Happy Holidays
The Solistice, Christmas, and New Years, all in bunch. It is a busy time of the year.
The outside garden is mostly forgotten at this point. We do need to brave the cold and pick up sticks. Generally we cannot complain about the weather. It is not too far from normal.
Indoor plants limp along. I am taking an inventory of the left over seeds I have. I should order some more and get them planted on January 1. It is a tradition.
So is getting a Christmas tree at the local nursery. It is unfortunate but they give them names. This year we got Toby. Decoration will happen Tuesday night.
The solstice happened. It went by without much fanfare. Today might be 4 seconds longer than yesterday.
Last week in the contest
The winner in a complete rout was
The Dogwood.
In 20 years of contests I do not remember ever having any picture get 50% of the vote. The dogwood got over 70%.
Here is the full vote
This Week is Week 4
#1 Daffodil April 16, 2024
Daffodils are so many things. They are a sign that spring is really here. They can personify cheerfullness.
They also come in so many colors and shapes.
They are an old flower, having been around in prior epochs, such as the early Miocene. I assume there must be fossils. Actually AI on google says no. There may not be fossils from any of the Amaryllis family, which includes daffodils. (This is the first time AI has appeared in a google search. )
They seem to have come from southwestern Europe and north Africa.
They are old enough that they were introduced into the far East over a thousand years ago. The Romans were suppose to have brought them to Britain.
If you think about it, they are also tall. Most of the really early spring bulbs are short. Think about snowdrops, crocuses and aconite. Those all top out at about 6 inches. Daffodils get to about 12-15 inches. There is this one variety in the front yard that blooms at about 4 inches. It is rather precious. (Picture in the bonus section.)
This week's contestant is probably a Mitsch daffodil.
I should say something about Grant Mitsch.
Grant Mitsch was the premier daffodil hybridizer in this country for 50 years. He died in 1989, but his business remained open for about another 10 years.
Here is an oblituary I found on line
This might be his last catalogue.
I never ordered from him. I sometime wish I had. But imagine spending $50 for one daffodil bulb. That is Dutch tulip crazy. Maybe I would have spent $10 on a daffodil bulb,
Here are some pictures of his introductions
#2 Blue Tradescantia May 25, 2024
This great blue flower is tradescantia, aka spiderwort. Tradescantia is the genus.
It is native to the America's, being found from Canada to Argentina. It is a perennial in my garden.
The genus is of course 'tradescantia'. The species might be virginiana. It would be so named because it was 'discovered' by two plant explorers, both named John Trandescantia. Maybe in the 17th century they had not invented the term Junior. One was called John the Elder. The other was John ....wait for it...the younger. How about it Pat? When was the term Junior coined?
I sometimes ask Pat historical word questions. She and Stewart do have their own blog. You might enjoy it.
Well the Trandescania couple sent/took the plant back to England about 1630 from....Virginia. It then got named after them.
It is a perennial in the garden. I also have the pink kind, which is rather agressive. Not so the blue variety.
The blue variety does regularly come back, a little later than the pink one.
#3 Pink Shirley Poppy June 14, 2024
Shirley poppies are about the best.
The first year for Shirley poppies in my garden was 2021. Winter 21-22 was their first time in the contest. They took that contest by storm. Not only was the winner a Shirley picture, no fewer than 3 Shirley pictures made the knock out round of 15. I suppose they are like the Yankees or the Celtics or maybe the Patriots (of old).
This garden year, 2024, was a terrible year for Shirley poppies. I grew them from seed on schedule. Then the deer ate almost every one.
I am planning for 2025. I think some form of modified fence will be required. I cannot fence the entire garden. I might fence some parts.
I grow Shirley poppies from seed each year. In past years I grew Iceland poppies the same way. I start them right after the first of the year. It is so cheerful to be growing seeds in the dead of winter.
So what can I tell you about Shirley poppies?
They are a cultivar in the species Papaver rhoeas. Those are the red flowered poppies known as the Flanders poppy.
They are mostly annuals, but they can self seed if there are enough of them. They did this last winter, when we did not have much of a winter.
They last until about July. The heat does them in, if they are not eaten by the deer.
They were developed by a vicar in England name William Wilks. That was in the 19th century. He was the vicar of a parrish named....wait for it.... Shirley.
#4 Anemone Blanda April 13, 2024
This anemone blanda really is white. The blanda actually come in all colors.
Blanda is the species. Anemonoides is the genus. Ranunculaceae is the family.
The genus name is derived from the Greek word for wind. They are also called windflowers. They come from southwestern Europe into the middle east.
They are a spring bulb. (putting aside for the moment the differences between bulbs and tubors and corms) Scott is encouraging me to understand the difference. When I can understand it better I will tell you.
This particular cultivar is 'White Splendour.' It has received the Royal Horticulural Society's Award of Garden Merit. That must be like the Pulitzer, but for flowers.
When I looked them up on Wikipedia I liked the part where it said that "due to their toxicity, they are no longer used as medications."
Here is a nice webcite.
#5 Red Zinnia September 21, 2024
How is that for a colorful flower.
One of the few annuals I will grow are zinnias. I do like the splash of color late in the summer when the lilies and iris are finished.
Most people recognize zinnias. What do we really know about them?
I learned this year that deer prefer the taste of the buds as opposed to the actual flowers. So many of my memories of the garden this year have deer in them.
I planted about 25 zinnias in this one sunny bed. They were getting to be about blooming size in August with 3-4 having flowers. The rest were in bud. You might see where this is going. One night, and it only takes one night, every bud was eaten. They left the 3-4 in bloom. I had not sprayed. I had not know how tasty they were.
Zinnias have their own genus.
They are native to southwestern United States to South America.
