Oprah, I've Got Favorite Things, Too

Last week, Oprah Winfrey had her Christmas giving show. You know, the one where all the audience participants are oblivious at the beginning of the show to the fact that they will go home with armloads, even truckloads, of wonderful goodies that Oprah declares to be her favorites. Wouldn't we all like to be a part of THAT audience!

Every year I say I'm going to make my list and send it to Oprah. The things on my list are a little more affordable, but no, I'm not going to buy one of everything on my list for everyone in my audience. It is comprised of those things that I have and use and love and generally can't do without (or don't want to). Some of them may have come at a high price in the end, or they might cost as little as a couple of dollars. But I like them all.

Kylee's Favorite Things 2007

1. Brighton desk pen

Last year I was browsing in the Brighton store, which the very act of doing is a dangerous thing. There are so many temptations there that my head is usually swimming. I love going there and being tempted mercilessly, though. And the people who work there are so hospitable, you wouldn't believe it! They many times have plates of cookies - good cookies, too - for you to munch on while you're shopping. They're smart that way. I mean, who doesn't like cookies and heaven forbid you should have to leave the store prematurely because you had an acute case of hunger!

They have bottles of water for you, too. Again, absolutely free. But these aren't just bottles of water; they've got Brighton labels on them. More smartness on their part. You probably won't drink your entire bottle of water while you're in the store, so when you leave (after spending what they hope will be copious amounts of money), you will be a walking advertisement as you pass other shoppers and they see your bottle of Brighton water.

Last year I was in Brighton one day with my daughter Kara, when I spied these beautiful pens. It was close to Christmas time and the girls always want to know what they can get me, and while I'm not that hard to buy for, they still want suggestions. I loved these pens, and when Christmas came, I was the proud owner of one of them, thanks to my girls.

This is not just any pen. It has a holder and I know there's probably a name for that in the pen world but I'm too lazy to google for that right now. It's a weighted holder of course, and it serves two purposes: It makes a handy place to keep the matching pen so it doesn't get shoved in a drawer never to be seen again under all the other crap in the drawer. And it's pretty! With a pen like this, that's important. A pretty pen deserves a pretty holder.

Another good thing about this pen is that it takes Bic Stic® refills. When your pen runs dry, just pull out the writing end and shove in another Bic Stic®. This is good because you can have a fancy pen without having to buy expensive refills.


2. Mentha Lip Tint

Kara used to work at Bath & Body Works during their Christmas season for extra spending money and she'd always tell me about the neat things they'd have. This was one of them and it has become my absolute favorite all-around lip product.

Mentha makes several lip products that come in basically the same packaging, which is a tube that has a slanted applicator tip. The one I love is the Shine For Life Lip Tint in the pink tube with the Breast Cancer ribbon on it. Mentha donates a portion of the sales of this lip tint to the American Breast Cancer Foundation.

What makes this lip product so wonderful is that it's infused with peppermint oil in such a way that when you lick your lips or press them together while wearing this, it helps freshen your breath. As a dental hygienist, I'm super sensitive to breath issues. I'm not supposed to have bad breath, but of course I have this problem occasionally just like anyone else. I eat candy just like anyone else, too. I hope that hasn't tainted your view of me as a dental professional, but candy is good stuff and I have a weakness for it.

The lip tint also has just enough color to give your lips a boost. In my case, I really need this because if you take a picture of me bare-lipped, it looks like my lips have disappeared or something. This stuff just gives my lips a normal healthy look without making me appear to be enhancing them at all. Sneaky, eh?


3. Horticulture and The American Gardener Magazines

I know, that's two things, but they're the same kind of thing, so they count as one for the purposes of my list. It's probably no surprise that my two favorite magazines are about gardening and I do subscribe to others, but these are the ones that get read right away and all the way through. They're also the ones that never make it into the circular file.

Shopping tip: Want to get the real bargain here? A membership to the American Horticulture Society at $35 a year gets you not only a free subscription to The American Gardener, but also free admission to gardens and garden shows nation-wide. I talked it up in February, and I'm mentioning it again because it would make a great gift for the gardener on your list. Right now, they're running a Holiday Special where you can get three memberships for the price of two.


4. Microfiber socks

I like microfiber anything. It's that super soft fabric that comes in not just socks, but blankets, sheets (yes, sheets!), robes, sweaters, etc. Some of it is so soft it nearly feels like you're not touching anything at all when you run your hands over it. I think it's the greatest invention since sliced bread (which came to us in 1928, by the way). We've got a microfiber blanket on our bed, and I really want the sheets, but at $89 a set, I'll have to wait for a sale on those. Kara and I found microfiber robes for $8 while shopping at Kohl's this fall, so we now have matching ones.

But I really like my collection of microfiber socks that I wear around the house, especially in the evenings. They keep my feet warm and of course they just feel so soft. My absolute softest and favoritest are the pink Karen Neuburgers that Jenna got me last year for Christmas. I think Oprah had these on her list too one time, along with Karen Neuburger pajamas. Those are good, too, and the only pair I ever had were cut off me when I was taken by EMS to the hospital when I had meningitis. That was a pretty good trade-off though - pajamas for my life. Yes it was.


5. Amy Grant Christmas CDs

I grew up in the '60s with the Firestone Christmas albums my mom and dad had. Each year, they'd come out with a new one, but always with the same bow on the album cover. It had all the classics, sung by stars of the day, like Julie Andrews and Vic Damone. They were good.

But for some reason, the music that makes me feel "Christmas" is that of Amy Grant. She's done three Christmas CDs and I love every one of them. Her first one, A Christmas Album , I bought in cassette tape format because we didn't own a CD player back then. Now we don't own a cassette tape player and I had to buy it again so we could play it on our CD player.

I've seen Amy in concert several times and all were outstanding performances, but I'll never forget the Christmas Concert my girlfriends and I saw in Indianapolis one year. It was magical and inspirational.



Though not a classic Christmas song, Breath of Heaven gets me every time.




6. Sonicare Elite e7300 Power Toothbrush

Even if I weren't a dental hygienist, this would be on my list. I've read the research and test results and have actually been a part of a testing group for Sonicare products. Over the years I've tried more toothbrushes than I could count, both manual and power, and still this is the one I use every day myself. As a hygienist, I also see patients that use Sonicare and I see the results in their mouths. Plain and simple, this is a superb product.

That said, here is the disclaimer: Sonicare is very easy to use, but it's not a miracle machine. You must use it twice daily, as directed, for best results. And it won't compensate for poor habits on the user's part (such as smoking, poor diet, etc.), but as far as cleaning products go, it's the best as far as I'm concerned.


7. Klaus Kobec Watch

You've probably seen this watch in print advertisements; I think I first saw it in one of Romie's golf magazines. It took me a long time to part with the money to buy this watch, but I've never regretted a penny of it. I have to admit I didn't pay $189.00 for it because they were having a pretty good special on it at the time I bought it, but it still cost way more than I've ever paid for a watch.

I used to have a watch fetish and while I still love watches of all kinds, have quite a collection of them, and wear most of them at some time or another, I wear this one the most. It goes with just about anything and not only do I like it, most people who notice it do, too. If something ever happens to it, I'm sure I'll replace it.


8. Hershey's Nuggets Milk Chocolate Truffles

This is the candy du jour. I go in spurts with my candy cravings, but this one has lasted quite awhile now. I've never considered myself to be a chocoholic like Romie or my mom, but I think I may be well on my way to becoming one if these truffles have their way with me. They remind me of the chocolate I had once upon a time in Chamonix, France. That was so memorable that I can tell you the exact date - July 14, 1974 - Bastille Day.

The chocolate outside of Hershey's Truffles is creamy enough by itself, but once you allow that to melt down to the truffle inside, creamy takes on a whole new meaning.

That's another thing - pure chocolate is never to be chewed, you must let it melt in your mouth until it's all gone. People who chew it shouldn't be allowed to eat it. They just don't get the savoring bit and that's a high crime in the chocolate world. It's downright chocolate abuse.

Oh, and chocolate doesn't cause tooth decay. It's the perfect candy.


9. Dell Inspiron 710m Laptop

It's a well-known fact that I'm addicted to my computer. I've got a Dell Dimension 4550 and it's a great computer. A year and a half ago, Dell ran a two-day special on a 12-inch laptop that was too good to resist. I'd been wanting a small laptop, but the price always stopped me. Not this time. Kara bought one, too. If you register at their website, you'll be notified of their super saver deals such as this one.

I use it quite a bit here at home now that I have a wireless network, and I take it with me when I travel. I love my little Dellette. It feeds my addiction.


10. Book Thong

Several years ago, I bought one of these charming bookmarks at Border's book store. Now I make them myself and they're my signature item that I sometimes leave in a cache while out geocaching. I give them as gifts, too, and I've made close to a hundred of them by now. I have a large assortment of beads and charms and no two that I make are alike. But for all of them that I've made or could make, I still use that original one that I bought years ago.


11. Crocs™

Sometimes I jump right on a new product bandwagon and sometimes I hang back. Though Crocs™ have been around since 2002, it was just this past summer when I bought my first pair. And my second. And third. I LOVE THESE SHOES! No, they're not the most attractive, but they are hands down the most comfortable and their appearance sort of grows on you.

They've got these cute little charms you can attach to your Crocs™ called Jibbitz. I have a few of these: red star, green shamrock, my initial "K", red heart, daisy, and a kitty that my mom got me.

I have a pair of white Crocs™ that I wear for work and now they've come out with Crocs™ Mammoth, which is their original shoe with a removable fuzzy liner to keep your feet warm for winter. I want a pair of these, too.


12. Dyson Vacuum Cleaner

Believe the hype. I used to be a Hoover gal, but this is one great vacuum cleaner. I've never minded running the vacuum when cleaning house (hate dusting though), but I love pushing the Dyson around. They've got several models in cool colors and we've got the Animal. Ours is a refurbished model and after three years of use with no problems whatsoever, we still love it. I think we paid something like $329 for ours, which was a pretty good deal.


13. Memory Foam Mattress Topper

Having fibromyalgia sometimes means that getting good restful sleep is difficult. The biggest reason for this is that many times I just can't get comfortable and it seems like no matter what position I get myself into, something hurts. But this doesn't happen very often anymore, thanks to our 4-inch memory foam mattress topper. We didn't feel like we could afford a Tempur-pedic™ mattress, so this is a compromise, but it gets the job done.

We have a Comfortaire mattress, which I like, but the mattress topper makes it so much better.

I love my bed.


14. Pepsi ONE

I drink it first thing in the morning and late into the night and I really really miss it when I don't have it. Addicted? You bet. And I don't even think it tastes that good. So what's the deal? I don't drink diet pop because it's low in calories; I drink it because it doesn't have sugar in it. I've seen what drinking lots of Mountain Dew can do to a person's teeth. It's not pretty.

I love the carbonation and I like it best when it's out of a can (no fountain pop for me!) and so cold that it has tiny little ice crystals in it. If I do drink it out of a glass, which isn't very often if I can help it, I don't want ice in it. That dilutes the flavor and carbonation too much.

Pepsi ONE uses the artificial sweetener Splenda (sucralose) instead of NutraSweet (aspartame). I've found that my fibromyalgia pain is worse when I drink Diet Coke (my former love) with NutraSweet and while I'm aware that Diet Coke with Splenda is available, it's not very easy to find in our stores. I think Pepsi ONE tastes very much like Diet Coke. I don't like Diet Pepsi.

Who knew that one could be a connoisseur of canned pop?


15. Tweezerman Squeeze and Snip

These are not your mother's tweezers. I know, they look like tweezers and they work much like tweezers, but if you're not careful, you could cut your finger off with these. These don't pinch, they cut. Made of very heavy stainless steel, the tips are actually blades, which makes snipping cuticles, hangnails and other skin a breeze. I'll bet you could find all kinds of uses for these things.

Tweezerman is famous for their tweezers and their lifetime sharpening guarantee. I have a pair of Tweezerman eyebrow tweezers and when I needed to have them sharpened, I just packaged them up, sent them off, and they were back to me in no time.

I've had these snippers for several years now and so far they haven't needed to be sharpened and I use them all the time, mainly for this issue I have with a plantar's wart on the bottom of my foot. I won't go into that; it's literally a sore spot with me and for some reason the various doctors I've seen don't want to remove it surgically. With these, I could probably do it myself. Seriously.


