage, will dry and can be raked off without any effort. Finding that stage where there is not much effort is a goal. Siberian iris has a very different leaf. (Is “Siberian Iris” singular or plural?) It will die back over the winter and still need clippers after months of cold. Some times I must confess that I have fond thoughts about a weed wacker.

The third part of fall cleanup at our garden is the great plant migration inside. I should count the plants sometime that have to come inside. There are the jade plants and agaves and the orchid cactus and the other cactus. There are the orchids and clivia and non hardy hibiscus and bouganvilla and mandavilla.
Who am I forgetting? The are the plants that can come in and go dormant (even though most plants except some orchids sort of go dormant inside.) That would be the amaryllis and the brugmansia and some begonias. I obtained some crotons this summer from a sale at the grocery store. They come in and will provide wonderful color for a while.
Let’s just say that that it gets crowded inside sometimes.

That’s it for the big cleanup items. I will write again soon about two other favorite fall garden pastimes- reflection and planning.
Maybe I will just write about pansies.
Philip

Tuesday August 23- the last flower

2011-08-23T05:35:00.003-05:00

Daylilies bloom in July. We all know that. Each plant produces flowers that last only one say- hence the name. A mature plant will produce anywhere from 20-30 flowers to 150. Most daylilies finished blooming weeks ago.
There are several varieties that are late bloomers. (as oppose to rebloomers which is something else)

Here is Bright eyed Doll. Its last flower bloomed yesterday. When you notice a particular plant, here near the end of the daylily season, you have the countdown to the last flower. This plant gave us that wonderful picture posted on July 25 of the two flowers together. That picture was actually taken on July 19. That meant it bloomed for over a month. I had moved it to its present location a year ago. I look forward to its display for next year.

Here is Sandra Elizabeth, who is still putting up multiple flowers. I think it will bloom into September, which is getting closer all the time.

Finally here is Delmar, which is all the more appreciated since it is one of a select company.

It remains dry, but I am enjoying my early morning and late evening watering sessions. More on that later.

Philip

Sunday, August 21- State Fair thoughts

2011-08-21T06:49:00.004-05:00

We went to the State Fair Wednesday. It was a sunny day, and from 3-4 weeks ago, we knew it could have been hotter. At the same time staying on our feet for most of 4+ hours was exhausting. We missed the exotic chicken and rabbit displays. We saw the wonderful quilts that get produced almost at the rate of the eggplants at the local farmer’s market. (That’s a lot these days.) There was the ugliest cake contest, which seemed to be dominated by children. Maybe it was a contest only open to children.
Speaking of contests there were the big pumpkin contests we all know about. One of the lesser-known contests was the long green bean contest.
The Iowa Fair is know for its butter cow. Here she is.
I actually liked the pop can cow.

I really do have lots to write about. In this attempted new format I am having trouble matching pictures with my thoughts. I will work on that. How do you have pictures for a post on watering? Sometimes I think too much.
Philip

Thursday, August 18- one and done

2011-08-18T06:03:00.003-05:00

The cactus flowers lasted just the one day. This had me think about the many flowers that last for just one day. Of course, there is the entire flower grouping named after this feature, the daylily. Given the number of buds that come with a particular plant that doesn't really count. Then of course sometimes the weather has something to do with this phenomena. If it is hot, and/or bright and sunny, a flower will be done quicker.
At the other end of the spectrum there are the spring flowers, like daffodils, that will last for 7-10 days with that cool spring weather.
For your picture there was this waterlily. They have done well this hot summer. I would like some other colors however.

We went to the State Fair yesterday. There was salad on a stick.
Philip

Wednesday, August 17- Synchronicity

2011-08-17T05:59:00.003-05:00

The cactus was blooming when I went outside yesterday morning at 5:45. It was still sort of dark, but the white blooms were quite striking. It was worth the wait.
Actually, when I looked at them 30 minutes later the pinkish hue was visible. I have sometimes commented about that wonderful time in the early morning, when it is still dark enough, that color has not yet some out yet. As the daylight increases, at some magic moment the color turns on.
I think I mentioned yesterday that I had obtained these cactus plants from the neighbor across the street. When I had told her a few days ago that my cactus had buds, she mentioned that hers did too.
Yesterday morning, as I admired my first ever blooms, I looked across the street and hers had also bloomed yesterday morning, for the first time this year.

Monday, August 15- Anticipation

2011-08-15T21:43:00.004-05:00

I talked yesterday about surprises. Well this will be a surprise, in that it has never bloomed for me before. Yet it has been coming and coming for the last ten days or so.
I have this little family of barrel cacti, obtained from a neighbor across the street maybe 4-5 years ago. They were all tiny offshoots. If you keep them alive they will grow.
They had never bloomed for me. They had all made offshoots, but no flowers.
About two weeks ago I noticed something fuzzy, in several places on one of the plants. Then it got bigger, and started making sort of a point. Then I noticed the same fuzzy places on a second plant.
Well sure enough they are buds. And they are growing. Here is the sequence. You can join my anticipation. Maybe you will see the flower tomorrow.

This first picture is the group of 4, a week ago.

These next 3 pictures are taken that same day. The first picture shows the offsets, in a nice ring all around the plant.

This next picture shows the little fuzzy things I first noticed.

In this picture, again from that day last week, you can see the buds getting organized and shooting out from the plant.

This was taken yesterday.

This was taken this afternoon. The colors are starting to show through on the bud. The wait will not be much longer.

There you have it. It is anticipation. It will be an anticipated surprise.
Philip

Sunday, August 14,2011- Surprises

2011-08-14T20:42:00.003-05:00

One thing I love about gardening is surprises. If everything was always the same how could you like that? In the winter things are always the same. White White White. In August things are always hot hot hot.

When it finally gets to be spring you have an endless sequences of firsts. There is the first snowdrop or the first crocus. In April I will wander around the yard until I find something new that day.
Some plants tantalize you with buds that just grow and grow over a long time.
When that first daffodil blooms you have been waiting for it for some time. When it blooms it is wonderful, but it is not a real surprise. You sort of knew it was going to bloom one of those days.

But there are real garden surprises that pop out of the ground or foliage where you had not noticed them until- bam- there they are in flower. It was not there yesterday. You had not even known it was in bud.

Now maybe it is because you are not paying attention. Nevertheless I had one of those moments this last week. I hang orchids in the trees. They really like it in the open air, particularly after being cooped up all winter. I had one orchid that had been forming a bud for weeks. I kept my eye on that one. Its bud is still there and growing.

What I had not even noticed was an orchid neighbor. Its bud had crept down the leaf and I did not even know it was there. Then all of a sudden- there was this long stem of these wonderful flowers.
I don’t know its names. It has bloomed in previous years in the summer. I had forgotten to keep an eye on it. But my, how it picked me up.
Here it is.

I hope you are following the blog. I am trying to post something new every day or so. For that reason there are no voting at the moment. Check the blog every few days. Post a comment if something strikes you fancy. Tell about a favorite surprise in your garden.

In the last voting the water lily got 23 votes, the hibiscus got 12, the castor bean seeds 11, and one vote for the daylilies.

If you read about colored polls two days ago, you should just wait until next weekend. I bought 15 new polls, and at this point they are primed. I got some good colors.

Philip

Saturday, August 13- Colored polls

2011-08-13T05:16:00.003-05:00

6-8-10 years ago (you know how time gets fuzzy?) we went to a show by a glassmaker named Dale Chihuly. It was at the garden conservatory in Garfield Park, in Chicago. It was amazing. There were colored glass of all kinds, sprinkled in with plants and water. I particularly liked the colored spires, in with the tall cactus.

Here is a picture of some of his glass from the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.

I was inspired by the idea of colored glass in the garden. I checked my budget and went and got some inexpensive plastic PCV pipe. I added some spray paint and sprinkled the results around the garden. So far I have only used bright neon orange. Having written this and liked the placement of the two bright newly placed ones on the Fairview shelf, I am off in search of more pipe, and some good colors.
Here is the shelf with color.

Here is a old picture of the garden with some newly painted polls. I use them for plant hangers, hung horizontally. I do think there is a market for brightly colored plant stakes. Most stakes are green, to blend in and not detract from the plant being staked. I like the vision of the winter landscape with colored spires.

This is what you can do in August.
Philip

Thursday, August 11- Pinwheels

2011-08-11T20:53:00.005-05:00

When you have an empty bed one option is to fill it with pinwheels. You will instantly be a hit with the under 5 crowd, who might not really be all that interested in hosta.

They are particularly good in the Spring. Here are pictures from a few years ago.

