I've Got the Lavender Blues

Earlier today, I'd read Jodi's post from Monday, then went out for a walk through my garden. Prompted by the title to her post, I was singing to myself as I slowly meandered through the waning display that earlier in the season had been so colorful and lush. "Lavender's blue, dilly dilly ..." and it was an appropriate theme song.

Of the flowers still blooming in the garden, by far the majority of them are "lavender blue" or purple, and one of them actually IS lavender. I caressed the spiked stems, put my hands to my nose and breathed in deeply of its scent. I don't think I could ever tire of it. I've got three cultivars of lavender, but it's 'Jean Davis' that's still putting forth blooms at this late date.

It's been awhile since I've seen a bloom on 'Siberian Blues' Dianthus (Dianthus amurensis), and my plant is small, but one lone bloom stands proud and perfect, having defied the frost we had on Monday morning.

I don't have this plant sited in the best location, and it is slated to be moved next year to a place where it will get more sun. I was disappointed in it initially, because it turned out to not quite be the color shown in Park Seed's catalogs. But the longer I have it, the better I like it, even if it isn't as blue as they would have you think. The anthers are blue though.

A short distance away are some 'Aladdin Nautical Mix' petunias I grew from seed. When I planted the dust that was the petunia seeds, I really had my doubts that anything would come of it. Oh me of little faith!

While petunias are not my favorite flowers by a long shot, I wanted the shades of blue I saw in Park Seed's catalog. Once again, most of what I got wasn't really blue, but the mix of lavender hues turned out to be a joy as they grew and bloomed non-stop from mid-summer on. They laughed at the thermometer this week, too.

I turned around and smiled at the 'Crystal Palace' lobelia, blooming its heart out and looking handsome as ever with its deep, deep indigo blooms and burgundy foliage. It's a wonderful color combination that I've tried numerous times to capture with the camera, but never seem to be able to get the purply-blue quite right. It's such a rich, vibrant color, it nearly seems to glow.




The lamium (Lamium maculatum 'Red Nancy') that I've had for years is another one that defies accurate rendition of its color by my camera. It always comes out more pink than it is in real life. I've got it in a couple different locations and its blooming as if it's still summer.







Mom once again shared some Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola cornuta) with me. She's given some to me before, saying I'll have them all over the place, but I don't think they like my garden very well, because they bloom and promptly disappear, never to be seen again. I'm still trying though. I even planted some seeds this spring, but never got a single seedling to show for it. Maybe the fifth time's a charm. (Or is it the sixth?)


I realized as I was looking at the clematis and one of the late-season blooms it has, that the two vines are nearly thirty years old! We planted them shortly after we first moved here in 1977. Before we added the room onto the back of our house in 1983, they used to climb all over a wrought iron railing. After the room necessitated the removal of the railing, we used our old chain link fence posts to construct a trellis with strong fishing line and each year it twines its way around that.

While it was still growing on the railing, one year it had hidden in its vines and foliage a robin's nest. We didn't know it was there, but it was at just the right height for little three-year-old Kara to look right in and be tempted by the blue eggs. Yes. She did. When I saw the yolk dripping from her chin, I went into panic mode and called the doctor right away. He wasn't concerned in the least and in the end, nothing resulted from it, not even an upset stomach.

The delphiniums (Delphinium elatum 'Magic Fountain') continue to look pretty good and weren't harmed by the frost either. I really hope these come back for me next year, but my past experience hasn't been good in that respect. However, this year's plants were by far the strongest growers and the most prolific bloomers I've ever had, so maybe they'll survive the winter.





Oh look there - a primrose (Polyanthus 'Pacific Giant') bloom trying to hide under that foliage. It's looking pretty ragged due to some sort of something chewing on it, but it's still nice to see. I've got a red one and a yellow one too, but it's the purple one that blooms most often.





I had this little bellflower (Campanula sp.) potted up most of the summer, but planted it out a couple of weeks ago so it could winter over in the ground. It will likely stay in the ground from here on out. If I want more next year for potting, I can probably get it at Walmart, which is where I got this one (actually there are three plants). It's been a non-stop bloomer all summer and is still going pretty strong. The frost didn't hurt it. I love the leaf shape and of course the little purple bells. I'm really falling in love more and more with the different types of bellflowers.

I believe this toad lily (Tricyrtis) to be 'Sinonome' but I'm not sure. It's the last one to bloom of the several varieties I have in the shade garden and this one just opened today. There are a few more coming on. I love toad lilies and would like to acquire a few more in the years to come. They remind me of little orchids for some reason.



The spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.) continues to pop blooms out its top and seems to like the cooler weather than the heat of summer.







This verbena was just gorgeous when I bought it already potted up in a hanging container this spring, but it declined mid-season to the point that I cut it way back in a last-ditch attempt to let it start over. Good move! It came back in fine form and is still blooming pretty well. The frost didn't hurt it.





This is the Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) that many times isn't. I used to have two clumps of it in two far apart locations, but we dug out the larger of the two this fall. It had just gotten out of control to the point that it was trying to kick its bedmates out of bed. You'd think it was a mint or something. I don't like it well enough to tolerate such behavior so it was banished from that garden. For some strange reason, it stays contained in the other one.



And finally, the lavender bloom that I'm most excited about and I almost missed it. I'd been complaining just last week that those darn fall-blooming crocuses (Crocus kotschyanus) that I planted two years ago had never bloomed. I'd gotten lovely grassy foliage in the spring, but nada in the fall. Last night, Romie pointed out to me that it was blooming!

So fragile-looking and very pastel, it was a teeny bit of a disappointment to me as to its appearance, because the picture on the front of the package looked like this. But they were a free bonus from Bluestone Perennials and anything that blooms at this time of year is okay in my book.

What's Wrong With Grass?

I don't get it. I read post after post by gardeners talking about and actually getting rid of most or all of their grass. I get the feeling that grass is supposed to be a bad thing to have.

I like grass. I like grass without weeds (even though we don't have that kind of grass). I like grass that feels wonderfully cool and cushiony to walk on in the summer. I like seeing its pure greenness and I love the smell of it when it's been freshly cut.

So I ask, what is wrong with grass? Is it because you don't want to mow it? I can certainly understand that. But is there some other reason? I have a feeling there is, but I'm in the dark as to what it is and I honestly want to know so I can understand this no-grass trend.

Please! Enlighten me! Maybe I'll want no grass too (but I don't think so).

It's A Jungle In Here

When you live in your own house, you get used to your surroundings. Some things - like dust - you just don't see anymore until it reaches that level where it refuses to be ignored and then you take action.

Since cutting back on my work schedule a few years ago, I find that I tolerate more clutter and dust than I ever thought I would. I used to be a "a place for everything and everything in its place" kind of person. Even when the kids were little, our house was pretty neat and clean and as the kids got older, they were employed to help keep it that way. For some strange reason, Jenna took a liking to cleaning of all types, actually making it her hobby. She did laundry, dishes, and kept the house clean.

I got spoiled.

Then the day came when both girls were gone to college and off on their own. Now it was up to me. Romie has always been my equal when it comes to household chores (he dusts, vacuums, does dishes and laundry), so it wasn't all up to me, but with me not working much anymore, I felt like the bulk of the responsibility was mine. And while I still want my house to be organized and clean, the fact of the matter is, it isn't.

There are probably several reasons for this:

• I'm The Queen of Procrastination.
• I'm overwhelmed by all there is to do and don't know where to start, so I don't.
• I have a really hard time making decisions, so some things don't get discarded because I can't decide if I should keep it or not (I might need it later!) and if I keep it, where's the best place for it?
• I don't have the energy to do all I need to do in the garden and the house at the same time, so it's one or the other and gardening is more fun. I only dream of the day when I can do both simultaneously.
• I have developed selective vision. You've heard of selective hearing? It works with eyes, too. Look at something long enough and after awhile you don't see it anymore. Nope, can't see the praying mantis molt laying on the desk . . .

There are a couple of other reasons too, but I'm not willing to admit those yet. But I have decided there's nothing that makes you more aware of how your house really looks than to have another person set foot in it.

Sunday night, we went to Van Wert and got Grandma and brought her out to the house to spend the night. There's something about walking into your house with another person behind you that all of a sudden makes you see things through their eyes. How does that happen?

This time, all the plants that we had to bring in for the winter just jumped out at me. I counted them last year and it was some ridiculously high number, but there are even more this year. Mom had a few she was going to throw out and I couldn't bear for her to do that with perfectly good plants, so of course I took them in. Cats. Plants. They're all the same to me. And then there are all those brugmansias, God help me.

Even with our "greenhouse in the basement" it's a jungle in here. The air quality is undoubtedly fabulous, what with all that conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen going on. You'd think that would boost my energy level, wouldn't you? I haven't noticed it.

The cats seem to like all the greenery around, with Simon munching down on anything that even remotely resembles grass and Baby hiding under the larger plants when one of the other cats sneaks into the house.

There will be a natural attrition over the winter, but for the most part we live in a botanical conservatory. It's not so bad, in fact, Romie likes it and so do I, but visiting friends and relatives are somewhat shocked as they walk into it. That's okay. It's our house and it's only five months till spring and everything will begin to go back outside.

Maybe I should start conducting tours and charging for admission to our indoor gardens. Maybe we could make enough to hire a cleaning lady.

What Do Your T-Shirts Say About You?

With cooler weather upon us and colder weather to come, this past weekend I switched out my closets and drawers. Summer clothes swapped places with winter ones. Now that both Kara and Jenna are out on their own, I have the luxury of using the closets and drawers in their rooms for this purpose.

It's no secret that I like clothes and though I've weeded out much of what's in those closets and drawers, I still have too much of everything. But I've got pants that are too big that I will surely fit into again, clothes that fit that are perfectly fine but for some reason or another I don't wear, and odd bits that are also perfectly fine but don't go with anything else. Please don't suggest that I get rid of these things, because I can't bring myself to do it, especially with all this closet space.

I sort my things according to type when storing them. Shirts / pants / shorts / pajamas. And then the shirts get sorted again. White shirts (you can never have too many white shirts), 'nice shirts', long-sleeved t-shirts, and t-shirts with a message. Hmmmmm . . . message. What am I trying to say? What do my t-shirts say about me?




I'm sure this one comes as no surprise to anyone, except it did to me, because it arrived in the mail last month - a birthday gift from my friend Kat, who lives in Florida. She knows me well and knew that I would love this, in fact, I had almost purchased it myself earlier this year.








I'm a big fan of Life Is Good products, and I have two other t-shirts from them. One of them reflects my love of geocaching:



I was a child in the 1960s - too young to attend Woodstock * - but I have always loved the poster advertising it, so when I saw this t-shirt in a Limited Too store several years ago, I had to have it. Limited is very smart in making their children's clothing all the way up to XXL sizes, because big kids like me can shop there and sometimes find pretty cool things that are also priced less than in their regular store.

Several of my shirts I can blame on Kara. She'll see one and say, "Mom, you need this shirt. It's so you." Here are three of them:

"Nature is Beauty"

I like vintage t-shirts and while browsing cafepress.com, this one caught my eye:

Note: If you've never ordered from cafepress.com before, most of their shirts run small. If they say order a size up, they mean it.


VistaPrint offers custom t-shirts free (except for shipping) or at a reduced price every now and then, so I thought it would be fun to get one made with my blog name and URL on it.


