Week 11- February 6, 2022

43 days until spring

While some parts of the country had very winter conditions, here in Iowa it was mostly just cold.

Elsewhere there was absolute fun.

That of course is Christopher and Maisie on the sled, in Portland, Maine.

When was the last time you had that much fun? Can you have that much fun in the garden? 

Maybe what you can do is be with someone who is having that much fun. I think about Christopher finding that first blue flower.  Or bringing me a little winter aconite.

You can see the important variable.

Back in Iowa we count the days. There is warmer weather coming. There are some 40's in the forecast for this coming week. 

We also get ready. Seeds are planted and some have come up. Other give us a chance to be patient. (Even the impatiens seed.) Dormant plants are waking up. Some of the orchid cactus are putting out new growth. That is exciting. They understand the concept "longer days." That does mean I have to think about incorporating them into the watering schedule. I would rather just tell them to wait a month.

Last week in the contest

the winner was the bright blue pulmonaria.

It pulled away on day two and coasted to a comfortable win.

Here was the final vote total. The blackberry lily, with its strong second place showing, did move into consideration for a wild card in the playoffs.

There will be two more weeks of regular voting. Then there will be the playoffs and it will be warmer.

Wild card standings (2 advance)

Week 7 Pink orchid cactus. 34%

Week 3- Phlox and daylilies 29%

Week 10- Blackberry lily 29%

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

Week 4 Lilium fiamma 28%

Week 2  Red Double tulip 27%

Week 6- Brunnera 26%

Possible top seeds-There will be 3 playoff rounds starting in just a few weeks. The top 13 pictures along with 2 wildcards will make that round. I seed the top vote getters so they are not in the same round. Here are the possible top seeds.

Week 9 Pink Shirley poppy       49%

Week 8 Slipper Orchid             46%

Week 7 White Shirley poppy    41%

Week 1 Red Iceland poppy      41%

I will sort out the tie breakers  if necessary

This week in the picture contest which is Week 11

#1 Banned in Boston

 July 1, 2021

This is Banned in Boston.

Given the new awful interest in banning books, it seems appropriate that this daylily should lead off the pictures for the week.

There are so many daylilies that there are bound to be really interesting names out there. Of course that means there are regrettable names as well. I list them under the forgotten names, and just throw away the labels. 
I have had Banned in Boston for 20 years, and it continues to impress. I probably should divide it to give it a fresh start. Mostly it just stays the same size. Let me just say that project is low on the list.

Let me say a few things about the daylily.

It is not a lily.

The genus is hemerocallis.

There are over 80,000 registered varieties.

Generality: True lilies grow from bulbs. Daylilies have roots.

Word for the week- Tetrapolid 

Ploidy has to do with the number of chromosomes in a plant. Please understand, this is science way over my head.

Banned in Boston is a diploid. That means it has two sets of chromosomes, one each from the parents. That is not hard to understand.

Many daylilies developed in the last 30 years are tetraploids. They have extra chromosomes which results in sturdier plants. That is why the gardeners like them.

Extra chromosomes has come to hosta. You will occasionally see hosta that are described as tetraploids. 

#2 White fall crocus

 October 14, 2021

The late fall crocuses are always a wonderful surprise.

I sometimes want to weed the pictures. I suppose there will soon be editing programs that allow you to do that.

#3 Purple Pansy

 May 21, 2021

What remarkable color.

Pansies are so cheerful. They also can be some of the first plants to go out into the garden. They do not mind a frost. 

I put this one in a hanging pot. Those pot hangers in the trees cannot take the orchid cactus until the trees' leaves come out (lest the orchid cactus get sunburn). So these pots are available for early color.

Getting them off the ground can be a good idea if you have rabbits around. I sometimes would start pansies inside. I would put them out rather early. I discovered however that they would be about the only early plant that tasted good. Not a survival technique.

Pansies are hybrids  in the genus viola. They are developed from wildflowers in Europe.

Here is the wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansy

From that article:

Heartsease is a name for the wildflower in Europe.

In Midsummer Night's Dream, the juice of the heartsease plant, when dripped in the eye of someone sleeping, makes them wildly dote on the first person they see when they awaken. A plant and a plot device.

#4 Yellow Hibiscus

 August 7, 2021

We have several of these yellow not hardy hibiscus plants. 2 are over 5 feet tall. They do come inside for the winter. You can make more plants from cuttings. Please see the bonus section for how one of the cuttings just bloomed.

#5 Red (and Yellow) Shirley Poppy 

June 15, 2021

Here is the final Shirley poppy in this year's contest. Will it join the previous three and advance to the playoffs. It is rather... well, pick your own word. Breathtaking?  Unbelievable? 

My only regret is that I did not save the seed from this particular plant. At the moment I have about 50,000 Shirley poppy seeds with no way of knowing which seed came from which plant. I guess that just adds to the suspense.

There you have Week 11. 2 more weeks and then there will be the playoffs. By that time it will be March, with spring just around the corner.

Bonus section

I have mentioned sometimes the difficulty picking the best image, depending on the cropping of the picture.

What do you think about this cropped picture of the Shirley picture this week?

I am discovering that I can include more pictures in slideshows. Even a year ago the technology would only allow about 10 pictures. Now I will just have to expand my music library. 

Here is the Shirley poppy slideshow including the ones that did not make the contest.

Here is the Daylily slideshow.