16. Ionic Breeze Air Purifier

Romie is allergic to a lot of things, including dust, mold, trees, grasses, pollen, cats . . . Yes, cats, and we have eight of them. For the last three years he has been making weekly trips to the doctor's office for immunization therapy. One of the things that the allergist recommended that he feels really works to help keep the allergens down in the home is the Ionic Breeze Air Purifier sold by Sharper Image. So of course, we bought one, and later another.

We only have two cats in the house, with the rest only making it inside on occasion, and while his doctor recommended we not have any, he agreed that with everything else that Romie is allergic to, getting rid of the cats wouldn't make much difference. That's a good thing, because Romie likes them just as much as I do, maybe more.

I'm not allergic to much of anything except for bee stings, so these air purifiers are not a necessity for me, but I love them. I'm happy that they contribute to better air quality for Romie, but I also like how they make the air smell. In our family room, which is fairly large, I don't notice a difference in the way the air smells, but in our smaller bedroom, I love walking into the room and immediately getting a whiff of air that smells like spring. Yeah, it's that good.


17. Eddie Bauer Sweatshirt Sweater

My first one was red. The next one was white. Then came yellow, charcoal, blue, and bordeaux. Every season they offer them in a new assortment of colors. In the 15 or so years since I bought my first sweatshirt sweater, this is the one item in my closet besides my jeans that I reach for when I want to put on something comfortable. I've actually worn small holes in two of them.

I was glad when they started making these in petite sizes, because I have a problem with sleeves being too long on everything. It's not that my arms are short - I just have really narrow shoulders. Three-quarter sleeves rock.


18. Shop At Home Select

There are all kinds of shopping portals and I've probably tried most of them. Discover Card has one; Ebates is another. But the one I love and use all the time is Shop At Home Select. How these work is, you start your online shopping by going to their home page and signing in. Then you look for the store where you want to shop and click on the link that takes you there. By starting at the portal's home page, they give you a rebate from every purchase you make. Then when you reach $20, they send you a check. They really do. I've been doing it for years.

But wait! They make it even easier than that. Instead of having to go to their site to start your shopping, they have this nifty little application that you download and install that automatically takes you through the portal and credits your account. That way you don't have to even think about it and won't have to worry about forgetting. When you go to a store that's partnered with their site, such as Gardener's Supply, a little window pops up for a few seconds that lets you know if you make a purchase there, you'll receive a 5% rebate for your purchase.

Rebate amounts vary by store, and some businesses give cash for certain kinds of transactions. When we joined NetFlix, we got $19.00 credited to our Shop At Home Select account.

I'm very particular about what I'll download and install on my computer and for the first year or so, I didn't install Shop At Home Select's shopping software. Then I decided to take the plunge and in the several years since, I've never once experienced a problem and it's very non-intrusive. They don't use your e-mail for other purposes, only for communication with you and for crediting your account.

So, if you think you might want to take advantage of this, and I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't, go here and sign up. It's free, and if you use my link, you'll get $5.00 with your first purchase and so will I. It doesn't really matter to me if you do or not, but who can't use an extra $5? And in this Christmas shopping season, you might just make enough money from rebates to buy yourself some new plants for the garden next spring.


19. Palm Z22 Handheld PDA

There's something just too cool about having a handheld device you carry in your purse that contains all the important data of your life in it. And Sudoku. I'll admit I'm lax about entering important dates and information into it, and I can't figure out why that is, because it's very user-friendly. Even my mom, who is electronically challenged, has one and uses it religiously.

I use mine religiously too - for playing Sudoku. That's just another of my obsessions. Or is it addictions? Whatever.


20. Romie, my husband

No, he can't be had at any price. Sorry. But he belongs on this list because he is absolutely my very favorite thing. I could write a book about why he's so special to me, but I'll give you the Reader's Digest version - because he loves me, and at times that is not an easy thing to do. He makes my life just about as good as it could be and does it with a smile on his face. I truly couldn't live without him.





There you have it - My Favorite Things 2007. I'm sure you have your favorites, too. I'd love it if you did a post on your blog and came back and left a comment to let me know you've posted it so I can be sure to read your list. Maybe one of your favorite things will become one of my new favorite things. It might help me with my Christmas shopping, too.

A Fly Went By

Photo from 11-21-07

We've had some pretty chilly weather here in the last week and there's more to come (for the next four months), but the Calendula officinalis is still hanging in there. This syrphid fly or hover fly (Eristalis sp.) is taking advantage of them, too. I see these insects all the time in the garden and I always thought they were bees. They look very much like them, but they're flies.

How to tell the difference?

• Bees have two sets of wings; flies have just one set
• Bees have long antennae; flies' antennae are stubby
• Bees have simple eyes; flies have large compound eyes

These flies are very beneficial to the garden, not only as pollinators, but for their voracious appetite aiding in garden pest control. In their larval form, they consume thrips, mites, and copious amounts of aphids. After about four weeks of eating aphids until the leaf they're on can't support them anymore, they drop to the ground and pupate. About two weeks later, they emerge as adults, where they fly around the garden in search of pollen and nectar-rich plants such as lovage, dill and yarrow. We had all three of these in our garden, and they clearly love the Calendula. In fact, herbs are their favorite source of nourishment.

Our friend in the picture is a female syrphid. We know, because her eyes don't meet in the middle as the male's do.

Another great thing about hover flies - they don't bite or sting!

Wayside Gardens Update

I thought I'd heard the last from Barbara, but I was wrong. She e-mailed me this afternoon:

Dear Kylee,

Thank you so much for contacting us here at Wayside! We value our customers’ comments and questions very highly, and we appreciate hearing from you.

I have inquired on why the shipping was as you stated, and I was informed that the website split the order into two order, because the Amaryllis was from a special Christmas offer. If you would still like to place the order for the Amaryllis at $12.95, Agapanthis at $6.47, and Paris Polyphylla at $6.47, you may call the number below and place the order at the same sale prices. The shipping would be $8.95 plus the $2.00 charge. If you choose to order please call right away before the items sale out. Please accept our apology for the frustration and any inconvenience caused.

Again, thank you for writing to us. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us (number and address listed below). And thanks for gardening with Wayside!

Barbara
Wayside Gardens Customer Contact Team
1 Garden Lane
Hodges, South Carolina 29695
Telephone: 800-845-1124
Fax: 800-817-1124
http://www.waysidecs.com
email: info@waysidecs.com

The first and last paragraphs are part of a form letter, so the really pertinent part is the emboldened text in the middle. I had to smile at a few things when I read it. First of all, she got the pricing wrong on the items. The amaryllis is $6.47 and the Paris polyphylla is $12.95, not the other way around.

Secondly, anyone in customer service that involves written communication ought to have good spelling skills and if they don't, they should know how to use a spell checker. Of course, some programs don't recognize words that are misspelled if the wrong spelling is indeed a word. I'm not perfect either, but these kinds of errors bug me when I see someone in this capacity making them.

Thirdly - and most important to me - is the admonition to "please call right away before the items sale (sic) out." They took five days to answer my first e-mail, it took no less than four e-mails over the course of a week to get this straightened out, and they want me to hurry?

Okay, so maybe all that is nit-picking, but at this point, that's what I feel inclined to do and I don't have the urge to get right on the phone and place that order.

Earlier today I located some Paris polyphylla at Trans-World Plants in Oregon. They have a 100% satisfaction rating on Garden Watchdog, as opposed to a 50% rating for Wayside Gardens. It's not that easy to earn a 100% rating from your customers and Trans-World should be very proud of that. Wayside Gardens might take a look at them and other companies that have high ratings and see how they could improve theirs.

I have to inform Barbara that due to all that has transpired over the last couple of weeks, I will not be placing this order from them and it's doubtful that I will ever order from them in the future. If she had done her homework right from the start, this could have had a different outcome for her company. As it is, I have lost respect for the business she represents before I even had a chance to order and see their product.

I ordered the Paris polyphylla from Trans-World Plants and it was less expensive too, at $10.00 and that's not even a sale price. Hopefully, they'll be able to count me among their satisfied customers and I fully expect that will be the case. I'm not that hard to please.

Interestingly, Wayside Gardens is affiliated with Park Seed and Jackson & Perkins. I'm not sure where the division of things is between the businesses, but I've ordered several times from Park Seed and Jackson & Perkins in the last several years and have been satisfied with both their products and customer service.

I had a rose that arrived heavily damaged and nearly dead from Park's and they promptly refunded my money for it, since they no longer carried the item. Their Garden Watchdog ratings aren't that great either, each coming in at 65%, but I've never had a problem with either Park's or Jackson & Perkins. In fact, the roses I got earlier this year from Jackson & Perkins were lovely and have all grown well and performed fabulously.

Moving on . . .

Wayside Gardens Doesn't Want My Business

Warning: This is not a feel-good blog post. Not unless you've had the same experience I have and you're in the "misery loves company" camp. If so, read on. If not, my apologies.

For a couple of weeks now, I've been trying to complete an order with Wayside Gardens, and today I came to the conclusion that they would rather not have me as a customer. I don't think I've ever purchased anything from them before, mainly due to their high prices on most things I'm interested in, but they were having a sale, so I thought I'd go ahead. And the Very Special Thing that led me to make this attempt was Paris polyphylla.


Ever since I've laid eyes on this, I've coveted it for my own garden. There's just something about it that's attractive to me and I want it. Wayside Gardens is one of the very few places that has it. My attempt at getting it from there to here went something like this:

I received an e-mail from Wayside Gardens advertising a 30% discount sitewide. Oh good! Maybe I can get my Very Special Thing now, since it will be 30% off! To sweeten the deal, if you used their code, you'd get a free upgrade to express shipping!

Since I'm going to order the Paris polyphylla, I might as well see if there's anything else I might want. Sure, I'll take a 'Zombie' Amaryllis and an Agapanthus bulb. I dropped them into my shopping cart, went through the steps to complete the order and whoaaaaaaaa . . . look at those shipping charges! Even using the code, express shipping is $18.90 for three bulbs. And that's not all - there's a side note that due to an increase in fuel costs, there will be a $2.00 surcharge to all orders. Except that my order has a $4.00 surcharge added. So now we have a total of $27.89 for the items I want to order and $22.90 for shipping.

I. Don't. Think. So.

I abandoned my shopping cart for several days until I received another e-mail from Wayside stating they'd made an error on their website and they had it fixed. To compensate for their error, they were now offering 35% off sitewide. He who hesitates, wins!

I once again went to their site and my items were still in my shopping cart. (I'll give them a point here, because some sites empty your cart the minute you leave their site, even if you sign in. I hate that.) But the amaryllis isn't showing the sale price. Oh, look! They're giving me a free one instead!

I don't want two amaryllis; I only want one, and I want it at 35% off just like the rest of the items. If they want to give me a free one, then make it be free, instead of charging me the full price for one and throwing in another.

I decide to see what happens when I try to once again complete my order. Are you with me here? You know what happened, don't you? Still incorrect and exorbitant shipping charges. Now my total for the items is $25.91 and shipping is $20.90.

I shot off an e-mail to customer service, explaining my experience with trying to order and pointing out that even if the shipping charges are based on the original prices of the items I'm ordering (which is exactly what they do), the shipping should be a total of $10.95. It says so on the page where they state their shipping charges online and it says the same thing in their print catalog.

I got an automated response from them telling me they'd received my message and they'd get back to me within five business days, due to this being their busiest time of the year. And it was a full five days later when I received an e-mail from Barbara, apologizing for my frustration with their website and any inconvenience I experienced.

Barbara explained that the reason the price on the amaryllis showed up the way it did was because it was a daily special the day I tried to order it. She told me I could now order the amaryllis at 35% off. She said the shipping charges should be correct now, too.

So I went to the website and yes indeed, the amaryllis problem was corrected. Not so with the shipping fees. Still the same high price. I really wonder what they would be without the free express upgrade discount!

I once again e-mailed customer service and this time I only had to wait a day for a response from Barbara. She apologized for my frustration and inconvenience then went on to tell me I had failed to tell her what the subtotal was for my order and what shipping charges were listed when I tried to finalize my order. WHAT? I did too tell her what I was charged for the items and what the shipping charges were, but apparently Barbara had forgotten or she merely overlooked those details that were still showing in her response e-mail had she scrolled down and reviewed my initial complaint.