The back has the Marcel Proust quote that's at the top of my blog.



I rarely go into Abercrombie & Fitch, because I actually have a really strong dislike for the store, but one of their catalogs came in the mail one time a couple of years ago (addressed to Jenna) and I looked through it. I saw this t-shirt and though I'd previously told myself I'd never go into that store, this t-shirt was screaming my name. I had to shut it up by buying it. It has metallic embroiderly and beads stitched to it.

I think now that I could have lived without it, but I didn't think so at the time.


And finally, the other Life Is Good t-shirt pretty much gives you an idea of what I think nearly every day I wake up in the morning:


So, based on my t-shirts, that makes me a nature-loving, tree-hugging, litter-picker-upper, self-promoting blogging gardener and hippie wannabe who's almost always in a good mood. Oh, and I like a little bit of glitz now and then.

What do your t-shirts say about you?


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*Linked for those who are either too young to know what Woodstock was, or for those who were there but can't remember.

That's a Wrap

The gardening season is over for 2007. It seems like just a few weeks ago that it began and now we've had our first killing frost (last night). Much of what was vibrant and alive yesterday is black and hanging limp today. Oh, there's plenty of green out there yet, but I feel like I can now sit back and look back and say, "It was a good year."

'Zowie' zinnias were new to my garden this year and while I wasn't all that impressed with them at the start, as the season progressed 'Zowie' proved to live up to its name. Color definitely made them a winner and was the reason I planted them in the first place. But beyond that, I was impressed with the germination rate of the seeds (100%), the staying power of the blooms (each bloom looked good for weeks), and the health of the foliage from one end of the main stem to the other.

I also grew other cultivars ('Whirligig', 'Chippendale', and 'Candy Cane') so I was able to compare 'Zowie with these and overall, 'Zowie' outperformed the others. I don't know if I've ever grown a zinnia that didn't have foliage afflicted with mildew until 'Zowie' came along. I'll definitely grow them again next year.

The hellebore seeds that I planted last fall germinated and are slowly growing in the shaded bed behind the trellis. Hopefully by next spring I can transplant them to other locations. The seeds were complimentary from Winterwoods, so I'm happy to have experienced success with them.

We finally got that small pond put in this summer. It still needs more rocks around it, but there's plenty of time to find those by next spring. I think the cats and Simba (our dog) liked the pond as much as we did because I found them helping themselves to a drink from it quite often.

Another project that was completed was the wood deck over the part of the cement surrounding the pool that had settled creating a discrepancy between it and an adjacent section. We extended that to the nearby existing deck around a large oak tree.

A flagstone walkway was set in from the patio to the pool. Irish moss and creeping thyme now grow in between the flagstones and the walkway is well on its way to looking like it's always been there.


We discovered wild grapes growing behind our house along Cunningham's Ditch. I wish I'd kown before that they were there, because I would have learned how to make wild grape jelly long ago. We are just now finishing up the last jar of it and I've already got plans to make strawberry jelly as well as more grape jelly next year.




I planted several English roses for the first time. While they are strong growers and have an amazing fragrance and form, one thing I don't like is that they generally are weak-stemmed. Maybe as they continue to grow over time they'll overcome that.




The garden was once again host to several swallowtail and Monarch caterpillars, so the garden earned its designation as a Certified Monarch Waystation. One of the Monarch cats was brought into the house and metamorphosed into a butterfly there.



We started a compost pile at the end of July and we're watching it grow and shrink and grow and shrink as time goes on. No finished compost yet, but it's well on its way. Each time I turn it, I can see the progression of decomposition from bottom to top. It's looking good on the bottom, but it needs more time in order for it to be worthwhile to harvest for the garden. We will add to it with leaves we're in the process of raking and other dead plant material from the garden as that continues to wind down for the year. On the agenda for next spring is for Romie to construct a bin for the compost. I don't like looking at just a heap of dead stuff, even if it is located in the back corner of the property.

The bed in front of the porch was replanted this summer due to the death of everything that was planted there previously (vinca and flowering almond). Variegated euonymus and several grasses were used and all are looking good.

Several new hydrangeas were planted around the oak tree deck, including a variegated, both cultivars of Endless Summer, and Forever and Ever. A couple of them are still blooming now. I'd like to have an oak leaf hydrangea although I don't think I'd plant that with these.

Mom and I had lots of wonderful adventures visiting flower shows and botanical gardens. Grand total for the year: 9
Romie and I made our second trip to Marie Selby Gardens in Sarasota in March, and I visited Gene Stratton Porter's Limberlost in July.

Yes, it was a good gardening season. Time for the garden and gardener to rest and think about plans for next year.

What Would YOU Call It?

If it were your job to give an official name to the cultivar of the flower from which this petal was taken, what would you call it? Don't think too hard or you'll miss the obvious answer. I questioned Daughter #2 when she was here last weekend and she nailed it on the first guess. So did Romie.

I had forgotten about ordering this chrysanthemum last fall and this spring it arrived in the mail from Bluestone Perennials. I think maybe they ran out or something, or I may have ordered too late for it to be sent last fall, but it was a nice surprise when it got here.

Of course, you'll remember I said I was never planting mums again, but this doesn't count. I said that after this got here and was planted. Besides, as I also said before, there are exceptions to every rule. There are so many pretty mums out there, I guess I can't help myself. This time of year, I JUST WANT THEM. But I need to figure out how to keep them alive for more than one season.

Mom and Grandma both gave me some that they had in pots and didn't want to plant in the ground, so I planted those last week. I didn't put them where I want them to stay because for one thing, I don't even know where that is. The other thing is that I want to wait and see if they live through the winter, so they are now in the Orphan Garden until next spring.

The ones I'm asking you to name, however, ARE where I want them and it's too bad I didn't take a picture of them when my 'Disneyland' rose was blooming at the same time. The colors go very well together, which is why I put them where I did in the first place. They also blend nicely with the other new mums I bought when Mom and I were in Cleveland the last time ('Bolero').

So what name rolled off your tongue when you saw that first picture at the top of the post? If you said "Matchsticks" you would be correct. That wasn't too hard now, was it?



(By the way, I did pinch these back up until July 4th, but you can't tell it, can you? Maybe they would have been even taller if I hadn't. Bluestone does list them as being tall.)

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Phytoremediation

When I first skimmed through the article about trees being injected with rabbit liver genes to clean up toxic waste, I thought, "News of the Weird." But when I slowed down and read it in detail, my thoughts changed to, "Now that is cool."

Published in Scientific American on October 15th, the report is that a French hybrid of an aspen tree has been proven to clean trichloroethylene (TCE) from groundwater. TCE is a carcinogen and is the most commonly found contaminant in U.S. toxic waste sites. It's in insecticides and fungicides as well as dyes, spot removers, adhesives and paints and is very likely in the water that I drink.

Like many of our friends and neighbors here in the rural midwest, we have our own well that provides our drinking water. The water goes through a sophisticated filtering system that's contained in our basement. We have it mainly because of the high sulfur content our water has and it does a pretty good job of removing that, although it doesn't take it all out. It also removes many impurities, but I honestly don't know if it takes care of anything like TCE. We were more concerned about the sulfur because of the smell and the corrosive damage it does to pipes, electrical wiring, and appliances, and we just try not to think about things like carcinogens that might be in that water. It's always been a concern in the back of our minds though.

Our bodies remove such toxins, but many times at the expense of our livers. So scientists, knowing that plants inherently help clean the air and water, figured out a way to boost that natural cleansing ability by introducing genetic material from rabbits into aspen and poplar trees. Tests proved they removed up to 91 per cent of TCE and it removed ten times the amount of benzene (another carcinogen) from the air as 'normal' aspens.

The studies involving the use of poplars in phytoremediation (restoring balance to a polluted environment using plants) have been conducted for over ten years. One of the things still left to be determined is the effect these altered poplars have on insects, birds, and other animals that may eat them.

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Information gleaned from Scientific American and Environmental Health Perspectives.
Photos from (1) Wikimedia and (2) University of Washington.

Waiting For First Frost

Last year, our first frost was in the first couple of weeks of October. I remember this because my friend Kat was visiting from Florida and she helped us carry plants into the house in a hurry. I wasn't prepared for the frost for some reason and we were really scrambling to get everything in and it was windy and COLD.

We haven't had a frost yet, but it's just a matter of time, and from the weather reports, I'm betting by next week at this time any annuals still left in the garden will be mush. But I'm ready for it! Shocking, isn't it? The Queen of Procrastination has done a pretty darn good job of getting the gardens ready for winter. In the last week or two, I have:

• Pulled or cut dead foliage and tossed it on the compost pile
• Cut the hostas back to about six inches so insects can't set up housekeeping in them for the winter
• Watered plants that were new this year or that are small or weak with root stimulator in an attempt to get the roots healthier for winter
• Dug the tender bulbs (Callas, cannas, dahlias, oxalis, sprekelia, tigridia, tritonia, amaryllis, gladiolus, caladiums), bagged them in mesh bags or sawdust, and labeled them
• Dug tender plants and potted them up to bring inside for the winter (pelargoniums, rosemary, bougainvillea, 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia)
  
• Repotted houseplants that needed it and brought them into the house (jasmine, dracaena, aloe, orchids, kangaroo fern, heliotrope, passiflora, abutilons, schefflera, Norfolk Island pine, Boston fern, abutilons, tropical hibiscus, pilea, cacti and other succulents)
• Took the campanulas I had in containers and planted them in the ground
  
• Dug the brugmansias and potted them up. Cut them back and shared the cuttings and also am rooting some here
• Did some mulching, although I'll wait to do the roses and other things after we've had the first frost
• Brought in garden art and pottery; Romie drained the fountains
• Took the two plants out of the pond and planted them in the ground for winter
• Continued to gather seeds from plants still producing them (cosmos, morning glories, etc.)
• Pulled what few weeds were in the beds (thank you, mulch!)
  
  

I still have to cut back the clematis and pull the morning glory and hyacinth bean vines, but I'll wait until the clematis has been bitten by the frost before cutting those, and I'm still collecting seeds from the other vines. Those are still blooming anyway. I need to get the pond cleaned out a bit and I hope to do that this weekend.

I mentioned that I watered plants that were new this year or that are small or weak with a root stimulator. When I was in Cleveland shopping at Petitti's with Kim (blackswampgirl), I asked her and one of the employees there what their opinion was about the root stimulator. Would it do any good or would I just be wasting it?

My theory is that if it beefs up the root system, the plant will stand a better chance of surviving whatever kind of winter we have coming our way. Kim said it might be interesting to use it on one plant and not on another and compare them in the spring. The Petitti's employee said he hadn't heard of doing this, but it wouldn't hurt anything. We'll see!

Though I got all the brugs dug and potted up, most of them are still outside on our front porch. They are the ones that had blooms on them and I'm going to wait to cut them back until they're finished blooming. If frost happens before that, I guess I'll just cut them back anyway. So right now, it's a jungle on our front porch, but those blooms are just too pretty to cut and the fragrance is out of this world, especially at night.

I'm working on a couple of bulb orders, because I really want more crocus and daffodils next spring. There are some oriental lilies on the orders, too, because I had a miserable showing of those this year. I don't know what happened, but the majority of them disappeared. I was especially disappointed that 'Muscadet' didn't return, because that one was exceptionally pretty and highly fragrant.

