This day's appreciation

I took time today to appreciate this sculpture here in Lafayette's Riehle Plaza.

Then I went out to play.

Nothing like doing a little amateur radio in the middle of nowhere. With a fishing pole a friend was able to get a wire up in the trees about 70 ft. for an antenna. Ya! They were big trees. Found a gooseberry bush but the gooseberries weren't ripe yet.

Garden Bloopers

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhubarb_Flower.jpg

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

A dear friend and I are driving down the road and my eyes pop out of my head and I say Wow! whats that! It had huge leaves and tall flower stalk and a big plume of white flowers on it. You'd think I would know because I think I know everything, but  I wasn't familiar with it. Her friend has one in her back yard and said it was Rhubarb. I'll be darned! You'd think I'd know that! I guess your suppose to cut the spike off to keep the plants vitality.  I'm probably the only one who sees beauty in it. I went over to a ladies house to see if I could do some landscaping for her, and she complained of a vine she couldn't get rid of, and I didn't recognise it. It turned out to be kudzu --- Kudzu! Here in Indiana! I must be getting old, lol.

Well, those may not be bloopers, but you got to laugh. Is it just me? Or are a lot of things getting mislabeled. I think the funniest one last year was a gal planted a couple of cantaloupe plants, but they turned out to be pumpkins. We thought they mislabeled melons till they turned orange, lol. People decide that they don't want something and put it back in the wrong space, that happens in the plumbing dept. all the time. Sometimes bloopers can go right, like a clematis that has flowers bigger than my hand. Yum! So! Got any garden bloopers you care to share?

Blue Orchid

According to my horoscope my favorite color is suppose to be yellow, but it's blue. I've had Phalaenopsis before and they're suppose to be one of the easiest orchids to grow, but they don't last very long for me. The big sign for these Phalaenopsis was a new breakthrough in orchids. It's true that there are no true blue Phalaenopsis, and they do catch your eye. So I visited the website on the tag and read their faq they answer one question "will my orchid re bloom blue?" not with a yes or no, but but an explanation that they were white orchids grown in a special medium that took tears to develop (food coloring? lol) and the color may fade. Well, that's what they look like, they don't look natural. Now, there are blue orchids, they're just not Phalaenopsis. Take a Vanda coerulea is naturally blue, Vanda's are more difficult to grow if you don't have the conditions for them. Anyway, this Phalaenopsis is called Blue Mystique from Silver Vase Nursery. They are wholesale only, and they don't sell the special medium. I guess they're alright if you plan to throw away the plant after its done flowering, but it's not for me.

I Covet

                                          www.ranger146.com/.../Flower_Gardens.html




Or perhaps the better title should be The Controversy Never Ends, but there seems to be a dichotomy of what I have compared to what I have not. When at the local greenhouse/nursery, I find myself always putting things back that I realise I don't need, or have a place for. Weather to upgrade to something bigger and better  than what I already have. I see other peoples gardens and want what they have. How much money do I spend on any one of my many hobbies? Is a vegetable garden suppose to save money? My most recent dilemma is which fertilizer to use. Bone meal can't hurt and fish emulsion is expensive, as is any premium fertilizer such as Miracle Grow. Chemical or organic, kelp seems to the rage right now. They say it won't burn because it's organic, but it comes from the sea and the sea has salts. Just thinking. I'm always open to something new, but I'm suspicious of any "super food" for anything. I remember my first spirulina was as big a leap of faith as my first split pea soup, and I'm still not sure about spirulina. As for kelp and a leap of Faith , there was the sushi bar. I went from bags of mulch to truck loads, and by all means one should compost, but I can only compost a fraction of what I need. It could very well be that I like to cheap out on things, but I get the feeling that acquired happiness is a learned thing.

Another Jack


Well, if you don't believe I like Ariseamas just look at my profile picture, that one happens to be Ariseama Fargessii. So it's no wonder I delight in seeing one of our very own (indiginous to this area), Ariseama Trifolia. This one towers above the May Apples to get an idea of the size. A three for one ornamental in that it has huge beautiful tropical looking leaves (of Hosta quality), a one of a kind florescence (Arum Lilly like), that turns to a spike of bright red berries in the fall. Wow! Need I say more? And I was happy with that, knowing I've been a woodsman all my life, and never seeing any other species here in Indiana, to my suprise was just a few feet away, another Ariseama looking leaf.