Now you would think that Barbara would try to do something here to help me with the placing of this order. But no, that was the end of it on her end. Barbara clearly isn't paid commission on sales, not that I would expect that, but it might be motivation for any employee to help their customers as best they can. More sales means more profit. More profit just might mean higher salaries or bonuses. At least I thought that was the way business worked.

I replied to Barbara that yes I did supply the information she asked for, in my initial e-mail, but I copied and pasted it once again for her convenience. Isn't it the job of customer service people to gather the information they need to properly respond to the problem presented by their customers? I really would be surprised if Barbara and I communicate further. I pretty much left it with her that I had already spent way too much time trying to order from them and that there were many other businesses just like theirs that didn't require such hard work to make a purchase and be charged the right amount.

One more thing - this fuel surcharge of $2.00 that they add to each order (except in my case, it's $4.00, for whatever reason). We all pay more for gas. If businesses need to charge more for shipping, then do it up front. People like to know what they're paying for without having to add this or that as an 'extra.'

It is probably not in my best interest to be posting this rant publicly on my blog about a specific business, although I did do it once before. That time was a rather comical error by the business and not really a rant, but this is downright irritating. It's not in Wayside Gardens' best interest to not take care of their customers either, no matter how large or small the order, especially when it's a first-time potential buyer.

I'm done. And if you've made it all the way to the end of this, let me give you a hug. Sometimes all people want is to be listened to. And Paris polyphylla.

____________________________
Photo of Paris polyphylla courtesy of UBC Botanical Garden website.

The Trees of Our Little Acre - Cleveland Pear

These are really the stars of late autumn color right now. While nearly everything else is bare of their leaves, the Cleveland Pears (Pyrus calleryana 'Cleveland Select') are not giving up their golden yellows easily. Fine with me! They're gorgeous. We've got three of them that we purchased in the spring of 2006 at Walmart when they had many nicely-sized trees on promotion for ten dollars each. We couldn't resist.

They're a lovely tree, really, with three seasons of beauty - white-blushed-with-pink blossoms in the spring, glossy green leaves in the summer, and brilliant yellow ones in the fall. This spring, as they were blossoming out, I thought the buds looked like micro-mini rose buds. Entire bouquets of tiny rosebuds were gathered on each stem. I was fascinated with them and snapped photo after photo. I couldn't wait to see if they continued their rose resemblance all the way through full bloom.

Well, I couldn't tell you for sure if they do or not, because we got hit with a late freeze that stopped them dead. It lasted so long I began to wonder if the trees themselves would survive. They came through it, but I'll have to wait until next year to see them in their spring finery.

The Cleveland Pear is preferable in this area to the Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’), which you'll also see quite often. This is because the Cleveland Pear is better able to withstand strong winds and ice storms. The Bradford Pear, because of its growth habit, has weaknesses in its branching that the Cleveland Pear does not. For this reason, the Cleveland Pear has a longer life span.

Suitable for zones 4-9, the fruitless Cleveland Pear generally grows to a height of 30 feet and a diameter of 15 feet. It tolerates most soils, including heavy clay, and isn't bothered much by pests.

The Scan-dalous Rose

I've been meaning to try this for quite some time and when I found one of the last roses in bloom in the garden, I decided now was as good a time as any. There are experts out there - experts at the art of scanning flowers. Just like other artistic endeavors, this one requires some skill. Oh, they'd like you to believe otherwise, but honestly, I followed directions and I didn't get the result I'd hoped for.

Maybe it has something to do with my scanner. I did read if your scanner has LEDs for its light source, you won't have as good of results. I have no idea if my HP psc 1315 uses LEDs or not. Maybe I don't want to know, because then I might not be able to use that for an excuse for why mine didn't turn out so well.

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Some of My Best Flower Children

Jodi, who gardens in Nova Scotia, put out a request to fellow bloggers to post pictures of their favorite perennials in the garden, and why they liked them so well. Here are the best my garden has to offer, with some favorite bulbs thrown in for good measure:

I love coneflowers and I've got many cultivars, but hands down the best performers are the Chicago Botanic Gardens hybrids, 'Mango Meadowbrite' and 'Orange Meadowbrite'. They don't have the fullness of petals that some do, but the foliage remains healthier and they bloom non-stop until just before frost.

'White Swan' does well for me, too.

I don't think I can complain about any of my irises - German bearded, Dutch, Siberian, Reticulated, or otherwise, but my favorite has to be 'Red at Night'. Its large blooms don't fade in the sun and it's got multiple blooms per stalk, so it hangs around for a long time.

' Princesse Caroline de Monaco' runs a close second.

While these are called hardy glads, they're only hardy to zone 7. This cultivar is 'Atom' and it's considered an heirloom bulb, gracing gardens since 1946. I just discovered them in 2005 and I find their species look to be preferable to the regular garden gladiolus and well worth the trouble of digging them up in the fall and storing them in the basement till spring. They multiply like crazy, which is all the better for me, because I absolutely adore their fire engine red color with the white picotee edging. You can stagger their planting so that bloom time is extended. They keep well as a cut flower, too.



I like my 'Starfighter', 'Robert Swanson', and 'Italia', but the real star of all the lilies has got to be the Oriental 'Muscadet'. While they mysteriously disappeared this summer, I enjoyed their perfect blooms and heady fragrance that permeated the entire patio area last summer, so they warrant a second try. I've put them in an area that gets full sun, so they will probably do better than they did in the mostly shady spot where I had them before.



The best of the daffodils I have is 'Avalon'. It's a large one, and while I like the tiny ones too (like 'Pipit'), this one is robust and stays in flower a very long time. I even have it in shade and it does very well. The arborvitae that partially shaded it in the last couple of years has declined and part of it has even died, so 'Avalon' will get more sun this spring. That can only improve its performance, if that's even possible.



My favorite peony is 'Charles Burgess.' I planted it in 2006 and it just took right off. I love the rich magenta with the contrasting center and its foliage stays green and healthy right up until frost. I can't say that about all my peonies.



Hardy geranium 'Rozanne' is a strong performer. It starts out slow in the spring, but quickly makes up for lost time. By midsummer, I have to prune it back pretty hard so it doesn't consume everything around it. It's not that it's invasive, it's just that the plant itself grows that much, and well ... it has to go somewhere.

It works well as a groundcover, but that's not how I'm using it, so I have to keep it cut back. That doesn't hurt it a bit and it flowers late into fall.






Most people think roses can be difficult and perhaps for some they are, whether it be due to climate, soil, or other factors, but I've never found them to be that way. I don't fuss over them a whole lot and maybe there's a bit of luck involved, but I've only ever had problems with one ('Diana, Princess of Wales') and even that one eventually came around this summer after looking miserable for the first part of the season. But the one that has been the most outstanding of all is 'Disneyland'. I had seen it on a garden tour and knew I had to have it.


I can't imagine spring without the Chionodoxa. When everything's wet and brown from the melting snow and not much else has even started growing, this nearly glows in the garden. I go out and get down close and just stare at it; it's so pretty it almost doesn't look real.


Now how could I forget the Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)? I extolled its virtues a few weeks ago, but I have to mention it here because it belongs on my list of great perennials in the garden. It looks good even when it's not in bloom.


I'll wrap it up with a new one to the garden this year, Astrantia major 'Oma'. I can't say how it winters through yet, so maybe it doesn't belong here in my list of strong performers, but I hope it does just fine, because I love it. I acquired another cultivar in Cleveland in October, so if both of them make it through the winter I'll be thrilled.

Black Friday

Many a year it was that I got up in the middle of the night, donned warm clothes and took off for points west, namely Fort Wayne, Indiana, and usually with my dad at the wheel. This, on the busiest shopping day of the year, because there were bargains to be had! Freebies to scoop up! Madness to be a part of!

Yes, it was like a party of sorts, although I doubt my dad thought so. He just wanted to get his shopping for Mom finished and he figured I was the only one who would be crazy enough to do this with him. It's not that he enjoys shopping, or all the people, it's just that he's an early riser and he likes a good shopping bargain as well as anyone.

In those days (1980s), shopping the day after Thanksgiving wasn't the absolute madhouse it is today. Stores opened at (gasp!) 7:00 a.m. Dad and I would have breakfast at Bob Evans and be outside L.S. Ayres (now Macy's) when they opened. They'd be passing out coupons or samples or ornaments or something that the sleepyheads would miss out on. We'd have our shopping done by 10:00 a.m., just when things started to really get hopping. It was fun. One year, we were captured in all our consumer glory by one of the local television stations reporting the start of the Christmas shopping season.

But now it would take ... well... I'm not sure what it would take to get me up early enough to take advantage of the doorbusters. Kohl's and J.C. Penney opened at 4:00 a.m. today and Value City actually started their sales at midnight. I'm a dot-com gal, remember, and there are online sales that make it attractive and worthwhile to stay home and shop in my jammies, although I haven't yet made a single purchase.

So how did we spend Black Friday? In the garden, of course! It was a pretty nice day out there and we had work to do. The winds in recent days had stripped most of the trees bare of their dead leaves and they were now in our yard and in the flower beds. Romie powered up the leaf blower and did what he could to help me remove them from the flower beds, but I still had to do much of it by hand, due to the rains we'd had. This created that suffocating mat of wet leaves that would mean death to the perennials if left in place all winter, and some of them were already completely covered by them.


Once Romie blew out the beds, he attached the bags to the mower and chopped the leaves in the yard, dumping them out on the compost pile (With Jack along for the ride - yes, he rode on the back. You can run the vacuum cleaner under him too and he merely watches).

I was working up by the house when Romie came to me and asked, "What do you want me to do with the rest of these leaves?" I wondered why he was asking me this until he told me to have a look at the compost pile. Oh boy. And this isn't even half of it.

He piled some more on, then took the bagger off the mower and chopped the rest for mulch on the lawn. We'd already put a layer of compost on the bare parts of the garden. But now we had this huge pile of chopped leaves that I was pretty excited about. (Who ever thought I'd be excited about a pile of dead leaves?) By spring, it will be a smaller pile due to decomposition, and will be a great start for compost for the garden.

Since we don't have bins built yet to contain the compost, we had to come up with some way to keep the leaves from blowing away. Wetting them down would help, but they'd still gradually blow away with the strong winter winds to come and no windbreak. So we took some mesh that we'd used on the strawberries to keep the birds out and covered the pile, securing it with garden staples and twisty-ties. We won't be able to stir the compost this way, but air and rain/snow can get in, and at least we won't lose the valuable organic material. We'll resume proper composting techniques in the spring and hopefully have a bin to keep it in.

I had a few bulbs to plant: Allium schubertii, Fritillaria meleagris, and Narcissus 'Jetfire.' There are still some to come, which UPS says will be delivered next Tuesday, and then I'll be done. So much for my vow to not buy any new bulbs this fall. The half-off sales sucked me right in.

While I was putting mulch over the freshly-planted bulb areas, I noticed all the new life still springing forth in the garden. I was surprised, because we've had plenty of cold weather, much of it below freezing, yet here was new growth! The new Campanula 'Pink Octopus' was green as ever and new plants were sprouting all around it.

I saw beautiful Viola 'Fuji Dawn' seed pods that had broken open and were full of teeny little pellets that would become more Viola 'Fuji Dawn.' This had already begun happening though! New little seedlings were flourishing all around the mother plant. I collected the seeds I could and I'm saving them for spring. Maybe I'll want to start them somewhere else.


As I was doing some other cleaning up, I noticed beauty all around me...

The burning bushes are ablaze, but they're in their last days, as the winds have robbed them of their leaves, too. That left a carpet of them on the brick pathways that I find strangely romantic.


The 'Crimson Pygmy' barberries are just now showing their best color and I don't think I ever truly noticed them like this before. Shame on me.

There are several rose buds that I'm certain will never open, but 'About Face' and two unnamed miniature roses get the prizes for last blooms. I never thought I'd see roses in bloom just a week before December.













The Japanese spiraea are awash in luscious fall color, too. I've always thought of these as somewhat mediocre offerings at the garden centers, but at a time when I needed something with certain criteria, these fit the bill. I'm very glad I chose to go with them. They've made me happy with both their blooms and foliage.


