Don't throw away your Aliums when you deadhead them, they make nice dried arrangements. Here we have a couple Globe Aliums, the smaller ones are Gladiators, and the short one is a Shubertii, along with some Pussy Willows. Nice arrangement.

Intentionally placed limestone steps leading to nowhere at Murdock Park. I haven't seen any ghosts, but the mere sight is kind of ghostly.

Hey!

lets have a fire! Can't really roast hot dogs on this one. This is for all you pyro's out there.

A rose by any other name

Rose Of Sharon is certainly not a rose, but they have been a fascination of mine for years. They belong to the genus hibiscus, in the plant family Malvaceae. So I say the flower is mallow like, like hibiscus, hollyhock.

I didn't actually understand just how variable they were till I raised them from seed. You'd think that you would get a white flower from seed from a white flowered tree/shrub, but those seeds will produce a rainbow of colors. You'll never get a doubled flowered bloom from a single flowered plant.

The thing is that it takes 3 to 4 years to bloom, you can grow them as a tree or a bush. I like them as a tree, small in size 10-15 ft. It's easy, just don't let them sucker. Keep lower limbs from growing on the trunk. No matter how you grow them, the secret is pruning. Want just a few flowers on a unruly shrub? Don't prune it. People complain about fruit trees, wisteria, and such, but won't take the effort to prune. Get in the habit and the knack will come to you.

The pictures here are just from around the neighborhood, if I was to start pruning everybodies shrubs, they'd probably get mad. So the ugly shrub whose name has biblical connotations, remains common place and relatively unnoticed.

My new orchid

I've had a fascination with orchids for about 20 yrs. now. They've come and gone, I.ve given some away as Christmas presents, lost some to disease, power losses in winter, and as with all perennials, they come back from year to year, but they are not immortal. Rebuilding my collection I came across one that I've wanted for a long time. The right place (EBay) and the right price, and a little bit of luck, I obtained this little jewel. Supposedly near blooming size, it started spiking a week after I received it. I remember being invited to dinner at a neighbors house way back when, after dinner we went into his greenhouse and he showed me his orchids, mostly Catleyas, they were breath taking. I got to get me one of those. Of course one led into an another.

This one happens to be a paphoipedilum, Paph Sanderianum 'Show Shan' x Philippinese '9F'.  I always  got a kick from the way R.J. Rands would describe paphs; "The bees aren't as busy as you think, that they would often crawl into the pouch of the phaph and take a snooze," lol.

The long peddles are truly exotic. Ten years ago these were difficult to get. They do make a nice center piece for the dinner table.

If I could only have one orchid, I believe this would be it.

Just for me

Walking in a wooded park north here in Lafayette (Murdock Park) as I have for many years, found, as usual, an assortment of mushrooms. Which is a relief in that I haven't seen them in a number of years, and I thought it might be because of the bike trails that have been made. There are a lot of hills and the trails weave rather tightly all through out the woods and has affected much of the flora here. ( Trillium, Jack In The Pulpits )  

 I kicked over some leaves and found this milky.

 This An American Ceasers Mushroom

 Boletes are my main interest because They don't have gills.

 Instead of gills they have sponge like pores, very distinctive, which is crucial for identification. There are few poisonous look a likes for boletes so I feel more confident eating them. Although this one isn't very appetizing, I like Boletes as much as sponge mushrooms, although they are very different. Boletes don't ordinarily come up till the second week in August here, after a good rain of course. My rule is harvest if only sure of it's identity, and only take enough for a side dish, and this is true for any wild edible.

 This one has a number of look a likes, the bulb at the base is a bad sign.

 Here's a Cokers Amanita with a couple of small milkies in back.

 Don't know what these are but they look so cute. And by the way, how does your hedge apple grow??????????

Like this! real close to the stem. Don't be under one of these trees when they let lose. 

They say you can't take it with you when you die. Is that true with memories? I wonder--- and sometimes I think that mushrooms come up only for me to see.                                                                         

Rock garden help?