 I had to look  it up when I got home, but its an Ariseama Dracontium ( Green Dragon). The spathe on this flower is like a long rat tail shooting up in the air. Apparently, I'm the only one who gets excited about this sort of thing, and it's no wonder why I'm constantly recharging my cell phone lol. The thing is that we have some very nice fill ins for a shady area if you care to go native ( Jack-in-the-pulpit, May Apple, Solomon seal). Be sure to plant nursery grown plants.

http://www.hcp4.net/mercer/inbloom/images/sept2003/arisaemaDracontium.lg.jpg is where I got this photo.

a spring outing

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This was such a beautiful weekend, so a friend and I spent some time in the woods doing what a couple of middle aged men do, "cut wood", but ultimately I look at the plants. I like to make sure I can identify the plants I see. Case in point, A dear friend complained to me that none of the bulbs she planted last year came up. So I asked her what kind they were. Those fuzzy things we bought last fall. Oh ya, the hairy alliums, umm, uhh, ya don't think that they were those wild garlics we pulled up last week, do ya? She has them growing all over the place lol (she wasn't laughing). Ok! I screwed up there, but if you don't know what to pull up, you may pull up the wrong thing. A good reason to grow things from seed too, so you can recognise seedlings as they grow. On a different path you would think that animals would instinctively know what to eat and what not to eat, but that's not necessarily so. I remember my dog trying to drink antifreeze in a pan once, and of course antifreeze is poisonous. Still with me? So I'm out in the woods admiring all the woodland plants when a patch of yellow flowers pokes in the eye (well not literally). I honestly don't know what that plant is, so I take a picture and look it up when I get home, and my best guess by picture and description is Golden Ragwort (Senecio Aureus), which is very common around here. Research tells me that it was wildflower of the month for 2008 (Virginia Native Plant Society), and and from pet care and horse farm sites, toxic to animals, horses, dogs, and cats. There many poisonous plants in the garden as well. It' good to know or have reference of what plants are poisonous (it's the first rule when hunting mushrooms), here's a site you should at least look at. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/lawn_garden/poison/poison.html Poison is a great conversation piece, so spread the word, heh heh!

seed? or nuts

Actually, here in Indiana, it's been a cool spring.  May 5 (is this a holiday?)and we've had a chance of frost for the past two nights. Soil is prepped, and I have some plants in the ground. Last year was a pretty good year for tomatoes. So I kept some seeds. I guess I keep my own seed for the same reason I make my own bread or grow my own garden. Heck! You can buy tomatoes and peppers in the store. You don't always see the varieties you want which is the case this year. I grew Italian Tree tomato last year and they grew some enormous fruits, so I kept some seed and I don't see them in the nursery this year, or at least they don't have them out yet. I can also keep a check on the popular conspiracies out there. You know, genetic engineering and germination and heirlooms and all. Saving tomato seed can be labor intensive isn't it? No! Many recipes call for seeding the tomatoes anyway. So cut the tomato in half and pull out the seed with all the tomato goo on a paper towel, you don't have to wash the seed, just smear it on the towel and let it dry. Once dry, fold the towel and put it in a labeled envelope. The towel absorbs moisture and aids in germination the next year. I got about 90% germination this year. So we'll see if they come true to form . Why am I concerned? I wonder about heirlooms. Who grows just one kind of tomato? Bees go from one plant to another and that's how hybridization happens isn't it? But then my Roma tomatoes came true last year and they were fantastic. It pays to feed your tomatoes. Maybe those bees know what they're doing! It would not be unlike me to pollinate the flowers myself with a q-tip, people already know I'm nuts. Sorry about the lousy pic.

Squirrely

Do you feed the squirrels? They are cute and all living things add to the landscape, but every time I plant something, they dig it up. There was a really dark purple tulip I was looking forward to seeing and the squirrel picked it, really! No! I didn't see him do it, but he's guilty by logical assumption. Do you think the bird did it? Birds can be destructive too. I've been into dark colored flowers lately. I bought an Iris that should be almost black last fall, so I hope it blooms this year and that the squirrel leaves it alone. I planted a Delphinium last week and it was dug up the next day. I'm trying to collect temperate, terrestrial orchids such as Cypripedium Acule and they came up to bloom (nursery grown), but the squirrel got it. I'm all for eating invasive species, if you have garlic mustards (alliaria petiolata) growing they are good to eat when young, bitter, but very nutritious. But squirrels are not worth the effort, despite what many hunters say. I'm not into poison like rats so I guess I'll just put up with them. I got the picture from google images.

The moral of being cheap

In general I'm a bum. A greenhouse bum, a grocery store bum, a home improvements store bum, and for any outing or showing I just hang out, take inventory, being a fixture and nuisance. In this case I went to the grocery store and saw these Cymbidium orchids they had for sale for Easter last year. A couple months later they're out of bloom and on sale ($2.00 ). I don't recall them being of any good color or substance when they were in bloom, and didn't think they were worth the price at the time ($34.00). But for a couple of bucks I grabbed them and kept them in the back yard of a friend for the summer. She has a small greenhouse at her place so we overwintered them there. Here it is May, and to our surprise they're in bloom. I can't believe how beautiful they are. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes it pays to be cheap!