The major drawback is that sometimes it is hard to have enough of them. I recommend 25 for a start.
It is interesting to hear the garden theories as people come through the garden and observe the pinwheels. My favorite was that pinwheels are put in the garden to keep away the bunnies. When asked I always explain, with a twinkle in my eye, that it is important to place them on an exact north south axis.
Tomorrow I will tell you about the colored polls.
Philip

Wednesday, August 10- The Empty space

2011-08-10T06:53:00.001-05:00

There is so much written about beautiful plants in the garden. Empty dirt just doesn’t get respect.
Look at these pictures. I wanted some space to plant a daylily. The daylily currently is not getting enough sun. So I cleared out the space a few days ago.

There it is- all potential. I could put almost anything there. I know I will put a daylily there. But what else? Should I plant 25 mixed crocuses? How about leaving room for moss roses? There are so many choices.
Maybe I will just let it sit there empty for a few weeks, giving it an occasional turning, perhaps adding some nutritional thing or another.
Here is another advantage. An empty dirt area is rather easy to weed.
So give dirt a chance. Make a fuss over it. That extra attention will be helpful in the long run.

Tuesday, August 9,2011- Windows open

2011-08-09T05:14:00.002-05:00

We opened our windows last night for the first time in what seemed like a month. The cool front came through yesterday afternoon, with a welcome .25 inches of rain. Even when we left the office at 5:30 you could feel a little bit of cool in the air. While we were driving home in the old car, which turned 100,000 this year, the dashboard told us it was 79 degrees.
When we went to sleep we enjoyed the nighttime noises. You don’t hear them with the windows closed. There was the buzz of the cicadas as background noise, with maybe a cricket or two mixed in.
This morning I awakened to the sounds of the 4:30 train across town. There were the repeated whistles, and then that bumping sound when the train cars push into each other. It was clearly time to get up and going.

I am refreshed. This is good. I suppose I should not look at the newspaper. The ideas are tumbling onto this paper. I will put more down tomorrow.
Philip, writing in the dark.

August 7,2011- August is the difficult month

2011-08-07T16:24:00.003-05:00

Welcome

I think I have had some writer’s block. Part of that is because there are just not so many wonderful pictures this time of year. I will tell you a few of my thoughts about August.

When you get to August, it seems like the garden season is almost over.
There are a few daylilies that are still blooming. One appreciates those late bloomers.
It is still awful hot…and muggy. But right there in the ten day forecast in Iowa there are temperatures in the 50’s for the evening lows. Who could imagine a week ago that we might need to find the jackets for our early morning walks?
The bitterly hot weather has left parts of the garden not looking so good. There are hosta with toasted or slug eaten leaves, or even worse.
Did I mention that the morning is getting shorter? Well it is really happening. With the heat this last month I have gardened mostly in the morning before either work or the heat of the day. The days when I would go outside at 5:15 are over. I suppose I could just go in later to work. I won’t even think about that.

But there is still plenty of gardening time left. Annuals that are planted now will still have several months before the first frost. It is time to move things around, in that gardening version of musical chairs. There are areas that are now too shady or too sunny. The shady things have to trade places with the sunny places. That is easier said than done. Which do move first?
So I am preparing beds to welcome new occupants, like the landlords in Iowa City with new students. One bed is going to have little bearded iris. They really should be separated.

But there are still some good pictures.

The water lilies have done well in the heat. I liked this particular picture.

Here is the dinner plate flower from the dwarf hibiscus, called Luna Pink Swirl. For August you really should have hibiscus. The challenge is finding them a good companion, since they really come up very late. Maybe daffodils would work.

I have grown castor bean plants for some time. While they are annuals, they produce their own seed, and will do well till frost. Here is a picture of their seedpods. My daughter Maggie made me a T-shirt with a picture like this from a few years ago. I have not seen another one like it. The seed that is setting this early will mature by frost. It can be collected and then you have lots of seed for the next spring.

Finally here is the double daylily Savannah Knockout. When I saw this picture I recalled that mutant daylily from the last post. I realized that what was happening was that the flower was mutating toward being a true double. Little did I know.

That’s it for this week. Please watch for a change in format for next week. I am thinking about trying a post every 1-2 days. Maybe I will just turn this into a little garden diary for the weeks.

In the voting for the last post
Bright eyed doll 15
Rain with daylily 12
Elise the lily 6
Pizzazz 4

That’s it for today.
I must go pull some weeds.
Philip

Garden news July 25,2011- It's all about the weather

2011-07-25T05:37:00.005-05:00

I have really not wanted to write about the heat. So I won’t. You know it was hot. It may even have been hotter longer later at your place.
I did get out the hose into the garden for the first time in about 3 years. Then it rained 4 inches in 4 days. I can put the hose away for a while. It was nice to have it out, for reasons other than watering plants. The hose is useful for dividing plants. Sometimes a stiff spray is what is needed to blow off the dirt. This makes it easier to separate the roots. What does that get you? Many more plants. What am I going to do with 30 little clivia?

At the same time the lilies are still going strong. I like the sequences you get with the Orientals. It is now time for the white ones.

I do have some voting pictures for you this week.

First up is this lily called Elise. It is an Aurelian hybrid, according to the catalogue. The bug was a bonus. They have been loud this week.

Here is that wonderful photographic combination- flower with rain. The daylily is Holiday Joy. I wonder what holiday it was named for, in late July.

This great lily is Pizzazz. It has it. Enough said.

Here is daylily Bright Eyed Doll. I moved it this last fall, so it is a small plant. I look forward to its explosion in about two years.

Vote away.

---------------------------

In the last voting Banned in Boston, one of the best pictures I can remember, just edged the others, in one of the closest votes ever.
Banned in Boston 14
Trumpet Lily 13
Margaret Seawright 13
Triumphator 9

As a bonus I give you this strange flower, which is mostly a wonderful daylily called Breed Apart. Here is what you would expect. Count the petals. There are 6. If you look at almost every daylily picture you have six petals. Here are two more to illustrate the principle.

Well ever once in a while some mutation happens and there are extra petals. I remember a few years ago this happened with some little iris.
Well this one day blooming flower had 10. This was not just trick photography. The bud next to it bloomed the next day. It was back to normal. Who knows what will happen next?

Enjoy the week.
Philip

Mears Garden news July 10,2011- Color color everywhere

2011-07-10T19:08:00.007-05:00

While there is heat, there is color, and plenty of it. There are the daylilies starting to peak. Then on top of that there are the lilium. What a combination.
There is also no rain. Isn’t there always something? We have not had rain in two weeks. It is starting to have an impact. I got the hose out and put it into position. There is rain in the forecast. And there are Japanese beetles. I don’t know much about them. I am a little worried that I will soon find out. Do they like corn?

You should be sure to check out the extra post this week, all about daylilies.

I am excited about the pictures this week. When you take a lot of pictures and you have great subjects, something good will happen. Try out these pictures. I expect most of them will appear in the contest this winter.

First up is this dramatic daylily called Margaret Seawright. I wonder who she was. I assume she was a friend of some daylily hybridizer. You would think I took this picture with special equipment in the evening. In fact it was taken in the middle of the afternoon, on a sunny day. This daylily is a favorite as it has lots of smaller flowers. As a real token of my affection for this plant, when I liked it so much, I got a second one. There really is only one other named daylily like that- Delmar. I will have to get a good Delmar picture for next week.

This second picture, a trumpet lily, was selected for its curves. The lines are just so…curvy. The color is not bad too.

This next daylily picture just about jumped off the screen when I first saw it. The plant is Banned in Boston. I am not sure why, except it is truly a gaudy flower. The green center is a good touch-that and the black background. This picture was taken at 7:30 in the morning.

Finally here is Triumphator. I was going to call it an Orientpet, which would be a cross between an Oriental lily and a trumpet lily. I checked to make sure and I was wrong. It is a cross between an Oriental lily and an Easter Lily. Go figure. Whatever. It is good.
I should add that it is blooming at the same time as Silk Road, which is an Orientpet. Look at the bonus pictures below and compare. It was tough picking between the two.

There you have one of the most astounding lineups all year. Which one do you like?

---------------------------
In last week’s voting the winner was the Electric lily.
The total votes were
Electric lily 19
Frilly daylily 14
Little Wild lily 11
Red Daylily 8

Here are bonus pictures. Coneflowers do attract butterflies. Here is one such critter.

This is a regular picture of Margaret Seawright.

In taking with my plan of showing you at least one hosta each week, here is City Lights, fast moving up the favorites list.

There are more lilium.

Here is the aforementioned Silk Road. Did I mention that it is 6 feet tall?

Enjoy the week. Stay cool.
Philip

Garden news July 10,2011- Celebrating daylilies

2011-07-10T17:03:00.006-05:00

This extra post this week will be all about daylilies. They are just about at their peek at the moment even though the peek should last a while.

