Ft. Wayne Home and Garden Show 2008

Much anticipated for several weeks as winter winds down, Mom and I attended the Ft. Wayne (IN) Home and Garden Show on its opening day. Walking into the Expo Hall at the Memorial Coliseum brought a smile to both our faces as we walked between all that greenness that you could also smell.


The show was heavier on the home than the garden, as usual, and since neither Mom nor I were all that interested in the home aspect of things, we breezed through those exhibits, with a stop to purchase a snack of German roasted pecans.

There was a King Tut replica exhibit that I suppose was nice enough, but it seemed a little strange to me to be looking at replicas of the actual items from his tomb. And even stranger that there were miniature replicas of the replicas available for purchase.

In the Garden Gallery, where we spent the most time, we browsed exhibits by several landscapers, nurseries and garden centers. There were several beautiful patio exhibits, but most were out of the realm of possibility for my property. Oh, we have the square footage to accommodate any of them, but even if the style matched our home, we couldn't afford the price tag. Still, they were fun to look at.

The emphasis was on stone, stone, and more stone, with water feature accents. As you first walked in, to the right was a unique water feature by Planscape. The stonescaping was beautiful, but the wow factor was provided by the waterfall. It seemed as if there was rain falling from one side of the pergola. I can just imagine how soothing it would be to relax there and listen to that.



Woodland Water Gardens of Columbia City had a display with a babbling brook, waterfalls, and footbridge that impressed me the most. It wasn't exactly the waterfalls, but the contemporary look and lines of the stone bridge that really got my attention.

There were squiggles cut into the stone to allow the water to pass through to the other side, where the water bed continued. I overheard many positive comments from other admirers while I was photographing the display.

Country View Greenhouse from South Whitley had a nice display with some of the less common perennials for sale. I returned to this vendor at least three times, making a purchase of a nice 'Red Lady' hellebore and speaking with the young owner. I was very impressed with him and what he had to offer and will be making a trip there when planting season rolls around. He specializes in rare plants and I'm anxious to see what else he has at his greenhouses.



The Three Rivers Orchid Society had a lot to drool over, besides offering advice about growing orchids. It took all the restraint I could muster to resist buying one, but it helps that I have a hard time making decisions. I just don't know which one I would have bought, had I decided to!

Always full of temptations is the area occupied by the Tulip Tree Gift Shop from the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory. I've long known that this is a great place to pick up interesting plants at very reasonable prices and today was no different. For $8.50, I purchased a very healthy variegated Abutilon.


Another place to visit this summer will be Blue River Nursery, also near Columbia City. Though they didn't have a large display, I saw some of the most unusual trees and shrubs there.

Attracting a lot of attention and comment was the Golden Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia 'Chief Joseph'). Even more attention-getting was the price of the larger one of two, which was less than three feet tall - $499. But not to worry. A much smaller version which was about a foot tall could be had for $109.

Okay, now for the highlight of the day...

FELDER RUSHING!!!

If you've never had the pleasure of hearing this man speak, too bad for you. Mom had mentioned hearing him when she was in Atlanta a couple of years ago, and I have a couple of his books, including Tough Plants For Northern Gardens, but I didn't know what a wonderfully engaging person he was.

He was scheduled for several speaking sessions the first two days of the show, and Mom and I were in the front row for the first one. The small room was jam-packed and when it was nearing the time for him to end his presentation, the crowd asked him to keep going. Unfortunately for us, the room was scheduled for another session so he wasn't able to. He graciously autographed our books for us and we left, talking all the way down the hall about what a great time the last hour had been.

At this point, Mom and I parted ways and I went back to browse the Garden Gallery. I joined her awhile later in the children's area, where she had wanted to hear Felder again as he was to make a presentation about children's gardening. As I walked up, I noticed Mom and another woman sitting on chairs with Felder sandwiched between them, looking at his laptop. Apparently, they were the only two people who showed up.

I joined them and for the next hour or so, we four had great discussions about educational opportunities for teaching gardening to kids (and the lack of them), ideas for elements that can be incorporated into children's gardens, and more detailed discussion about some of what he had presented earlier. Mom and I felt very fortunate to have been able to spend the time in the company of such greatness.

Now Felder would probably scoff at that last sentence, because in spite of his numerous degrees and vast experience, this man is like your next-door neighbor. In fact, I wish he was my next-door neighbor, because then I could join him around his fire pit while sipping a beverage and shooting the breeze.