So while I'm not yet "done done" with winter prepping, I'm about as done as I should be right now, with maybe the exception of the bulb planting. I feel that way only because I hate planting bulbs when I'm out there shivering and with my teeth chattering. But that's how it is every fall. Why should it be any different this year?

Feline Friday - Ivy

My mom got a new kitten. She'd been whining and begging for one for quite some time now, but Dad didn't want one in the house because of the cat hair thing. (I wonder what he thinks when he comes to our house.) He loves cats, but not in the house. Well, I can tell you he is quickly getting used to it and he loves Ivy. We all love Ivy. How can you NOT love Ivy?

The Trees of Our Little Acre - Colorado Blue Spruce

Shortly after we moved here in 1977, my mom and dad bought a Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens var. glauca) tree for us, which we planted in the front yard. It has grown to be a gorgeous thing and we just recently purchased two more and planted them somewhat nearby. Planting those may prove to be an act of replacement rather than addition.

I was out taking pictures of the sunset a few weeks ago and happened to notice the pine cones hanging from the large blue spruce, except that they didn't quite look like pine cones exactly. A closer look told me that the pine cones were bagworms (Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis). UGH.

I had seen one earlier in the summer on our Bald Cypress and was grossed out when I removed that one and cut the bag open to reveal the disgustingly ugly worm inside. That thing looked like it belonged in the Marine Corps. I swear, it was wearing full battle dress and when I tried to fry it with the lighter, it took it forever to die. I know, that's macabre, but it was just that ugly and capable of mass destruction.

So when I saw all those bags hanging on our beautiful blue spruce, I went into somewhat of a panic and got Romie out there and we began pulling those things off by the tens. In the end, we probably removed close to a hundred of them and then we prayed they hadn't done too much damage.

But last night, we noticed the tree had yellowing and some dead needles. It may be that it's due to the drought we have suffered this summer, but it just might be those bag worms causing it, too. We won't really know if the tree has been fatally affected until next year, but it will be a shame if we lose this 30-year-old, 20-foot-tall majestic beauty.

In the meantime, we'll be more vigilant in the spring and summer and watch for these things so we can prevent them from doing their damage. Ichneumonid wasps are a natural predator, and we had some of those this year, but apparently they missed each other in the hall...

Fields of the World Contest

On occasion, I mention a business in my blog that I've visited or made purchases from. Some are virtual and some are bricks and mortar visits, but I probably do the bulk of my shopping online. Today I'm blogging about an online business that sells one of my favorite things - FLOWERS!

I also enter contests on a somewhat regular basis. Whether shopping online or entering contests, the less that's required of me to type in, the better. RoboForm is free auto-fill software that I've been using for many years now to fill out forms and it saves me a lot of time and typing.

I recently came across a contest featuring photos of flowers from all parts of the world on 1-800-FLOWERS website. You choose your favorite from ten finalists and just for voting, you get a 15% discount on any purchase from their site.

The real winner will be the one of the ten finalists with the most votes, who will have their photo featured on a billboard in Times Square in New York City, a trip for two to NYC for the unveiling of the billboard, a four-piece Delsey luggage set provided by Macy's, and they will attend a flower design workshop with Jane Packer, world-renowned floral designer. Their entry will also become the next Fields of the World® bouquet. If you've never seen any of the bouquets, they're gorgeous.

Three of my favorites are:




Germany ~ In a beautiful salt-glazed pottery vase, there are blue delphiniums, yellow roses, double white lisianthus and variegated pitt.






Thailand ~ Orange 'Mok OJ' and yellow 'Mok Jitty' orchids are gathered in a brown and orange hand-blown glass bubble vase.







Ireland ~ This is a refreshing bouquet of Bells of Ireland, gathered with white gerbera daisies, green 'Yoko Ono' poms, white poms and ruscus in a Marquis® by Waterford® 24% lead crystal vase.



I've voted for my favorite photo in their contest and if you'd like to vote, too, go to the Fields of the World® contest and choose one. Then head on over and browse the beautiful bouquets they have available for delivery. (Don't forget - you get a 15% discount just for voting!)

The Rest of the Sky

I posted a picture of last night's sky to the east, but this is what it looked like to the west:


I worked this afternoon and last night's sunset was the topic of conversation with a couple of patients. They'd noticed it, too. We wondered if it had anything to do with the California fires. In years past, volcanic eruptions on the west coast (Mount St. Helen's) affected our sunsets as well as dust storms out that way.

Whatever caused it, we were the lucky audience to the show!

Pink Tuesday

The day ended on a pink note. As I was cleaning up outside, I noticed two of the cats all excited about something in the grass. A mouse maybe? No, I could see and hear whatever-it-was fluttering. I walked over to them and at first I thought it was a baby bird. Not really the right time of year for that, but you never know.

It wasn't a bird; it was a moth. A BIG one and really pretty! Earlier this year, we had seen our first hummingbird moth and this reminded me of that. I grabbed it carefully, rescuing it from the kitty's clutches and took it inside. I put it in a large jar and loosely covered it so I could get a closer look and a picture for identification.

Well, I didn't get a good picture, because the poor thing was so scared from the cats and then me putting it in the jar that it was fluttering non-stop. So I took one picture and committed its characteristics to memory (such as its loooooong proboscis), then took it back outside and let it go. Releasing it was like watching a bird take flight.

What I had was a Pink Spotted Hawk Moth (Agrius cingulata) and I'm telling you, the pink was pink. Other than the large size - wing span of four inches or more - the pink stripes on its body were the first things I noticed.


It really was a very beautiful moth and apparently not all that common in Ohio. According to the Butterflies and Moths of North America website, there are no documented reports of this particular hawkmoth for Ohio, except for the Cincinnati area. I imagine they have been spotted here, but apparently not often enough to be included on the range map.

Shortly after seeing the moth, I noticed the sky as the sun set. It was a gorgeous shade of pink. In the east.

I went outside to have a look and the entire sky was lit up as if there were fires on the horizon in all directions.


We've had fabulous sunsets here many, many times, but the beauty is usually limited to the western sky. Not tonight. It was literally everywhere. The sky in the west was a little different color, being more of a hot orange and while that was stunning, I was more fascinated by the rest of the sky and the pink clouds all over it.

My eyes set their gaze across the horizon
The sun is setting in late fall afternoon
Cold snap in the air as the leaves swirl about
A welcoming view is the painted pink sky

Streaks of pale blue dotted with white
Have been suddenly brushed with a soft pastel
The beauty is breathtaking, such natural artistry
I am in awe of the painted pink sky

-Lillian Jamison

Feline Alarm Clock

About This Environmental Thing . . .

I'm just a little more aware of environmental issues as I am political ones. Sometimes the two converge. But my level of commitment fluctuates, so when bloggers recently posted their thoughts on the environment on Blog Action Day (October 15th), I didn't post. But I did read. And it got me thinking, which was one of the purposes of Blog Action Day in the first place.

It's not that I'm opposed to green efforts or anything, it's just that I've never been one to champion any cause very forcefully. As opinionated and outspoken as I can be, this probably comes as a surprise to those who know me, but maybe it has to do with my lack of knowledge and understanding about "issues" and that my procrastination habit keeps me from reading and researching them.

In the last two-plus years, however, I've learned a lot about my outdoors environment as a result of my taking up gardening pretty much full-time. I've discovered much of it intimately and in a hands-on kind of way. Immersion, I think they call it. And while I'm still not totally organic, nor may I ever be, I'm certainly much more aware of the impact my actions have on the world around me.

Last Tuesday, my 92-year-old grandmother and I had a nice chat about some things along those lines. This proved to be interesting for many reasons. She and my grandpa made their living by farming and Grandma was a gardener of not only flowers, but vegetables and fruits that she preserved for her family. She has seen changes in farming over the years and they aren't all good, where the environment is concerned.

I don't remember how we started talking about environmental issues, but it may have been the Monarchs that led us to it. I told her about the one that was born in our house, then explained to her about the dwindling milkweed supply and how this is affecting the Monarch population.

Is it important that there are fewer Monarchs? Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly other species have become extinct over the years and we and the rest of the world have gotten along just fine without them, right? I'm sure the earth won't stop turning without Monarch butterflies. But that's not the point, is it?

Here's what it is for me: In all the time of existence of earth and everything on or in it, things have been in a state of change. Nothing stays the same. Some changes take place quickly, some take eras. Man had nothing to do with the changes that occurred thousands of years ago, for example, glaciers used to move over the very land where Our Little Acre now sits.

But now we're told that we're destroying the protective ozone layer that blankets the earth and if we don't change our ways, we're going to really mess up the equilibrium that exists in the environment. I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and I'm not going to say that we aren't doing some very detrimental things nor that we shouldn't modify the way we do things. But I don't believe that what we're doing is going to have the monumental effect that the über-environmentalists would have us think.

What I do believe is that the present use of chemicals by the agricultural community, which includes gardeners like me, is causing diseases like cancer. (Grandma agrees.) I believe the world would be a better and healthier place to live if we did more recycling and used less non-biodegradable disposable materials. I believe if people lived with the rest of the world in mind rather than a "me first" mentality, huge strides would be made in making the world a cleaner place - cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner land. I believe if more people had greater respect for all living things, it would affect life for all of us in a positive way.

So what am I doing now that I didn't do before? I've got a compost pile. I collect rainwater in a barrel for watering plants. As a geocacher, I practice CITO (Cache In, Trash Out). We continue to recycle aluminum, plastic, glass, and newspapers.

Being a Certified Monarch Waystation, we purposely grow Asclepias species for the Monarchs, that being the sole food source for the caterpillars. And because of all the butterflies and beneficial insects that live in our gardens, we don't use pesticides, other than Safer® Insect Killing Soap or Neem Oil, and then only when absolutely necessary. As a result, sometimes the foliage or petals on blooms don't look perfect, but that's okay. Our kitties appreciate our efforts, too.

So while there's more that I could do that would benefit the environment, I feel pretty good about what I do do, and I don't hesitate to advocate organic practices when the opportunity presents itself. At the same time, you won't see me look down my nose at anyone who doesn't consciously practice good green basics, because that once was me. And thank goodness living things have an incredible ability to adapt.

Don't look at the environmental issues as something so overwhelming that you don't think anything you do will make a difference. Every little bit helps. Just do something.

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was struck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It made a difference to that one."

The Trees of Our Little Acre - Washington Hawthorn

Washington Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum)

We've got three large Washington Hawthorn trees on our property. Large is a relative term though, and compared to the oaks we have, they would be considered small. The oldest one, which resides at the left front of the garage, has been here almost as long as we have and we moved here in 1977. I think it was the first tree we planted to add to what was already here.

A fully-grown Washington Hawthorn is from 25-30 feet tall and nearly as wide, making it somewhat suitable as an ornamental or specimen tree. It's hardy in zones 5-9 (some sources say zones 4-8) and is a moderate to fast grower in all soil types, even poor, which may be why it does well in our yard full of clay.

In the spring, it flowers in clusters of white blooms that cover the tree and while it's a beautiful sight, they have a strong disagreeable odor, but that only lasts a few days. The bees must like the smell, though, because during that time, the tree literally buzzes because of them.

The leaves are small (1-2 inches long) and sort of maple-like, and in the fall, they turn burgundy. Also in the fall, the tree bears clusters of red berries that the birds LOVE. Many of the berries remain on the tree throughout most of winter, which really looks pretty when it snows, but about as many eventually fall to the ground and in the spring we'll see seedlings pop up here and there.