I started growing daylilies about 1988. I had just started encroaching on the front yard at the time. A neighbor, a retired faculty person from the University named Fred McDowell, had a nationally known daylily garden over on Court Street, about two blocks from our house. He also had very little grass, and with the help of several graduate students, grew and kept meticulous several thousand daylilies that would bloom during July. He would offer most for sale. I think he had to keep selling them because otherwise they would get too crowded. He had a price list and for several years, we would go over as a family, (our children were 7 and 9 then) and everyone got to pick out one. So we started adding four lilies a year to the garden.

Daylilies provide the perfect plant for obsession. You start by keeping track of the names and dates and prices of acquisition. Then you add growth information. You count the scapes, as they are called. Most people would call them the stems or stalks. You measure growth from one year to the next. For a while I religiously logged the date of first flower.
And then of course there were photographs.
I added 10-15 plants per year at the height of the obsession. And then I flat out ran out of room. It happens.

So now I like to think I have a healthier attitude. Most of my plants are labeled. I still take photographs. I mostly deadhead the spent blooms, which can take 45 minutes at the peak season.

I have a group of 15-20 plants that are ones that I hybridized. Some of them are rather nice, but so were their parents. That was the point of the experiment. I would cross ones I liked. None of these plants have names. Some do not have labels. (Some are labeled Mears #4 for example.)

What’s to tell about daylilies?
There are very few pests. In fact I do not think I can recall any animal but deer eating daylilies.
They like sun but will grow nicely in 4-5 hours of good sun.
The flowers bloom for only one day. One plant can have 20 scapes when mature and each scape can have 10-15 buds. You can do the math. A plant can bloom for 2-3 weeks.

There are singles and doubles. They come in almost all colors- but blue. Yes there are blacks and whites. I can’t recall ones that are green, but many have green tints to their centers.

There are ones that are so big that they resemble amaryllis. There are some that are tiny, only a few inches wide.

Because they are so easy to hybridize there must be 25,000 or more named varieties.

A new, single fan plant will grow to a vigorous size in 3-4 years.

They bloom over about a six-week period, roughly July 1 to August 15, give or take a week or two depending on whether it is an early or late year.

There are a few rebloomers, and the breeders are certainly working on that. That yellow flowered one you see all over, isn’t a real daylily in my book.

Here are ones that have been blooming this last week in the garden.

First here are a few pictures of Ruby Spider. While it is not a real spider daylily it is about as impressive a single plant as can be. It grows fast too.

Here is an actual spider daylily- called Red Ribbons

Here are some with centers of a different color.

Here are more pictures.

The picture below is Primal Scream. It is a really rich orange.

I really like the picture below. It is Breed Apart. It is almost fuzzy.

That's it for now. There are many that have not even begun to bloom.
While they put on a show for only part of summer, they work as a real back bone for the high summer garden. It does make it difficult to go away during the summer. Maybe trips to Colorado should just always be in June.
Philip

Garden news July 4, 2011- Digging out and there is amazing color

2011-07-04T14:59:00.006-05:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone.

I suppose it is a little like digging out after a big snowstorm. Over this very pleasant three-day weekend we have pulled many a weed and strained many a muscle. Many-no make that-all available weed containers are full. And the paths are clear. Julia’s comment to me was that if we didn’t work, we could catch up with the weeds.
We are not done. But we can imagine "done".

It is daylily time. I think I will devote an entire post this coming week to the variety of color and shapes in the daylily garden. I have a routine. Each morning I wander around and deadhead the daylilies. They do just bloom for one day. Yet an individual plant can have 150 flowers on 20 stalks, which means it can bloom over several weeks. You really should deadhead. By going around each morning you keep track of which ones are blooming each day. Today there was this marvelous pink one, Siloam Double Classic. (The picture is in the bonus section)

And there is my personal daylily section of the garden. In one part of the garden there are plants I hybridized. I played bee and then watched for the seedpod. It was planted and 3 years later, the first bloom.

It was easy this week to get you pictures.

First up is this little lily, which is a native wildflower. It has spread and now there are 6-7 stalks.

Second is the dramatic colored daylily. Go red. I really do like the way the red fades to yellow with the tint of green. You can really see the pollen on the 6 stamens. To cross breed daylilies you take the pollen onto your finger and rub it all over the pistol, which is the one snake like appendage that has no pollen.

Next is another Asiatic lily. This is called something like Electric Orange. It would prefer more sun. But it put up this practically perfect flower.
As I have said this year has been a good one for Asiatic lilies. Perhaps it is because the season is a little later than usual. Maybe usual had been early, so this has been about right. What pinks there are, and yellows and even one that was almost black. It is on my wish list for this fall. Check out the close-up in the bonus section.

Finally come this wonderful close-up of one of the Mears lilies. There are so many great things about the picture. Click on the picture in the blog. Fill up your screen. There is the green glow in the center. There are the veins in the petals. There is the slightly ruffled edge. Did I mention that the plant is almost 4 feet tall? And since it was cross bred right here, it has no name. Now there is a challenge. Think about what name you would give to a daylily you grew from seed.

Vote away.

In the voting last week the winner was the Asiatic lily. The votes were:
Asiatic lily 20
Orchid cactus 12
White Japanese iris 8
Coneflower 6
Thanks for voting.

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Before I get to my garden thoughts, here are some extra pictures.

This is Asiatic lily Kentucky. It gets full sun and is quite happy.

This is a hosta I had to have, just because of the name. There is an hosta from 20 years ago called Blue Angel. It has produced a number of offspring. I have a wonderful Guardian Angel, that real big now. But that is not this still little guy. It is Confused Angel. It has the stripes/streaking that the hybridizers really like.

This is an interesting daylily. It is a well known lily called Siloam Double Classic. Well as you might note it is not double. This plant has reverted to the single flower. It is practically perfect.
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I have been thinking about ways to make the garden easier to maintain. Here are some random thoughts.

Mulch-
I am not a big fan of mulch. Maybe if I had to water more, I would think more of mulch. I do not mulch my hosta, thinking it provides more room for bugs to hide. I do occasionally mulch my daylilies. Mulch does limit the weeds, which saves time. It can also look nice.

Reduce the amount of space in garden-
For the last twenty years I have expanded the amount of area in garden. I added beds. I made the beds larger. This reduced mowing. I have a hard time thinking about putting in grass again. But adding new paths. This actually gets its own paragraph.

I put this path in last year under the pink crabs. It went right in the middle of a bed. This did two things that saved time.
Here is a picture.

It immediately reduced the amount of space in plants. Where there were plants, there is now a wood chip path. Less plants means less work.
More importantly by putting a path right through a bed it makes both sides of the path easier to keep up. There is real easy access to the plants that remain. Deep beds are just harder to maintain. You can’t get back in the back to weed.
There is an additional bonus for more paths. Paths are places for visitors to walk. Paths make it easier for visitors to see the gems in the garden. Ands those gems should be right next to a path. (Unless they are real big.)
I have become a real advocate for paths in the middle of deep beds.

I am taking my own advice. I am looking around the garden and thinking about where to add paths. I have some shelf beds. Here is a picture. I am starting to put a tiny path right in front of it. That way I can walk or sidle along (slide along carefully) instead of having to try to perch on the edge of the shelf. It really is easier to do anything to that bed.
Here is a bed for example that cold use a path. It doesn't have to be straight. It is sort of like putting in a highway. You go around certain towns/plants tyring to get to the other side.

Grow less stuff- With a hosta bed sometimes what is called for, is just taking out every other hosta. Create space around individual plants. Here are hosta that in my opinion are too close together. Since moving one over a bit is not really practical, taking out every other one is the choice. Check out the bed next summer.

Do not crowd the beds as much. I have a tendency to have a bed have a base of some particular plant- hosta and daylilies being the big two. Then I plant things in between the basic plants. Spring bulbs are to start. Then there are phlox and coneflowers and lilium (Asiatic and Orientals). At that point you have to be careful. You really can create a busy bed, which can be nice. Coneflowers as a foil to the daylilies is good. But busy quickly becomes a forest, and then your plants start to drown. Right now I am in a phlox eradication stage.

Watch out for the plants that spread. I have variegated Solomon’s Seal. I started with two plants 20 years ago. I have several mass plantings and then even more that threaten to become mass planting.

Redo your beds every 5 years. With the exception of some hosta, which just get better as they get bigger, many plants don’t do so well after 5 years. The Siberian Iris and certainly the bearded iris need to be reset. Sometimes this just means digging them up. You need to clean up to foliage or the old tubers. There are weeds to untangle. Some weeds need to have the entire plant lifted to get them out.

