Week 9- January 23, 2022

58 days until spring 

Hold onto that thought. With that thought I will not talk about the cold or slipping on the ice or how winter seems endless at times. 

January is almost over. Plant catalogues seem to arrive every day. Bluestone Perennials is one of my favorites. They send a catalogue about once every two months. I seem to remember that 25 years ago they were not as expensive. Back then someone from their company had been to marketing school. They would send coupons. They would be actual pieces of paper. You would get $2 off any plant that was yellow. Another one would be $1 off a plant that started with the letter "p." Maybe there were not exactly those coupons, but there were a lot. It was sort of fun to place an order. I think that was before the internet. 

I look through catalogues today and think about plants that I like but do not grow. Some I would like to try. Penstemon plants are in that category. A wild kind grows in the garden. Sometimes I pull it as a weed. There are some Penstemon in the catalogues that are red that  seem wonderful on the printed page. Some are even a lovely blue. Then I remember that many of these plants want sun. I do not have extra sun.

It is also time to think about the "more" list. I think there are always plants that one could use more of. Oriental poppies are in that category. Here is the theme. They want sun.

Last Week

The winner was the orchid. It was no contest. The main question all week was could the rest of the pictures hold the orchid under 50%. They did.

The full voting was:

Here is the wildcard standings after 8 weeks. Unless there are ties for the winning picture, 2 runner ups will advance.  Reminder for new people, there are 13 weeks of voting. Then there are a few weeks of the playoffs. 2 wildcards should advance, unless there are ties in the last few weeks.

Week 7 Pink orchid cactus. 34%

Week 3- Phlox and daylilies 29%

--------apparent cut off-------

Week 4 Lilium fiamma 28%

Week 2  Red Double tulip 27%

Week 6- Brunnera 26%

Week 5.  Lupine 26% 

Week 5    Double bloodroot 26%

Week 1.  Tiger Kitten 24%

Week 8   Tulips 21%

Week #9 

It is "pink" week. Sometimes a theme emerges out of random selection. I just happened to have quite a number of pink flowers in the remaining pictures in the contest. So I grouped them.

Pick your choice and vote for that picture. If you have a smart phone in can be a little tricky to get to the poll. You have to go all the way to the bottom of the post and click on "web version." Then you can get to the poll.

#1 Crocus clump 

March 6, 2021

Here is this great clump of "tommies" as they are called. Crocus Tommasinianus. The genus is Crocus. The species is tommasinianus. It is a great word to actually pronounce. It may take a few times to wire it in to your brain. Once that is done it is quite melodious.

They are also called the snow crocus, for obvious reasons. They bloomed on March 6, last year. That does not really seem all that far away. We just have to take it one day at a time. 

Do you see the bee? The video in the bonus section particularly gives you an idea how busy the bees can be with these flowers, early in the spring.

These are the first pink flowers of the year. Before them were just the snowdrops and aconite.

These tommies really do naturalize, as you can see in the picture. All around the clump there are little ones coming.

#2 Pink Calla lily

 June 13, 2021

I have already ordered more Calla lilies for this year. I have kept the old bulbs, now sitting quietly in the basement in the dark. 

Calla lilies are wonderful splashes of color. 

#3 Pink Shirley Poppy

 June 21, 2021

This could be my favorite Shirley poppy picture from 2021. Sometime near the end of the contest I will show you the Shirley poppies that did not make the contest. 

In this picture I see a dancer spinning around in a wonderful pink dress. I think part of the beauty is the lack of symmetry. I wonder if that is chaos. Maybe not.

I should plant my seed saved from last year. At the moment the Shirley poppy seedlings that are growing are from purchased seeds. One problem with what I have saved is that I have about 10000 seeds. They are so tiny. I did not try to save seed from particular colors. Maybe this year. They have been in the cold garage for two months now, experiencing a winter.

I did break open a few seed pods yesterday. I planted 2 little 6 packs. They should germinate in about a week.

#4 Helen of Troy Lilium 

July 16, 2021

I got just one of these bulbs a few years ago, as it was rather pricey. Pricey of course is relative. What is pricey for a lily bulb would not be pricey for a cypripedium orchid for example. 

Helen has bloomed now for two seasons and does not disappoint.

It is listed as an Oriental hybrid. I am not sure what that means. 

#5 Starry Starry Night Hibiscus 

July 28, 2021

This hibiscus, hardy in Iowa, was one of those rare plants I purchased the first day I saw it.

It was for sale at a local nursery in I think 2019. I saw it one day. I liked it so much I took its picture. I then went back later in the day and bought it. I would have been so disappointed if it had been gone. I had never seen it before. It is now showing up in catalogues. 

Hardy hibiscus come up late in the springtime and will bloom in August, or in this case in late July.

The plant is named for the song Starry Starry Night by Don McLean. Here is the link to him performing that song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wrNFDxCRzU

There you have the 5 pink contestants for Week 9. As I have refreshed my recollection of how to make a slideshow, here is one with all 5 pictures to assist in making your choice.

Bonus Section

More tommies

This one was the first. I am sure that Christopher found it and told me it was the first pink flower.

March 6, 2021

Quickly the early bulbs begin to play together. 

March 8, 2021

March 8, 2021

Here is a video of the Starry Night hibiscus.

Right now or actually one year ago:

It was one year ago yesterday that we celebrated Christopher's fourth birthday at our house. His actual birthday had happened while they were all on the 4 day road trip to Iowa from Maine. They came and stayed with us for 2 whole months. 

Christopher turned 5 this past week. He got cake, a COVID shot and a library card, all in one day.

This oncidium orchid is now the centerpiece for the dining room table. It reliably reblooms about the first of the year.