Frost will kill them.
I often plant them as late as July 1. That way the plants are fresh (no mildew) in September and October.
Butterflies like them, as do hummingbirds.
They have been taken to the International Space Station where they bloomed without gravity.
Planting them every 2-3 weeks ensures blooms for the entire time. So does deadheading as well as cutting them back well below the flower.
Zinnias make good cut flowers. They apparently have a vase life of about 5 days. You do have to grow a lot to be able to have cut flowers all the time. I do not grow that many. I understand that changing the water every day prolongs their vase life.
They come in all sizes. Little short ones became popular maybe 10 years ago.
So there you have the contestants for Week 4. Blue v Red. How will the Shirley poppy do this year? What about single flowers v the Clump?
Bonus Section
These are cut zinnias avoiding the first frost.
The anemone blandas do come in all sorts of colors. You see these pictures and wonder why you do not just plant 100's of them.
I grew these fractured colored zinnias in 2018. In seeing these pictures I realize I should order some of this seed.
There are short varieties of zinnias that can make a nice display. Two varieties are Profusion and Zahara.
I grew one of them 2 years ago.
Here is a picture of the really tiny daffodil.
Right Now
The orchids are carrying the flowering part of the house garden at the moment.
This next picture shows part of the kitchen windowsill. It is full all winter with little glass jars with cuttings of all kinds. Here from the left is a piece of a sanseveriaa, an african violet leaf, and a rope hoya. Not pictured included a croton, several kinds of succulents, and some pieces of a lantana plant brought in right before the freeze.
Here are the hoya babies. Seedlings take a lot of water. If you forget about them for a week they may be toast.
This is also a grown from seed plant. It is a pachypodium, from Florida.
You will hear more about the next plant soon. This is orchid stennorhynchos.
Julia's recipe
potato laitkes
I had latkes at a winter holiday party or two, many years ago, but I never made them. Then I saw a recipe on the NYT website. And I remembered that several years ago P and I had been gifted the "23 and me" genetic testing package. It turns out I have a some Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. Probably from the Polish side of my mother's family. My mother was orphaned young, and the Polish cultural heritage disappeared. So I thought I would give latkes a try as a nod to that heritage. It turns out that with a food processor, a little time and a willingness to do some frying, latkes are within easy reach, even for amateurs. And they're tasty - and good plain or with sour cream or applesauce or both.
The ingredients:
about 1 lb. russet potatoes (2 largeish);
about 1/2 lb. onion (maybe 3/4 of the white onion shown);
2 eggs;
1/2 cup flour;
1 teaspoon baking powder;
1+ teaspoon kosher salt;
1/2 teaspoon black pepper; and
some regular oil for frying.
And a food processor. Seriously it makes all the difference.
I started by washing the potatoes and cutting them into wedges. No need to peel. I cut off any weird spots which russet potatoes can have.
Then I peeled the onion and cut most (but not all) of it into wedges as well.
Philip helped me assemble the food processor with the grating disc. It goes at the top of the inside of the food processor bowl. You use the tube to feed the product into the machine.
This picture shows me feeding potato wedges into the tube.
I did all of the potatoes followed by the onions. The onion did not come out in as uniform a set of shreds as the potato.
I think next time I will use the regular blade feature on the onion and then pour that out and reconfigure the food processor to grate the potato.
That will yield tiny bits of onion and shredded potato.
As it was, I needed to pull maybe 6 or 8 bigger pieces of onion out of the shreds.
Next I plopped all of the shredded vegetables onto a dish towel.
I rolled the towel up and squeezed it over the kitchen sink. Vigorously. There was some liquid, but not a whole lot.
After the squeezing, I poured the vegetation into a bowl.
I added the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper to the bowl.
I mixed the ingredients thoroughly and ended up with a thick and shreddy batter.
I put a non-stick skillet on the stove over medium-high heat and added oil to about 1/4 - 1/3" deep. I didn't measure. Eyeball it.
When the oil began to shimmer, I used a disher (a little ice cream scoop tool) to plop 4 scoops of the potato mixture into the skillet.
The recipe says the scoops should be heaping tablespoons-ful. So use a measuring tablespoon if you don't have a disher.
Latkes cooking. The recipe said it would take 5 minutes a side. I found it actually took more like 2 to 3 minutes per side.
I let the latkes cook on the first side for maybe 1 minute and then I used a spatula (pancake flipper kind) to smush the latkes a little to make them more uniformly flat.
After 2 minutes +, I used the spatula to peek. The bottoms were golden brown so I flipped the latkes over and cooked them for another 2 or 3 minutes on the other side. I peeked again and they were done.
I took them out and laid them on a paper towel lined plate. And then I did it again and again until all of the batter was cooked.
The batter held together quite well. I did not have trouble flipping the latkes or getting them out of the skillet.
Latkes on a plate. I think I ended up with about 20 little potato cakes.
We served them with sour cream and applesauce. And salmon with a glaze that included horseradish. The most Eastern European salmon glaze in my repertoire. And salad and baked apples.
Not very hard to make. Crunchy and vegetal with a little bite from the onion. And everything is good with sour cream. Maggie joined us for dinner so we had only a few leftover which were just fine as cold finger food.
Odds and ends
A year ago we had a warm December. The ground stayed above freezing for long enough that some Shirley poppy seeds sprouted. They then were insullated by the snow and were still there in March.
Other plants were emerging a year ago. This picture was taken on December 30, 2023.
Here was the kale on January 5, 2024.
We had a warm day earlier this past week. I thought I saw a snowdrop or two, just emerging.
It will come.
Pray for peace.
Pray for the people huddled in fear.
Pray for strenghth.
Pray for the resistance.
It is always good to hear from you.
Philip
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