Just get brutal. Dig up those extra plants. Does anyone out there want some Siberian Iris? They are due for some thinning. Well actually they are due for some composting if new homes don’t materialize.

So with these thoughts and pictures go out and appreciate your garden and the gardens in your neighborhood.
Have a good short week.

Philip

Garden news June 26,2011- News from the overgrown garden

2011-06-26T20:30:00.008-05:00

Hello again. We went to Dubuque last weekend. So I took a week off from the blog. We were away from town for 48 hours, which absolutely took us away from the office.
This provided us with some needed rest. I have felt invigorated to go after the weeds. The color of high summer is just starting up in the garden. The first daylilies have appeared and the Asiatic lilies all around town seem better than I can ever remember them. I went out today and there were pictures to take lots of places. There was even the first water lily of the year.

So here are some pictures and then I will do some of that garden writing that I am never sure that anyone really is interested in.

For you voting pleasure this week I have selected these great pictures.

First there is this positively glowing Asiatic lily.

Second here is this good old fashion coneflower. I have one coneflower at the moment that must be five feet tall.

Third is this white Japanese iris. Yes the Japanese iris are still bringing up the rear. They are the last iris to bloom.

Finally here is this somewhat understated pink orchid cactus. The orchid cactus as a group just have not been blooming much this year. Then again it is still early and the hot days are not yet here. Well they were here but they did not stay around. Maybe the cactus will bloom in July.

In the bonus section this week there will be the many more pictures I have to share. I do not include the water lily in weekly voting because of its professional status.

In the last voting the winner was that great yellow trollius.
It received 24 votes
The maroon Louisiana Iris got 10
The lollypop lily 7
Amaryliis 7

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I thought I would start to write this week about garden simplification, a necessary consideration in light of some of the garden mess I described last week.

Here are some random thoughts, and I will try to put them in some sort of order.

You have to limit your garden to how much time you have. This seems so simple. If you need 20 hours a week to keep up with the garden and you do not have 20 hours a week, for whatever reason, you have to adjust.

There are several ways to adjust.
You can find a helper, whether that is a neighborhood teenage or an out of work friend.
You can cut back on garden projects. Maybe this year I will just not plant annuals.
You can reduce the amount of time it takes to maintain the garden.

Garden work can be divided into maintenance and projects. By maintenance I mean getting the weeds pulled, cutting the grass, deadheading where appropriate, and giving existing plants the care to see that they thrive. That would include fertilizing, thinning, dividing.
Maintenance is so important. A well-maintained garden is one that gives pleasure, and reinforcement to keep going.

Next week I will think about how to reduce maintenance.

Let me now share some of the other great pictures this week.

This is hosta winter snow. It is positively glowing.

This is one of the several blooming clivia. It has three bloom stalks at the moment. They are so happy to be outside in this humid weather. Now I have to figure out what to do with the 25 seedlings I have.

Have a good week.
Philip

Garden news June 13,2011- Rain, summer, bugs and weeds

2011-06-13T19:09:00.013-05:00

Garden news June 13,2011- Rain, summer, bugs and weeds

Been there. Done that. It started to rain again. We had over three inches in three days. Places near Des Moines had closer to 9 inches. I remember decades when I would have to water the garden. I had a front yard hose and a back yard hose. I don’t think I have had that set up in 4 years.
And with the rain came wonderful cool weather. I can comfortably wear a jacket in the morning, which keeps off…the bugs. And I have to be outside to pull…the weeds.

Everything is growing. My daylily beds are a mess. Here is the prescription for a messy bed. Start with plenty of nice daylilies. Let them grow for 5 years. Plant things like lilium in between. Sprinkle in some coneflowers and phlox for interest. Add weeds and there you have it. The worst part is that I can get to the weeds to pull them up. Actually with all the rain pulling weeds is a piece of cake.

Let's looks at some pictures.

First I have this great yellow crown. It is a trollius or globeflower. It is not a big plant. It comes back year after year with the same single flower.

Second is this Louisiana Iris. With all that rain these bog loving plants are doing well. My daughter Katie got me 5-6 of them several years ago and now they are finally blooming. Put them in that wet area and stand back. Whoever said that there were no red iris? This is getting close.

Here is the Asiatic Lily Lollipop. Say that name real fast. At least this Asiatic lily really does clump up. Say that fast. It’s a theme.

Finally here is one of close to a dozen Amaryllis that has been blooming this last week. How does he do it? Well these plants were shut up in a closet for six months. Some people call it plant abuse. I call it maintaining dormancy. I bring in the bulbs in October and put them away in the dark. When they come out they go outside in late April. The buds just emerge. I have about 25 at this point, of which about half bloomed recently. It is quite a statement for the garden in early summer.

Vote away

In last week’s voting the runaway winner was the amazing pink poppy. The full voting was
Poppy 27
Peony 8
Blue Iris 7
Yellow iris 3
2 red poppies 2

For your bonus pleasure-
Here are several more Louisiana Iris.

Here are more Amaryllis.

Have a good week.
Philip

Mears Garden news- June 6, 2011- And then there was summer

2011-06-06T19:54:00.010-05:00

Summer has arrived in Iowa. It was bound to happen. Summer can be a good thing. If you like swimming pools.
Or I suppose if you like summer plants. There will be daylilies and lilium and caladium. How’s that for positive.
I remember a few years ago. We had a few weeks where it was not comfortable outside after about 6 a.m.
I am concerned that this could be another stretch.

I do have some good pictures this week.

First there is this wonderful pink poppy picture. I have no idea how you get a black background when you take a picture during the daytime. I can do it. These oriental poppies just look like they are made crepe paper.

Then there is this blue Siberian Iris. What a blue.

This next picture is a peony. It is called coral something. There are lots these coral poppies these days. The single peonies hold their heads up better that the really heavy ones we see all over.

Finally here is a yellow iris. You don’t see many yellow Siberian Iris. This one comes back year after year but doesn’t get much bigger. That’s permitted in a yellow Siberian Iris.

So for something very different here is a fifth picture. It is another poppy. Talk about your crepe paper.

In last weeks voting the totals were
Purple Siberian Iris 18
Blue baptista 9
Red clematis 6
White iris 4

Stay cool. Remember that the caladium really like this weather.
Philip

Garden news- May 30, 2011- And then there was color

2011-05-30T19:19:00.004-05:00

Welcome to another 3 posts at once.

All of a sudden there is color in the garden. The hundreds of Siberian Iris started a week ago. Then along came the peonies and now the poppies.
It seems like there is a lot of blue. There are the blues and purples of the Siberian Iris. The big allium globes have begun and the blues of the false indigo, aka baptista is also here.

And amidst it all there is….. so much work to do. The spent foliage from the bluebells is the easy part. There are enough weeds to fill many containers. I give the containers of weeds to the city and have the black gold of their compost in return. What a trade.

I did finish my hosta blog. You will find it below this one. I also have posted some overviews of the backyard. Sometimes when you just get flowers you don’t see the big picture. I will try to show you glimpses of that over the next few weeks.

Here are four pictures for your voting pleasure this week, as the different colors check in.

First up is the color red, one of my clematis, I think Nirobe. I am encouraged by my 7-8 clematis at this point. They are all growing well. I will just have a few more years to go and they should do that “covered with flowers” thing.

Purple is represented by this Siberian Iris, with a great background featuring a ground cover euphorbia, that sometimes is a weed.

White is the simplicity of another Siberian Iris. White is good.

Finally here is this great picture of a single flower from the baptista. In case you did not recognize it, it is in the pea family.

The summer of color is only beginning.
Next week will feature some poppies.

In the voting from 2 weeks ago the first place picture was
The tree peony with 18 votes
Lady slipper orchid 10
Trillium 10
Camassia 6

Be sure to check out the extra posts.
Philip

Garden overview May 30, 2011

2011-05-30T18:50:00.006-05:00

As I tell you about hosta this year I think I should show you the view from the sky- well actually the second floor. This is the backyard. I took out a screen so I could take pictures. Maybe next week I will tell you about the front and the sides.

It really becomes a patchwork quilt of hosta colors. The blues are best this time of year.

Hosta thoughts May 30, 2011

2011-05-30T18:14:00.006-05:00

It is the end of May 2011 and as I look out at the garden from any upstairs window I see hosta. They really are the year round backbone of the garden.

I would like to do several things in this post.
1- I want to identify my own personal top ten hosta. I would like to do this so I can look back in 3-4 years and see how that has changed.
2- I want to give you a list of hosta that are newer and might move into that list in the next few years.
3- Finally I want to just tell you my hosta tips- or at least the ones that come to mind.

Top ten hosta and why.

Liberty- If you only have to have one hosta this is it. It gets big, but not enormous. It grows rather quickly and has great color contrast. It is still rather new, having only been around for maybe 5 years.