The only thing left in the vegetable garden is the Swiss chard 'Bright Lights.' Grandma thinks it's the prettiest thing we grew in the garden. It's still fresh and crisp and if we liked it, we could still be eating it, but we grow it just because we think it's pretty.

'Clara Curtis' chrysanthemum is proving to be a real trouper, especially considering it was just planted this September. It doesn't seem to be bothered by the cold.



Another new one planted this fall, Echinacea 'Pink Double Delight' just deepens in color the colder it gets. The foliage has turned a shocking yellow that contrasts nicely with its blooms, although I wouldn't like to see it look like this year round. It's a nice change for fall. The other coneflowers are long gone.

So the leaves are taken care of and I'm up to date on the bulbs, until Tuesday. The mulch is all in place and all gone, finally, after having a huge pile of it since spring. It was a productive day and while not warm, it's a satisfying thing to get work done, especially when you can do it when the sun is shining while snowflakes drift down. I felt like I was in a movie and the stage hands were opening boxes of fake snow above me. Gotta love that.

Feline Friday - Jack

We worked in the yard today and as the snowflakes drifted down here and there, Jack wasn't quite sure what to make of them. As one, then another, would land on the grass, he rushed over to it to investigate. It's not his first winter, but of course it's been awhile since he's seen this manna from heaven.

Giving Thanks

Traditions run deep in our family, so much so that most holiday celebrations need no invitation. We generally know that Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve will be spent at my mom and dad's. All that needs to be said is what time and what to bring, although Mom usually doesn't even ask anyone to bring a thing except their best cheery selves.



But today I brought the dessert she'd asked me to make and a beautiful cornucopia basket floral arrangement I'd received the day before. Mom loved it and the sweet fragrance of the oriental lily 'Stargazer' nestled within.

We all gathered at Mom's for a noon Thanksgiving feast; all of us except Jenna and Joe, because Jenna was sick. When winter comes, Jenna battles all kinds of upper respiratory illness, but at least she doesn't have strep like she used to get. Not since she had her tonsils out when she was a freshman in college. When she was a toddler, our doctor wanted her to be tested for cystic fibrosis, because she had all the symptoms of it, but thankfully the results of the sweat test were negative.

Anyway, we missed them both and Bella too. Mom, Dad and Grandma have never met Bella yet and I think they were looking forward to seeing her more than Jenna and Joe this time. It would have been interesting to see how Bella and Ivy interacted - a rambunctious puppy and a hyperkitty. Ivy provided plenty of entertainment for us and was the center of attention most of the afternoon.


The cardinals were having their Thanksgiving meal at the feeder just outside the sun room window. Mom and I talked about how they'd been absent most of the summer and we wondered where they'd been. I haven't seen any at our place yet, but they were back in Van Wert. Red is my favorite color and the male cardinal sports the best shade of it.

On the menu today was turkey, dressing, scalloped corn casserole, mixed vegetables, sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad, pickled beets and eggs, crescent rolls, and the dessert I'd brought - my famous Pumpkin Torte. Kara would have whined us all to death if I hadn't made that. I have to agree with her though. It's my favorite dessert and it could become yours too if I gave you the recipe.

Oh, all right . . .

Kylee's Pumpkin Torte

1 yellow cake mix (take out 1 cup)
3 eggs
1¼ cup white sugar
¾ cup butter
¾ cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 large can pumpkin pie mix

Crust: Mix the cake mix (less 1 cup) with one egg and ½ cup butter. Press into the bottom of a greased jelly roll pan (10½ x 15½ x 1).
Filling: Mix until smooth - pumpkin pie mix, 2 eggs, and evaporated milk. Pour on top of the crust.
Topping: Mix 1 cup cake mix, sugar, cinnamon and ¼ cup butter. Sprinkle on top of the pumpkin mixture. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.

The Neighbors Come For a Visit

Got chickens? Our neighbors do, and today they came for a visit.

I was outside by the trellis near the patio and I heard what at first I thought was Luna, with his quirky squeaky meow. I looked around for him and didn't see him, but when I heard the sound again, it didn't quite sound like Luna. So I did a better job of looking and there, not five feet away from me, strutting through the neighbor's hedge, were three chickens.

The neighbors that live catty-corner across the road from us have chickens and so do the ones that are three houses to the north. They don't have the same kinds and I recognized these as the neighbor-to-the-north's brood.

I don't know much about chickens, but in doing a Google search to help identify these, I'd say the black ones are are either Black Jersey Giants or Black Australorps, and the white one is a Light Brahma. Or I could be totally wrong about both, but they sure were pretty. The black one's feathers were iridescent in places, and when either of them shook their heads, their feathers around their necks fluffed out handsomely.


I guess I shouldn't call them chickens because at least one of them was a rooster. How I know is because it crowed several times.

This is the first time we've ever had them venture into our yard as far as I know, and I thought it was pretty neat to have them here. The cats sat staring at them, but it was Simba who took off after one of the black roosters. She didn't catch him though, thank goodness.

They are so cool it almost makes me want to buy chickens of our own. Romie just rolled his eyes the way he did when I said I wanted a pygmy goat.

Celebrity Floral Designers & Chefs

Those folks over at 1-800-Flowers.com have done it again. I thought the Fields of the World were pretty impressive, but this is awesome. They've got bouquets put together by celebrity floral designers that you can buy. I've never been particularly impressed by most floral arrangements you can purchase online, but these are stunning:














The Colors of Fall
by Julie Mulligan

Reindeer Topiary
by Jane Carroll

Calla Lily Bouquet by Jane Carroll
(includes 2.0 fl oz bottle of Calla Lily perfume by Perlier)

There are designs by Preston Bailey, Julie Mulligan, and Jane Packer, and my personal favorites (shown above) by Jane Carroll, whose unconventional creations have been featured in In Style magazine and on Oprah.

And if you want something a little different than flowers, they've got Celebrity Chefs working for them, too. Just look at these holiday cakes! They're almost too pretty to eat!


Chocolate cake layered with chocolate truffle and decorated with fondant. These are by Sam Godfrey, founder of the Napa Valley bakery, Perfect Endings, and who's enjoyed national prominence in numerous magazines and television shows.

There are other culinary gifts by The Barefoot Contessa, Paula Deen and Steve Raichlen.

Go here for Celebrity Floral Designer choices
and

here for Celebrity Chefs creations.

K is For "Klutz"

I am my own worst enemy these days. Let me explain.

Last Thursday, I was sitting in my computer chair and I felt a stretch coming on. You know, the big ol' yawning, sprawling stretch that's downright exhilarating. So I leaned back in my chair and let my arms and legs fly. It was a good one, this stretch, audible even. And at the end of it, when my arms and legs returned to home position, it got louder.

Next to my computer is a storage cube which holds my seed and plant catalogs. It's about fifteen inches square and was the perfect spot for my cactus planter to sit when I brought it in for the winter, until I could figure out where a better place for it might be. I guess anywhere but there would have been better. You know what's coming, don't you?

As I brought my right hand down, it smacked the large-spined cactus spot on and one of those large spines broke off in my hand. And it punctured a vein. When I pulled the spine out, blood followed. Quite a bit of it, in fact. I ran it under cold water and applied pressure and it stopped shortly after. Later in the day, it looked like my hand had been stepped on, because it bled out under the skin. That was five days ago, and while it's not purple anymore, it's still sore when I make a fist or use my hand just right.


Round Two

Today was a wonderfully warm day, reaching 61°. It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't windy either, so it was a great day for working outside. I finished pruning the dead hosta leaves away, removed lots of tree leaves from the beds (again), and planted the tulip bulbs I'd been fortunate to receive in the mail today from another garden blogger.

I was really pleased to receive those tulips and that they arrived in time that I didn't have to plant them during a snow storm. I grabbed the shovel and headed out to Max's Garden, where I decided to plant the tulips out around the weeping willow situated just outside the garden borders. I have plans for that area for next spring and let's just say these tulips are the first flowers planted according to those plans.

I removed the grass and was quite pleased to encounter the most fabulous soil I've ever seen on this property. It was just perfect. There used to be a full woods here and most of the trees were removed when our house was built two years before we bought it. When you get out away from the house, the soil is rich and loamy and oh how I wish it were like that on the entire acre!

I dug down about six inches and was ready to start placing the bulbs in the hole when BAM! I slammed into a cut-off tree branch that I'd left sticking out a bit for hanging my camera when I go out to work in the garden. How I didn't see it is beyond me, but I didn't and I hit it bang on - with my left eye.

I don't normally wear my glasses while working in the garden, but for some reason I had put them on before going out this time. Thank you, God, for putting that suggestion into my head! Had I not had them on, I would probably not be making this post right now and may very well have lost my eye. I was pretty sure I'd broken my glasses, but they remained intact and when I looked at them later, the point of impact was firmly imprinted on the lens. It was right in the center.

The branch was about ¾-inch in diameter and stuck out about an inch or so. The impact caused my glasses to bang into the lower orbital bone and caused immediate swelling. It also made me sit right down and cry. The bulbs got planted and because I had one throbbing headache, I took something for the pain and took it easy for the rest of the evening.

Looks like I'll be sporting a black eye for Thanksgiving, because just four hours later, it's well on its way. I work tomorrow afternoon and it should be fun explaining that I got a black eye planting tulips.

They say things like this come in threes. I can't hardly wait to see what's next.

Seeds in the Winter

Unless you're going to start growing the things inside under lights, what's the point of buying seeds in the winter? Or worse yet, late fall?

I'm the kind of person who likes to know the how, why, where, when and what of things. So I sat down today and tried to figure out why it is that I've got itchy fingers at the computer, choosing various seeds to put into virtual shopping carts when I won't be planting most of them until next May.

Wintersowing is fast approaching, being started by me just after the Christmas hubbub is over, so that takes care of part of the need for seeds now. But what about the others? The ones that won't see soil until March at the earliest and May at the latest?

I blame part of it on the melancholy feeling I get when the outdoor gardening season has come to a close for the year. No more daily walks into the paradise that is my garden, with its oranges and reds, yellows and purples, pinks and whites. No more intoxicating fragrance luring me deeper into the green, begging my nose to take a closer whiff. A packet of seeds, with its bright picture of what the tiny grains within will someday become, reminds me of both the flowery days of summer and the hope for future blooms. Those packets are like an anti-depressant.

The mail that comes every day and brings me the seed catalogs that lay out the banquet of possibilities before me doesn't help either. As I turn page after page, there's one then another that tugs at something within me. Something that makes me want to grow it in my garden, even if my garden isn't particularly suitable for growing it. It's not enough to just look at the pictures; I want to hold the packet in my hand, because that means someday I'll really and truly tuck those seeds into the earth that I call home.

Patience has never been one of my virtues. I do better than I used to, but it's still a problem for me. I tell myself at least I have more than my mom. She doesn't have enough patience to even plant seeds. Give her the plants every time; she's all for instant gratification in a garden. I like doing it from the ground up. Must be that how, why, where thing. But I just can't wait to buy the seeds until I really need them.

I love sitting with the packets in my lap and looking through them, reading the backs to see what special thing I might need to do to increase my chances of success growing them. So I buy them now and I'll spend the next months deciding which to wintersow, which to start early inside next spring, and which to save for direct sowing when the ground is warm enough.

Will I have room for all of the seeds I can't resist buying? Well, we do live on an acre, and I can always dig up more ground for a new flower bed, but I think I'll have room in the gardens we already have. Each year I grow something a little different, with repeats only being those that I absolutely loved in years before, like the 'Bright Lights' cosmos and the 'Chippendale' zinnias.

So I'm off to shop for seeds now. Want to guess what the first one will be to go into my shopping cart? Hint: I've tried it before with no luck, but it's my favorite color of flower and one of my fellow garden bloggers teases me by posting pictures of hers every now and then and I am determined that I will have them at least once in my garden!

Eight More Random Things About Me

I've been tagged again! I participated in this fun exercise at getting to know each other back in July, and I've been tagged for it several times since then, including this time by Lisa at Greenbow. I decided to go ahead and do it again, although I will have to turn my brain inside out to think of eight more things to share.

