Early this past week a frost snuck up on me. It was only to get down to the upper 30's. I watch for these things. Instead when we went for a walk on Tuesday morning, there was frost on car windshields. That was the first clue. There was frost on the grass in open and low lying areas. I have always been a little confused about why a leaf cover in trees protects plants from frost. Does frost come from the sky? But that leaf-cover-protection thing is real.
While I did not notice it at the time, the bougainvillea that is blooming, the one that was the top vote getter last week, was toasted quite extensively. (How can cold toast?) The bloom was fine. The leaves look pretty bad at the moment. The ghost pepper plants right nearby were not bothered at all. I have found that pepper plants, like impatiens, are good measures of whether a frost has really hit. I am left with another plant mystery. Maybe the bougainvillea toasts at something higher than 32.
Now there is an actual 31 degree day forecast for next Friday. The temperatures are to stay down near that number for several days. The plant exodus will occur in earnest this week. Panic will not set in until midweek.
There are two ways to look at all this measure of the end of the garden season. Sometimes I am asked, do you want to good news first or the bad. I almost always take the bad one first.
I set the plant stand up yesterday in Katie's old bedroom. That is where many orchids go. Many plants will be there until April. That is six months. Half the year. Why do we live here?
But even with a frost there will be much garden life for another month. That gets us to December 1. And then there can be the first flowers, the early spring bulbs, in February.
This picture was taken on February 11, 2017.
If the time without the garden is between December 1 and mid February, that is only two and one half months. Particularly with the holidays in there, that is no time at all. And during that time, maybe a gardener can get some rest.
How is that for positive?
How about some pictures?
In last week's voting the bougainvillea came out slightly ahead.
The full voting was:
Bougainvillea 11
Monkshood 9
Hoya 8
Croton Group 8
Caladium 4
This week's pictures
#1 Bright red coleus
I never do enough with coleus. As I learn which annuals will do well where I need to find room for coleus. I then never buy enough, and wind up chopping them up to make more. What if I just started with more?
#2 Popcorn plant, including bud.
I love the popcorn plant. Its other name is Cassia didymobotrya. One understands why they looked for another name. It is an annual that starts to bloom about mid September here in Iowa. Last year it bloomed and threw out seeds. The seeds sprouted in August. They are now many a foot tall. They will never reach blooming size before they freeze. So guess what? I brought 3 in for the winter.
One of the things I will do this week it take cuttings of annuals. I have a Persian Shield that deserves to be carried over. I will have to think about the annual ascelpias.
#Cattleyea
This great orchid has bloomed reliably for me for about 4 years. It starts to bloom now and will continue for about a month. It has 5 clusters of buds, which is about what it has had for several years. You can see another bud right below the flower in the picture. It will of course, come inside this week.
Actually there are two other cattleyeas at the moment with nice big buds.
Sometimes I take plants back out when the isolated freeze occurs. What else is a ten day forecast for?
#4 Orange zinnia
The zinnias continue. I would prefer the big ones. Even the little ones produce really nice color this time of year. If you look at the archives for the blog from last October you will see some pictures of the big zinnias, that I also planted the end of July.
#5 Fall crocus, probably the saffron crocus.
These gems greeted us this Thursday, when we came home for lunch. Imagine collecting those orange parts for the market. I read that it takes 75,000 flowers to yield a pound of saffron. No wonder it is so expensive.
#6 Toad lily
They are still blooming, even though most are done.
#7 Purple zinnia
Purple is good.
#8 Red Coneflower
This plant rebloomed this fall. It was an unexpected, but much appreciated color.
That is it for this week, where there were some remarkable sunny days.
As has been the case during this part of the year, you may vote for two.
Bonus Section
Ornamental Kale
I do not have the sun to grow ornamental kale. It comes in many varieties and colors. These great blues will hold up sometimes all the way to January.
These are the plants to replace the impatiens when they get toasted.
I got these two for the little garden I maintain at church.
They are expensive to buy as big plants this time of year. My recurring goal is to contract with a greenhouse to buy 50 of them, to be delivered the first of October.
"Recurring goal" means I think of it each October without getting it done.
Here is the "in gathering" of crotons, of all kinds. They are getting a little finishing off as they make to jump to the house in the next few day.