June- This one is real close to the top. It is a wonderful powdery blue, splashed with yellow, which will be more or less gold depending on how much sun it gets. (The more sun the more gold.)

Sagae- This one is a big hosta but stands up well. As with most of these favorites it needs space. It likes to be the center of attention. It can be all by itself.

Montana Aureomarginata- I sometime think of this hosta as the showgirl of the garden. It has striking color contrast. It is upright, meaning it doesn’t hug the ground like June. It is like a fountain shooting up.

Sum and Substance- This is the original giant hosta. I have a specimen in the front yard that must be ten years old. It is probably the biggest hosta in the yard. It is on the yellow side, has only the one color, and has big leaves. As a plant it has been around for a while and is a parent of a number of other hostas.

Pandora’s Box- this is the only mini hosta in my top ten. The individual leaves are maybe an inch long. It is no more than 3 inches high. (This is in contrast with the Sum and Substance leaf that might be 20 inches long.) While it is tiny it looks like some nicely striped regular size hosta. In the second picture Pandora's box is next to several other small or mini hostas.

El Nino- This is a smaller blue one with a distinctive white edge. Give it some dark mulch and wow. I really like the blue ones with edges. This is the best one I have found. While the top two listed above are at the top of the list the remaining 8 are in no particular order. I like El Nino more and more.

Guardian Angel- This is one of your streakers. It comes from Blue Angel, which is a big blue hosta. That means it gets big. It can take overhead sun. I have a mature clump that is gets a bed of its own.

Great Expentations- This hosta was on the cover of the main book about hosta 20 years ago. I had a really nice clump that I divided 7-8 years ago. It is regrowing but is still not the size it was. That is another way of saying it is slow. It is worth the wait.

Lady Isabel Barnett- This hosta came from Sum and Substance so has the size and shape of that plant. It is green with a yellow. It is another specimen plant. I mean it can handle a bed of its own. You want space around it so you can see the entire plant.

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honorable mention for old favorites
Abba Dabba Do
Love Pat
Krossa Regal
Spilt Milk
Whirlwind
Gold Standard
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Hostas to watch that are relatively new
Empress Wu
Sleeping Beauty
Mount Tom
Queen of the Seas
Winter Snow
Gunther’s prize
Mighty Mouse

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Hosta observations:

Except for dwarf or mini hostas, hostas need space. They display so much better if there is room between them. There is nothing nicer this time of year than a well tended hosta bed where there is space between the plants. Put down some mulch around the plants and stand back. Let the color contrasts between the yellows, greens, and blues provide the interest.

Hostas transplant easily. In order to get or keep that space between the hosta, you do have to move them. The best time clearly is early spring when they first come up. That is the ideal time to divide them. At the same time if you want to move an entire clump you can do that on a cool day at almost any time.
I did read a good tip this spring, which was actually for transplanting lilies. The tip was to prepare the in hole before you dug up the plant to move. While this is rather obvious you don’t always do it. Of course you should not only dig the in hole but you should mix in the compost or fertilizer first.

Hostas grow at different speeds. Some accommodating hosta will be slow. Sometimes this is a positive. Most grow so quickly I find myself wanting some shrinking product. I wonder if there is sort of an anti fertilizer. Someone suggested just mixing in some clay.

There are a number of hosta that should be displayed almost individually. Guardian Angel is one. You want a real circle around it with not much else.

There are times when I am overwhelmed with the garden. How can I possibly keep up, unless I retire and just garden?
At those times I think about simplifying the garden. Having these large hosta, that take up a lot of space, is one thing to do. Let them grow in the spring, give them some mulch, and that’s it. There is not much else to do before September.

Some hosta, like other plants, take a few years to really get going. I know we all understand that for something like daylilies. Well, hosta can take the same 3 years, particularly the larger ones. In deciding what hosta to plant check them out in an established hosta garden. The Dubuque Arboretim has one of the largest collections in the country.
It is a place to see lots of really mature plants. Make your decision as to what to plant based on what the plant will look like in 5 years.
Please understand I am not suggesting you plant your hosta 10 feet apart. That’s where the moving them comes in. Plant them with the understanding that some will need to be moved in several years.

There are lots of companion plants to hosta. I would start with early spring blubs. They will be finished by the time the hosta get big. Bluebells work quite well, and as you have seen from this blog, the work well with the big hosta.
Daffodils are fine, but you do need to leave the spent folliage longer than you might wish. I realize that some of those wonderful looking hosta gardens at the moment look good because they had zero spring bulbs. That is your trade off. And as we all know it is all about trade offs. You make your choices and there are consequences.

So enjoy this wonderful plant. I really do think it is at its best right now. The colors really are wonderful.

Garden news- May 15, 2011- The in between time

2011-05-15T16:04:00.006-05:00

I think of this little time in Iowa as the "in between time."

Maybe I am just trying to find something positive to say. It got hot last week, way up in the lower 90’s for a few days. The heating/cooling system in our house really got a work out. And after it was hot for a few days, it cooled off, more than you would have wanted. I don’t think it quite made it to 50 yesterday. We did get a much-needed rain, for most of the weekend. There, that is positive.

The heat finished the bluebells and daffodils. The crabapple trees bloomed for maybe 2-3 hours. Several tree peonies bloomed and the flowers did not last more than a day.

But as someone said- that is life in the Midwest.

Now there is old bluebell foliage in with the other finished spring bulbs. Weeds, including the proverbial and perennial dandelion are all over the place. It takes a trained and discriminating eye to appreciate the garden at the moment.
We are in the midst of the May in between time. It will be several weeks before the old foliage starts to get out of the way. While the buds from the iris and peonies and poppies are coming, they aren’t here yet.

You have to wander around to find the color, as the green and blues of the hosta predominate. I will try to write sometime soon about hosta. They really are wonderful, particularly this time of year. They just can’t compete with flower pictures.

So what do I have for you this week?

First here is a picture of an underappreciated late spring bulb, that fills in this between time. It is called camassia. This dainty pale lavender flower is one of two colors of camassia that I have established in the backyard. Please see the bonus pictures for more camassia.

The second picture is one of the tree peonies. Tree peonies bloom earlier than their herbaceous cousins. Tree peonies are called that since they form shrubs, which can get to 6 feet high. They can last for a real long time. They have really big flowers.

The third picture is the lady slipper orchid called Gisela. It is one of the cypripediums, which live outside even in the north, and under some conditions can thrive. There is a pink one, reginae, which is the Minnesota state flower. Gisela is supposed to be one of the easiest to grow.

The final picture this week is a close-up of Trillium grandiflorum. When you saw it two weeks ago it was white. What a transformation. Check out the bonus pictures to see if change in the entire clump.

Have fun with your voting this week.

In the voting last week the totals were:
Primrose close-up 43
Busy tulip 15
Anemone close-up 12
Dwarf iris 10

For your bonus pictures this week first are more camassia.

Here is the grandiflorum trillium clump, before and after.
May 8, 2011

May 13, 2011

May 13, 2011

Finally I mentioned last week that I had lost several trillium. Well this one, trillium simile, just showed up, already in flower. I don’t know how I missed it. I was sure it had not made it. You just never know sometimes.

Have a good week.
Philip

Garden news- May 8, 2011- It is getting even better.

2011-05-08T16:05:00.001-05:00

I keep thinking that it doesn’t get any better than this in the garden. Then it seems to get better. Yesterday was one of those days you would like to bottle up and bring out in darkest January. It was sunny, and warm but not hot. There were flowers at every turn. The blues and yellows of April were still there, as the late daffodils still mingle with the bluebells. (I am not even going to mention the occasional yellow of the dandelions, which provide me with enough work to keep me busy all by themselves.) What was different were the splashes of brighter color from the occasional tulip.
Tulips are good, with their purples and bright reds. A mass planting is good. But I like the occasional or even individual tulip, dancing all alone in a part of the garden where they stand out.
I sometimes think about the focal point flower. This is the flower than you see from across the yard, or the passing car. This is not subtle. Certain oriental poppies come to mind. They are the bright reds ones. We have a pink tree peony that some years has fulfilled this role. Then there is Ruby Spider, the daylily. But back to the present.
Not all flowers are focal point flowers. Some are so small that you have to wander around for a while before you even notice them. There was that last double bloodroot, whose bloom yesterday marked the 25-day since the first group bloomed in this little clump. That’s right- the first group of three, which I showed you, bloomed on April 13.

So what do I have for you this week? There are three more posts, as I have three groups of pictures. First there are the best pictures of the week, pictures I expect you will see again in the next picture contest way off in the future. Second there are additional posts for more daffodils and tulips. Finally there are pictures of everything else, which covers a lot.