Here goes:

1. If I could, I would live in my pajamas. It's nothing to see me walk to the mailbox in my PJs at 1:00 in the afternoon or crouching to pull a weed from a flower bed at midday in my Karen Neubergers. That doesn't mean I've been lolling about up until that point, it just means I love my pajamas. A lot. And I have a lot of them. When out shopping with the girls, if we get within sight of that department in a store, they will grab my arm and walk quickly past it with me in tow. "Mom, you don't need any more pajamas!" I don't need any more plants either, but that hasn't stopped me from buying more.

2. Along with my mom, my grandma, my two girls, and my dad (!), I was in a book that was published two years ago. It's called A Day In the Life of the American Woman and the day the photographer from National Geographic spent with our family shooting a gazillion photos was one of the most fun days I've ever had.

It made me feel good to see my mom having such a good time and that she was getting recognition for being the amazing person I've always known her to be. The icing on the cake was the photo Sarah Leen took at the end of the day of my mom in the bathtub. They didn't use it in the book, but it's priceless.


We're on page 146. It's not the most flattering picture of any of us, but that's okay.

3. I don't drink any hot drinks. Not coffee, tea, or even hot chocolate. I'm a Pepsi One gal and I drink it first thing in the morning and late into the night. I have just not ever found a hot drink that sits well in my stomach, even if I like the taste of it. I detest coffee, even the smell of it, and while cinnamon teas smell good to me, I don't really like the taste of most of them. I will drink wassail-types, but I can only handle a few sips at a time. I don't know what it is about drinking hot liquids, but there's something unpleasant about it for me.

4. Before I started gardening, my favorite flower was the white daisy. While they still bring a huge smile to my face when I see them, especially a large vase of them or a drift in a garden, I've seen so many gorgeous flowers in the last few years that I've been actively growing them that now I'd be hard pressed to pick just one. If you ask me what my favorite flower is, I'll still say white daisies though because it's easier, and I do still love them.

5. My favorite author is Elizabeth Berg. While shopping in an outlet book store in Florida several years ago, I found The Pull of the Moon and bought it for a couple of dollars. I enjoyed it so much that I sought out her other books and have read all 15 or so that she's written. I missed a chance to meet her in person in 1998 and have never had the opportunity since.

I love her writing style. I doubt that she's experienced everything the main characters in her books have, but she makes you think she has because of her intuitive way of spilling their emotions onto the page. What she expresses is real life and I can relate to a great deal of it.

6. In 1990, Romie and I rode our bicycles in GOBA (The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure). My mom rode it, too. Their website says:

GOBA has been described as "an adventure on two wheels with 2,999 of your closest friends." Each year the GOBA route features a different part of Ohio, traveling through peaceful countryside and stopping at exciting tourist destinations; click here to see the towns visited by GOBA over the years. The week-long adventure offers fun, Ohio town hospitality, and the challenge of your life.

Around 3,000 cyclists from all across the country (and from outside the U.S.) participate each year, riding a 50-mile (average) route each day through some of Ohio's most scenic areas. GOBA is a tour, not a race; most riders find plenty of time during the day for sightseeing, snoozing on the grass, and enjoying food along the way.

It was one of those things that we wanted to do once, just to do it. We're not avid cyclists by any means nor are we campers - tents or otherwise - and it was a challenge. We encountered 35 mph headwinds the second day, along with 90° temperatures. Many riders dropped out at the end of that day. We forged ahead and it was an experience we'll never forget.

7. I never ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (that I can remember) until after I was married. I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICHES! I put honey on mine, too, and eat them on a regular basis. I don't like crunchy peanut butter, Peter Pan Creamy is my favorite, and for as much as I love peanut butter, I don't like to eat peanuts.

8. I have straddled the equator. Twice. We had an exchange student from Ecuador in 1993-94 and I have been to her home in Quito in 1994 and 2003. Standing with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern gives you a strange yet exhilarating feeling that I find hard to describe. The first time I even got choked up as we approached the beautiful monument just north of Quito. I never thought I'd ever visit a place like that.

September 4, 2003

Interesting fact: The true equatorial line is not the one demarcated at the monument site. It's a short distance away though. I imagine pre-existing infrastructure may have had something to do with it.


Now I get to tag other bloggers. It will be a challenge to find someone who hasn't participated in this, but I'm tagging:

Connie at Notes From a Cottage Garden in Idaho
Sisah at Flieβtalleben (Life in Flieβtal) in Germany
Barbara at Abenteuer Garten (Adventure Garden) in Switzerland
Veronique at Au Fil du Jardin (Garden Wire) in France
Bonnie at Kiss of Sun in Texas

The Trees of Our Little Acre - Japanese Maple

I don't remember when I 'discovered' Japanese Maples, but it was a relatively short time ago, like in the last three years. How I have managed to live nearly fifty years on this earth and not notice these beauties before that, defies all that is reasonable in this world. I do remember when I fell head over heels in love with them, though.

Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas has a lovely Japanese Garden with quite an assortment of Japanese Maples and they're planted so attractively that you feel like you've been transported to some zen garden in eastern Asia and you sigh with contentment just strolling among them. So many leaf shapes and colors - I had no idea.

That was in 2004 when I first visited Garvan and then returned in 2005 with Romie in tow. Both times, the trip to the gardens was courtesy of my friend Kat's mother, Myra. She and her husband Ken have their own botanical woodland paradise at their home in Hot Springs and Romie and I would just about give both our right arms to live surrounded by such peaceful beauty.

Seeing all those Japanese Maples at Garvan led to one thing, don't you know? The desire to have at least one of them of my own. So some time later when I found that Walmart had small ones (Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Inaba Shidare') for sale for $17, I was one happy girl. I had the perfect spot for it with an eastern exposure near the house, which meant it would be protected from the sometimes harsh west winds. There was one problem: My dwarf Korean lilac (Syringa meyeri) was already happy there.

So I did what any other gardener who knows a Japanese Maple's worth would do. I moved the lilac. Never mind that it was mid-bloom when I did it. I crossed my fingers and forged ahead and the lilac went on to put out the most gorgeous blooms it had ever had. Then it promptly died on me. Serves me right, you're thinking. Yeah, I know.

But wait, there's more.

Shortly after we had planted the new Japanese Maple, my grandma and I were shopping at Beining Nursery when she said to me, "You need a Japanese Maple for your gardens." I explained to her that we had one already, to which she replied, "Yes, I saw that little one. You need a real Japanese Maple." She went on to tell me she would buy one for me if I'd like.

If I'd like?

The Japanese Maples Grandma was looking at there were not the little ones I had gotten so excited about finding at Walmart. These were about four feet tall and not so cheap. I didn't know why she wanted to be so generous and buy one for me, but I was so excited and grateful. We picked one out and took it home. Now...where to plant it?

You guessed it. Once again, prime real estate was occupied and once again what was there was evicted. The little Walmart JM found a new home on the east side of the gazebo. I rationalized that it would be well suited there anyway, since my little oriental garden area was adjacent. The gazebo would provide a little windbreak, too. So the new larger 'Emperor I' laid claim to its kingdom and rules today.

Not all Japanese Maples are hardy to our zone 5. Some of the ones I've seen can't take the harsh winters here. Both 'Emperor I' and 'Inaba Shidare' have survived at least one winter with us and look good going into their second.

Earlier this year, I purchased a very small green cultivar - 'Mikawa yatsubusa' - a dwarf Japanese Maple which will only grow to a height of 3-4 feet tall in ten years. It's marginally hardy to our zone, so this summer I kept it potted until fall, when I decided to plant it in the ground in a very sheltered location next to the house and mulched it well. I may just keep it there permanently, since it's such a slow grower. Its fall color is yellow.


Mom gave me a smaller 'Emperor I' last fall. I can't remember why she didn't want it, but it was growing a bit crooked. Not a problem really, since angular growth is part of what makes JMs so attractive in the first place, and we planted it between our two Japanese False Cypresses, which are on a slight slope away from the pool. It's growing a bit straighter now.


The Emperors are absolutely gorgeous this fall. Just in the last two weeks, they have undergone a big color change. Beautifully burgundy in the summer, they're now ruddy red and demand your attention as you round the corner of the house and it comes into view. When the hosta below one still had its yellow fall foliage, it was quite the contrast.


November 9, 2007

November 18, 2007

Green Thumb Sunday - Sedum pachyclados

Stonecrop (Sedum pachyclados)

Temperature does interesting things to sedums, as I found out last winter. This sedum is normally a pure glaucus shade when it's warmer, but now in the chill of fall, it's turned yellow around the edges. From a distance it grabs your attention and may appear to be that of a plant that's been overwatered, but up close it's simply handsome.

It grows well in full sun, likes well-drained soil, and has a white bloom in both spring and fall. It doesn't mind wet winters and will survive zones 4-9. Growing no taller than four inches high, it works well in rock gardens as well as containers. Native of Afghanistan.

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Feline Friday - Max

I can't remember now what it was that Max was after here, but my guess would be a cicada. Those presented great fun for all the cats this summer. They never ate them, as Simba (our dog) did, but their buzzing and flitting about made the perfect cat toy. Actually, the system worked quite well. The cats caught them and played them to death, then presented them to Simba for a snack. I felt a bit bad for the cicadas, but such is the animal world.

When we were at the cat show last weekend, in talking with one of the exhibitors there, I learned that tabbies that have the bull's eye pattern on their sides, as Max does, must have two parents that carry the gene for that pattern, otherwise they'll have the usual stripe pattern.

A Story About Bulb Fertilizer

Last week, when I was at Jenna's, I made a stop at Lowe's to get some bulbs. Well, that wasn't the real reason I went to Lowe's, but I did walk out of there with several bulbs, which probably doesn't surprise anyone.

As I put my purchases into the car, I remembered that I had intended to buy bulb fertilizer, but had forgotten. I turned around and walked back into the store and grabbed a couple of bags and went to stand in line to pay for them. Why is it when you've forgotten just one thing that all of a sudden there is a line at the checkout winding halfway around the store and you find yourself at the far end of it?

Not too long after I got in line, a man joined the queue right behind me. Out of the blue, he asked me what was in the bags I was holding. He thought the bags looked familiar. Um...okay. When he saw it was bulb fertilizer, he said, "Most people don't know that a little of that goes a long way. You must be going to plant a lot of bulbs." Yes, as a matter of fact I was, I told him. Hundreds. (Okay, so I exaggerated just a bit, but I honestly don't know how many and I'm pretty sure it approached two hundred, and that's plural.)

He proceeded to tell me about how you only needed a very small amount of fertilizer for each hole with each bulb and even a small bag like I was buying two of would really take care of hundreds of bulbs. Yes, I know. And I'm really quite proud of myself at how pleasant I was when he was being so generous with his advice about bulb fertilizer. I mean, I know he was just trying to be nice and helpful.

But what I wanted to say was:

You have no idea how many bulbs I'm going to plant. For all you know, I might be planting bulbs at my house, my neighbor's house, and my neighbor's neighbor's house. Maybe I'm buying it for all of us and we're going to share it.

Yes, I know it goes far. That's a wonderful thing about bulb fertilizer, unlike those sprays like insecticidal soap that I swear contain three squirts and some air.

I do not want to run out of it as I have in the past. It's so irritating to be down on your knees, planting the last twenty bulbs when you've run out of bulb fertilizer and the nearest store is half an hour away.

It's fertilizer, for crying out loud, and there's no law that says I can't use it for fertilizing things other than bulbs if I want. Plants can't read.

It's cheap. Like $3.27 a bag cheap.

Instead, I just smiled and let him pontificate about the bottomless bags of bulb fertilizer I was buying. I haven't decided if listening to him made the time in the line seem to go faster or COULDN'T THE LINE PLEASE GO ANY FASTER????

I did learn two things that day. One is that free advice is just that - free. There for the taking. Or not. But more importantly, maybe I've been in line with someone before and I decided they needed my advice. And maybe, just maybe, they didn't.

The Atlantic Gardener's Greenbook - A Review

The Atlantic Gardener's Greenbook by Jodi DeLong
published by Saltscapes Publishing Limited in Canada, $17.95

Our fellow garden blogger, Jodi DeLong of bloomingwriter fame, is the author of a book that I recently purchased and read. If you garden or even think you might want to garden, you should read it, too. When I ordered The Atlantic Gardener's Greenbook, I did so in order to see just how Jodi went about writing a book about something I love. But I got more than I bargained for.