It gets its hawthorn name because of the lethal spears that grow on its branches. You think I'm kidding, but their thorns are two to three inches long and extremely sharp. Most of the thorns on the branches are single thorns, but on the trunk itself, some of them are branched. I actually try to trim the downward pointing thorns so that anyone walking under the tree won't get hurt.

It was first scientifically named in 1883 and introduced to Pennsylvania from Washington, thus that part of its common name.

The Glory of the Morning

Ipomoea nil 'Double Blue Picotee'

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

-Eleanor Farjeon

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Feline Friday on Saturday - Jilly and Friend

I went to bed early last night - early for me, the night owl - getting there even before Romie. I'd been asleep for a couple of hours when I was awakened by our little darling, Jilly.

Jilly is one of two of our outside cats that we want to be sure to put in either the garage or the pool house before we go to bed, or we are certain to be awakened sometime in the night by their meows at the bedroom window, accompanied by picking at the screen, or in the case of her brother Jack, climbing it.

Jilly missed curfew.

Cats have various meows they use for different reasons. Sometimes they're just making conversation and sometimes they want to really get your attention. In Jilly's case, it's always the latter, and she makes frequent use of it.

She woke me up and without turning on the light, I opened the window and let her in. Usually she'll jump right up on the bed and proceed to prance all around, walking across my face several times, kneading the blankets and licking my eyelids in an attempt to get me to open them. Not this time.

I laid in bed for a little bit and by listening to the sounds she was making, tried to figure out just what she was up to. I determined she was under the tall chest of drawers, but I was puzzled as to why she was under there and wouldn't come out when I called her.


I turned on the light and got down on the floor to have a look and it was then that I saw that when I had let her in the window, she had brought a 'friend.' Jilly is all gray, except for a teeny tiny tip of white on her tail, which is exactly how her mama looked. You'd miss the tip of white if you didn't know it was there. We suspect that Jilly's mother had a great deal of Russian Blue in her, although we'll never know, since she magically appeared here, about five weeks pregnant. Jilly's 'friend' was a similar shade of gray and I hadn't noticed it when I'd let Jilly in.


At this point, I retreated to the bed and coaxed Jilly to "Get him!" Much squeaking ensued and I contemplated just what to do. I considered the possibilities of what could happen here, and I didn't particularly like some of them, so I went downstairs to get Romie and suggested he bring a pair of gloves with him.

We got back in the bedroom and there was still some meowing and squeaking going on. Romie got on one side of the chest and Jilly was positioned at the other. After a little while, Romie was able to grab the tiny mouse and he returned it to the great outdoors where it belonged. And Jilly didn't seem to care much. She was just having a little fun at the expense of Little Mickey.

Such is life when you have cats. :-)

The Trees at Our Little Acre - Maple

I've blogged about so many things that grow here at Our Little Acre, but the trees have barely received a mention. I suppose we take them for granted because most of them have always been here and we largely ignore them when it comes to their care. Yet they are dependable and quietly go about their business of providing shade and a framework for the rest of the property. Quietly, until now.

Think of autumn in the midwest and the first thing that comes to mind is the changing of the colors of the leaves. The shortening of days and the cooler temperatures signal them to make the changes that bring about the brilliant shades of red, yellow, and orange that colors the landscape here in October.

Most of the larger trees in our yard are oaks. This was once the site of a small woods, which was cleared a bit when our house was built in 1975. We purchased the property in 1977 and one of the drawing factors for Romie was the many large trees. The one in our front yard is estimated to be at least 200 years old.

Over the years, we have added many others, including this maple (Acer sp.). Most of the year, you'd never give it a second glance, but in October, it literally screams, "Just look at me NOW!" Except for the burning bushes (Euonymus alatus), nothing is quite as beautiful as this maple, and I always look forward to the brilliant show of yellow it puts on. The maples are the ones we remember when we think of the fall change. They make the greatest color changes and there are lots of them around here.

Two years ago, I was out enjoying the beauty of a fall day when I walked past the burning bush at the front corner of our house. This is just a hop, skip and a jump from the yellow maple, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I looked down and saw one of its leaves cradled in the red leaves of the shrub. I got my camera and the image I captured won the designation of "Sunday Snapshot of the Week" at WANE-TV in Ft. Wayne. That got me a free pizza! (And 15 seconds of fame on the Sunday night weather segment.)


Next up: Washington Hawthorne (Crataegus phaenopyrum)

The Many Faces of Gazania

On the heels of all those blooms, here are some more. This is one of my favorite annuals and one that's super easy to grow from seed. The first year I had gazanias (2005), I bought the young plants at a local plant center. I let some of them go to seed and I saved it for the following year.

This year, I wanted to try some different varieties than the 'Kiss Mix' I'd grown the first and second years, so instead of saving last year's seed, I bought three new varieties from Park Seed: 'Sunshine Mix', 'Daybreak Petticoat Mix', and 'Dynastar Vanilla Ice'.

All three of these were slower to produce flowers than the 'Kiss Mix' seeds did, but grew into thick, healthy plants with the characteristic abstract-patterned blooms. It's downright fun to watch what new pattern is going to emerge with each new blossom. You just never know for sure . . .

And from 2006's 'Kiss Mix' . . .

Gazanias are quite frost-resistant, I've found. Until we get below-freezing temperatures at night on a regular basis, they'll likely keep blooming. Last winter, I dug up the green plants and potted them so I could keep them a while longer up on the patio. They remained green pretty much throughout the winter, much to my amazement.

Somewhere close to spring, I noticed most of the gazanias in the pot had died, which is what I expected would happen. But much to my amazement, one of them was still alive! I began to care for it by making sure it got the water and sun it needed and it began to grow again. Several weeks later, it put out a flower bud. But something wasn't quite right about it.

When the bud opened, I realized the plant I'd been caring for so attentively was not a gazania after all. It was a Taraxacum officinale. A dandelion.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2007

I remember Carol at May Dreams Garden saying last month that she wondered just what people would have blooming in October and that there would probably be less. I would have said the same thing, but here it is October 16th and there's still plenty that's blooming!

Granted, we have had some late warm weather and we've yet to have our first frost. But plants take their cues from things other than the daytime temperatures. Amount of rainfall and length of days also affect their longevity and peak performance.

We've been very faithful about watering for this entire dry summer. I've told several people that I felt like I was walking around the yard with a tail attached (the hose). But of course there's no substitute for rain, and we got some today.

I remember two years ago, autumn was much like this. I don't think we got our first frost until well into November. The reason I remember is because I'd placed a late order with Big Dipper Farm and I spoke with Deirdre there about how late I could plant and still have things survive the winter. Our frost date was well past what she recommended and what I ordered did well.

But with nearly all my tender bulbs out of the ground and safely tucked away in the cool of the basement, I'm not worrying about frost. I'm just enjoying the colorful blooms and we've got lots of them!

Chrysanthemum 'Clara Curtis' is just opening. This is the passalong plant that my friend Marsha gave me.

Coreopsis 'Autumn Blush' is new for me this fall. The color of the bloom is supposed to be more blushed with red in the fall than the summer's bloom.


The Calendula has bloomed non-stop since mid-summer and is still going, as long as I deadhead faithfully. But now I'm letting some blooms go to seed so I can collect them for next year. I grew this summer's plants from seed I saved from last year's. The blooms are a varied mix of yellows and oranges.


This Celosia is an annual that performed very well for me this summer. The blooms are much smaller at this time of year than in summer, but it still reminds me of cotton candy.


Coreopsis 'Sweet Dreams' is also new to the garden this fall. I planted it with its cousin, 'American Dreams.' I thought they'd look nice together.


The Peacock Orchids surprised me and decided to bloom! This is very late for them and not all of them will produce flowers before frost. I'm glad they bloomed, not only for the beautiful flowers, but for their scent, which is absolutely heavenly and quite strong. They are a tender bulb and I'll bring these in soon.

Notable is that these used to be named Acidanthera, which is what I learned to call them, but they are now known as Gladiolus callianthus.


I think I've figured out what this is - Viscaria (Agrostemma coeli-rosa). I planted this annual from seed this spring by direct sowing. Shortly after I sowed it, we got a drenching rain and all the seeds must have been washed to one side of the brick square, because they're all growing on the downside of one-quarter of the square. They are supposed to self-seed and I hope they do. I really like these. If I'm incorrect about the identification, please let me know!


The Cosmos 'Bright Lights' is still blooming, but I'm letting it go to seed now so I can save them for next year. The plants don't look very good now, so they're close to being yanked, as soon as I get as much seed as I want.


The Crocosmia was especially nice this year. I planted these bulbs in the spring, next to the 'Lucifer' I planted last year. 'Lucifer' didn't come back, or at least I don't think so. The reason I question it is because many more plants came up than I planted this spring, but ALL of them were this color, a light orange, which is the color of the ones I planted this spring. It's a mystery . . .


The Hardy Cyclamen made its appearance a couple of weeks ago. I always think it's not going to come up, but it does. It's difficult for me to get a really good picture of the light lavender blooms because it's in heavy shade and it has such dark foliage. The camera balks at that and they're always overexposed. I could mess with the settings on the camera to compensate but I haven't attempted that yet.


This Dahlia 'Star Elite' is the only one still in the garden. I dug the rest a couple of weeks ago and I was so disappointed. Only 'Hawaii' had tubers good enough to keep for next year. 'Who Dun It', which I loved and was new this summer, had only hollow tubers. How the thing was still green at that point is beyond me, but I'm not happy that I didn't have anything to save for planting next year.

I got this Doublefile Viburnum at the end of the season last fall at Meijer for five dollars. It's not large, but it gives us some pretty lacecap blooms.


The Daylily 'Razzmatazz' has bloomed off and on all summer into fall. It gets the prize for being the latest to bloom this year.


I love this Dianthus. It has bloomed non-stop and has also reseeded around itself. It's taller than the red ones I've got and is in varying shades of pink and white.


The Echinacea 'Pink Double Delight' that I bought in Columbus last month is still putting out new blooms.


The Spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.) actually looks better right now than it has all summer. I cut it down about halfway in mid-summer and it came back lovely as ever.


The Helenium is winding down, after putting on a fabulous show in the latter part of the summer and early fall.


After having some potted Lobelia reseed in the cracks of the patio last year, I decided to purposely sow some this year. 'Crystal Palace' is a very deep, intense shade of indigo that's difficult to capture in a photograph, but this is close. It's so intense it nearly hurts your eyes to look at it.


Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' was also planted by seed and is sure glowing now!


Veronica spicata 'Icicle' has frilly blooms and I need more of this one.

Another grown-from-seed annual that's doing a nice job right now is Petunia 'Aladdin Nautical Mix'. It's not exactly what Park Seed has pictured, and I won't grow this one again, but it's nice to know that the 50 seeds I received turned into something. (Do you know what 50 petunia seeds looks like??? Nearly nothing.)

Now this was a surprise! Earlier in the spring, I had purchased a pot of Tall Bearded Iris 'Immortality' at Kircher's in Defiance and it was so jam-packed in the pot that I had to cut the pot away to get it out of there. I imagine this iris had been around for a few years and no one had divided it. Of course, I snatched it right up. It wasn't blooming when I bought it and it never bloomed all summer after I divided it and planted the divisions. But it showed its gratitude to me for taking it home and liberating it by blooming now. I thought it was odd, but I found out that 'Immortality' is known for reblooming reliably in the fall.