So lets do this.

The best pictures this week, were the best from many. Let’s here it for digital photography. Remember when you had to take pictures to be developed? Gosh is that a long time ago or what. Was that before or after cell phones or email?

First up is a close-up of the primrose you liked from last winter. It is bigger and better this spring. I am not ready to divide it. It is still a keeper. When you have a good plant, my motto is “get more”.

Second is another close-up. This is anemone Sylvestris. This spreading little spring bloomer looks just like the fall anemone. The close up is just about the same. In the bonus pictures with this post I show you a close up of the fall flower.

Third is this wonderful dwarf bearded iris. The bearded iris have started their month long run. The short ones (dwarf bearded) start first, which only seems appropriate. I have neglected these plants somewhat. They needed dividing and replanting, which should be done in August. The problem is that when you divide iris you have something like seven million.
I do like the dwarf ones, as they completely do not need staking. They also bloom now which is sometimes a slower time in the garden, between the riot of spring bulbs and the riot of such perennials as daylilies and other lilies.

Finally I had a hard time picking one tulip. That is why they get a separate post with some daffodils. This one, with is not a monsella, has got the monsella colors and is even more busy. Imagine this picture blown up real big. For that matter put it on your full screen for an effect.

There you have it. What a selection this week.
Vote away.

In last week’s voting the results were:
Tulip close-up 20
Pulmonaria 13
Epimedium 5
Daffodil 3
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For your bonus viewing here are the non close-ups of the anemone and the primrose. There is also a close-up of the white fall anemone.(from last fall)

Enjoy the week. Here come the crab apple trees.
Philip

More pictures May 8, 2011

2011-05-08T15:48:00.005-05:00

Here are other highlights from the garden this weekend.

First here are two different pasque flowers, which are pulsatilla vulgaris. While I am still waiting for them to bush up, they have come back for 2 successive springs and seem to be healthy. That’s not a bad report card. The seedpods are good too. I will try to show them to you in a few weeks.

Here are more primroses. There are quite a few varieties. I think I am just scratching the surface.

This is a forget-me-not. It is a perennial the has lasted for years now. I will always have a fondness for this family as I remember its two-inch tall cousin that grows in the alpine areas, even above tree line. We know it from Rocky Mountain National Park, along trail Ridge Road. That is one of my favorite drives, as long as someone else is behind the wheel.

Finally here are some trillium. These 4 varieties come back for me. I have tried to get more exotic types. They died. That happens.

Enjoy.
Philip

Extra post May 8, 2011- More spring bulbs

2011-05-08T13:31:00.006-05:00

Here are more daffodils and tulips from this weekend.
This tulip is Shirley, and is Julia's favorite, unless maybe it is Monsella.

This double was rather special.

The little tiny daffodils are among the last to bloom. They really are cheerful and about the size of a bluebell flower.

Here are a few more that jumped out at me yesterday.

Enjoy

Garden news- May 1, 2011- Another 3 posts in one day

2011-05-01T22:10:00.004-05:00

Greetings
Please note that there are 3 separate posts this week.

From every corner of the garden comes some gem these days. I discovered some lupine seedlings this afternoon, in an area that had seemed empty. Not so. You just have to look long enough and you will see the gems that you overlooked before, or maybe just showed up.
The bluebells have been peaking. The epimedium are better and better. There was even another double bloodroot, giving me the almost perfect single flower picture of a double bloodroot. Watch for it in November.

So I will give you some pink pictures for voting this week.

First up is this inside of a small tulip.

Then there is the best pulmonaria in my opinion, raspberry splash. It has a good name too.

Here is a close up of epimedium Cherry Tart.

Finally there is this daffodil. It is what I refer to as a designer daffodil. A friend gave me this bulb last summer. It is one of the daffodils created by a family named Mitsch. Maybe I told you about this family last year. They have been hybridizing daffodils since 1930. Here is their webcite.

Mitsch Daffodils

On the other hand check out the prices. Most daffodils from bulb companies cost 50 cents to maybe $1.50 each. These daffodils from the Mitsch company can be…let’s just say… much more.
If you had an unlimited budget…why go there?

So which of these do you like?

In last week’s voting the order of finish was:
Leucojum 16
Tulip 13
Hosta 11
Epimedium 6

Enjoy the week
Philip

Garden news- May 1, 2011-Daffodils

2011-05-01T21:43:00.005-05:00

Daffodils- Is there a better plant for the garden?
Since it has stayed cool the daffodils have put on a real show this year. There is such an array of colors and styles.
Here are just some of the varieties from 2011.
I wish I could make this into a slideshow for you…and add music. Maybe next year.

Garden news- May 1, 2011- Bluebells

2011-05-01T21:29:00.005-05:00

There are bluebells all over. I have had bluebells for years. I really don’t remember where they came from. Maybe there were a few when we moved in 29 years ago. I certainly don’t remember them. I know I did not go buy them from garden center. Actually I have never seen them at a garden center. You can buy them from some bulb catalogues.
I find it amusing that people will buy them as bulbs. (Their bulb looks like a carrot.) It is sort of like buying lilies of the valley.
In any event they spread and now are most places except for a few places where I discourage them.
They are wonderful in so many ways.
They bloom and then get out of the way. They will be all gone by June 1.
They spread, which is not surprising given the fact that every flower will become a seed.
They make such a wonderful contrast with so many other plants. Daffodils- good. Big hosta- good. Little plants- not so good. They can crowd things out.

So here are bluebells in the garden-2011.

Garden news- April 24, 2011- A time warp

2011-04-24T20:39:00.006-05:00

Greetings

If you have to be stuck in a garden time warp, April in Iowa is just about the best time. With temperature between 35 and 55 all week, everything remains the same. We even had late bloodroot blooming today, both single and double. That makes two weeks they have been blooming. And the daffodils are staying around and now have the accompaniment of the early bluebells with a splash of tulip here and there.
I can wonder around and around with trowel in hand, filling up the weekly yard waste container with dandelions and other plants that do not belong.

I have been thinking about garden structure these days. I am not talking about trees or raised beds. I am thinking about the types of plants that form the backbone of a garden, the recurring plants that create themes by repetition. This does not mean that there are 30 plants all the same, scattered around the yard. This means that there might be 30 plants of one type, with different varieties scattered around.
You then think of the season as being the daffodil, bluebell, hellebore, epimedium and pulmonaria season. Did I leave anyone out? I don’t think so.
Later there will be the hosta/iris and poppy time.

These plants are the backbone of the garden for that time of year.

Once you understand your backbone, you see the plants where there are maybe 3-5 varieties. This is not enough to be a backbone plant. They are more than just a single specimen.
Right now my primroses and some non traditional bulbs are in this category. Remember leucojums? They are splashed around 3-4 places in the garden. But you do want to group them so you can compare the varieties, which will mostly be blooming around the same time. There should be 3-4 leucojum plants in one area, and that should be repeated in other parts of the garden.

Finally there are the individual plants where there is just the one clump. Julia has told me that I really don’t have anything in this category. If I do it is just because all the rest died. But any garden must have these plants, which you are trying out to see if you like them. Of course if you do like them you must get more, and then they move up in the classification.

But let me show you pictures.

For those of you who like to vote, here are four good pictures from this last week.

First here is hosta Sagae, in with the bluebells. This great clump performs year after year. The hosta is big enough that it gets above the bluebells, something that some hosta could not do.

Here is a tulip, maybe Mrs. John Sheepers. Unlike some tulips this one does come back, year after year.

Here is your favorite, the leucojum. Those green tips are nice.

Finally here is epimedium alpinum. I don’t know if I have ever photographed any flower so small. I have included the second picture just so you get an idea as to how tiny this flower is. The plant label is maybe 3 inches long.
This plant is in its third spring. It is a keeper.

Have fun with this vote.

In last weeks voting the tallies were
Double bloodroot 20
Hellebore 8
Daffodil 7
Purple anemone 6

For your bonus pleasure here are more daffodils, tulips, another double hellebore, and some anemones.

Have a good week. Remember our garden is always open so that people can just wander through. It is a good time of the year.
Philip

Garden news- April 17, 2011- some great pictures

2011-04-17T17:17:00.004-05:00

Greetings and welcome to high spring in Iowa.
After a week off I have lots of posts and pictures for you this week. I have posted separate posts all about hellebores and bloodroot today. Then there is this post giving you three in one day. Would that make it a “hat trick”? Why is it called a “hat trick” or do you even know what I am talking about?

The garden is exploding. The bluebells have started and will peak in another week or so. We had a nice rain yesterday and now the temperatures will stay on the cool side, but still above freezing. I can put more plants outside, keeping a watch on that 10 day forecast.