One thing I will do is bring them all up to the porch a few days before they come inside. This lets some of the bugs that might have taken up residence run away.
It is that time again. I try to sell any succulents that I can. They are in my back driveway with all proceeds going to hurricane relief to Puerto Rico.
Actually there are many more.
If you buy a plant it is a win win result. You get a plant. Money goes to Puerto Rico. One less plant has to come inside my house.
The prices are on the pots, in the back driveway. Just come by and buy a plant or two. If I am not here you can leave a check or cash in the mailbox in front.
Julia's recipe
Non-authentic (or so I am told) chili
This chili recipe is from a little book, a booklet really, I bought many tears ago when I was in college, called The Impoverished Students' Book of Cookery, Drinkery and Housekeepery, by Jay F. Rosenberg, about whom I know nothing except what he wrote about himself in snippets in the book. I found the book hilarious at the time (probably 1968), and I think it has held up well. Jay made the point in the introduction that impoverishment has to do with ready resources and a state of mind rather than actual money (or earning potential) and the obvious point that most food provided in college cafeterias is (or was) expensive and not worth eating.
He provided diagrams of attractive brick (or block) and board bookcases, which I/we used. He discussed the value of Attractive Old Bedspreads to disguise everything from bad upholstery to ugly painted walls (Landlady Green), which was also sound advice. He provided a recipe for brewing beer (never tried that). He had advice about equipping a working kitchen and number of recipes for main dishes (he said bakeries were the best source for dessert), some of which I still use. Like this chili recipe. I understand from Texans that this is not really chili. Okay. Point taken.
I cut up some regular onion so I had 1 cup chopped. I minced up some garlic until I had 1 tablespoon. I put the meat, onion and garlic in the yellow enamelware pot and cooked it until the onions and garlic were soft and the meat no longer pink. No need for oil, as the pork has some fat in it.
While that was cooking, I assembled the next things: 1/4 cup of chili powder (yes, I know, that's a lot of chili powder), 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin and 1/2 teaspoon of whole cumin seeds. I filled a 1 cup liquid measuring cup with 1/2 cup of white wine (which is what I had. Red would be fine. Not sweet, of either color) and 1/2 cup of cider vinegar.
I stirred in the beans and let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes, and it was done!
I served the chili (as I always do) with tomato-y rice. Also not authentic, I am told. I started with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (not olive, not coconut) in the bottom of the pan in which I then cooked the rice. I added 1/2 cup chopped onion and 1 1/2 cups of medium grain rice. I cooked the mixture over medium heat until the onions were soft and most of the rice had turned bright white. Then I added 1/2 cup drained canned diced tomatoes (saving the rest and the tomato liquid for another day) and 3 cups of chicken broth. (Actually I added 3 tablespoons of chicken bouillon to the rice and oil and onions and mixed it in at that stage.) I cooked the rice in the usual way (bring to a boil, turn way down, check it and then when most of the liquid is gone, turn it off - entire process, about 20 minutes). One could use water instead of chicken stock. Or actually use chicken stock. Or vegetable stock. Note the absence of gluten and dairy. There are beans, of course, and meat. I suppose one could leave out the beans but I think the meat is essential. This is a nice dish as the weather turns cooler.
Odds and Ends
I have been thinking about the winter flower picture contest. It will start in about a month. I have to pick out the pictures. I pick out maybe 75 pictures, and then start narrowing it down.
This requires me to go back through, what was really, a remarkable year. There was of course that whole crazy stuff in Washington, with a bunch in Des Moines. I will not dwell on that.
But then there was Christopher Philip, our grandson.
Julia went to Maine in February, to see Christopher Philip.
We had snow too. (But not like Maine.)
This is a little blooming winter aconite.
This was February 25, 2017.
The there were the odd pictures, like this tulip long after the colors were gone.
The Iceland poppies were good, even as to what they left behind.
There will be more of the outtakes in the next few weeks.
The garden had a good year. We will have some fun this winter with the contest, that is so old that I will have to do research for figure out which one it is. I think it might be the twelfth.
The new resident deer was in the garden yesterday. This time he bounded away about 11 in the morning. The were antlers on his head.
Philip
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