Right now

I am trying to spend a little time in the basement with seeds every day before work. I am growing several kinds of lettuce, Iceland and Shirley poppies, lupines, several kinds of coneflowers, and several kinds of primroses.

Some seeds germinate within 3-4 days. That would be the poppies and lettuce. Some seeds seem to take forever. (That means they are not up yet.)

Here are the poppy seedlings planted just about a month ago. There are so many plants in each section because there were so many seeds.

There are lettuce seedlings on the right.

Here are some little poppy plants transplanted to individual sections in the 6 packs.

Here are individual lettuce plants, now about 3 weeks old. They are growing under lights.

I read that it is possible to grow lettuce inside even on windowsills.

These are little lupine seedlings. Those first little secondary leaves are so encouraging.

Other pictures from the inside garden this week

This is a cutting from one of the bigger plants that yielded the contestant in the contest this week.

Hibiscus cuttings will grow roots eventually, even though sometimes they take months. You just have to change the water every several weeks. They will even bloom in their little jars on the kitchen windowsill.

The phalaenopsis orchids started growing spikes right after they were brought inside in October. They have started to bloom.

This next picture is a very strange orchid called Stenorrhynches speciosus.

I got it at the Orchid Club Christmas party in 2013. 

Plant word for the week

"Pelletize," as in pelletized seeds

I bought some impatiens seeds the other day at the garden center. Only when I opened the package did I notice that the seeds were pelletized. I had read about this before. I had never had any such seeds.

They reminded me of yogurt covered almonds. I do not know how tiny impatiens seeds are. But these were easy to handle and I could plant them with my fingers.

That seems to be the point. Tiny seeds are covered with some dissoluble medium that allows you to handle them.

You of course pay more for the seeds.

Here is a youtube feature about the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P22K94t6Nrk

Julia's recipe- Cherry Crunch

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

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

I found some frozen cherries in the deep freezer in the basement, which we bought at a local orchard that sells imported (from Michigan) fruit before apple season. I am a sucker for cherries and blueberries in early summer. I recently decided it was time to have cherry something. Pie is, of course, wonderful, but I was thinking of something easier so that Philip could putter around with his seedlings and neither of us would need to make a pie crust. This recipe is from an old edition of Joy of Cooking, and it is very good, especially with vanilla ice cream. 

The ingredients:

2 cups (or maybe 3 if you have them) of canned or frozen pie (not sweet) cherries - thawed if frozen and drained - but save the juice;

1/2 cup cherry juice (from draining the cherries);

1-1/2 tablespoons quick tapioca;

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter;

1-1/4 cups brown sugar;

1 cup regular flour;

1 cup quick (not old fashioned or steel cut) oats;

a pinch of salt;

1/4 teaspoon baking soda; and

1/4 teaspoon baking powder.

First (not pictured), I mixed the tapioca into the cherry juice and set it aside to do its thing- thickening the cherry juice. 

I had extra cherry juice which I drank. It was tart but delicious. 

Then I melted the butter in a saucier. And I lubed up a 9" x 9" pan. An 8" x 8" pan would be fine too. And I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. 

When the butter  had melted, I added everything else - brown sugar, flour, oats, pinch of salt, baking powder and baking soda. 

I used salted butter so just needed a dash of salt. If you use unsalted butter, go with 1/4 teaspoon. 

I mixed these things together and the result was a crumbly mixture. 

I scooped about 1/2 of the crumbly mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.

I used the measuring cup to spread the crumbly mixture around and pat it down a bit. But gently.

I sprinkled the cherries over top of the mixture. Then I poured (or actually dolloped) the cherry juice/tapioca over that, ootching it around so it would be kind of evenly spread out. 

Then I sprinkled the rest of the crumbly mixture over top of the cherry layer.

A few cherries showed through.

Then into the oven for about 35-40 minutes until it was a bit bubbly around the edges and had golden brown spots. 

Here it is. Excellent with a scoop of vanilla ice cream warm out of the oven. And very nice cold the next day. 

Odds and ends

I worry about deer, and utility workers.

In the category of "other worries" I saw this article. "The Rampaging Pigs of San Francisco." It was not talking about some new rock band.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/us/pigs-san-francisco-california.html?surface=icymi-home&fellback=false&req_id=925677199&algo=combo_EI_80_bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-20_20_diversify_prioritize_dedupe_impression_cut_2&variant=3_combo_EI_80_bandit-all-surfaces_20s_20_dedupe_impression_cut_2_diversified_prioritized&pool=pool/ad46ab97-b71a-43a8-96f1-845ceb92ddb7&imp_id=34349214&action=click&module=In%20Case%20You%20Missed%20It&pgtype=Homepage

I liked the advice in the article that if you are confronted by an angry pig, get on top of your car. The reason of course is that "pigs cannot climb."

 

The temperatures in January were remarkably up and down. Here is the chart for Iowa City. The chart includes lines for the "average" high and low temperature. Please not that about mid January that line just barely started to rise.

I suppose this section could also be called Odds and Ends and What is Amusing. (Please note that what is amusing is so very subjective. 

In that expanded category I found advice this week on watering dieffenbachia. "Water when the soil feels dry to a depth of one inch." How do you figure that out? Do you poke a hole with your finger down an inch?

I will close. It is time to think about what to plant today.

Be safe and not afraid. There is fun out there. 

Philip