Jodi lives in Canning, Nova Scotia, up north in neighboring Canada and gardens there near the Bay of Fundy in zone 5. I garden in zone 5, too, so much of what I read in her book pertains to my experience here in northwest Ohio. But no matter where you garden, there's so much basic gardening information packed into this slim volume that makes it well worth the space it takes up on the bookshelf.

Have you visited Jodi's blog? If so, you know she writes with a smooth sophistication that exudes her warm personality and coupled with her stunning photos, you'll bookmark it so you can return again and again. She writes The Atlantic Gardener's Greenbook in that same engaging style.

Jodi knows her stuff, as well she should, having completed studies in plant science and horticulture at Nova Scotia Agricultural College. And lest you think that sounds stodgy and boring, think again. It gives credence to the wealth of information she stuffs into her book, but she explains everything in a casual way that is easy to understand and implement in your own garden.

Need a gift for the burgeoning gardener on your Christmas list? How about the experienced gardener you know? This will put a smile on both faces when it's unwrapped, then enjoyed all the way through the last page.

I need to say that Jodi didn't ask me to write a review of her book. I am just that impressed with it that I felt compelled to share my opinion. If you're interested in purchasing it, you can do so directly from Jodi (and she'll personalize it if you wish).

Well done, Jodi. Write more books, please.

November Blooms at Our Little Acre

Wow! Here it is, halfway through November, and we've still got blooms in the garden! I feel like we're hanging by a thread here though and if the weather forecasters are correct, by this time next week, there may be nothing left at all. So let's sit back and enjoy the waning autumn color we've got:






We've got some chrysanthemums that have come and gone, but a few are still going strong, like this Prophet Series one that my grandma gave me this fall.

Calendula officinalis - I grew these from seed saved from last year. Next year I'm going to try a couple of different cultivars, including 'Citrus Smoothies'.

Rosa 'About Face' has one last gift for us before winter.














These Pansies (Viola) were grown from seed and are 'Park's Whopper Red'. You can see there can be quite a variation in color at this time of year. The one on the left is the usual appearance.


Dianthus 'Bouquet Pink Magic' - This is the one I couldn't resist buying in the spring. It was a good purchase, because it has bloomed non-stop the entire season.


Petunia 'Nautical Blue Mix' makes me think it will go right on blooming in spite of the coming cold weather. Snow, even. I have noticed the colors of the blooms are now a much deeper, darker color than they were earlier in the season, when it was warmer.


Chrysanthemum / Dendranthema 'Bolero' - The reason I've given two genus names for this one is because the people who assign plants with such things can't make up their minds. The current correct genus for this one is Chrysanthemum. Next week it could be something else.


Chrysanthemum x rubellum 'Clara Curtis' - Still going...

Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet', which the butterflies, hummingbirds, and clearwing moth caterpillars loved all summer, is still trying to attract something, even though its biggest fans have already gone south for the winter.

The Chinese Forget-Me-Nots (Cynoglossum amabile) are also still blooming, though it doesn't have as many blooms as a month ago.


The Yellow Scabiosa (Scabiosa ochroleuca) surprised me! I didn't expect to see it and it's more ivory than yellow now.


Rose of Heaven (Silene coeli-rosa 'Cherry Blossom') is putting out a few blooms, paler than its earlier ones, with some of them being nearly all white. This annual is sometimes listed as Viscaria , Agrostemma, or Lychnis instead of Silene and it is known to self-seed.













I think the English Daisies (Bellis perennis) like the cooler weather over the warmer summer temperatures. They're blooming more and the foliage doesn't get droopy like it did in July and August.


Fall-blooming crocus

The various cultivars of Gaillardia are still blooming, too, although the blooms are a little smaller in diameter.

Gaillardia 'Golden Goblin' just beginning to open.

The red Gerbera daisy is looking a little ragged, but still...

Gray-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)


Echinacea purpurea 'Pink Double Delight'


Pelargonium


Hydrangea macrophylla Forever and Ever® 'Double Pink'
Endless Summer® 'Blushing Bride' is also blooming - heavily!


Veronica spicata 'Icicle'
Notice the cat hair?
I see this on the flowers in my photos quite often. ;-)


Rudbeckia hirta 'Prairie Sun' bloom is looking good, if not the foliage. I grew this one from seed and it's still blooming while the one I bought as a plant earlier this year at Walmart finished blooming a couple of weeks ago or more.


Hardy geranium (Geranium sanguineum var. striatum) is still trying to bloom.


Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola tricolor)

Others currently in bloom:

• Campanula sp.
• Gaura
  
• Coreopsis 'Sweet Dreams'
• Doublefile Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum)
  
• Lobelia 'Crystal Palace'
• Delphinium elatum 'Magic Fountain Mix'
• Nodding Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes cernua)
• Sedum 'Autumn Fire'
• Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
• Verbena
• Lamium
  
• Gazania
• Miniature Roses
• Clematis 'Jackmanii'
• Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' is still blooming now that I've brought it inside for the winter. I really hope I'm able to keep it happy in here. So far, so good!
• Scotch Heather (Calluna vulgaris 'Tib')
  

And though they don't look like 'flowers', these grasses are blooming:

• Porcupine Grass (Miscanthis sinensis 'Strictus')
• Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln')
• Northern Sea Oats (Chasmantheum latifolium)
• Hakone Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola')
• Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus')
  

I'm finding it a little more difficult to take clear macro photos at this time of the year due to the windy weather. And I swear, no matter what time of year it is, when I get all situated and have the perfect photo framed up, one of three things will happen just as I'm about to press the shutter release:

1. A gust of wind appears out of nowhere.
2. One of the cats either walks into the frame or rubs up against my hand that's holding the camera.
3. A bug will crawl up my nose or into my ear.

So what do you have blooming for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day?

Indian Summer

Looks like we're in for another warmish day with temperatures fifteen degrees above normal. Yesterday was perfect for planting bulbs and cleaning up leaves from the flower beds, which I did. It's supposed to be a carbon copy today, with a high around 65° and sunny for most of the day. We did get some rain late in the day yesterday, but not until I'd exhausted my energy getting yard work done.

Indian Summer is defined as "a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn, not long before winter. Usually occurring after the first frost, Indian summer can be in late October or early November in the northern hemisphere, and late April or early May in the Southern hemisphere. It can persist for a few days or extend to a week or more." I'd say we're smack dab in the middle of it and we'd better soak it up because we're not likely to have days like this again for a long time.

I had the last of the bulbs to plant and they're all tucked away in their hidey holes in the ground, awaiting spring (just like me). I only placed one order for bulbs this fall, but I've also purchased a few from Lowe's and other garden centers:

• Lilium 'Lollipop'
• Crocus chrysanthus 'Blue Pearl'
• Lilium 'Muscadet'
  
• Lilium 'Tiger Rose'
• Lilium 'Starfighter'
• Muscari latifolium
• Narcissus 'Sagitta'
• Narcissus 'Thalia'
• Narcissus 'Pink Charm'
• Tulipa 'Elegant Lady'
  
• Crocus sieberi ssp. sublimis 'Tricolor'
• Scilla siberica
  
• Allium oreophilum
• Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra Maxima'
• Hyacinth 'Woodstock'
• Allium sphaerocephalum

That looks like a long list, but it doesn't include Narcissus 'Jetfire' which I thought I'd ordered. And now I remember I wanted to get more Allium schubertii since mine didn't return last spring. I might need to place a small order from somewhere.

Late last week, Romie had taken the mower and chopped up a LOT of leaves that had fallen due to some windy days. I raked them up yesterday and put them on the compost pile, but not until I'd spread nearly all of what was on the pile onto the vegetable part of the garden. It wasn't done decomposing but it was far enough along that by spring it will be perfect for working into the soil when Romie tills it up for planting.

There's about three inches of compost here, covering the bare part of the
garden where the veggies grew this summer. The leaves you see on top
of it are ones that have blown in from the trees in our yard.

I cleaned the layer of wet leaves from around the base of the roses and mulched them. I trimmed them back just enough so the canes won't get whipped and broken by the wind. I'd made the error in previous years of cutting them back too far and I lost some canes, sometimes the entire rose. I learned earlier this year that in our zone we can experience about 18 inches of winter die-back, so it's best to leave at least that much growth on the roses going into winter. I piled the mulch up about 4-5 inches around the base and I'll let the leaves blow in around them. The thorns will snag the leaves and keep them there.

The fountains have been emptied and stored or covered and decorative resin garden ornies have been put away inside so the freezing and thawing that occurs all winter won't damage them.

I can't believe it's really that time of year already. It seems like just yesterday I was rejoicing over the first crocus bloom.

Girls' Day Out

Jenna got a new dog last Saturday - a black Schnorkie born on September 3rd. I'm not a dog person but if I were, I'd be jealous because this little living floor mop is just about the cutest thing ever. Weighing in at a whopping 4.7 pounds, she's a mix between a miniature Schnauzer and a Yorkshire Terrier. And I got to name her.

Bella

Last night, Jenna came home with Bella because Romie was going to dogsit. Mom, Kara, Jenna and I had made plans to attend a cat show today. Mom and I had been to two of them before, Kara had gone with us once, and Jenna had never been. Kara came last night too and we spent the evening hanging out and watching cute little Bella do her cute little puppy stuff, like peeing on the floor.

This morning, after stopping at Walmart to fill the van with gas and buy snack crackers and chocolate (provisions, you know), we picked Mom up and headed down 75 in the pouring rain to the 52nd Annual Cat Fanciers Association Cat Show held at Hara Arena in Dayton. What better way to spend a miserable rainy gloomy day? (Well, I did tell Mom if we hadn't had such a fun day planned, it would have taken the Jaws of Life to get me out of the house on a day like today.)

We had just walked in the door and didn't make it past the first row of cats when Kara was smitten by a gray Persian for sale. She oohed and she ahhed and held "Glitzy" and whined around until we dragged her away. Kara and Adam already have two cats - Oreo and Cali - and when she called Adam to ask about buying another one, he told her fine, as long as she found new homes for Oreo and Cali. HA!



We spent about an hour and a half walking through the aisles of gorgeous show cats and watching the judging in several rings. Ah, such fluffy loveliness there was!

Maine Coon

As we left the arena, Jenna mumbled something about being hungry and we discussed the possibility of eating somewhere soon. On the drive down, we had planned out our itinerary which included a quick stop at the Children's Discovery Garden in Dayton as well as Andy's Garden Center in Troy.

We took a quick tour through the children's garden and at this point, Jenna was nearly fainting from hunger. Kara responded to this with a proposal that we not waste time eating lunch since we only had so much time before things closed and that we eat supper after we were done shopping. Jenna rolled her eyes as we handed her a box of crackers and the bag of chocolate truffles.





When I say we took a quick tour of the children's garden, I mean quick. I looked at the time stamp on the photos I took while we were there and from beginning to end, it was only 12 minutes. Why, you ask? Well, it was pouring down rain and only true gardeners would be doing this in the first place. But we saw enough of this fine garden to know we'll be back next year when the weather is better and more things are in flower.











Next stop was north of Dayton, just outside Troy at Andy's Garden. Mom and I had stopped here in the spring of 2006 on the way home from the Cincinnati Flower Show, but we only had about fifteen minutes to shop because they were getting ready to close. We were impressed with what they had to offer and vowed to return in the spring of 2007 when we were ready to buy plants for the new growing season, but for some reason or another, that didn't happen.

Of course, visiting at this time of year didn't afford us the opportunity to buy live plants for our gardens, but they were having a Christmas preview weekend and spring bulbs were 50% off, so we managed to walk out of there with less money than when we entered the front door. I bought a 'Limona' amaryllis, three bulbs of Hyacinth 'Woodstock', and a bag of 'Sagitta' Narcissus. I wanted some 'Thalia' Narcissus but they were sold out.

As we were driving out to get back on 75 to go home, Jenna was starting to salivate because she knew we were going to be eating supper now. However, we still had time to stop at Andy's Piqua location, so she had to hold out a little longer. You see, Jenna doesn't go on these jaunts with us very often, so she's not familiar with the routine. I'm not sure she likes how we do things, because Jenna is really into her food, but she was a good sport.

Before we got to Piqua, we stopped at Petmart for Jenna to buy some Wee Wee Pads for Bella, since the babysitting wasn't going so well back at home. Romie reported by phone that Bella had had a couple more accidents in addition to those she had last night. Potty training is sooo much fun.