In addition to the special posts this week, I have four great pictures for those of you who just like to vote for something

First is the double bloodroot, a real gem.

Second is an anemone blanda, that is purple. I like it that the plant is called blanda, meaning white, but it comes in a variety of colors, like this purple.

Third is this simple daffodil. There is something majestic about simplicity sometimes.

Finally there is the double hellebore, with a little assist from my hand. Sometimes a little boost is necessary.

Have at it.

For those of you with memories and curiosity in the extra voting from two weeks ago from crocus pictures:

White clump 18
Tricolor clump 14
Striped clump 4
Lots of clumps 2

That’s it from here.
Enjoy the spring. The trees have started their show.
Philip

garden news April 17, 2011- hellebores

2011-04-17T05:33:00.007-05:00

Hellebores

I want to talk to you about Hellebores.

They really have become one of the mainstays of my April garden.
I don’t really remember even knowing what a hellebore was until about 10-12 years ago. I had none in my garden. (We moved here in 1982.) We went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, a wonderful place, one spring in about 2000. There were these great big plants blooming like crazy in April. I had to get some. The first two I got did so-so. I got a few more and then started adding several each spring. I seems like it takes them a few years to get going, even when you get bigger plants from specialty nurseries. But this spring they have never been better.

Here are things to know.

They come in a variety of colors. Black and gold are the school colors for the University of Iowa. I sometimes envisioned a bed with just these two varieties.

There are singles and doubles.

There are speckles that are doubles.

They really are early, not minding the cold. These two pictures were taken on March 20, almost a month ago.

The only real problem, if it is a problem, is that the flowers mostly hang down. Sometimes it is hard to see the flower faces.
And they get better and better with time.
They grow in the shade, but they bloom in the spring, when shade doesn’t really mean what it means in July.

Enjoy these pictures and consider adding hellebores to your garden.

Philip

Garden news- April 17, 2011- Bloodroot

2011-04-16T05:55:00.007-05:00

I want to talk about bloodroot. There are also pictures.

This native wildflower has become established in my garden. I have 4 “clumps” or areas where the single bloodroot grows. I have one clump of the double flowered variety.

You can now get bloodroot “bulbs” from several catalogues.
It takes some patience, but lots of plants take patience. You get a single plant, which is usually one flower the first year. Maybe there will be two flowers the next year. After several years you can have a clump. After 6-7 years you may have a colony.

Bloodroot blooms for a few days and then is done. The foliage will stick around most of the year. This is good because you don’t want to plant anything on top of it.

I have had the double variety for 3-4 years. There were 6 shoots this year. It seems to really be established. Again it is a wonderful flower that you must enjoy for that brief few days when it blooms.

Here you can see the progression of the most established clump. The first picture is April 2.

April 5

April 6

April 9

Here is this same clump from April 15, 2009. You can see how it has spread.

Week 18- Mears Garden picture contest-April 3, 2011-And we have a winner.

2011-04-03T17:41:00.003-05:00

Welcome to week 18 of the Garden Picture contest.

Your winner for the Fifth Annual Picture contest is the Leucojum. It just edged out the blue Siberian iris. Both the primrose and orchid cactus had solid support in finishing out the field.
And winter is done. We know winter is done for so many reasons. Snow is gone. Well there was that little surprise earlier this week. The winter coat has been put away. Well, it hasn’t, at least for the early morning walks. The dark is shrinking. But it is still quite dark on cloudy days in the morning.
But flowers are back. There are new pictures to be taken. Right now there are snowdrops and aconite and crocuses. We had the first daffodil yesterday. I had seen some daffodils around Iowa City earlier in the week. And there are squill and chiondoxa. Maybe that can be the new word for the day. Some of these flowers are even finished for the year.
Springtime means that the garden is new again. There is promise. There are sprouts and buds. I mistyped a letter and originally wrote that there were bugs. I guess that is true too. I went out earlier this week and the crocuses were buzzing. The bees have emerged. As the blue squill have started to bloom, I wonder if there will be blue pollen.

The full voting this past week was as follows
Leucojum 26
Blue Iris 25
Primrose 13
Orchid Cactus duo 12

So that’s it for the contest. We made it through the winter. It is now it is on to a new season.
I will leave you with a little bonus set of flowers for voting. I will then pause for the week and think about what to do next.
Striped crocus clump

Tricolor crocus clump

White crocus clump

Lots of Crocus clumps

The blog will continue, in some form. I hope you have enjoyed this little diversion.
Come by if you have a chance. Later this week there will be bloodroot.
Philip

Mears Garden Picture Contest-Week 17- March 20, 2011- The finals

2011-03-27T13:40:00.006-05:00

Welcome to week 17 of the Garden Picture contest.

So here we are enjoying springtime. It is official. You know it is springtime since it is so dark at 6:30 in the morning. Let's hear it for daylight savings time. This weekend I put on my winter coat and went out and raked some more. Actually everyday something else emerges, even if the temperatures struggle to get to 40 degrees.
Yesterday I discovered the first trillium of the spring. Crocuses are all over, even if it is just about too cold for them to open. If that happens you enjoy the crocus buds, like little narrow light bulbs, sticking up in clumps.

In last week’s voting you selected the last entry in the final week of the picture contest. After 16 weeks of voting we are down to the final four pictures.

The actual winner last week was the red and yellow primrose. The full voting was as follows:

Primrose 25
Iris 17
Fritillaria 14
Orchid cactus 14

So here we go with the final finals. You get to pick the best picture for 2010. Remember you picked these finalists. There is really quite a color spectrum

First up is the white leucojum. They really do look like snowdrops on stilts.

Second is the orchid cactus duo. These beauties are amazing, but do have to come inside for the winter.

Third is the remarkably blue Siberian iris. Blue is such a wonderful color. Soon the garden will turn blue, first with the squill or silla, and then with bluebells. The bluebells are actually emerging right now.

Finally is the entry from last week, the primrose. More-more-more. That’s what you have to say about primroses.

Have at it. Tell me which one you like as the picture of the year.

For your bonus pleasure this week there are pictures from this week in the garden. The last few pictures were from this weekend, when on Saturday the crocuses stayed shut even with sunshine. Today the temperature maybe got up to 45. That was enough for the crocuses to open. It is good.

The picture below is the somewhat fading aconite. A week ago they shared the stage only with the snowdrops. Today they have to compete with much more color.

The picture below was taken on Saturday, when it was too cold to bloom.

Have a good week. Find some sunshine.
Philip

Mears Garden Picture Contest-Week 16- March 20, 2011- Real time snowdrops

2011-03-20T14:16:00.008-05:00

Welcome to week 16 of the Garden Picture contest.

What a glorious time. The temperature has spiked and I have put on shorts for the first time of the spring. There are flowers all over the place.
The first crocus bloomed on Wednesday. It was this little yellow one. I could make it a sign. It would say “first crocus.” Others were not far behind. The pink tommasinianus crocuses followed. They are the ones that supposedly the squirrels do not like. And then there is the aconite. It is all over the place. I must make my first 2011 note to myself. Plant those pink early crocuses in with the aconite. They do bloom at the same time. How do you remember where to plant these tiny bulbs, months later, when the foliage is done? Take pictures- where the goal is just to remember where things were. My little camera has a small memory movie function. It even has sound. You can literally make a note to yourself on the movie.

As the flowers arrive, so do the bees. I can just imagine that first bee going out from wherever bees live over the winter. The bee checks out the yard, like the bird on Noah’s ark. At first there are no flowers. They can all stay asleep longer. Then the snowdrops arrive. By the time the aconite is blooming the bees are busy again. It is no wonder that aconite seeds get fertilized. The ratio of bee to flower is rather high.

How about the contest?
Last week the winner was the leucojum, giving us 3 of the final four.
The full voting was
Leocojum 27
Crocuses 16
Bloodroot 13
Pansies 5

In this week’s contest there are plenty of bright colors.

First up is the yellow fritillaria. Some of these fritillaries were actually coming up now in the warmer microclimates in the garden.

Second is this dark pink orchid cactus. Who said that red and pink cannot go together?

Third is this brightly colored primrose. My second note to myself is to get more primroses. Actually that might have been a note to myself from when I posted this picture in the contest.

Finally here is a wonderful Japanese iris. It is fitting that you see the last iris of the year about the time that the first one will bloom in the garden. The little riticulata iris have emerged and should have bloomed by next weekend.

Vote away.

For your bonus pleasure here are pictures from this week.
They need no introduction.

If you are in the neighborhood just come by. It is a rather exciting time of the year.
Philip Mears

Picture Contest- Week 15- March 13, 2011-Right around the corner

2011-03-08T05:36:00.005-06:00

Welcome to week 15 of the Garden Picture contest.