Clematis 'Niobe' has had a few blooms in the past couple of weeks, as has 'Jackmanii'.











Geranium 'Striatum' and an unnamed magenta one have sparse blooms.



Zinnia 'Zowie Yellow Flame' has made a believer out of me. Earlier this summer, I had said I wasn't all that impressed with it. I take it all back. Far fewer problems with mildew, extremely long-lasting blooms, and overall lushness have made this a winner in my garden. It is very deserving of its designation as a 2006 All-America Selection.


The Delphinium 'Magic Fountain Mix' has bloomed continually all summer, too. I like that in a delphinium, because I've previously not had great luck with them.


The English Rose 'Glamis Castle' is just loaded with blooms again.


Honeysuckle 'Dropmore Scarlet' is vining up the arbor at the entrance to Max's Garden and I'm sure next summer it will cover it. The hummingbirds absolutely loved this! I think they've taken off for points south, because we haven't seen one for a couple of weeks now and prior to that you could count on seeing one or two every time you were near this.


Endless Summer® Hydrangea 'Blushing Bride' has been a strong bloomer. Actually, most of the hydrangeas still have blooms on them, but this one and Forever and Ever® 'Double Pink' look the best right now.


Knautia macedonica 'Mars Midget' underwhelms me. Maybe if it ever spreads/multiplies, I might like it better.


My three oldest roses are in bloom and looking very good:

'Pompeii'


'Sutter's Gold'


'Senior Prom'

Other roses blooming are 'Topsy-Turvy', all the miniature ones, 'Disneyland', some yellow shrub roses, the pink 'Nearly Wild', 'About Face' and 'Chihuly'.


The Cinnamon Basil is a robust plant and everbloomer. I love the dark foliage.


One of the Angel's Trumpets (Brugmansia) that's blooming now is 'Milk and Honey'. I really love this one, because the bloom starts out pure white and then as it ages and opens wide, it turns a gorgeous shade of peach. And it smells soapy clean just like the other ones.


The native orchid, Nodding Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes cernua), that I bought in Columbus while attending the Master Gardener Conference in September with Mom, has started blooming. It is taking a very long time for it to come into full bloom. I don't know if you can see this very well in the picture, but it blooms in a spiral from the bottom up. Very cool.


Those silly tomatoes, 'Mr. Stripey', are looking better now than they have all summer. Still putting out blooms and now we've got some ripening large tomatoes. I'm not enthralled with this variety, either with production or unique appearance (which is the only reason I grew this one this year anyway).


Bluestone Perennials predicted last year that Sedum 'Autumn Fire' could replace 'Autumn Joy' as the most popular sedum. I don't think it's happened yet, but I like it better.

Others still blooming are:

Verbena
Gaillardia
Purple Hyacinth Bean Vine
Morning Glory 'Chocolate'
Gazanias
Mixed Zinnias
Tennessee Coneflower
Echinacea 'Sunset'
Echinacea 'Ruby Star'
Campanula
Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
Yarrow
Labrador Violet
Primula
Tricyrtis (Toad Lily)
Gerbera Daisy
Gaura
Heuchera

A Sunday Afternoon in October

With autumn in full swing, people the world over that live in climates that experience the change in seasons are taking to the outdoors on foot. We know these wonderful days are numbered and we'll be soon be shivering at the thought of being out and about for any length of time, so we take advantage of the warm afternoons.

Yolanda Elizabet took us on a charming walk through her Netherlands countryside. Jodi shared the beauty of the Nova Scotia bay area. We're going on a walk today, too. It's a perfect day for spending in the woods, so that's where we'll start.

Due to the hot, dry summer we had, we're told we won't see the brilliant reds and oranges as the leaves change color, or at least not as much as usual. Where we live, the peak of color is generally around Romie's birthday (October 10th), but we haven't reached that point yet, so I'm still hoping we'll see some of the reddish-yellows that I love so much.


On the way to Kara and Adam's house, there is a well-known nesting area for Bald Eagles along the Auglaize River. We've been by it many times before and have seen their heads peeking out of the top of the huge nest. Romie and Kara have both seen the eagles soaring nearby, but I have yet to witness that.

We parked the car just off the road and headed back the lane towards the nesting tree. On the way, we noticed a huge plot of Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum). I've always loved their dried flower form and florists use it in arrangements, especially this time of year.




As we walked a little further, I saw a young one just blooming. I don't know if I've ever stopped to notice the actual pale lavender flower before, only the mature brown ones.




When we got to the nest, I was hoping we'd see an eagle, of course, but we didn't. The huge nest is made of lots and lots of tree branches and twigs. Although it was high up in a very tall tree and hard to really guesstimate a size, I'd put it at about three feet deep and a little bit wider. Big birds need big places to sleep! I've read that an eagle's nest can support the weight of a human being.

We continued to walk back through the woods until we got to the river bank. There is some backwater of the Auglaize River that flows by here and it was a very peaceful place. Due to flooding earlier in the summer, there were lots of large tree branches piled up on the banks, but it's been a long time since we had that much rain and the river level is quite low now.

I was amazed at how many beautiful wildflowers were blooming this late in the season. Some I expected to see, but there were some surprises as well.

There was the goldenrod . . .









The New England asters . . .










Some late-blooming chicory . . .








. . . wild morning glories . . .















. . . and surprise! Violets!

We did see a few red leaves here and there.

Romie found a dark blue bottle for my future blue bottle bush and I found a nice-sized flattish rock that we'll take home to use by the pond we put in earlier in the summer. We could have spent a lot more time here, but we had more walking to do in another place, so we took our treasures and got back in the car to go pick up Adam and Kara. They wanted to go on the next part of our walk with us.

In our corner of Ohio, like a lot of the midwest, this time of year you'll see crops in the process of being harvested. Most of the soybean fields have already been taken off and some of the corn fields.

But there's one corn field near Napoleon that's still standing - except for zig-zagging paths that have been cleared all through it. Paths made for walking. And walking. And walking.

We came to find our way through a corn maze!

Kara and Adam had come here two years before and maneuvered their way through the maze that was the shape of the Chevy truck insignia. We'd never done one before. This year's maze was in the shape of a Jack-O-Lantern.

We decided to break up into teams. Kara and I challenged Adam and Romie to see who could find their way out of the maze first. The guys were certain it would be them. I wasn't sure. Romie has a hard time reading a map and Kara gets her abilities in that department from her dad, so both Adam and I were at an equal disadvantage. Not that neither of us hasn't gotten lost before either!

We were given sheets of paper that had trivia questions to answer at each of 10 stations throughout the maze. Whatever answer we chose told us whether we should go left or right. The only problem with that was that sometimes there was a center direction to go as well, plus left or right depended on which direction you approached the station. In other words, the clues were pretty much useless!


Kara and I were pathetic. At one point, Kara noticed a woolly worm in the path and she kindly moved it to the side of the path so it wouldn't get trampled. We must have passed that thing five times, which told us we were going in circles, even though we swore we had taken a different direction each time we went past it. The thing is, we also saw Romie and Adam ahead of us or behind us about the same number of times.

In the center of the maze, there was a tower where an aide was stationed as a help to those who couldn't find their way out, although we never saw or heard him helping anyone while we were there. That wouldn't be any fun now, would it? If you passed the tower, you could go up into it, too. We got close, but never made it to the entrance to the tower before we eventually found our way out.

We kind of thought maybe Adam and Romie would be waiting for us when we exited, but they weren't. We decided to go back in and climb the tower to see if we could see them. I wrote down the number of right and left turns it would take to get to the tower and Kara and I were off again. We got there quickly and looked out over the maze.

There they were!


We watched as they made their way out of the maze, then we joined them. I had noted the time we finished and we had completed the maze in 1:10, while Romie and Adam took 1:30. But we all won, because we had so much fun!



There were other things on location that were fun for kids and big people to do, like a zip line, a straw bale mini-maze you had to crawl through, a haunted maze, and a couple of slides, one of which Kara and I went down. You could also purchase pumpkins and gourds that had been grown on the farm.









We'd had enough walking for one day, so we took a few other pictures, then called it a day.

A perfect fall day.

Green Thumb Sunday - Tigridia

Tigridia pavonia

The Mexican Shell Flower is a tender bulb/corm that I've grown in my garden for two summers now. It's only hardy to zone 8, so I have to lift it in the fall, but the speckled blooms in various colors of pink, yellow, orange, white and red make it worth the trouble.

The sword-like foliage resembles that of gladiolus, although a bit more slender. Each bloom only lasts about a day, but I've had mine reopen a second day. As the bulbs mature, I'm told I may get multiple blooms on one stalk, but I haven't experienced that yet.

The petals of the blooms are somewhat fragile and the stems tend to fall over, so planting them in a sunny area that's protected from strong winds is recommended. Tigridia is suitable for growing in containers.

Join

Time To Plant the Garlic

When I went on the bus trip to Sandusky in July, I purchased two heads of Hard Neck Garlic at Mulberry Creek Herb Farm for planting this fall. Since I'd never grown garlic before, I had to look up how to plant it. After spending needed curing time in our basement, Friday was the day. Still enough warm weather left for it to get rooted in for winter, yet not take off and grow outright.


I had to break each head apart, which yielded a total of 15 individual cloves. It is recommended not to do this more than 48 hours prior to planting for best results. One of the cloves looked as though it had started to shrivel or rot or something, but I planted it anyway, just in case it was good to grow.


I dug a trench deep enough to plant each clove - roots down and tips up - so that the tip would be about two inches below the surface when I covered them up with soil. I placed them about 4-6 inches apart and folded the soil over them.









I watered them in, then marked the row so we wouldn't forget they were there next spring when we work up the soil for planting.

Hard neck garlic is especially suited for growing in colder climates like ours and when they put up their uniquely curly scapes next spring, I can cut them and make some of those yummy-looking recipes I saw other bloggers fixing this year.

Another new adventure in gardening has begun!

The Rose-A-Thon Continues!

Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage has shown her hand. You ought not to do that, my dear.

'Cherry Parfait' is scrumptious, very delicious indeed! And since you like that one, you're sure to love 'Topsy-Turvy'! That is the newest rose in my garden, which was purchased earlier this year. It's a cross of 'Countess Celeste' and 'Betty Boop' (the latter which I've always admired) and is a shade of red that I call lipstick. And get this ... it smells like Calvin Klein's "Eternity"!



The petals don't open, they unfurl. This allows their white underbellies to show here and there. Quite unique! And it's a floribunda, so it's got an abundance of floras. LOL. You want this one now, too, don't you? You know you do.

We are so bad.

And for those of you who are playing along at home - what you've just witnessed is a classic case of two gardeners being enablers of one another. It's okay, though. You aren't a true gardener if you don't engage in this pastime. It's practically an Olympic sport.

I'll See Your 'Gold Medal' . . .

. . . and raise you a 'Disneyland' . . .

Okay, so the 'Gold Medal' isn't mine, but I did take the picture at Columbus Park of Roses. The 'Disneyland', however, IS mine and this is its first year. Not bad, eh? The first two pictures of it were taken on September 29th and the second two on October 8th. It's still going strong and it smells good, too.

Cindy, you know this post is for you. Shame on you for making a grown woman weak in the knees with rose lust. Shame on me, too, for rubbing your nose in 'Disneyland.' And I should be shot for posting this one . . .