I like this man, because of his philosophy on gardening. If you like how you garden, then that's all that matters. What's important is that you garden and not be afraid to try things out of the ordinary. How many people do you know that have a bottle tree, a hanging pot planted with lettuce, and bags of potting soil planted with cabbage, pansies, artemisia, sedum, and euonymus growing in the back of their pick-up truck?

Felder, if you're out there and happen to read this: Thank you for what you do for the gardening world and for sharing a bit of yourself with us on Thursday. You, sir, have got it going on.

Just Biding Time

This is the winter that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. The temperature stays frigid and the snow keeps right on falling, and spring is now on hold because...This is the winter that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. The temperature stays frigid and the snow keeps right on falling, and spring is now on hold because...This is the winter that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. The temperature stays frigid and the snow keeps right on falling, and spring is now on hold because...This is the winter that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. The temperature stays frigid and the snow keeps right on falling, and spring is now on hold because...

This is the winter that never ends............

Pushing the Zone Limits

Zone envy. We've all experienced it. I live in zone 5 and I see something that's only hardy to zone 6. Yes, if I could only live in zone 6 . . . what a garden I could have! And you - you live in zone 6. If only you could live in zone 7 . . . what a garden you could have!

The truth is, many of us who suffer from this gardening malady try to be something we're not. Come spring, we'll see new offerings and some old ones again, and we'll rationalize and fantasize and otherwise figure out a way to buy them, plant them and make them work. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Are there things we can do to give them their best chance of survival?

I tried to think of something I grow that's marginal to our zone that has done well and the truth is, I've taken the safe route so far. As I've mentioned before, I planted Spotted Bee Balm (Monarda punctata 'Fantasy') last year and depending on which source you read, it is hardy to zone 5 or 6, making it a marginally hardy plant for my area. It still has decent green foliage right now, so it appears to be doing fine.



In the last few years, I've gotten to know my garden better and have learned the personalities of each area. The spot in the middle of Max's Garden, where the willow tree grows tends to be lower and wetter, so I've sited plants that like these conditions there. The trellis area in the shade of two large oak trees also tends to be rather damp, so it contains plants that like moist shade.

On the south side of the family room is a small bed that most definitely is a warmer microclimate, meaning temperatures there are different than are typical for our area. It is protected on three sides - two of them by the house and the third by some shrubs. It's open only to the east. Anytime I have planted things there - bulbs for example - they are the first to wake up in the spring. So I think I can safely say this area is zone 6.

This year, I want to try a few zone 6 plants in this small bed. There are some ground orchids that I think might do well, such as this one:

Hardy Calanthe Orchid

(Calanthe discolor)

If you could grow something hardy to just one zone warmer than you actually are, what would it be?

_______________
Photo of Calanthe discolor from Plant Delights.

Flock My World

When I was growing up in the '60s, I can remember several Christmases where my dad and my grandpa used to get cut trees and flock them. There was this blower thing that sprayed the flocking onto the trees to make them look like they had snow on them, kind of like the trees at Our Little Acre look today.


I knew it would be gorgeous when I awoke this morning and before the wind started up and blew the snow off the trees, I bundled up again and took the camera out to take some more photos.

Baby thought she wanted to go out with me and play in the snow,
but that didn't last long before she was looking for a way back in.

One of two 'Red Delicious' apple trees at the back of the property.
Max's Garden is to the right of this view.


Max's Garden


Looking from Max's Garden toward the back of the house.
The Japanese Garden area is to the right of the gazebo.


The Japanese Garden


The bench looks comfy, doesn't it?
Just a bit wet and cold, though.


This hedge belongs to our neighbors, but of course, we get the advantage of it, too. In a couple of months there will be a drift of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensis virginica) at its base that we planted two years ago. There are other woodland wildflowers scattered here and there along the hedge, too.


Looking toward the pool from the patio.

Simba, being part Alaskan Malamute, absolutely loves the snow and has been known to sleep in the open during a raging snowstorm, even though she has a nice, warm doghouse.

We have pictures where you can't hardly see her because she's covered in snow, sound asleep.

The only berries left on the Washington Hawthorn trees are way at the bottom. The birds have pretty well stripped the trees of them.


The red feeder is looking a little top heavy with snow and light
on the bird seed. Must remedy that!

