Welcome to Week 9 of the Winter Picture Contest.
We are melting again. Yesterday was sunny and almost 50.I was out looking at the sleeping garden yesterday.
It is starting to wake up.
There are microclimates in the garden. Those are places that warm up weeks before the rest of the yard. This means the spring bulbs in those areas come up first.
There it is, on the right.
That picture was taken yesterday, January 20.
As the warmer days continue this week, it will be time to look around for other little things that are stirring.
Here is a closeup of the upper left corner of the above picture. The little things that are sprouting are the squill or silla.
It really is time to think about springtime. I ordered my caladium bulbs yesterday. I get them from Florida. The grower was hurt by the hurricane, so supplies are limited. They will ship the first of April. I will start them inside. They want the soil temperature to be 70 degrees before they will start to grow. Sometimes in Iowa that can be mid-June.
Last week was week 8 in the contest
We are really moving along. After 13 weeks there will be the playoffs. Think about who you would support. Who you would think would be the favorite?
In last week's voting the winner was the orange Iceland Poppy.
Here it is.
What wonderful color.
I will plant the seeds for this year's Iceland poppies today. I went to get some of the potting mix from the back garage yesterday. It was frozen solid. It is now thawing out in the basement.
Here is the full vote, showing the first day's totals and then the weekly totals.
Orange Iceland Poppy 12-16
E. Flamingo Dancer 7-10
Yellow Hellebore 7-11
White cattleya 4-8
Closeup anemone 1-3
total 31-48
The runner up in Week 8 (and there was a tie) did not make the cut for a wild card slot. Maybe next year.
At this point we have had 8 weeks to look at the second place finishers. 3 "wild cards" will make it through to the next round.
So far here are the top three:
Week 1 Double Bloodroot 31%
Week 3 Iceland Poppy/Cattleya 30%*
Week 5 Yellow Orchid Cactus 26%
Runner ups that are out of the running at this point:
Week 4- tie for second between anemone blanda and allium 25%
week 7- hardy orchid and pink poppy 23%
week 5- tulip trio and zinnia 23%
week 8- yellow hellebore 22%
Week 2 multi-colored zinnia 20%
* In Week 3 there was a tie for first. Both of those will advance automatically. For that reason only two actual second place finishers will advance.
Week 9
This week you get some really nice bright colors. Enjoy.#1 Tulip
April 19, 2017
Tulips are good.
You do not have to have many. But you should have some.
Many tulips do not naturalize. That means they do not last more than 1-2 years. But some do come back in my garden year after year. There is something about the genetic makeup of these few plants that allows them to regenerate each year. I think it also has to do with the particular location of those plants.
Did you know that a tulip essentially grows an entirely new bulb each year? Sometimes I do not believe that. I want to dig up some tulips right when the have finished blooming to see what is down there in the ground. The bulb is supposed to expend all its stored energy growing the flower. By the time the flower has bloomed the old bulb has exhausted itself. A new side shoot however will grow, and that would be what would blooms the next year. That is the theory.
At least that is what I am told.
I looked at several websites to try to find one that explained a tulip's life cycle. I did not find a satisfactory one, with pictures. The best line from those websites was the following:
"Tulips are indeed true perennials," explains Frans Roozen, technical director of the International Flower Bulb Center in Hillegom, the Netherlands. "Getting them to bloom in your garden year after year is no problem, if your garden happens to be located in the foothills of the Himalayas, or the steppes of eastern Turkey."
I do encourage you to get to a botanical garden in the spring. Mass plantings of tulips can be something to behold. There are some pictures in the bonus section.#2 Silk Road annual asclepias
October 7, 2017
I love this annual asclepias. It is called Silk Road. I like this picture because it shows the flowers at all stages of bloom.
Can you see the bug?
Asclepias plants are the milkweeds. Most are perennials.
Here are some of the images of milkweeds
https://www.google.com/search?q=silk+road+asclepias&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfpcevh-jYAhVEKqwKHVyEC_QQsAQIKA&biw=1082&bih=506#imgrc=RqVvuWSs8Ku8GM:
This milkweed blooms all during the year, once it starts. Perhaps it does that since it is an annual.
Isn't it interesting how that works.
Let me say it again. The perennial versions bloom at some point, and then are done. The annual version blooms continuously.
The annual knows it had better make lots of flowers since otherwise it is done for it.
You can grow cuttings from this plant. I got cuttings in the fall of 2016 and really worked to grow as many as I could. I must have had 30-40 plants by springtime. This winter I just cut down a bunch of stems the evening before the first frost. I put them all in one quart jar. They are there still. Most of them are doing well. I decided I did not have room to grow 30. I will have one really nice size plant when I finally get all those cuttings into some dirt.
Maybe this spring I will try some seed, planted directly outside.
#2 Red Zinnia
October 28, 2017
Zinnias
Big Zinnias
These annuals have come to the garden in the last two years. I have planted them late. Late means July. But that means they are fresh and just starting to bloom in September. When they start to bloom they will bloom until frost. This year that was near the end of October. Last year, 2016, they lasted a week into November.
I love the detail in the flowers.
Please see the bonus section, where many zinnias of 2017 appear.
#4 Pink/red Orchid cactus
July 3, 2017
Here is another orchid cactus.
They come in so many colors.
