April 29, 2018 This is what we wait for in February

Welcome.

Finally spring is here.

It seems like every day something wonderful appears.
How often do you get to say that?
I do think that is what April is supposed to give us in the garden.

As expected, this week the temperatures have stayed well above freezing in Iowa City. Many plants that spent the winter inside in our house are now outside. Many are on the front porch. Those inside plants do need more leaves on the trees. Plants need to get accustomed to the sun, just like people do.
But slowly there is more room in various parts of the house.

Daylight is earlier and earlier these days. I can get outside and do a few things by a little after 6.
Right now I should fertilize some of the perennials coming up. All the peonies could use a little boost right now. We have some nice compost that I will put in a circle around the plants. Then I water them and include fertilizer. That should set them up for a nice bloom in 3-4 weeks.

Yesterday we potted variegated Solomon's seal. As soon as some hosta are further along I will start lifting and dividing. Most of the hosta are barely out of the ground. I need ten new holes in the garden for the hosta that have arrived and are new this spring.

How about pictures.

In last week's voting the team "one of a kind" edged out team poppy by one little vote.
Here was that team:




The full voting was
Team one of a kind 18
Team Poppy 17
Team Spring Bulbs   6
Team orchid cactus   6
Team lilies of all kinds  4

This week's vote

There were so many wonderful pictures this past week I could almost have had team competition by the new flowers each day. But no. Instead I picked out these 10 great pictures.
And you can vote for as many of them as you want. You do not even have to stop at two. If you particularly like 3-4, do it.
I have turned on the voting switch so you can cast any number of votes.




#1 Blue Chionodoxa

The variety is probably forbesii or perhaps forbesii Blue Giant.

I had some pictures of this in the last few weeks. It really was wonderful as it spreads around. It can be a contrast with the scilla or squill, with its larger more up-facing flower, and the nice white center.
There is the pink cousin, which does not seem quite as robust.

I read that it is deer-proof.
It is something else that came from Turkey.

This does bring me to one of the realities of gardening.
At almost any time, some plants are finished blooming and are done for the season.
This was particularly the case with these chionodoxa.

The one exception to that rule that something is always finished is the time of very early spring. There can be a week or two or three when everything is crisp and new and nothing is finished. But that is over this year.
Now we are in the world of new things and old things, at the same time.

By Wednesday of this past week, as the temperature spiked into the upper 70's, the early spring flowers mostly toasted. They were done for the season. You will not find these lovely blue flowers for another year.
That was particularly the case as it has become quite dry. Isn't it always something? It is too hot or too cold or too dry.
Rain is finally in the forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week. If you thought things were exploding now, just wait for their to be some rain.


#2 Double Bloodroot

I can't say enough about this great flower. With another bunch added this spring, I am now content. I now have about six clumps around the garden.

The double bloodroot actually bloomed this year a few days before the single variety, which showed up mid week.

We are going to Ryerson Woods today. I expect to see many single bloodroot there. There will be pictures next weekend.



#3 Dutchman's breeches

This native wildflower is found at Ryerson's woods by the thousands. I have a few plants. It will spread over time, but is nothing like the carpet of the dogtooth violets.
It is native to much of the country from Mississippi to Maine to the Dakotas.

There is so much information about plants out there. I find out that another name for the plant is Little Blue Staggers. It is so named for what it can do to cattle if they graze on it. It will induce drunken staggering due to the "narcotic and toxic substances in this poppy related genus." Who knew?

I really like the foliage.


#4 Star Magnolia

This tree in the backyard finally bloomed on Tuesday, this last week, which was April 24.
It is just about the first flowering tree.
Our little tree must now be 15 years old.

The trees around town have been just spectacular this week.
The ones on the west side of the Lindquist Center at the University of Iowa are worth going out of your way to see.



#5 Little white trillium

These are second year plants. The variety is trillium pulsillum "Roadrunner."



#6 Orange Orchid

While it is difficult for houseplants to compete with the outside flowers, this little orchid has knock-your-socks-off color.
This is Potinara Love Passion 'Orange Bird'
It is an intergeneric hybrid, meaning it is a cross between several types of orchids.
I obtained it when it was about to bloom. I kept it alive and it rebloomed this past week.

Did you know that the plural of genus is genera?




#7 Primrose

I have said that primroses are on my "get more" list. I just potted up the astilbe, making room for more primroses.




#8 Raspberry Splash pulmonaria

Pulmonaria are an important part of the spring garden. The flowers come in all colors. The foliage can be another attraction. They will look good until November.




#9 Anemone blanda

The anemones are just getting started. This was an early group.




#10 Trillium cuneatum

I really liked this trillium. The flower on this one became amazing. It has bloomed regularly for me for at least a decade. It was in the contest in the winter of 2006-7. It is the first trillium to come up in the spring. Several in another part of the garden were damaged by the cold temperature of the last month.


As I said before I have turned on the feature that lets you pick more than one. Well this week you are permitted to pick more than 2. It turns out that this feature means you can pick as many as you like.

Bonus pictures

The flowers just rolled along this week.

As you can tell the bluebells have started. The top picture is a dog tooth violet.