By now, you must be wondering just how much snow we got. I measured the snow on top of the shrubs on the southeast corner of the house. Looks like about nine inches so far! It's still snowing lightly, so that may increase a little.

I'm happy we got this snow, because the temperatures are going to dip down to a low of 8º tomorrow night and the snow cover will protect the plants. What I'm dreading more than that is the pickup in the wind that's supposed to occur later today. With this much snow, that's sure to create very hazardous driving conditions.

Maybe this is winter's last hurrah? Let's hope!

Big Fluffy Puffy Snow

As promised, we are once again being dumped on. No one will commit to how much snow we are to receive by Tuesday evening and they're saying it may possibly continue into Wednesday. Earlier, the news reported that just an hour away from here, it was snowing at the rate of more than five inches an hour.

I looked out the window, and sure enough, it was coming right down. I could do nothing else but go out in it and try to capture some images of the enchanting fluffiness, even though it was dark. I turned on the outside lights and took these photos without a flash, which accounts for some of the blurriness.






Few things in this world have the power to transform the landscape and how we feel when we see it and touch it and play in it, more than snow. As much as I am ardently wishing for winter to be over because it's been such a long one this year, I am so glad I live where I can experience snow every winter.

Let There Be Peace

When I woke this morning and checked the Passion Flower, I knew that today would be the day it opened. I could barely see a cracking in the seams, but I recognized it as a sign of what was to come. I took photos periodically as it did its thing:

Time elapsed from the beginning of opening to fully open was about two hours.

See my 2007 post on this gorgeous flower!

Downy or Hairy?

Just spotted at Our Little Acre:

Anyone know?

I tend to say female "Downy" because of its overall size (rather small compared to most woodpeckers I see around here) and its relatively short beak. But I'm not an experienced birder.

The Power of Positive Thinking

In keeping with my usual cheery self and being the positive thinker that I am (and on the heels of a bleak, wintery post), I took to the great outdoors once again, in search of spring. Now with snow on the ground (some melted away this afternoon) and more to come, you might think it would be difficult to find. But I knew it was out there if I just knew where to look.

You know, Mother Nature is smarter and more clever than all of us put together and no doubt she is getting weary of hearing us whine. I'm even getting tired of doing the whining. And just as I suspected, I didn't have to look all that far!

Behold! There are buds!



The Buckeye (Aesculus sp.) has the largest of the buds I saw. They probably looked like this last fall, but it doesn't look like the winter has hurt them any. It's a native tree, so it's used to just about any kind of winter you throw at it.








The dogwood (Cornus sp.) that has only bloomed twice in the 15-plus years we've had it, is once again loaded with buds. These too were present last fall, but I just know there are some pretty white flowers inside the onion-shaped buds.





This Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum 'Emperor') is poised and ready to go.






The Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) has bunches of buds and they're showing a bit of green at the tips!














Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') has little buds at the base of its catkins.















I don't know what type of viburnum this is, but it's got gorgeous red foliage in the fall and white flowers in the spring. Its blushed buds remind me of Spanish peanuts.












The white lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is preparing for its spring show.










This isn't the greatest photo of rosebuds (it's too cold to go back out and take it again), but take my word for it: that nub on the left, opposite a thorn is a bud on the English Rose 'Falstaff'.








Out in the back garden, the gray-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) is actually putting up new foliage! And you-know-who has gotten to it already. (Rabbits. Meh.)






Now here's something that makes me really happy to see. The Monarda punctata 'Fantasy', which some sources say is only hardy to zone 6, is looking pretty darn good. But I did mulch it pretty well.






As I was walking back to the house with frozen fingers, I thought I detected a faint "squish" as I walked across the yard where there was no snow. The ground felt hard as a rock, but there must be a little bit of thawing going on. And I know that in spite of the coming snow, at this time of year, a week can make a big difference. So I continue to think positively and busy myself with other things. We'll be swamped with gardening chores soon enough. (Bring 'em on!)

The Snow Yo-Yo

It snows, it melts, it snows again, it melts again, and I'm getting sick at my stomach from the ups and downs of this weather! February has been such a mix of everything. We've had ice, snow, freezing rain, sunshine, flooding, thunderstorms, you name it. We've already had three months of snow and cold weather, and that's one-fourth of the year - a season - and no sign of an end really.