I am trying to diversify my colors. I do have several I have grow from seed. They just turned two years old this winter.
I am not quite sure when they will bloom.
#5 Banned in Boston daylily
July 12, 2017
This is one of our favorites and certainly one of the most photogenic daylilies we have.
I really like the green center with the pink and white petals. Not to mention the ruffled edges.
There you have it.
Vote for the one you like the most.
If you have the time, say hello, in some form or another. I do like to hear from you.
In another few months, you can just come by the garden.
Bonus time
Tulips- I could write a lot about these flowers. Tulip mania of course would be near the beginning. Do you know "tulip mania"? Here is the wikipedia entry for that topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
Mass plantings of tulips are a sight to behold. That is true for the actual planting as well as the blooming part.
This is Longwood Gardens, outside of Philadelphia. It is one of those places to be sure to visit.
We try to get there on our fall visit to the east coast.
This picture was taken on a wonderful fall day, November 3, 2015. You can see how they were planting tulips along with the occasional bigger bulb.
I only wish I could have gone back in the spring to see how they looked. This image was actually a good one too. I had seen masses of tulips blooming before. I had not seen this.
This is a picture from the Chicago Botanic Gardens taken on May 6, 2017. It was a gorgeous day. The tulips are always a little later in Chicago, perhaps because the Garden is close to the Lake.
Please note that it is actually called the Chicago "Botanic" Garden. The one in Missouri is the "Botanical" garden.
This picture is from the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. This was March 24, 2012. 2012 was the year when there was not much of a winter.
To illustrate how there was not much of a winter in 2012, here is a picture of early spring.
There were lilacs blooming on March 31, 2012...in our garden in Iowa City.
Look at all that green.
More asclepias
How about this strange picture? I went to do some editing to the picture above and this picture happened. Maybe there was a power surge. I could never replicate this effect.
Here was the little bed at our church that I took care of in 2017. I grew lantana and these annual asclepias. The picture was taken on October 27. The asclepias were going strong right up to the first frost.
More zinnias
I cut off many of the flowers when the frost was coming. They did well on the window sill in the kitchen, but did not root.
Julia's recipe
Ginger Snaps
note-Here is the link to the blog with all for Julia's recipes.We make cookies for the holidays. Actually we make cookies throughout the year, but cookie production ramps up in December-January. For many years, we have delivered cookies and other treats to various neighbors and friends. Years ago we made the cookies to be delivered at Christmas, but more recently, with one thing and another, cookie delivery is on New Year's Day or even Epiphany. The cookies still are appreciated, perhaps the more for arriving after all of the other treats are gone. One of the mainstays of the holiday cookie bake is ginger snaps. This recipe is from my most tattered copy of the Joy of Cooking.
Then I added 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar (any vinegar will do, but don't waste your balsamic on cookies), and 1/2 cup molasses. I use dark tough guy molasses but not blackstrap which is too tough guy for me. I mixed those things in.
I mixed the spices in and then started adding flour, a total of 3-3/4 cups of all purpose flour. I added it slowly and with the mixer on low after each addition to avoid the flour blizzard that ensues when one adds flour too fast or at too high a speed.
I used a 1 tablespoon disher (aka tiny ice cream scoop) to make the cookies. Before we learned about dishers, we would scoop the dough out with a teaspoon and roll all of the cookies into balls by hand. The disher is easier, and one does not end up with ginger snap cookie dough under one's fingernails.
The cookies bake in a 325 degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes. I baked 2 cookie sheets at a time. I set the timer for 5 minutes and rotated the pans (top to bottom, back to front) when the timer went off, and then reset it for another 5 minutes. I set the sheets of baked cookies on trivets when they came out of the oven. Here is a sheet of baked cookies, cooling on the cookie sheet.
I have a lot of cookie sheets so I had 2 more pans ready to go when the first ones came out. Then when the 5 minutes timer went off, I rotated the pans AND I used a metal spatula to slide the baked cookies off the cookie sheets and onto wire racks. The cookies need to cool a bit on the baking sheets, but not too long or they will stick. This is the paying-attention part. Don't leave the baked cookies on the cookie sheets too long.
If you don't have a lot of cookie sheets, you might use parchment to prepare sets of cookies to bake. Slide the parchment with baked cookies on it off onto the counter or a wire rack to cool; slide the parchment with unbaked cookies on it onto the cookie sheets. This recipe makes a lot of cookies - about 9 or 10 dozen. The math to make one-half of the recipe is not very hard - the eggs come out even!
This recipe is made with all purpose flour. I have not tried it with gluten-free flour. I expect it would require more flour and that the cookies would turn out flatter and crisper.
Odds and Ends
Here is the update on how long it is until:
February 2 (Groundhog day) - 12 days
February 13 (First day for pitchers and catchers report to baseball spring training) - 23 days
March 20- first day of spring- 58 days
April 15 - 84 days
November 6 (Election day) - 289 days
How about this for an orchid profile.
Julia mentioned our cookie baking.
We make some initial cookies and decorate them as garishly as we can. We distribute them to the friends and neighbors. Beforehand, we have fun making messages with cookies.
This message seemed appropriate.
Stay warm.
For all of you that have to be out of town most of this next week, we will try to make sure the town is still here when you come back.
Enjoy the warmer weather.
Philip
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