'Kordes Perfecta'

Trivia: 'Disneyland' has parents that are BOTH miniature roses! ('Morsegold' and 'Jacpoy') Yet 'Disneyland' is a full-size floribunda. (Source)

Feline Friday - Oreo

This picture of Oreo, who is now owned by Kara and Adam, won me a $500 gift certificate from Art.com in one of their monthly contests. The theme was "Funniest Pet Picture." Oreo was caught mid-yawn, but it sure looks like he's laughing! In any case, just looking at the picture makes ME laugh!

Taking the Garden Indoors

The kitties are huddling and our dog Simba can no longer sneak up on me as I'm working in the garden. Too many dry leaves lying on the ground; I can hear her coming. The mosquito population has taken a dive (yay!) and spiders swaying from the trees keeps me walking in the open spaces.

A few days ago, fellow garden blogger Yolanda Elizabet made a post with the same title, Taking the Garden Indoors. However, she was talking about a different thing than I am. With fall definitely in the air and us well past the average first frost date, we're scrambling to get all the tender plants 'debugged' and inside for the winter.

Last year, I set up the basement greenhouse where I kept many things I wanted to winter over. There were geraniums, coleus, orchids, brugmansia, and others. I'm not going to attempt to keep the coleus this year, but somehow I've ended up with more things than I've got room for.

The brugmansia grew over the summer. How about that!?! In November of last year, I received sticks in the mail from other gardeners which I rooted and started in pots, then planted them out when it got warm enough in the spring. Oh myyyyyyy. What I have now are about 18 small trees. I definitely have a problem.


I need a conservatory. But that's not likely to happen in the next week or so, nor even in the next fifty years, so what to do?

I'm going to be forced to cut the brugs back. This is going to hurt. Several of them are so nicely shaped, I really don't want to do this. I know it won't hurt them, but it will hurt me. I'm one of those people who can't get rid of anything if it's got even a speck of green left on it, regardless of the fact that the rest of the plant died months before and it looks worse than Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

But clearly, I'm either going to have to prune these things or find more room inside for them, or both. I'd decided last winter that I wanted to get a section of the storage room in the basement cleared out so I could overwinter plants in there maybe, instead of in the small room where our water heater and other necessities are kept. But now there's no 'maybe' about it and there's no 'instead' either. I need both areas. More lights. More shelving.

The twin bed we had for sale at the garage sale is still here. It's a platform base, so it will now become a great holding area for the brugs. It has three drawers below it for storage, too, so I'm thinking it's a good thing it didn't sell. It will no longer be a bed, but a rather strange looking plant stand.

We bought more shop lights to hang over the plants when we were at Kara and Adam's house last weekend. Lowe's has them for not much money at all and I don't buy the expensive grow lights to put in them. Regular fluorescents (40W) worked just fine for me last year, so that's what I got for the new ones, too. Four lights plus the two hanging fixtures was about twenty dollars, tax and all.

I'm giving a couple of the brugmansias away, but Romie wants me to keep as many as I can so we can plant them all in the ground next summer and have our own little jungle. We'll see...


In the meantime, in come the plants and I'll take care of them in the basement greenhouse, where I hope I won't have a white fly problem like I did early last year and I pray I can keep things going until we're once again on the warm side of winter.

Tricyrtis - Toad Lily

One of the highlights of the autumn gardens is a little thing affectionately known as the toad lily (Tricyrtis sp.). Not a very pretty name, but oh what a pretty bloom it has! They remind me of little orchids growing in my shade gardens.

This year, I had one cultivar bloom as early as August, which is not normal, but then there was nothing normal about this year's growing season either. 'Tojen' is still managing to eke out some blooms, but it was in its prime about a month ago.


'Lightning Strike' bloomed for the first time for me. It was planted last year, but didn't show its colors, possibly due to shock from transplanting later in the season. I don't know that the flowers are as stunning as some other Tricyrtises, but I do love the stripey foliage that gives it that perfect name.



The first toad lily I ever planted was 'Sinonome' and I've had it for three summers now. It hasn't really spread much at all, but its speckled blooms still make me smile.




Newest to the garden is 'Miyazaki Hybrids', which I got last year from Bluestone Perennials. It's similar to the other toad lilies and I'm considering combining a couple of my colonies of plants due to their similarities.

When Kim and I were shopping at Petitti's last Saturday, we saw some very nice upright Tricyrtis there and I was very tempted by them, but resisted. Of course, once I got home and saw my own toad lilies blooming, I immediately wished I'd gotten a couple more at Petitti's. But there are always things I want and wish I'd purchased instead of exercising the miniscule amount of will power I conjure up on occasion.

Most toad lilies are hardy to zone 5 and like part or full shade. The longer we live here, the more shade we have, so I always keep my eyes open for plants that thrive in it. Tricyrtis is one of them.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name

Remember the owl Romie and I heard down at the cemetery last Thursday evening? I forgot to tell you what happened later that night. We had gone to bed and sometime around 4:00 a.m., I was awakened by a familiar sound.

"WHOOP!"

I nudged Romie to wake him so he could hear it too, and he mumbled something about a cat. I shook him a little more forcefully and then he said, "It sounds like the owl's in our tree." Indeed she was and whooping repeatedly and loudly.

I got up and went downstairs to get my camera, which also takes videos. It was too dark to see much of anything out there, but I wanted to record the audio. I took three one-minute segments and each was pretty much identical to the other. I'm not sure what kind of owl we're hearing, but we think it's a female calling out for a male. If anyone would like to listen to her and identify what you hear, I'd welcome any information. The white spot on the video is the moon.



Fast forward to Monday morning. For some reason, I awoke around 5:30 and since our bedroom windows face east, I was treated to a spectacular site of the crescent moon and lots of bright stars. One of them was so sparkly bright that I first thought it must be an airplane headed for Ft. Wayne International Airport, 35 miles to the west. We see them in the night on a fairly regular basis and this far out they are descending, preparing to land. This makes their lights shine unusually bright.

The bright light didn't move though, so then I figured it to be Venus. There are actually three planets that can be seen in the early morning sky right now - Mars, Venus and Saturn. A great website to see what's happening in the sky is Heavens Above. You can customize it with your exact location and use it as I have, to track possible sightings of the International Space Station, iridium flares, meteor showers, and general positions of the planets.

I snapped a few quick photos then went back to bed. Romie got up to get ready for work a short time later, but I didn't have to be anywhere so I soon fell back asleep. When Romie got home from work yesterday, he said to me, "You went back to bed too soon. I almost woke you up so you could hear what I was hearing." SO WHY DIDN'T YOU?? He does this a lot - tells me what I missed and apparently I'm missing quite a bit. :-(

It seems the female owl was on the prowl again, calling to the male. Except this time, she wasn't taking no for an answer, and as it turns out, she didn't have to. As she called out, the male answered back. As the calls became more urgent, Romie said you could hear the male getting excited by the way he answered back to her. Geesh. Men are men, even when they're birds.

She flew to join him and it got quiet. Romie wasn't sure if they left to go back to 'his place' or hers. LOL. In any case, we hear the regular hooting of owls so often here that the sound is comforting and I miss hearing it when they're away.

The Owl

The owl is thought so wise to be,
as he sits on a limb of a tree.
At night from where he is said to see
all the things that a wise owl should see.
It’s strange though, as he relates to me,
in the daylight hours he visits me,
with a hoot and a hoot repeatedly.
He sits in a tree near enough to me,
so I can clearly hear his hoot,
that is a message of good things
that is soon to be.

His hooting sound, I have found
is a message of a happy event
when I hear him around.
I sometimes hear him before I get out of bed,
and his greeting to me, I know not to dread.
I start my day with a smile on my face,
because he told with his hoot
the day would be filled with
happy news that is filled with grace.

- Judith Pleasant

EDIT: Brad, the DNR person that DogMom refers to, has revised his identification of our owl. In further communication with DogMom, I suggested that perhaps it was a juvenile Great Horned Owl, since the answering one sounded like one of those. You know, Mom and Baby. Brad now believes that it is indeed a juvenile Great Horned Owl, and said that they don't 'hoot' until they are about a year old. We have seen and heard mature Great Horned Owls here before, so this makes sense.

In checking several owl sites and listening to their songs, I now know that the loon I thought I'd been hearing at various times during the summer was actually the Eastern Screech Owl. But it's the Great Horned Owl that we hear on a regular basis beginning early evening and through the night.

Thank you so much, Kim and Brad, for your help in identifying our noisy visitor!

It's a Girl!

It's been 11 days since the Monarch caterpillar from my garden made its beautiful chrysalis. I had wanted to take the chrysalis in its bowl on the road with my mom and me as we traveled to Cleveland this weekend, because I didn't want to miss the emergence of the butterfly. But concern for the effects that the jiggling of the car as well as the high temperatures that could occur as we did our thing away from the car led to my decision not to take it along.

This meant that I may miss the birth of our butterfly. As much as I hated the thought of this, I would never have forgiven myself if my selfish desires led to its death. So it remained at home.

I missed it.

Romie called me around noon today to tell me we had a beautiful Monarch butterfly clinging to the clear shell that was once the emerald jewel that encased it. While I was happy that the metamorphosis was complete and successful, I was disappointed that I was not able to witness it.


We returned home from our two-day jaunt around 7:00 p.m. and by this time, the Monarch's wings had hardened and it was clinging to the covering at the top of the bowl, no doubt wanting to get on with its journey to Mexico. Cold weather will be here soon and she needed to get on her way.

The Monarchs that are born in September and later differ from their parents and grandparents born earlier in the summer. Those will only live for two to six weeks. The autumn generation answers a different call, living as long as eight months so that they can make the journey to their overwintering sites and assure survival of their species. Though biologically different, they don't differ in appearance, just in their life's mission.

We know our Monarch is a female because of her markings. The male Monarch differs in that the lines are more narrow and there is a spot on the lower wings that distinguishes it from the female. She will not, however, mate until possibly next March. Her goal now is to get to Mexico to overwinter there, and in late winter/early spring, begin to make her way back to the United States. That is, if she survives the trip.

There are all kinds of hazards that she will encounter along the way. Bad weather, predators, and exhaustion are just a few of them. She will not stop to eat because there is no time for that. She has enough fat reserves to fuel her journey of more than 1200 miles. Not wanting to delay her natural cycle of life, I took her upstairs to the bathroom and closed the door so that I could get a few pictures and make sure none of the cats would get her as I removed the covering on the bowl.


She didn't fly right away, instead crawling onto my finger, but I only had time for one photo before she tried her wings. She fluttered about the room for a little bit and it was quite apparent that she needed to get out of there.

I gathered her in my hands and took her outside to the back yard. Dusk was approaching and not wanting her to travel far to find shelter for the night, we released her under the huge oak tree where we have seen Monarchs congregate in the past. But she had new wings that she wanted to exercise! She rose above the house, higher and higher, until we couldn't see her anymore. She was on her way . . .

I got a lump in my throat as we bade her farewell. She was 'our' Monarch. Born in in our garden as a caterpillar and transformed into a beautiful, perfect butterfly in our dining room, we felt a sense of ownership, but we knew we couldn't really keep her for our own. To do so would mean her death before her time and would prevent her from doing what she was born to do. So we said our goodbyes and watched as she disappeared from our lives as quickly as she came.