I don't care whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not, spring will get here when it gets here. But there are the usual signs that I look for. The spring bulbs have started their journey upward out of the ground. I saw them a couple of weeks ago, and they still look the same as they did then. Of course right now, I can't see them because they're under a fresh layer of snow that we received overnight.

The birds have started grouping together and chirping their hearts out. That's always a sign of spring to me. I've seen lots of fat robins, but they'll stick around all winter as long as they have a food source, so those aren't true harbingers of spring for us. I read somewhere last year that the real sign that spring is on the way is when the red-winged blackbirds return. And guess what? I saw one last week.

I'm not kidding! I was talking to my dad on the phone and watching the feeders out the window at the same time. I thought I saw a glimpse of red on the wing of one of them, and then he flew right in front of me and I saw the tell-tale red and yellow on the wings. Definitely a red-winged blackbird.

I had to do some research on this. And it appears that I shouldn't get my hopes up seeing these either. We are on the northern edge of the year-round range of these birds. So while they're definitely not seen in abundance here until spring, seeing one on occasion is no reason to get excited either. Bah, humbug.

We've enjoyed seeing all the birds at the feeders during the periods of snow. That always brings more of them around, since some of their usual food sources get buried.

We've got juncos, cardinals, starlings, sparrows, nuthatches, mourning doves, blackbirds, blue jays, house finches, woodpeckers, and a few unidentified species.






The house finches are especially abundant right now and really pretty, I think.

I didn't put the suet cakes out for the starlings,
but they helped themselves anyway.

I took a walk in the sunshine yesterday, mainly so I could take this photo for Kim (aka blackswampgirl) to compare similarities with her Lake Erie ice photo.


There's a little too much snow to show the rows, but the similarities are still apparent. Kim, most rows are straight here, too (see first photo above), but when I saw your photo, it reminded me of the field next to the creek that runs behind our house.

I was joined on my walk by the neighbors' goat, Dolly. I've tried to get her to come to me before, but this was the first time she did. I think she would have followed me right up to our front door had the neighbor not come out to the road to lead her back to the barn.

Our neighbors have quite a menagerie, with geese, peacocks, donkeys, cats, dogs, goats, and turkeys. The turkeys were out strutting their stuff yesterday, too.




Inside the house, I'm not so patiently awaiting the blooming of the Passiflora caerulea 'Clear Sky'. There are several just about ready to pop and they'll be the first blooms since early last summer. Amazing what a little plant food will do!

Meanwhile, the weather report is that we are to get a couple more inches of snow tomorrow. Here we go again!

American Tree Sparrow

This past Christmas, Kara and Adam got me a bird feeder that looks like a giant cattail. It's great for filling with sunflower seeds and I did just that, so the cardinals would have a fashionable dining area. I mean, they are pretty flashy and being our state bird, they deserve it! That's not really why I wanted it, but it is one of the more attractive feeders available.

The cardinals haven't found it yet, but the sparrows have!

Cute little guy, isn't he?

Blogs Are Me

I'm stretching my blogging legs. It took me some time, but I've organized all of my garden tours onto a separate blog, Garden Tours Are Us. Right now, the posts there are identical to the garden tour posts I've published here on Our Little Acre. But in the coming months, I will be adding write-ups of garden tours I've taken prior to January 1, 2007, when I started blogging.

Included in the new posts will be trips to Chicago Botanic Gardens, Winterthur, Longwood Gardens, Garvan Gardens, and earlier visits to the Cleveland and Cincinnati Flower Shows. I took quite a few photographs during those trips and I want to share those here. I'll continue to post future garden tours both here and on Garden Tours Are Us.

I also decided to keep a separate blog to chronicle this adventure I'm beginning - training for and running the Fort-4-Fitness Half Marathon. I'll be documenting my training sessions and progress as we work our way to September 27th, when the race will be held. If you're interested in following along ... See Kylee Run.

And I used to think blogging was kind of dumb.

A Stellar Lunar Event

8:51 PM

As regular readers of this blog may know, we love astronomical events here at Our Little Acre. Whenever there's something unusual (or even usual) going on in the sky, you can find us out in the backyard craning our necks to look skyward.

9:53 PM

Last night, there was an exceptionally good opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse during a full moon. The sky was crystal clear, making for perfect viewing, but that also meant it was frigidly cold. 9° cold. But that didn't stop me from going out and snapping a few pictures.