Andy's Piqua location is their original store and is located in a residential neighborhood. It's smaller than the Troy location, but oozes small-town charm and had the same wonderful holiday offerings their other store did. I did a little Christmas shopping and found what I think was their last bag of 'Thalia' narcissus! Between the two stores, I also bought a couple of Christmas tree ornaments and some other decorations.

Finally, Jenna got to eat. Mom said she'd treat us all to supper at Cracker Barrel and by the time we sat down there, we all were pretty hungry. Jenna had started to gnaw on the seat belt.

By 5:30, we were on our way home with full tummies. Kara asked if everyone was happy with their purchases of the day, and Jenna piped right up, "Yeah, I'm pretty darn happy with my Wee Wee Pads." That's all she had bought all day!

We dropped Mom off at home, and as soon as the rest of us got back to our house, Romie and I left again to go to his mom's. It was her 80th birthday and we joined the rest of the family in wishing her a happy birthday. She's an amazing mother of ten, and she sure doesn't seem like the typical 80-year-old.


Kara and Jenna returned to their homes and so did we. Busy, busy day, but just the kind we like - spent with family, making memories.

Green Thumb Sunday - Sunset Foxglove

Sunset Foxglove (Digitalis obscura)

This little beauty was one of my most recent purchases when Mom and I made our last trip to Cleveland in October. I didn't expect to see any blooms from it this fall, since it normally blooms around June. Surprise! A little more than a week ago, I noticed a bloom stalk and because we were having night temperatures at or below freezing, I was covering it. Then I got lazy and decided not to do that. It didn't matter!

A native of Spain and hardy in zones 5-9, the foliage on this foxglove isn't typical of foxgloves I've had before. You can see it's kind of willow-like and quite dense. It's supposed to be drought-tolerant once established and if we have another summer in 2008 like we did this year, this will be a very good characteristic to have in our garden. It grows in pretty much any soil, too. Tough little shrubby perennial, this one!

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The Trees of Our Little Acre - Ginkgo

There were two things that led to the planting of the Ginkgo tree in our gardens. The first was when the girls were in high school and had to do a leaf collection. Now most students and their parents might meet this assignment with groaning and disdain, but we saw it as an opportunity to go for a walk in the woods, one of our favorite things to do.

As the girls collected their leaves, I took notice of the unique and artistic shape of both the leaves and the trees themselves and made note of those that I wanted in our own yard. There were three: Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), and Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba).

A short time later, just before the turn of the century (doesn't that make us sound old!), Romie and I took a trip to Chicago specifically to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio. We are both fans of his works and visited Fallingwater in Pennsylvania for our 25th wedding anniversary. Just outside his home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois, there grew* a lovely ginkgo tree, in fact the gift shop there is called The Ginkgo Tree Gift Shop. I loved its fan-shaped leaves and graceful form and knew then that I had to have one of these trees of our own.

Our ginkgo has been in two different locations since we purchased it. First, it was in the front yard. Such a lovely specimen tree should be shown off, after all. But with our house facing west and the open prairie before it with nothing to break the wind, it proved not to be the best place for it. So we moved it to the trellis garden near our patio, under a large oak tree.


Okay...I know...that doesn't sound like a smart move either. But our experience with our dogwood on our patio, which is also in the shade of that same oak tree, told us it would grow just fine there. Just not very fast.

The oak tree that shades our patio and gardens near the house is probably a couple hundred years old and it's a long way up to its first branches. This means that small trees will fit under it, such as dogwoods and ginkgos. The oak is a ceiling and the small trees are the larger pieces of furniture.

The ginkgo seems content under the oak. Two years ago when we had some wonderfully warm weather early, it leafed out beautifully only to be frozen by a late hard freeze followed by two weeks of cold wet weather. The ginkgo was clearly not happy, and protested by shedding every last one of its leaves. Things were not looking good and we wondered if it would recover.

But you can't keep a good tree down, and it bounced back in good form with no lasting evidence of the trauma it had gone through. This year, the ginkgo is looking as good as ever and especially this fall, its yellow leaves just glow among the green and brown around it. Maybe it's a floor lamp in this garden room.

The ginkgo is one incredibly interesting tree. Wikipedia has a plethora of information on its origin (China) and facts such as when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, four ginkgo trees growing within a mile of the bomb's center were one of the few living things to survive the blast. The trees are still alive today.

*In searching for links for this post, I learned the ginkgo tree we admired at Wright's home and studio was destroyed by a storm in 1992. When we visited, I plucked a couple of leaves from the tree and brought them home for framing. Though they turned brown, I still love seeing them and now they are even more special, knowing that the tree is no longer in existence.

Zone: 3-9

'Lady in Red' and Other Things

It was a blustery day today. The sun came out for awhile, then went back into hiding, so the brisk wind was chilling. But the autumn color was red hot. I looked around and it was everywhere. . .







Certainly in the red miniature roses (Rosa sp.) . . .










The Washington Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum) berries remain towards the bottom of the trees - the birds have eaten those from the upper half of them . . .




Showy Stonecrop (Sedum 'Autumn Fire')

Sedum spurium 'Dragon's Blood'

The Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora) is sporting red seedheads . . .













Dwarf Fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii) is showing some autumn color . . .

Spiraea 'Goldmound' is gorgeous, as is the smaller Spiraea 'Walbuma' (not shown)

Euphorbia 'Efanthia', which has fabulous shades of color in summer, just gets better and better as autumn wears on. 'Chameleon' looks much the same, only less compact in form.









The Scotch Heather (Calluna vulgaris 'Robert Chapman') nearly glows. I definitely want more of this next year. It's pretty in the summer, too.





The sedums are vigorous summer growers, but it's in the fall that they really come to the forefront with their deepening colors. This October Daphne (Sedum sieboldii) is one of my favorites.



The south side of the house is going to get a facelift next spring. I'm not sure what we're going to do there, but something. This bed has sort of been pushed by the wayside for a very long time, but it's time it gets some attention. The burning bush (Euonymus alata) that we've trimmed into a small tree shape will stay though. There's another one at the far corner of the house you can see in the shadow. I don't know if it's because it doesn't get as much sun as the 'tree' one, or if it's a different cultivar, but it's a different shade of red - more burgundy. I love them both.

See the small green/orange plant near Boo? That's an azalea I bought in Florida in March of 2006. I planted it there that summer and was too lazy to dig it up and bring it in to winter over. I was sure that any azalea I bought in Florida was not going to survive our winter. I mulched it very well and that thing had green leaves well into January! It lived and while it didn't grow much over the summer, nor did it bloom in the spring, it seems to be quite healthy. It will stay another winter where it is, then next spring I'll find a location where it fits in better.


When Mom and I went to Garden Fair at Winterthur, Delaware in September 2006, I purchased a couple of bonsai specimens, including this Amur maple (Acer ginnala). I planted it temporarily in the ground to winter over, then this spring I put it in a hypertufa planter with some other things. About a month ago, I put it back in the ground for the winter and it's showing wonderful red color. We have two full-sized Amur maples in the yard that we've had for several years.




Behind the Amur maple, at the foot of the honeysuckle trellis are several cultivars of Epimediums. One of them has some red leaves on it, so I think that one might be the Epimedium x rubrum that I bought a couple of years ago, although right now it's not showing the red edges it usually does.









Two summers ago, this red birdhouse had morning glories climbing all over it and can you believe I don't have any pictures of that? It was just one of those things that I was going to do and never got around to it.






'Lady in Red' Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) didn't bloom a whole lot this year (it's second in our garden), but it did grow quite a bit. It's looking a bit red right now though, as is the viburnum behind it. Grandma gave this to us and I don't know what one it is, just that it's a viburnum.






Geranium pratense 'Victor Reiter, Jr.' is normally a dark greenish burgundy through the summer, but turns a definite burgundy with some red highlights in fall.



Several of the Heucheras show red coloring in the fall, including 'Harvest Burgundy', 'Peach Flambe', and even 'Harvest Silver.'













The strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa 'Honeoye') plants are even getting in on the act. Perhaps a foretelling of things to come next June?







This was the second year for growing Swiss Chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla 'Bright Lights') in our vegetable garden. Last year, I grew it from seed. This year I found young plants at a local nursery and bought one red, one pink, and one yellow. We don't eat it; we just think it looks cool and it always gets comments from garden visitors. It survives light frosts, too.





Whether this rose (Rosa 'Memorial Day') will actually bloom before it gets frozen remains to be seen, but this is definitely not its normal color. The colder temperatures have turned a normally light pink rose into a deep rosy one.









The Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) is a gorgeous antique red color and I love the veining in its leaves. If you look closely you can see the buds already formed for next year.


This cotoneaster is one of the original landscape plantings that was here when we bought the house in 1977. It looked great when we moved in, then a few years later had a disease problem, so we cut it back to the ground and let it start over. It's been fine ever since. I keep it thinned out and I love its airy, freestyle look that way. In the summer, I plant caladiums all through them and I love their burst of color and the contrast of their giant sized leaves through the tiny green ones of the cotoneaster.


And finally, the Gaillardia is still blooming like crazy. This one - 'Tokajer' - is a little more red than the other ones I've got.


There. Just a little red to brighten up your day.

Feline Friday - Is She or Isn't She?

Look what's outside on the back deck. White Kitty has been seen around Our Little Acre for several months now. We can't get close enough to determine whether it's a he or she, but appearances lately would suggest that it might enjoy a name like Sophie or Honey. Or Mama. So we'll just take a leap of faith here and call it "her" and "she" until we know otherwise.

We've had a little experience with 'expecting' kitty cats. Jack and Jilly's mama gave birth to them in the attic of our pool house last year. We haven't seen White Kitty for a few days now, so I wonder if she's off doing that sort of thing somewhere. I imagine if that's the case, she'll bring them round someday. And if she shows up here much skinnier all of a sudden, our worst fears will be realized.

Somehow, one by one, homeless cats find their way to our garage and pool house because they know there's a bottomless bowl of cat food to be found there. We've tried keeping both locations totally closed up 24/7 but that doesn't work very well for the card carrying resident felines.

Time will tell the fate of White Kitty. In the meantime, we continue to try to get closer to her by talking softly and moving slowly towards her. We've not yet met a cat we couldn't tame, so stay tuned. I have a feeling there will be more to this story. And though we have quite enough cats, thank you very much, what's one more? (That's what we said about five cats ago...)

Go Have a Look at Comet Holmes!

Photo by Douglas Slauson

I've blogged about celestial events before. There was the Space Shuttle-International Space Station sighting, the Perseid meteor shower, the lunar eclipse, and more recently, the moon and Venus side by side. Now there's another one and if you don't go out and look for it, you're really missing something.

Comet Holmes first came on the scene in 1892, when Edward Holmes discovered it, visible then to the naked eye. Fourteen years later, it was lost to astronomers until 1964. Normally quite boring, on October 24th it experienced what is called an outburst. Most probably, a part of the comet experienced collapse, with particles being expelled and causing its brightness to increase dramatically to a magnitude about a million times more than normal. Lucky for us!

Over the weekend, Romie and I walked out into the backyard a couple of hours after sunset and looked up, trying to find Comet Holmes in the dark night sky. We knew to look in a northeasterly direction, just left of the constellation Perseus and about 45° off the horizon. There are a couple of very bright stars in that constellation, making it somewhat easy to find, and the comet was just as easy to locate. It looked like a cotton ball up there.

We had taken the binoculars out with us and looking through those, there was no doubt we had found it. I tried to take a photograph but had no luck. There are plenty of good photos to be found online though, like the one above, by Douglas Slauson. It's starting to get dimmer now, so if the sky is cloud-free, get out there before it's gone! It likely won't be bright enough to see with the naked eye again for a long time.

While you're out there, look directly east to see the Seven Sisters, a.k.a. The Pleiades. That will be the cluster of seven bright stars nestled among lots of dimmer ones. You can't miss it.

Happy stargazing!

It's a New Gardening Season!

Now that the house is filled to the gills with plants for the winter, I have to switch gears. In the summer, I started my day with a walk through the gardens to see what was blooming, what needed deadheading, and generally just to see what was going on out there. After snow flurries today (so they said - I never saw any), it takes a good reason for me to just cruise the paths among the going-dormant plants. It's cold and windy. Cold is bad enough without being wind-whipped along with it.