Have a safe flight, Little One.

Schedel Arboretum and Gardens

This must be the best-kept gardening secret in Northwest Ohio. Neither Mom nor I had ever heard of Schedel Arboretum and Gardens until I read about them in an e-mail from Ohio Magazine. I saw that they were literally just off the Ohio Turnpike near Elmore, Ohio, and we'd be passing right by on the way home, except that I had no intention of just passing by without stopping!


From the time we walked through the gate and up the chrysanthemum-lined drive, we knew it was a very good thing that we'd taken the time to visit this place. Once the estate of Joseph and Marie Schedel, the 17 acres the property encompasses is a true paradise. They purchased the property and home in 1929 for the purpose of developing it into an arboretum and gardens and that's just what they did, in a big way. It was opened to the public in 1991.


Located at a bend on the Portage River, there are two levels of terrain, with the lower level allowing a protected area where many species of plants and trees can be grown that would otherwise not survive here. There are 25 varieties of Japanese Maples, 16 species of pine, and nearly 50 kinds of lilacs. Each spring, over 15,000 annuals are planted from those grown in their own greenhouse.



There wasn't a single area of the gardens that I didn't enjoy, but the star of the show is the Japanese Garden. It takes up a very large portion of the property and like the other gardens, was groomed immaculately. It had waterfalls, a babbling brook, typical Japanese structures, and of course, the maples. While we were there, a wedding party was having a photo shoot.




A grove of Dawn Redwood trees, some of the oldest on the continent, was begun in the 1950s. The trees are native to China and were believed to be extinct until 1941, when one was found in a remote area of China. All the trees in North America are descendants from trees grown from seeds of that tree. We have two Dawn Redwoods in our yard and hopefully ours will grow up to be beauties like we saw here.




There are also Bristlecone pines. The Bristlecone pine is the oldest living organism on the planet. These trees can live to the ripe old age of nearly 5000 years. Of course, now I want one.





In the kitchen garden, we were astounded at the many varieties of peppers! The tour booklet says there are more than 80 different ornamental peppers and I believe it. I saw some shapes and colors that I'd never seen before. I grew 'Chilly' this year and now a whole new peppery world has been opened to me.








In addition to permanent artistic sculptures, through October 31st, there is a temporary exhibit, "Small Yet Mighty," featuring the work of nine regional sculptors. Their works are situated throughout the arboretum and gardens and at the back of the property, Emanuel Enriquez was working on a marble sculpture of flamenco dancers.

From Bowling Green, Ohio, Emanuel is the artist responsible for the bronze sculpture of boys looking through a fence at the Toledo Mud Hens home field at Fifth Third Stadium, as well as "Alone Together," displayed here at Schedel in the Rose Garden.

We were really surprised to see the gardens looking so vibrant and lovely at this late time in the year and especially after the hot, dry summer we've had. But it was absolutely lush and bright and we commented on how it must look in June . We intend to come back and find out.

For more information, visit their website: Schedel Arboretum and Gardens

More Images From the Gardens
(As usual, clicking on any photograph will bring up
a larger image, showing greater detail.)

A Garden Blogger Meet!

After having a tasty breakfast at our hotel this morning, I gave Kim (a.k.a. blackswampgirl) a call as we'd previously discussed and we all headed towards Strongsville to meet at the Petitti Garden Center there.

Kim had given me a brief description of herself so that I would be able to recognize her when we met, but I think I was too busy gawking at the wares at the entrance to Petitti's that when she said hello, it just didn't register with me who she was! I told her that I was quite surprised at how young she looked, because from her blog posts she sounds mature for her years. I won't tell you how old she is (although I know), but not only does she sound older than she is, she looks younger than she is, too! What a great combination!

I have to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed browsing the aisles of Petitti's with Kim, discussing foliage, blooms, habits, and other characteristics of the various plants we saw. We spent about an hour and a half together and the time just flew by. It was as if we were old friends getting together instead of just meeting for the first time.

I purchased a few things here, one a recommendation from Kim - Hakone Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'). I'd been wanting another grass that grows well in the shade and Kim assured me this one did. I also bought a hardy Fuschia ('Cape Horn'™) and I'm anxious to see how this fares through our zone 5 winter. To add to my green Santolina, I got a small pot of the gray. Astrantia is one of my favorite plants, so I had to buy 'Hadspen Blood' when I saw it here. And finally, Viola 'Fuji Dawn' made its way onto my cart. I could have bought a few other things, including some beautifully healthy Japanese Anemones and a Beautyberry shrub, but there was no room left in Mom's car to take them home.

This Petitti's didn't disappoint me either. It had pretty much the same plant offerings as the Avon store, although the Avon store is larger in size. The staff was very available and quite friendly and helpful. That means so much when you find a plant you're not familiar with and want to know a bit more information than the identification tag tells you.

Kim and I exchanged gifts, with Kim sharing a division of one of her hostas, 'Dawn,' as well as a rock she had excavated from her yard for me to put on my cairn. It had some clay clinging to it, which is not normal in her gardens, so she said it needed to 'go home.' It will feel right at home in my clay-ridden garden, which Kim knew, since she grew up near me. As we said our goodbyes, we voiced our intentions to visit one another's gardens and trade some plants.

Mom, Sue and I piled back into the plant-filled car and began the trip home, with a stop scheduled for the Schedel Arboretum and Gardens just outside Elmore, Ohio. That visit will get its own post, coming up next.

Cleveland - Petitti's, Botanical Gardens & Environmental Awards

Mom and Sue picked me up at 8:30 this morning and we began our 3½-hour journey to Cleveland. Though the Northeast Ohio Environmental Awards and reception preceding them - the reason we were going there - didn't begin until 5:30 in the evening, we had a few other things planned, so we needed the early start to our day.



About an hour after our journey began, we were driving through Waterville, Ohio and decided to stop at George Carruth's studio, Garden Smiles. Mom and I have been here many times before, but Sue had not. George Carruth is the creator of those whimsical stone pieces you've seen in many garden centers. I have a few of them in my own gardens and home. His home store in Waterville sells seconds as well as first quality pieces and you can find new pieces there that are not yet in the catalog.

We walked around the corner to Joe Cooper Florist, where I always manage to find something I can't live without. Today it was a metal wind chime featuring a flower. We then continued on our way to Cleveland via the Ohio Turnpike and Interstate 80, stopping near Avon to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel.

Avon . . . hmmmm. Mom and I got 'that look' in our eyes when we both realized the Petitti's we'd visited in May was located within view of the interstate and was only two exits further up the road. We decided to stop in, even though we'd planned to visit their Strongsville store tomorrow. I mean, how could we just go on by, being that close?

After spending about an hour and a half browsing the store and making some purchases (Aster alpinus 'White Beauty', Coreopsis 'Autumn Blush', Digitalis obscura 'Sunset', and Dendranthema grandiflorum 'Bolero'), we then went on to Cleveland Botanical Gardens. We had about an hour to tour the gardens before we needed to change our clothes for the Environmental Awards cocktail reception being held at the gardens prior to the awards ceremony.

The reception started at 5:30 and was held on the pavilion just outside the main building. Hors d'œuvre were served as well as drinks while we mingled, listening to live music and hearing from Natalie Ronayne, Executive Director of Cleveland Botanical Gardens as well as Bruce Klink, President of Dominion East Ohio. Dominion is the sponsor of the awards, along with the Biodiversity Alliance, which consists of Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.


Following the reception, we walked across Wade Oval to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where the awards ceremony took place in Murch Auditorium. Mom and Sue accepted the Honorable Mention Award ($500 and a framed botanical print) on behalf of the Van Wert Master Gardeners. We then heard a very interesting talk about Caribbean Sea Turtles by Karen Eckert, Ph.D. She was available for questions and book signing following the awards ceremony.

The Museum was open for us to browse, as was the Ralph Mueller Observatory. I'd never been in an observatory before, so I was excited about getting to see this. We viewed a couple of unique star formations through the 108-year-old refracting telescope, originally located on the roof of Case Western Reserve University's physics building.

We finally made it to our hotel room in Independence half an hour after leaving the Museum and ready for a good night's sleep following a full day. There's more planned for tomorrow, including meeting a fellow garden blogger for the first time!

Scenes from the Gardens



Gate in Hershey Children's Garden


Water Lily


Giant Frog in Hershey Children's Garden


A Cat Visits the Restorative Garden


Tuscan Wall and Entrance to The Restorative Garden


Japanese Anemones

Reflecting Pool and Fountain


Mom and Sue by the placard highlighting
the Van Wert Master Gardeners


Mom and I enjoy our Diet Cokes

Monarch Update: Romie reports there is still no butterfly emerging yet and that the chrysalis still appears the same.

Feline Friday - Boo!

Boo is the alpha cat of the eight we have. With people, he's the most laid back except maybe for Jack, but he won't hesitate to let the other cats know that he's the boss. Boo is one of a litter of kittens we rescued just down the road from our house three years ago. Someone had dumped a whole barnful of cats and five of them were very tiny kittens.


Two days after we scooped them up, gave them baths, fed them and provided them with a warm place to sleep, the field where we found them was plowed. As scared as those kittens were, hiding in the weeds, I have no doubt they would have unknowingly been killed by that tractor and the farmer driving it.

We have three of those original five kittens still living with us - Boo, Luna, and Baby - while Kara and Adam have Oreo. One of my co-workers and her family has Augie, whom they renamed Cow. Guess what colors Cow is? :-)

Wild Autumn Asters & Other Growings On

Romie and I took a walk down to the cemetery after we got home from him getting his weekly allergy injection. It was such a nice evening, and very warm for October. The average temperature for this date in our area is 69° F. We reached 84° F today.

It's a short distance from our house to the cemetery, with a shallow ditch on the west side of the road. As we were walking, I noticed all the familiar autumn wildflowers and other things growing there. I had taken my camera along and was glad I did.

The first thing I noticed was the dock growing right in the ditch bottom. It looked exactly like my bloody dock (Rumex sanguineus) I'd gotten earlier this year that was currently residing in our new pond, except it didn't have the dark red veining. I think maybe I'll dig a couple of clumps and situate them just outside our pond, next to the bloody dock.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) grows along the roadside much of the summer and while its bloom season is pretty much over, there are still a few blooms here and there. I've always loved this wildflower and have been tempted to relocate some to the garden. Kara has mentioned that she wants to do this as well. I've planted native wildflowers in my gardens many times before, but rarely have I let them stay, because they tended to want to take over. After reading Jodi's blog entry from last week, I think we'll both try this one.

There was moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) growing all over the place, as usual, because it's a very vigorous groundcover (read: invasive). Romie likes the looks of it and two summers ago, he had me dig some up to plant in a small area by the front door. It didn't take it long before it totally took over, and while I like it a little bit, I don't like it a lot, and I dug it all out. He'll just have to admire it down in the ditch on our walks.

I saw a fair amount of Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota), so I checked to see if it had the little dark purple floret in the center. Sure enough! It's not something that you might notice if you weren't aware it was there. It actually shows up better in the picture I took than it does in real life. The legend is that Queen Anne pricked her finger while tatting lace and this dot is a spot of blood.

For some reason, not each flower head of Queen Anne's Lace will have the purple floret in the center, though most do. The purple color is caused by anthocyanin, which is present in most red and purple flowers, as well as like-colored fruits and vegetables. Its purpose in Queen Anne's Lace is to attract insects, most of them very beneficial to the garden. Anthocyanin is also a powerful antioxidant, which is why red-skinned fruits such as apples and grapes are so healthful.