This is a picture showing the tiny flowers.

I got one of those  little attachments lens for an iphone camera for Christmas, that allows closeups of small flowers. Here are picture taken of  those little flowers with that lens.

One of the new and very interesting tradescantia plants is blooming at the office. It is named Nanouk.

It was new this past fall.

It is sometimes caller fantasy Venice.

Julia's recipe

3 fruit marmalade

The link to the website with all of Julia's recipes is

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Philip's sister Ellen sent us some grapefruit and lemons from her backyard in Arizona, so to commemorate the gift, I made marmalade. It is pretty easy to make jams or jellies or marmalade if you use certo (liquid pectin). I should say that you can't wing it in terms of amounts or technique, as it is possible to goof up and then you have a batch of syrup. Interesting and good on pancakes, but not what one was aiming for. I know this from experience.

We had received a gift of English muffins from my brother Joe and sister-in-law Lynn so it seemed especially appropriate to make some marmalade. The certo people used to have a more extensive set of instructions than they do now, but I had no problem finding a recipe on the internet. 

The ingredients:

1 grapefruit;

1 orange;

2 lemons;

1 pouch of certo (it comes 2 pouches to a box);

1/8 teaspoon baking soda; 

1-1/2 cups water; and

5 cups of sugar.

This will make 6 or 7 cups of marmalade. If you can it (for shelf storage), you'll need some canning jars and jar lids and rings. If you keep it in the refrigerator (or give it to friends and relations who will do the same), then no special jars or lids. 

We were planning to can, so I started by running little jars through the dishwasher with heated dry. And I tracked down enough jar rings and lids. I put the lids in a little pan of water, to be heated up at the end. 

I used a vegetable peeler to remove the peel from the fruit, leaving the pithy white-ish part behind to the extent possible. 

After peeling off the peel, I used a sharp knife to cut the peel into thin strips. 

I ended up with 1 slightly heaping cup of peel strips. 

I put the strips in a saucepan with the 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda and the 1-1/2 cups of water.

I brought the mixture to a boil; turned the heat down so the mixture simmered and turned the timer on for 20 minutes.

While the peel was simmering, I attended to the fruit. I peeled off the pith. 

The lemons were easy to peel as was the orange.

I peeled the grapefruit. Then I pulled it apart into 2 halves and cut both ends off each half. 

 

Next I used the knife and my fingers to remove the actual grapefruit leaving the membrane behind. 

After removing the pith, I pulled the orange and the lemons into halves, and then cut each half orange or lemon into cross-sections. I separated the sections into smaller bits, but I did not worry about the membrane. The lemons had seeds, which I removed. 

Here is the peel, nearly done cooking. 

Next I added the chopped up fruit and simmered everything, covered, for another 10 minutes.

At the end of that 10 minute stretch, I poured the fruit and peel into a 4 cup measure. I wanted to have 3 cups total. I had about 2-3/4 cups so I added a little lemon juice and water to get to 3 cups. 

I poured this mixture into a bigger pot. I added all of the sugar in one fell swoop and stirred. 

I cut the top off of the certo pouch and set it upright in a short glass to be ready to go when the time came. 

I brought the fruit and sugar mixture to a boil. The term is a boil-that-cannot-be-stirred-down. That is what is going on in the picture at left. This is why you need to use a bigger pot. 

I let the mixture boil like crazy for 1 minute - turning the heat down slightly when it threatened to boil over. 

After 1 minute, I poured in the certo (and squeezed the pouch to get it all), and stirred it in.

Then I let the mixture sit quietly for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the marmalade was resting, I got ready to put the marmalade into jars. I heated up the jar lids just to boiling and then turned them off.

Canning! 

I put the pot on a trivet; took the jars out of the dishwasher two at a time and poured the mixture into the jars. Philip wiped the rims with a damp paper towel and then put a lid on each one followed by a ring. He tightened the rings (holding the jar with a tea towel as the marmalade was hot). 

Then we turned all of the jars upside down, which helps the lids to seal. We had about 3/4 cup beyond the 6 jars, which I put in a jar into the refrigerator for immediate consumption.   

Here we are - 6 jars of orange-y gold deliciousness. 

I used 2 lemons, 1 orange and a grapefruit. You could use only oranges and lemons or 2 oranges and 1 lemon and a grapefruit. Although marmalade making is more finicky than some things, the proportions of the citrus is not critical. I would say always have some lemon. 

I'm wondering about kumquats.  

Odds and Ends

It is mitten time. Each year Julia knits mittens. She can knit a mitten during a meeting. She will declare that the meeting should end when the mitten is done.  She believes that after one mitten's worth of time, the meeting has gone on long enough to do useful work. When she reaches a certain number of mittens, this year it was 40, she sends them to certain elementary schools in Iowa City.

Here is the display with one of the blooming orchids.

More mitten pictures

I really need to get serious about starting seeds. Several kinds of poppies are started. I have ordered some conflower seeds, which were a success last year. I have planted all my old primrose seeds, but they are not up yet. I also have started a few lettuce plants.

I also need to think more about deer resistance. I read about some tape you can buy that is sort of a strip of cloth. You then string the tape and spray it with smelling stuff. I really want to interrupt the creation of a deer path through my garden, before it gets to established.

I suppose this gets me back to catalogues, both the magazines that arrive by mail and the virtual ones. I saw some rather interesting kale during one turn through a new catalogue yesterday.

That is it for this week.

We particularly need flowers and beauty at the moment in Iowa. The Iowa legislature is in session again. 

Be safe. Spring will come. There will be better times.

Give thanks for facetime.

Let me hear from you, in a comment or a reply email.

Philip