A little somewhat neglected rock garden I've adopted for friend. I stuck some petunias and nasturtiums, but it seems so blah. So I'm thinking of perhaps some Euphorbia myrsinites (Myrtle Spurge)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_myrsinites, and I guess I really need to get familiar with some cute alpine plants, being German, the one that comes to mind is Edelweiss http://www.treknature.com/gallery/photo20634.htm, but I'm not sure if it would work here. So! Got any suggestions???

While walking in my favorite woods I found something that might make a good walking stick. It happens to be what I used to call Ironwood, but apparently it has other names like muscle wood or blue beech. It's actually American Hornbeam - Carpinus caroliniana http://www.mntca.org/resources/treeid/tree_dec_alt_bir_hornbean.html, It's not seen too often and is an undergrowth type of tree, so it doesn't get real large, extremely hard and with its muscular growth makes for a good cane.

All chopped up

Well, there it is. Right there with the tomatoes. The leaves look as though it could be a melon of some sort, doesn't it? Thank goodness for the search engine online, just punch in little white flower and you find it eventually. This thing is only an inch across and it's part of the Hibiscus family? Hibiscus Trionum to be exact. The common name is Flower an Hour, because the flowers only last that long, lol. Here's some better pics of it; http://www.missouriplants.com/Others/Hibiscus_trionum_page.html. Some say (on other blogs) that it's very invasive. Still other people like it and you can buy seed at online nurseries and on EBay. I don't know what to do about it. I'll save some of the seed for prosperity and pull it.

I love Swiss Chard, easy to grow, beautiful and nutritious. Tastes different than greens in the Brassica family (kale, collard greens), and no Cabbage worms. I think it grows and matures quicker too.  I started using it last week, for here in Indiana, that's pretty early.

I like Fennel, do you? This guy has it all over his front yard here in Lafayette, near Colombian Park, lol. Just had to show you, I wish more people were like that, but I imagine city ordinance would have something to say about that. That's what happens when you don't post often, the post gets all chopped up. By the way, don't you just love the hydrangeas this year? We've had some good rain so far this year, but here is a wild Hydrangea I found in my favorite woods.

Dirt Cheap

Growing orchids for some years made me aware of so called growing mediums. The trial and error and reading and research has all been an education. And knowing what plants need and why they need it makes having a green thumb a bit easier.  This has become obvious to me with the most basic growing media there is, dirt. Dirt is dirt isn't it? Yep! No argument there. It's that easy, or it could be a thesis for a degree at a university. I think most serious gardeners know where I'm going with this, but still it can be confusing for the most experienced. Of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium), nitrogen has been a concern to me, and I had my misconceptions about it. Like what source of nitrogen to use, Urea? Ammonium? Synthetic? Organic? Oh good! There's lightning, that puts nitrogen in the air, and it does, but the atmosphere is already 78% nitrogen. It would be nice if it rained. Rain brings nitrogen to the soil. But that don't help much if the soil doesn't have the bacteria to convert it so it can be used by the plants. Dry, liquid, and organic fertilizers are all good. Certain plants are nitrogen fixing. Hence, the ornamental clover picture above are nitrogen fixing as well as alfalfa and legumes like beans and peas. So  why not? With the vegetables and every place else. Then there's the loam, and the PH, and the acidity. Did you know that clay is a good source of potassium? Truly, you can do no wrong by adding organic material to the soil, but that can get awfully expensive if your not careful. My pitch here is to get you to do a little research and educate yourself so to know how it works. Got mushrooms growing in your soil? Sounds Bad, but look up something called Bio remediation, or Mycoreremediation. To pass on some of my research for nitrogen , this is a good place;
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/AY/AY-204.html
Basic soil knowledge you might try this link;  http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/soilfert/npk.htm
Then there is a neat infomercial for a book about a secret about tomatoes that I won't issue unless requested via comment, I got from Off The Grid Website. It's OK! I'm a Ham, and I'm immune to propaganda. Hi Hi.

Got this picture from Wikipedia.