Welcome to week 1 of the playoffs
February is almost gone.That really is the last month where I think "winter".
Winter is not actually over but...
There is now over 11 hours of sunshine.
The rain early in the week pretty much took away most of the snow.
You can again see the little bits of spring bulbs struggling to get started.
Friday I even had my first exclamation moment in the garden this year.
That is a point as you wander around in the garden where you actually say out loud "oh my" (or something like that.)
We were coming in for lunch and I walked by the raised bed by the Walnut tree. There was a fall crocus, up a good inch. Sometimes it is the little things.
That same day I took this picture of...snowdrops.
Three weeks ago they were just coming up.
Now you can see the buds on 2 individual snowdrops.
The first sunny day and those flowers will open right up.
There are also two clumps of snowdrops in this picture, one in the upper left hand area, and one on the right.
Sometimes you do have to look for things to find them.
The temperatures appear as if they are going to stay above 40, with 3 50's in the 6 day forecast.
My goodness, the the weather channel people even say it will be 60 on Tuesday.
I should be able to continue my spring cleanup this coming weekend.
It is so important to get outside in the garden, even if it is to only walk the beds.
Last week's winner, in something of a surprise, was the blue monkshood. It nosed out the Michigan lily and the cactus pair, both finishing one vote back. For a while I was looking at a three way tie, which would have created all sort of playoff confusion.
The full voting, with the first day voting listed was:
Blue aconite/monkshood 8-13
Michigan lily 9-12
Cactus pair 6-12
Late fall crocus 2-4
Little blue orchid 2-4
total 27-45
The playoffs for this contest are now set
Here are the three wild cards that advance to the playoffs. Two of those spots are taken by pictures that tied for first in the voting that week.
Week 10 Ruby Spider/Dogwood 33%*
Week 1 Double Bloodroot 31%
Week 3 Iceland Poppy/Cattleya 30%*
Runner ups that are now out of the running at this point:
Week 12 reddish Orchid Cactus 28%
Week 6 Yellow Orchid Cactus 26.1%
Week 9 Red Zinnia 26.0%
Week 13 tie for second between the Michigan lily and the cactus pair 26%
Week 11 Coneflower 25%
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 Weeks 3 and 10 there was a tie for first. Both of those contestants will advance automatically.
This week's contest
The playoffs- Week one
Get ready for some hard decisions. Every one of these pictures has already been the choice of many people.
Red Anemone
Week 2
April 15, 2017
What is there to like about this picture? Well there is the color. I really think this is about the best red I have had for years.
The center is really special. I will show you the cropped center in the bonus section.
I also like this picture for having that wonderful piece of the leaf.
I have already told you much of what I know about these plants. I do not want to just repeat myself.
This is an anemone de Caen. It's formal name is Anemone coronaria. Anemone is the genus. Coronaria is the species. I assume the de Caen is the variety.
The plant grows from a little shriveled up bulb. In Iowa you would plant them in the early spring, to bloom in the summer. The bulb would not survive the winter.
They do not cost much. So I ordered 50 of the mixed colors yesterday. Those cost $18 plus the shipping.
I have not grown this plant from a bulb before. Last year I just got a ready made plant at one of the box stores. It presumably had been started in a greenhouse months before.
I understand there is a blue that is almost as dramatic as this red one.
I read that once the plant emerges after you plant it, it will take 12 weeks to flower. That means if it emerges on April 1, it would bloom in July. OK. As long as you know the rules you can plan. I probably should have started them inside in January. OK. Maybe next year. This year we will see how they do planted the second half of March.
White Iceland poppy
Week 3
May 16, 2017
Here is another one of those curl-your-toes pictures. I love these Iceland poppies. I have some started from seed in the basement. They should really be moved up to the next pot at this point. I also separate the ones that sprouted too close together. I have grown these from seed successfully in the past.
Ruby spider daylily
Week 10
July 8, 2017
Ruby Spider is such a special daylily. If I had to have only one daylily, this would probably be it. The flowers are big. The variety is vigorous. There is such a nice color combination. The clump blooms for a quite a long time.
Epimedium domino
Week 5
April 21, 2017
Epimedium are special. They are also hard to photograph, being so very tiny.
This picture works, with the blue bits in the background.
In the bonus section I have assembled the entire epimedium group from 2017. There are many different ones, with so many more that can be acquired, when space permits.
There you have it. Week one of the playoffs.
There will be 4 weeks at this level.
Then there will be one final week to pick the flower of the year.
Who will it be?
You will choose.
Bonus Section
Here is the center of the anemone.
This gives you a better idea of the size of the anemone. Imagine a whole bunch of them.
Here is the group of epimedium from 2017.
Julia's recipe
Chocolate Sauce
I bought the Mast Brothers Chocolate cookbook as soon as I saw it at Prairie Lights (the world's best bookstore). The cookbook reported that Mast Brothers operated out of Brooklyn (NY), but came out of Primghar (IA) by way of Iowa City. At the time, our daughter Katie was living in Brooklyn (NY), and so I felt that these guys were kinfolk. And it was an entire cookbook about making really good things with really good chocolate. Some of the recipes, just a few really, are a bit odd to me - scallops with cocoa nibs, for example. Most are lovely dessert recipes. And this recipe is also remarkably simple and straightforward.
The Mast Brothers sell chocolate as well as cookbooks, by the way, in fine shopping venues. We had one and one-half bars of Chocolove dark chocolate and it worked just fine.
Use dark chocolate, not milk chocolate or white chocolate. The darker the chocolate (higher % cocoa) you use, the more chocolate-y and less sweet the chocolate sauce will be.
Here is 4.8 ounces of chopped chocolate, waiting for the next step.
I put the chopped chocolate in a deep stainless steel bowl - a glass or Pyrex bowl would be fine.
I heated 1-1/2 cups of heavy (a/k/a whipping) cream in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of white sugar.
When the cream/sugar mixture just reached a boil, I poured it over the chocolate bits and waited for the chocolate to melt. This took less than 1 minute.
Ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce, one of life's pleasures.
Odds and Ends
There were 65 contestants in this year's contest.I wondered how those 65 pictures broke down by month. Here is what I found.
January 0
February 1
March 0
April 17
May 12
June 4
July 7
August 7
September 4
October 6
November 1
December 1 (which was an inside picture)
It is about what I would have thought. April and May were the big months.
Find some sunshine.
Spring is just about here.
Philip
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