As we got to the cemetery, we heard a high-pitched "Whoop!" coming from the back of the cemetery. We both stopped and looked at each other, as if to confirm that we had not imagined the sound. We heard it several more times and quietly walked towards it, keeping our ears and eyes open for more clues as to what it was. Romie spotted it first, sitting at the highest point of a small tree - it was a rather large owl and as I tried to zoom in with the camera to capture a picture of it, it took flight back to the woods. We could hear it whooping back there for quite awhile afterwards.

Last summer, I'd heard a similar sound in the early evening in our back yard. It wasn't the normal owl sound, so I didn't recognize it as such, but used logic in trying to figure out what kind of animal or bird makes sounds like that after dark. It was the mating call of a female owl. I forget now which kind of owl it was, but it was an awesome thing to hear and definitely not something you encounter often. The one we heard tonight reminded me of that.

As we were leaving the cemetery, I looked down and noticed an almost perfectly shaped dandelion (Taraxacum sp.) seed head. The sun had set just moments before, and the sky was that beautiful shade that is somewhat ephemeral, only lasting a matter of minutes before the night sky begins to take over.

I got right down on the ground to get in close, yet tried to include the beautiful shades of color the sky had become. I wasn't entirely successful in getting the image I was hoping for, but I'm still pretty happy with the result of my efforts.


As we returned home, I noticed yet another wildflower that was abundant on both sides of the road. I grabbed a handful of them to take home for a water-filled glass and Romie and I discussed what it was. He said daisy, I said aster. It could have been either, but the season of bloom and the clusters of flowers made me think it was more likely to be a wild aster of some sort. I got out my Wildflowers of Ohio book and as far as I can tell, it's probably Heath Aster (Aster pilosus).

Once home, I checked on the Monarch chrysalis and noted no change. Looks like we just might have to take it on the road with us tomorrow, as Mom and I, along with Sue (from the Van Wert Parks Department), are going to Cleveland to accept an environmental award for the Smiley Park Children's Garden tomorrow night.

Saturday, we're going to visit another Petitti's Garden Center location in Strongsville and hopefully get to meet Kim (a.k.a. blackswampgirl) there. We tried to meet up earlier in the spring, but it didn't work out. Maybe this time!

Birth is Imminent

Last Tuesday, the Monarch caterpillar that I'd brought in from the garden became a pupa. This week, I've been watching it for changes and signs that within that tiny emerald sac, the liquid goo was miraculously becoming a butterfly. I worried that it would have finished its metamorphosis and emerge yesterday.

I worked all day yesterday and was away from home. I actually considered taking the bowl to work with me so I wouldn't chance missing it. As soon as I got home last night, I ran into the dining room to check on it. Still the same gorgeous green with the glistening gold spots. Whew!

But then I started worrying (and still am) that The Big Event would happen this Friday or Saturday, when Mom and I are traveling to Cleveland. I really hope I don't have to take that bowl with us on our trip, but I just might do that. I do NOT want to miss this!

This morning, I checked the chrysalis and it was different. It has started to dull on the outside and on one side, I can see the dark colors of the wings through the casing. Woo hoo!!!! There's a butterfly in there and it's close to beginning to make its way into this world.

I moved it outside on the patio under the shade of the Trumpet Vine-covered pergola. I'll be checking on it about every half hour and will keep you posted on the pre-birth events. I have no idea how long it will be until we see the baby butterfly, but I intend to be there and record it, so you can see it, too.

EDIT: Upon further research, I see that it takes approximately 24 hours after the change in outside appearance for emergence to begin. This could get really interesting . . .

Good News About Peanut Butter and Jelly

The verdict is in on the wild grape jelly I made last night. Yummy! And the texture is wonderful. I worried that it would end up too thick and hard to spread, sort of Jell-O-like, but it's perfect. Would I do it again? Absolutely! But I'll pick more grapes next time so I can make more of it at once. Maybe I'll even make strawberry jam next year from the berries in our garden.

The other good news is that my all-time favorite peanut butter, Peter Pan, is back in production. In the past several months while it has been off the shelves, I tried other peanut butters, even some of the natural ones. There is nothing like Peter Pan Creamy Peanut Butter, unless it's Honey Roasted Peter Pan Peanut Butter, which I haven't yet seen in the stores, but their website says it's out there.

Wild Grape Jelly

3 lbs. wild grapes, stemmed
3 cups water
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 (85 ml) package liquid pectin

• In large saucepan, crush grapes with potato masher; pour in water and bring to boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until fruit is very soft.
• Transfer to jelly bag or colander lined with a double thickness of fine cheesecloth and let drip overnight.
• Measure juice (you should have 3 cups/750 ml) into a large heavy saucepan; stir in sugar.
• Bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly.
• Stir in pectin.
• Return to full boil and boil hard for one minute, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat and skim off foam with a metal spoon.
• Pour into sterilized jars, leaving 1/8 inch headspace.
  

Oops! I forgot a step . . .

• Enjoy!

Wild Grape Jelly is 50 Years in the Making

It doesn't matter how old you are or how old you get, it's a big wide world out there and there will never be a shortage of new opportunities for learning. Ain't it great?

Earlier this year, Romie and I discovered wild grapes growing behind Our Little Acre, along Cunningham's Ditch. We'd lived here for 30 years and walked that path countless times, but until this summer we had no idea the grapes were there. I'd never even seen wild grapes growing before in my life and was thrilled with the find.

I returned to the treasure trove of vines hanging heavy with grape clusters and cut some. Those grapes were going to become jelly in my hands, though I'd never made that before either. I searched online for recipes for wild grape jelly and found some. They were all similar, but I chose one of the simplest. All I needed was grapes, water, sugar and pectin.

Pectin is a natural gelling agent found in terrestrial plants and is sold here under the Certo brand. It comes in powder form or liquid. Romie sometimes calls me while he's eating his lunch, so the next day as I was talking to him, I asked him to stop at the grocery before he came home and get some of that pectin stuff. He knows his way around the grocery store, but had no idea where to find the pectin. My guess would have been by the Jell-O, but I was wrong. It was with the spices.

The first thing I had to do was take all those tiny grapes off their stems. This job reminded me of shelling peas. It takes forever and a day of cleaning those before you get enough to feed two people one time. So now I had everything ready to go, but all that de-stemming wore me out. Okay, so it didn't, but I was sick of messing with grapes, so with blue hands, I put them back in the refrigerator until later.

Later turned out to be six weeks later. I'm not kidding. They don't call me The Queen of Procrastination for nothing. I don't know what was the impetus for deciding that last night was going to be when I finally made the jelly - maybe even I got sick of seeing them stare at me every time I opened the refrigerator door. Romie had long ago quit asking me when I was going to make it and I'm sure he thought it wasn't going to happen at all and the grapes were going to go the way of most cucumbers that I buy. (I don't even take cucumbers out of the plastic weighing bag I bring them home in. That way, they're easier to dispose of when they spoil.)

But ha! I did make the jelly. Last night. And it was easy! I weighed the grapes to see just how many I had and if I needed to adjust the recipe. I had a pound and three-quarters and the recipe called for three pounds, so before I started, I refigured how much I needed of everything else.


The recipe said to mash the grapes with a potato masher. I'd gotten one as a shower gift when I got married in 1975 and probably have used it just a handful of times. It's amazing that I even knew where to find it. My girls probably don't even know what a potato masher is. Actually, mine has "Pastry Blender" imprinted on it, because that's what it is, but it works for mashing potatoes, too. And crushing grapes.




Next step was to add water to the crushed grape mess, bring them to a boil, then cover and simmer for ten minutes.





Once that was done, I had to strain and drain them. I was supposed to use cheesecloth for this and I didn't have cheesecloth, but an old clean handkerchief worked very well. I let them drain through that, then I gathered the handkerchief up and squeezed out as much liquid as I could. The recipe said I could just let it drain through the cloth overnight, but I knew what could happen if I didn't finish the jelly now. You know, too.

I was really surprised at the amount of liquid I had when I got done with this part. Those grapes must have been really juicy, even after sitting in the refrigerator for over a month, because when I measured what I had, it very nearly was the amount needed to use the full amount of sugar and pectin that the recipe originally called for. That wasn't supposed to happen, but I wasn't complaining. It must be beginner's luck.

I added the sugar - a LOT of it - to the grape juice and brought it to a boil. Then I added the Certo liquid pectin and boiled it hard for one minute. It was really smelling good now and I was tempted to taste it but resisted. It reminded me of the black raspberry syrup on my sundaes I used to get at the Cow Cow Corner on US 127 just outside of Haviland when Romie and I were dating.

I skimmed off some of the foam that had formed on the top of the hot mixture, then started pouring it into the jelly jars. I ended up with nearly three pints of jelly! By the time I finished, it was almost midnight and Romie had long ago gone to bed because he has to get up pretty early for work. I would have liked to have seen the look on his face this morning when he saw those jelly jars lined up on the stove, cooling.


All that's left now is to see how it tastes. One of my favorite things is peanut butter, honey and jelly sandwiches and I'm going to go make one now. I'll get back to you later with a taste report and the recipe I used (if it's good), just in case you ever want to make wild grape jelly.

It only took me fifty years to get around to it.

African Violet Minis

Last weekend, when Kara and Adam came for my birthday party, she brought my gift. Part of it was two miniature African Violets. I've got several regular-sized ones and while everyone says they're very easy to grow, my previous history with them belies that. However, in the last year, I've been quite successful with them, so Kara just added to my collection in a small way (pun intended).

They came in teeny tiny pots set in a wicking water reservoir. I don't normally keep my avies as wet as these stay, so I kind of wonder how this is going to work. They look good now and I have no idea how long they've been in this arrangement - probably long enough to kill them if it were going to - so maybe my fears are unfounded.

I checked online to see if I needed to do anything special in the way of caring for them and Rob's Violets says to treat them no differently than I would my other African Violets, other than to never pot them in anything larger than a 2½" container. They will never grow to be any bigger than 6".

Aren't they cute?

The Rosehaven Cottage Rose Medallion for Excellence

Now this is a good way to start the week:

Kylee,

It is our honor to present you and your blog with "The Rosehaven Cottage Rose Medallion for Excellence". You have received this award of recognition for your excellence in blogging (click here for more information on the award). We, at Rosehaven Cottage, hope that you accept this award.

Thank you for your wonderful blog and sweet personality that shines through!

Cindy (and everyone) at Rosehaven Cottage

About a month ago, Cindy also presented me with the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award.

For this, she said,

Kylee at Our Little Acre--a wonderful writer, photographer, and gardener that has captured so much in her endearing blog that I wait with great anticipation for each new installment to brighten my day and inspire me.

Well. Who wouldn't love to have Cindy as their cheerleader? Thank you, Cindy. I'm humbled and pleased that you enjoy reading whatever it is I write here. And let me assure you the feeling is quite mutual. I've discovered some very talented and wonderful people through the world of blogging and you're one of them.

If none of you have yet had the pleasure of reading Cindy's blog, Rosehaven Cottage, get your browser over there and get in on the gardening eye candy and her tales of her beautiful cats. Cindy's zest for life shines through in her writings and you'll come away from there with a little more spring in your step.

Visit Rosehaven Cottage online