I did try opening a window in the family room and taking a few from there, during which time Baby made a jailbreak and jumped outside. Needless to say, her trip outside didn't last long. She isn't used to cold like that.

9:59 PM

Previous posts about sky events:

• International Space Station Sighting
• Total Lunar Eclipse of August 28, 2007
• Waiting For a Star to Fall
• It's Only a Harvest Moon
• Pink Tuesday and The Rest of the Sky
• Go Have a Look at Comet Holmes!
• I'm Over the Moon

Painting Flowers With Digital Watercolors

The variegated Abutilon has been blooming off and on for the last few weeks. This is one that purposely has mosaic virus, causing the variegation in its foliage. The leaves are dark green with yellow flecks, although sometimes mine will have solid green leaves show up.

I love the orange bell-shaped flowers and tonight I was trying to get a macro shot of one of them. I don't like using a flash for such photos and the natural light was low enough that I couldn't quite hold the camera still enough to avoid blurring.

Sometimes when photos turn out blurry or are less than desirable in their natural state, I'll play around with special effects in Adobe Photoshop. The photo above is the original, altered with the watercolor filter.

Momentary Lapse of Sanity

I was going to blog about something else entirely tonight and then something happened that turned my brain around. My dad thinks I'm crazy, my mom is cheering, my husband and younger daughter are laughing (as am I), and my older daughter thinks I'm cool.

Last week, one of our local TV stations, WPTA-TV Channel 21 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, issued a plea for people to apply to be one of ten chosen to go through a training program for running a half-marathon later this year. They wanted people who'd never run before, people least likely to do this, basically people who are out of shape. And I guess, people who are a little bit crazy to even think about doing something like this, but do it anyway.

That would be me. So I applied.

When I got home from work this evening, there was this e-mail waiting in my inbox:

Congratulations!

You have been selected from the large number of applicants to participate in the Fort 4 Fitness Half-Marathon Training Group!

We will be having an introductory meeting on Thursday, February 28th. We will be getting to know each other and discussing the rationale and structure of the program as well as scheduling the training sessions. Please reply to this email to confirm your attendance. The meeting will last about 90 minutes.

We are extremely excited about your potential and the motivational impact your efforts will have on each other, your families and our community!!

They know I'm 50 years old. They know I've got fibromyalgia. They know I'm not doing it to lose weight. They know I don't exercise AT ALL. Surely they know what a challenge this is going to be for me, which is probably one reason they chose me.

I know you're asking why I would even want to do this if I hate exercise, don't do it, and have aching muscles much of the time. I have my reasons.

1. I know I need to exercise. My doctor has told me this and that it will help my fibromyalgia.
   
   
2. I hate to exercise and while I know I should do it, there is no way I will unless I'm in a regimented program where there's ... and here is the really important part ... ACCOUNTABILITY.
   
   
3. I love a challenge, and believe me, this is a big one.
   
   
4. It sounded like a good idea at the time.

At the meeting next Thursday night, when we meet with the physical therapist/athletic trainer that is in charge, I'll learn more of what I've actually gotten myself into.

Stay tuned ...

Where in the World is Our Little Acre?

With her Garden Bloggers Geography Project, Jodi at bloomingwriter has challenged those of us in the blogosphere to tell about our gardens. Now isn't that what we do nearly every time we make a blog post? Well, sure, but not quite. She's talking about the where and what of things. She's had a fabulous response to this, and we've had great fun learning about so many different locations and what the neighborhoods are like. It's like a great big travelogue experience!

Satellite image of Ohio from worldmapsonline.com

Our Little Acre is in Paulding County, Ohio, which sits entirely on what used to be the Great Black Swamp - the only county that can claim this. It was the last part of the state to be settled because of that swamp. This is home to some of the nation's most productive farmland, but before anyone could use it for that, it had to be cleared and drained.

While fertile, much of the soil here is heavy clay. That's fine for raising farm crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans, oats, etc., but annual and perennial flowers are another matter. As any gardener in this area will tell you, amending the soil is a must if these are expected to do well. Clay soil is heavy, compacts easily, and doesn't drain well.

The soil here at Our Little Acre varies greatly, depending on where you dig. There was a woods here until about 35 years ago when much of it was cleared for home construction. The floor of a woods has rich, dark, loamy soil due to natural decaying of organic material, so you'd think we'd have ideal conditions for gardening, right? Not quite.