Now there are aconite in the garden. There are not yet the groups from last week's contest. I can only imagine what there will be next week. This is a great time of the year.

We are on the road this weekend so this will be a short post. I should tell you that spring is not yet come to Chicago. It does seem to be in the forecast. Just wait for this Wednesday.

Some of you might remember the pictures of the geese from several weeks ago. I went back and checked and those pictures were taken on March 10, 2010. Well those geese came through or rather above Iowa City this week on Tuesday March 8. They were way up high and there were hundreds of them. They came in waves- maybe 4-5 groups. It was pretty neat.

As to the contest this last week the winner was the orchid cactus. It advances to the final four in two weeks.
The full voting was:

Orchid cactus 23
Frilly Iris 17
Trillium 13
Aconite 11

In this week’s contest there are four more early spring pictures from last year.

First there is this great group of pansies. Pansies can over-winter in Iowa. You plant them in the fall and they will come back strong in early spring. This picture was taken on April 17.

Then there is this April 10 picture of leucojem. They really are like lilies of the valley on steroids. Lots of people know about the usual spring bulbs- crocuses, tulips, and daffodils. I really encourage people to check out some of the other distinctive spring bulbs. Leucojems are in this category along with riticulata iris, and fritillaria.

Next up is this wonderful double bloodroot. Bloodroot is a native wildflower, found in woodlands I assume all over. The double variety is just one of those rare mutations that someone found that apparently are stable and then jumped on by the plant sellers. I will let you know this spring how they spread. I have a little clump that was planted a few years ago and have come back so far.

Finally there are crocuses. This is what can happen if you leave them alone. I will try to find this clump today and put a picture of them in the bonus section- maybe next week. Talk about anticipation.

Vote away. Spring is here. You can smell it in the morning. You can hear it when you go out for the paper.

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Philip

Mears Garden Picture Contest-Week 14- March 6, 2011- Real time snowdrops

2011-03-06T12:07:00.008-06:00

Welcome to week 14. Here are the real time snowdrops.

Actually, even with temperatures not getting much above freezing recently, we have many things emerging (not counting the moles and I will try to avoid that subject). The hellebores are coming alive, as are the crocuses. And there is yard work. I seems that I do a lot of raking in the fall. Nevertheless there is always an amazing amount of stuff- leaves and sticks and old foliage, left for spring yard work. So I was back at it yesterday, remembering several important lessons from the past.
First, don’t do too much at one time. Those shoulder muscles have to get used to being used. (Those words really are spelled the same but sound different. That is interesting for being so close together.) I set some defined task rather than trying to rake the entire front yard. I will clean up this one defined garden area. (I actually do have about 20 of these in the yard. There the back yard raised bed. There is the oblong bed. There is the lupine bed. You get the picture.) Sometimes I will set as a goal to fill up one garbage can with debris. Then I can do something else.
This last point is related to the second point. Give yourself a manageable defined task. Not only do you save your body from overwork, you also feel the sense of accomplishment of having finished something.

I also wish to report that there are booming daffodils in Missouri. My mother reports they blooming in Springfield, along with the tiny iris.
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In last week’s contest the winner was the Blue Siberian Iris, by the slimmest of margins. But a win counts as a win. In the end a big win is about the same as a little win.
Here is the full voting:
Siberian Iris 24 for 33.3%
Snowdrops 23 for 31.9%
Daylily 19 for 26.4%
Daffodils 6 for 8.3%
Total voting 72

This week’s contest, to pick the second flower in the final four, again features some early flowers.

First is this great trillium, which appeared on April 25. Once spring starts it often goes really fast. It was the winner in Week 5.

The second picture is this group of winter aconite. This particular picture, the wild card entry from week 2, was taken on March 10, just about a year ago. We are maybe 7-10 days behind last year. I did however see some aconite foliage in one little microclimate. I am aware of microclimates particularly at this time of year. There are parts of the garden that the sun just doesn’t reach. The ground stays frozen there much longer. I really should push this theory by trying some zone 6 plants right up against the house, on the south side. Because of microclimates we do have aconite coming up in different parts of the yard for several weeks.
What I like about this picture is that you can see the generations of aconite, as they self-seed.

The third picture is the pairs winner from Week 7, the orchid cactus. They bloomed on May 24 last year. They hang from the trees. They do have to wait for the leaves to come out in the different trees. If you put them into the sun without shade they will sunburn. That is true for most any plant that has spent the winter inside. I brought some hellebore seedlings inside in November and grew them under lights for the winter. I am trying to confuse their genes. Some of them got to go outside for the first time yesterday, when it was cloudy. I put them outside again this mourning. Because it is sunny I should really go out and get them out of the sun.

Finally there is this pink frilly tall beard iris, from May 5 and Week 3. That week began on December 19. Hello everyone, winter is almost in the past tense.

Vote away.

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For your bonus pleasure today there are real time pictures from the garden today.

Here is another snowdrop picture. If you will notice there are lots of little sprouts in with the snowdrops. These are the baby squill.

Those are the thousands of squill babies. Remember all those thousands of blue flowers from last spring. Each flower becomes a seed, remains on the surface, and then sprouts the next spring.
This picture is a big clump of sprouting squill. It looks almost like an abstract painting.

Here is the first aconite emerging.

This is a hellebore peaking out.

Enjoy the warmer weather.
Philip

Mears Garden Picture contest-Week 13- February 27, 2011- Hello reality

2011-02-27T13:31:00.005-06:00

Reality came back this week. Winter is back. There was no yard work this weekend. We now have a persistent snow cover, of just a few inches. And there is little melting at the moment.
On the positive note maybe the moles will decide to go further south. I have gardened for 25 years without thinking a lot about critters. I have to rethink that position. Many moles showed up last fall, leaving my little grassy places in tatters. Well not in tatters, but in some other bad shape. Maybe lumps. I think you know what I mean.
When I got out in the garden last week, the moles had already started their mole work. I have to look at mole repellants. I would have to repel them somewhere else. I can’t exactly live trap them and take them out to the country. I am not sure my neighbors will want me directing them at their property. So what is a person to do? I will take suggestions.

The nice thing about the picture contest is it is not real. You do not get your feet muddy looking at pictures. There is no mole picture in the contest. It is fantasy. After the reality of this week, I am all for a little fantasy.

In last week’s contest the winner was the Japanese iris.
Here is the full voting:
Japanese Iris 27 for 38.6%
Orchid cactus 22 for 31.4%
Daylily 11 for 15.7%
Crocuses 10 for 14.3%
Total voting 70

I should add that the Orchid cactus, on the strength of the strong second place finish, advances to the next round as a wild card selection. There are 12 winners and 4 wild cards. That gives us 4 weeks of this next round and then one final week about the first of April.

So what about this first week of the second round.

First up is the Daylily winner from week 9, San Ignacio. Somehow daylilies seem far away today.

This next picture seems right at home, as I look out the window. The winner from week 1 was the snowdrop. I have no real time snowdrops to report today. They are all covered with the 2 inches of snow on the ground. Maybe next week they will be there.

Then there is the blue Siberian Iris, the winner from week 6, the week of the heavyweights. Blue is always popular. In the next two months we will have lots of blue in the garden. I am really looking forward to squill. It not only looks good but also has a good name.

Finally there is this daffodil duo. This picture advanced as a wild card from week 4. Where are the daffodils from reality? Daffodils are now in the grocery store. That does not count. My mother reports they are up 3-4 inches in southern Missouri. No blooms are reported yet, even from southern Missouri. Soon they will be here. That is what we need to hold on to at this point. If we know something is going to happen in the future, is that reality or fantasy. Deep…huh?

There you have the first week of the competition of the winners.
Vote away.

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For your bonus pictures this week I have two pictures that almost made it into the contest. Here is one of the toad lilies, a gem from the fall.

Here is also another late year picture, the castor bean, showing off its seedpods. Castor beans are so interesting. Out of the plant comes castor oil, a commodity that I saw is being sold as a mole repellant. I actually wonder if I could just drop one of these seedpods down the mole hole if that would work as well. Of course you also can get ricin, a deadly poison, sometimes used by bad people. This just suggests that I should not be trying to extract the castor oil myself.

Finally I leave you with this inspiration from last March 10. I was in the garden doing yard work. It was mid afternoon. I thought I heard some geese, far away. We have geese that are here all the time now; flying around often near dawn and dusk, going from one local watering hole to another. They mostly live here all year round.
I started to look around, and finally looked up. There way up in the sky were hundreds of geese, actually headed north. It was amazing. It was like finding the really wild animals after only knowing the tame ones.

These geese should be coming by any day now. I hope I see them again.
Philip