So the focus of my attention has come inside for the winter, and I cruise my house, checking on plants. There is only one room in the house that doesn't have greenery growing in it and that's the downstairs bathroom. The only reason it doesn't is because there aren't any windows. It's such a small bathroom, it's a stretch to even call it a room.

Last week, Mom gave me one more plant to winter over - Dipladenia sanderi 'Red Riding Hood.' It's a gorgeous tropical and was in full pinky bloom when it arrived here. Since taking up residence by the west window in the living room, it has been dropping leaves.

Experience has taught me that most plants will go through an adjustment period when coming in from the outside, so I'm not worried the plant itself will die, but it looked so good when it got here. I hate seeing it shed so many leaves.


In the dining room, where my desktop computer is located, a large pot of coleus and sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batata)is growing. These were part of a large container that spent the entire summer on the front porch. A couple of weeks ago, I potted up the coleus and I. batata so I could bring them in.



After having several pots of coleus in the basement last year under lights and having all but one of them perish by spring, I said to myself, "Never again. Not for coleus, when it's so cheap to buy it new." But it looked so gorgeous, I couldn't stand to just let it die. It may still die here in the house, but at least now it has a fighting chance.



The brugmansias are all in their bed for the winter, down in the basement under lights. And they really are in bed. We're using Jenna's old twin bed, which has storage drawers in the bottom, as a platform for some of the overwintering plants. Right now, there is a single brug bloom ('Milk and Honey') after I had to cut most of them down so they'd all fit in the space alloted for them. But oh, that one fragrant bloom is scenting the entire basement. It's amazing that just one flower can be that powerful.

I'm also trying to overwinter the Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' that was growing in the ground outside all summer. It was a non-stop bloomer and I loved it. It lost some leaves when I brought it in, but that's seemed to stabilize for now, so we'll see how it does by next May. That seems like so far away right now.

When I was visiting Jenna last week, I needed to stop at Lowe's to get a couple of things, none of them plant-related, and that conspiracy theory came into play again. One of the employees was leading me to the right department for the item I was looking for and he got a phone call from the service desk. We stopped so he could take the call, and right beside us was a portable cart with marked-down houseplants. Yeah - like I need another houseplant.



Tonight, I repotted my new orchid that I bought for seven dollars. SEVEN DOLLARS! It had an original price of $30, and this orchid has some of the healthiest foliage I've ever seen. Large, flawless, with plump roots and a new leaf coming on, all in a green ceramic pot - how could I not buy it?




So the indoor gardening season is off to a good start. You can take the girl out of the garden, but you can't take the gardener out of the girl.

So?

It's been said that I'm obsessed with gardening, in fact, I heard it again just two days ago. I always want to reply with, "So?" I know I'm not alone and there are worse things in the world that a middle-aged woman could do with her spare time. I could be one of those crazy cat ladies that everyone talks about and looks at funny.

Oh . . . Yeah . . . So?

Anyway, I've got a new obsession within my obsession. Grapes! I want to grow grapes, just for eating. Even before we discovered the wild ones growing along the creek behind our property, I wanted to grow them, but Romie didn't think it was a good idea. That would mean more work he said. More work for whom?

While he does help me with the big stuff in the garden like digging ponds, planting trees, and moving the bigger rocks (and I'm very appreciative of his help), I'm the one that weeds, mulches, deadheads, cultivates, plants everything else, and generally takes care of the gardens.

He'd have to help me by putting in the posts and stringing the support wires, but once that's done, it would be my project. If he doesn't want to build the trellis, my dad said he'd help me and Romie's okay with that, so it looks like one way or another, we'll be growing grapes. I know we won't be harvesting any for the first couple of years, but you've got to start sometime.

So now I'll do my homework and see which grapes grow best for the climate and conditions here on Our Little Acre and find out where I can buy the vines early next spring. Several sites have recommended reading The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture by Ron Lombough.

Oh, did I mention that Romie buys grapes every week when we go to the grocery and eats them every evening for a snack? Maybe if I tell him this grape growing thing is an act of love on my part, he'll look at it differently. Think he'll fall for that?
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Photo of grapes from Wikimedia.com
Photo of The Grape Grower from Amazon.com.

I'm Over the Moon

I'm not a morning person, so it's rare that I see the sight I saw this morning. Before the clouds moved in, the sky was clear and the sun was just about to break over the horizon. Looking out the window, it was neither of those things that caught my eye however. It was this:

The moon and Venus paired up, as they often do, to decorate the dawn. Saturn's up there too, but it's not nearly as bright as Venus. I took several pictures, then came in and had some fun with Adobe Photoshop. The following four pictures were tweaked from the same original:

The Trees of Our Little Acre - Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac

Mom and I were browsing Menard's garden department in the spring of 2006 when she called me over to have a look at a small tree. When I joined her, I could see why she wanted me to see it and it just jumped right into my shopping cart.

The Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac (Rhys typhina 'Lanciniata') is a handsome tree, with its feathery foliage and velvety bark on its upper young branches (like the antlers on a young stag deer). Left on its own to do as it wishes, it will spread via suckers to form a hedge or thicket. Too late, I was advised not to try and garden under it because of its suckering habit. Oops. It's smack dab in the middle of Max's Garden.

I briefly considered trying to move it out of the garden and into the yard this spring. After all, it had only been in the ground for a year. But I decided to take my chances with it right where it is and after living another summer with it there, so far I'm glad I let it stay. Yes, it puts up suckers all around and fairly far away from the tree, but they pull out of the ground easily. By early summer, I stopped seeing suckers altogether.

It's easy to propagate the tree from its suckers and we saved one of the larger ones by potting it up and giving it to Adam and Kara. They planted it in their yard and it's done well. These are fast growers so it won't take long before their little tree isn't so little.

Though it has graceful, lush green foliage in the spring and summer, autumn is when this tree really shines! The color of the leaves doesn't get much better than this. Visitors to our garden always ask, "What's that tree?" when they first see it.

It's devoid of all leaves now and looks much like an architectural sculpture. It doesn't just lose individual leaves, it loses the small branches that hold them, leaving only the larger branches. Maybe next spring, when it begins to send up all those suckers again, I'll keep them and plant them along the property line. An entire row of them would be stunning.

Quick Facts about Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac

Zone: 3-8
Height: 20-25 feet
Spread: 15-20 feet (unless suckering is controlled)
Full sun / Light shade
Grows in poor soil
Drought tolerant
Pest resistant

A Candytuft Has Its Say

There's that autumn chill in the air as I walk out to Max's Garden this morning. I've covered the Sunset Foxglove overnight to protect its burgeoning blooms from the frost. It's a new planting just this fall and I really want to see what color it's got to offer before it heads off into dormancy for the winter. I used my large bee skep to cover it last night and I need to take it off for the day.

But before I get too far, I hear something off to the right somewhere, in a tiny little voice that's trying its darnedest to be heard. "Hey! Where are you going? You're babying that thing way out there, but look down here! Look at me! I didn't need anyone to shelter me from the cold and I'm blooming!"

I look down and oh. my. goodness. The perennial candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) is sporting new white flowers. They aren't as full as they were earlier in the season, but they're there and also another cluster of flower buds waits in the wings nearby.

I'm impressed.




I love my candytuft a lot. In the spring and early summer, it's a carpet of lovely white blooms and I always crouch down and admire the delicate shading of color that you might not notice if you didn't look closer. You might think to yourself, "Oh, what a pretty white flower it has." Yes, it certainly does, but there's much more than that. You just have to take the time to look for it.

I want to ask my candytuft if the nearby doublefile viburnum that's acting like it's spring had anything to do with this late season effort at showing off. It's got new flower buds on it and everything and no doubt the candytuft wanted to play that game too. But it doesn't matter so I keep it to myself and admire them both.

Well done, my little candytuft. I'm proud of you. Now go get ready for bed. You need your beauty sleep. Spring will be here before you know it.

The Curious Gardener's Almanac

The Curious Gardener's Almanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom
(Hardcover - Perigree Books, $16.95)

by Niall Edworthy

If you think you're going to sit down and read this book over the course of a few days, you won't. It's not that you can't, because at 192 five-by-eight-inch pages, it's certainly possible. But that would be a shame. A book like this should be savored like a piece of fine chocolate.

I can only imagine the research required by Mr. Edworthy to create such a compendium of gardening wisdom. It's not merely page after page of this and that, although it is that, too. This book contains just the right amount of quirkiness and humor mixed in with practical gardening advice and basic facts that keeps you coming back for more. Boring it's not! Fun it is.

Mr. Edworthy is from the U.K. and he imparts what he's included in this book with a British flavor. I found myself charmed by it and after all, the human condition is universal and gardeners everywhere will have no problem gleaning the good stuff from the pages. And it's all good stuff.

This is not just a whimsical look at a gardener's world though. There's a lot of seriously useful information here as well, including recipes and it's chock full of ideas you can try in your own garden. An index and an attached ribbon bookmark complete the package.

Perfect as a gift for both beginning and experienced gardeners alike, The Curious Gardener's Almanac is truly a gift that keeps on giving. Readers will return to it again and again.

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The Curious Gardener's Almanac will be released here in the U.S. on Tuesday, November 6. List price is $16.95 and it's worth every penny of that and more, but not only does Amazon have it for $11.53 (32% off), if you order it before the release date, you'll get an additional 5% discount! It's eligible for their Free Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25, too.

Click here or on any link above to read more about The Curious Gardener's Almanac at Amazon.com.

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The product or merchandise being reviewed in this blog post was the sole compensation for testing and reviewing the product. All opinions expressed here are mine, with no suggestions whatsoever by the manufacturer or distributor. If I like it, I'll say so. If I don't, I'll say that, too.

The Trees of Our Little Acre - Serviceberry

In 1988, when we had our in-ground pool put in, we also constructed a pool house that doubles as a shed. On the north side of the pool house we planted a serviceberry tree (Amelanchier sp.). It is multi-trunked and has grown to be a lovely, graceful tree that shades an already shady flower bed below it.

There are white blossoms in the spring which give way to luscious fruit that the birds love. Humans can eat them too and they make delicious jelly. Depending on the cultivar, they are hardy to zone 3 or 4. In the fall, the leaves on ours turn a beautiful shade of yellow which contrasts nicely with the smooth and spotted dark bark.

This fall, I was happy to notice a good-sized seedling growing a short distance away and I moved it to the orphan garden for the winter. In the spring, I'll decide where I'm going to plant it permanently. It's really a wonderful tree that I'd put in the same ornamental class as Japanese Maples, because they're so graceful in appearance.

Under its cover is one of Max's favorite places to sleep and stay cool in the summertime.


*Photo of berries from Paghat's Garden.

Feline Friday - Abby

I came across this picture of Abby again last Sunday night when Grandma spent the night. It was taken when Abby still lived at our house. She belongs to Grandma now, which is a good thing. Simon had all of a sudden started to sort of not like Abby and we weren't sure what we were going to do about it.

Abby is such a sweetheart and just wanted to be left alone to snuggle with me, but I think maybe Simon was jealous. Never mind that Simon isn't the snuggly kind. He's the "I don't want you but I don't want anyone else to have you either" kind. So when Grandma said she was ready for another cat, it seemed like the perfect solution.

If any one picture could convey Abby's personality, this might just be it. She's very wary of anyone except for Grandma. Mom thinks Grandma doesn't really have a cat because when she visits, she never sees her. Take my word for it, Mom - Abby's there. I saw her just last Sunday as she streaked by on her way to her secret hiding place.

Make Roses From Maple Leaves

I saw this online last fall and promptly went out and collected quite a stack of beautiful red and yellow maple leaves. I spritzed them with water and put them in an open plastic bag in the refrigerator. I had every intention of trying this neat craft. Just ask Kat - we were going to do it while she was here last October and never got around to it. I threw the leaves out in January sometime.

But this year, I was determined to try it. Tonight, I gathered leaves from the yellow maple tree in our yard and the red one in our neighbor's. What you see in the photo to the right is my first attempt at making roses from maple leaves. Don't look too closely.

I'm not the most handy person when it comes to crafts - that would be my mom's department. I think I could get better at this with more practice though. And larger maple leaves. Larger leaves that don't have such deep lobes. The longer the base of the leaf area is before the lobes split off, the better.

Want to try it? Here are the instructions. Good luck!