March 25, 2018-the grand finale

Spring is here.
The snowdrops and aconite are going strong.
Sometime during the week the crocuses started to bloom.
Color had come to the garden.
Wait a second.
And then there was this:


Starting early Saturday morning we got 4-5 inches of wet snow here in Iowa City. That heavy snow is now all on top of those early spring flowers.
There has been so much snow that the snowdrops are not even peeking out.
Oh well. The snow will be gone soon.

But let me tell you about the flowers before the snow.
Our daughter Katie is visiting for the weekend. She flew in Friday afternoon and at least for one walk through, she got to see the aconite, and some of the crocuses.

The first crocuses are the little tommasinianus type. That makes sense, given my hypothesis about early spring flowers. They must not taste good. Indeed the tommies, as they are called, are the one crocus type that can be planted in the fall, without the worry that the squirrels will dig them up and eat them. They must not taste good.

The crocuses do spread.
They also make a great combination with the aconite.

Here is a closeup of one of the new clumps. This is the time to remember that I planted 150 new crocuses last fall.

While I will put more pictures from real time in the bonus section. here is just a wonderful snowdrop group.

The aconite really makes a carpet in parts of the garden.
I could fantasize about having this yellow everywhere.
That would take thousands of bulbs.
Well maybe if I just worked on selected beds.

This picture was early in the morning midweek, when the temperature dropped below freezing. The aconite closed up, looking like hundreds of little yellow light bulbs.

On to the contest. We are almost to the conclusion.

Last week was the fourth and final playoff, before the finals.

The winner was the Pink Lily with Butterflies.

Unlike the previous two weeks, the vote was not close.

In the full voting here are the totals, with the first day's vote listed first

Pink Lily with Butterflies 13-19
Silk Road Ascelpias 8-9
Orange Iceland Poppy 5-9
Blue Morning Glory 5-7
total 31-44

The finals

So here are your four finalists. There are 2 pictures from August, one from September and one from April. You have done well in your selections.
I really have no idea who should be the favorite at this point. All 4 had strong support. A good case can be made for each picture.


#1 Night Blooming Cereus
August 16, 2018

You have seen each of these pictures twice already. I have written almost enough.
This flower is one that hardly anyone ever saw.  It bloomed at night, and then was gone.
This picture was taken about 10 o'clock that night.



#2 Toad Lily
September 2, 2018

Spots are wonderful. So is the name. Toadlilies are one of the cornerstones of the fall garden.
I really will see how easily I can take pieces from one of several large clumps this spring.



#3 Pink Lily with Butterflies
August 12, 2018

A beautiful pink lily, with butterflies. Some people would say that adding the butterflies is just unfair competition. Maybe I should have found some insect for each picture.




#4 Red Anemone De caen
April 15, 2018

What a great color.
This picture has been dominant in each of its previous outings.
I suppose if I had to pick a favorite, this would be it.
I have ordered bulbs to grow this flower.
I can't wait for the bulbs to arrive in the next week or so. This could be really good color for July.



There you have it. The finals of the winter picture contest. I would like to say that winter is over.  Looking outside I cannot say that. Maybe by next weekend I can get outside and play in the dirt.

Bonus Pictures

One of the early signs of spring that I particularly like is the waking up lupine.
I find lupine to be a tender perennial. It will come back for 2-3 years at the most.
It does have seedlings each year which I supplement with seedlings I have started.
It is the plants that come back that will bloom this year.
You cannot have too much lupine.

Sometimes the bulbs pay no attention to the bricks that line the paths. Sometimes I will then move the bulbs. I do that with aconite. I may have to do that with some crocuses.

This picture lets you see how the aconite spreads. You can see the blooming size plants. In between those flowers  there are thousands of the little seedlings, that might bloom in a year or two.

Here is a closeup of one little patch, with snowdrops, aconite and some little blue squill just starting.

This is an enlargement of the picture right above this one. Every little bit in the garden has something coming up.

Julia's recipe

Blueberry Cobbler

We like blueberries, and luckily for us, they are available in abundance here in the summer. Wilson's Orchard, north of Iowa City off Hwy. 1, does not have much in the way of apples in mid-summer so they import blueberries and peaches from Michigan. We buy peaches from time to time to make peach chutney. We buy blueberries every summer. Wilson's sells blueberries in 10 lb. boxes, and we usually buy 2 boxes. It is wonderful to have too many blueberries: you can make pie, eat blueberries with plain yogurt or just eat handfuls. We also freeze them.

To freeze, rinse some off in a colander and let them dry (spread out on a towel, for example). Then measure out 4 cups, put them on a rimmed baking sheet and put the rimmed baking sheet in the freezer for an hour or so. After an hour or so, the blueberries will be frozen and you can finagle them into quart yogurt containers (our freezer containers of choice) to be kept in the freezer for consumption in the winter.

During the winter, we make blueberry cobbler to remind ourselves of the summer to come.

I took out a quart of blueberries and put them on the kitchen counter for a few hours to start to thaw. This is not essential but it does make the cooking step a bit easier.

I put the partially thawed blueberries in a saucepan with 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. I stirred that around and added 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and turned the heat to medium.

Then I waited for the berries to finish thawing on the heat, stirring frequently but not constantly. As I was stirring, I smushed some of the berries so not all of them were whole. After a bit, the mixture came to a boil, and it boiled (and I stirred) for 1 minute.

I had preheated the oven to 400 degrees and I put the berries into a round ceramic baker, a souffle dish actually. Any 2 quart baker will do fine.

I put the berries in the oven to stay warm. Then I turned my attention to the cobbler.
I measured 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a bowl. I stirred those ingredients around and then put in 3 tablespoons of butter cut into little pieces. I used my pastry cutter to work the butter in. Fingers work fine too. After the butter was mixed in, I added 1/2 cup of milk and mixed that in with a spoon. Your basic biscuit dough. I used a disher (a/k/a ice cream scoop) to put lumps of biscuit dough hither and yon. You could use a soup spoon (bigger than a teaspoon).

Here it is on the way into the oven. I baked it for about 25 minutes, at which time the little biscuits were nicely browned.

And here is the finished product. Alas, you cannot eat it fresh from the oven or you will burn your tongue. Boiling hot blueberries will do that. But it is good served warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Odds and Ends

It is certainly odd that the garden is covered with snow on March 24.
It will certainly be a late spring. Well it will at least not be an early spring.

The temperatures have been on the cool side, even before the snow.
At the same time the bluebells have begun to come up on the south side of the house.

On the north side of the house the aconite are just appearing. That is probably two weeks behind the back yard.

We visited Springfield Missouri last weekend. I can report that the daffodil line was about Camdenton, Missouri. That is about 50 miles south of Jefferson City, which is about in the middle of the state.

In Southwestern Missouri the star magnolia were just starting to bloom. Today as we crossed the river by the University we passed the place where there are a number of wonderful star magnolias. There were wonderful today, just covered in white. But it was the white of snow, rather than flowers. The flowers will come soon, I hope.

If you are in the neighborhood please come by and see the aconite. They will still be there when the snow melts. As we walk around the neighborhood we seldom see this attractive yellow spring bulb.

This weekend was particularly hard because I was stuck inside. No yard work this weekend. I am so ready to do yard work.

Philip