Julia's Recipe

Remember that all her recipes are located at

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

There is a place for comments with each recipe at that location. If you make something and really like it let Julia know in those comments.

Enchilada Casserole

I like enchiladas in theory, but not so much in practice. They are, at least in my cooking experience, long on flour tortilla and short on filling/sauce. So I have switched to making enchiladas as a casserole rather than as rolled-up things. I like the starch/filling ratio better, and it's easier to make. And because there is no rolling involved, I can use corn tortillas which are less supple than the flour ones, but also (on the plus side) gluten-free.

Let me add a disclaimer: I am of Eastern European heritage, so I have no grounding in authentic Hispanic cooking. Duly noted.

Here's the line-up: 10 large corn tortillas, 2 cans of red enchilada sauce (I used one hot and one medium. Feel free to choose according to your hotness preference.), a little can of diced hot jalapenos (ditto the note above about hotness preference), a small can of sliced black olives, some canned diced tomatoes, a big onion, some garlic, 4 cups of cooked chicken, about 6 ounces of cheddar cheese, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, chili powder (unsalted), oregano and cumin.

I set the tortillas aside until assembly time and chopped the onion, ending up with 3/4 cup, and I smushed the garlic, ending up with a heaping 1/2 teaspoon.

I heated 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet (on medium heat) and added the onion. I cooked the onion for a few minutes, then added the garlic and the spices: 1/2 teaspoon each salt, ground cumin and oregano; 1 teaspoon of chili powder and 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper. I stirred it all together and cooked this mixture for a few minutes. While it was cooking, I opened the jalapenos, the black olives and the diced tomatoes. I drained the olives; did not drain the jalapenos and added both. I added 1 cup of diced tomatoes. I let that mixture simmer and chopped up the cooked chicken and added that, along with 1/2 cup of water so the mixture would not be too dry. If you have 1/2 cup of chicken stock on hand, that would be good instead of water. I cooked the filling for about 10 minutes after adding the chicken.

While the filling was simmering, I grated about 6 ounces of cheddar cheese and opened the cans of enchilada sauce, stirring them together to achieve a medium-hot mix.

I used an oval baking dish about 7" x 11" and about 2" deep. I sprayed the bottom and sides with no-stick spray (brushed-on oil would be fine). To assemble, I put 2 tortillas on the bottom and next added about 1/4 of the chicken mixture and a sprinkle of cheese and then about 1/3 cup of sauce. Then I repeated that 2 more times. At that point, I had 2 tortillas, plus some cheese and sauce left over. I topped the stack with the last 2 tortillas, followed by the last of the sauce and the last of the cheese.

Assembly tip: You will need to press the stack of ingredients down somewhere along the line while you are assembling. Do your pressing when the top layer is tortillas.

Here is the casserole on its way into a 350 degree oven. I covered the casserole with aluminum foil and baked it for 30 minutes, then removed the foil and baked for another 10 minutes.

I let the casserole cool for 10 minutes before eating as it emerged from the oven very hot.

And here it is, being supper. We served the chicken enchilada casserole with a dollop of sour cream and Spanish rice and corn on the side. In case you're wondering/judging about the lack of green leafy vegetables, we also had a nice green salad.

This recipe makes a lot. I would say we could have fed 6 - 8 normally hungry people. We had leftovers later for another dinner and then for several lunches after that. I covered the casserole with the same piece of aluminum foil and put it in the refrigerator. The casserole reheated nicely in the same baking dish with the addition of a little bit of water.

If you make 1/2 of the recipe, bake it in a round casserole dish, using one tortilla per layer and 1/2 of all the ingredients, except maybe the spices and the jalapenos. I would use a whole small can of jalapenos and I would use a bit more than half of the spices, although I would cut those amounts down some. Enjoy.

Odds and Ends

In the same week that star magnolia first bloomed, so did the dandelions. While we just have a few, which we try to pull them up before they go to seed, I saw places around town today where dandelions were in the majority.
I suppose that really is a sign of spring.

The first of the orchid cactus plants has buds. I moved it to the front porch. The hooks in the trees cannot be used yet as there is no leaf cover.

The first of the epidmedium bloomed. I was reminded of how difficult it can be to photograph this plant. The flowers are so tiny. In addition the squill foliage is still all over the background in any picture. At some point I will weed that away.

I do have plants for sale. They are on the back driveway with the prices marked. (Only the plants with price markers in them are for sale. If I am not home you can leave payment in the mailbox. I have a limited number of bluebells.

Someone walking by asked what will be blooming later.
I have to think about that.
In 2 weeks I think the little iris will be blooming.
I think the tree peonies will open up pretty soon. These include the the ones I have grown from seed. Three flowers was the most for any of the four plants last year. I think that number may double this year.

I hope that in 2 weeks there should be leaves on some of the trees.

We went to the Reha Greenhouse yesterday. It is about 25 miles southwest of Iowa City. It is always are nice drive in the country. Iowa with its rolling hills is really beautiful.
I have never been a big fan of petunias. I had to but this one. They really are doing remarkable things with them these days. I've always been partial to tie-dye, even in petunias.

Enjoy this weather.
Philip