Our house has a basement as well as an in-ground swimming pool. When the digging for each of these was done, the topsoil wasn't put aside and as the areas were backfilled, the clay that lies in the deeper layers was brought to the surface and spread around. That means trying to grow anything around the house or the pool needed to be heavily amended. When you get out about 20-30 feet from the house and pool, the soil changes dramatically and is that dark and loose woodland floor soil and oh how we wish it were all that way!


This part of the state is also the flattest - so flat that there is a square mile near here where there is not one degree of change in elevation, which is right around 723 feet above sea level. This is great for farming, to be sure, but it doesn't do anything to provide any structural interest for landscaping. Every garden has its challenges!

The climate here is classic four-season and is in USDA Zone 5b. According to Victory Seeds, the average last frost date in the spring is May 15th and the average first frost date in the fall is September 25th. The average lowest temperature is 14° (January) and the average highest temperature is 85° (July). Average annual precipitation is 37 inches.¹



I'm glad we do experience all four seasons, but winter sure gets long. I think my favorite time of year in the garden is June. That's when things look their best - still fresh and green and colorful.

We live out in the country, but no matter where we happened to live in this county, it would still be considered rural. Farming is the number one industry and there are no large cities here. The entire county has 20,293 inhabitants (2000 census), with a density of 49 people per square mile. The largest village is Paulding, the county seat, with a population of 3,595.

This rurality means that we don't have large garden centers, nor are there that many of the ones we do have. I probably do more business with mail order nurseries than the average gardener because of this. I simply have to if I want anything beyond the old standbys. That's also why my mom and I get so excited when we take our gardening trips and visit the garden centers and nurseries in cities like Cleveland and Columbus.

While doing research for this post, I learned something that Kim (aka blackswampgirl) of A Study in Contrasts may find interesting. Judge Calvin L. Noble, who spent the latter half of his life living in Paulding County, was responsible for changing the name of Cleaveland to Cleveland. He was employed as a printer of the Cleveland Advertiser and the title was just a bit too long to fit at the top of the page, so he omitted the first 'a' in Cleaveland and it's been Cleveland ever since. He later purchased the newspaper which eventually became the Cleveland Plain Dealer.²


Previous blog posts I've made about our area are:

• The Great Black Swamp (some native woodland pictures here)
• Stopping By Woods On a Balmy Evening (a spring wildflower walk)
• A-Caching We Will Go! (geocaching at Black Swamp Nature Center)
  
• Home Is Where Your Mom Is (a sentimental look at where we live)
  
• You Can't Go Home Again (a visit to my hometown)
  

_____________
¹Country Studies
²Wikipedia and Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Green Thumb Sunday - Salix 'Sekka'

Earlier this week, I talked about forcing pussy willows and forsythia. It didn't take long for the pussy willows to pop out, but the forsythia branches are still working on it. They're coming, they're just a little slower than the fuzzy cats.

First to bloom was the Japanese Fantail Willow (Salix sachalinensis 'Sekka'). They're smaller than the regular pussy willow "toes" by about a fourth. Some are even tinier than that. For perspective, the tiniest toes in this picture are about the size of the head of a pin.

Join

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - February 2008

As is usually the case, there is a surprise or two when Garden Bloggers Bloom Day rolls around. There isn't a single thing blooming outside that I can see, and that's because if there are any blooms, they're buried under the snow. So we'll have to check on what's blooming inside.

Once again - same as last month - the hoya, three kalanchoes, heliotrope, and the yellow abutilon are blooming. The variegated abutilon bloomed a couple of weeks ago and will be in bloom in another week or so, but there are none of the orange blooms open right now. The three African violets are still in bloom.

The Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea 'Clear Sky') has a big fat bud ready to pop, with a few more coming on. This will be the first it's bloomed since early summer! Last winter, it was in bloom all the time.

Two of the amaryllis are putting forth flower stalks - 'Apple Blossom' and 'La Paz'.

The coral-colored Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) has a few blooms, which it usually does throughout most of the winter, although not as many as it does in summer when I put it outside.

The surprise for me was when I noticed my Jerusalem Cherry (Solanum capsicastrum 'Variegatum') had two blooms. I bought this small plant at Winterthur when Mom and I attended GardenFair in September 2006. I had moved it away from the rest of the plants on the Baker's rack because I noticed it had some sort of teeny tiny bug on it. They are prone to whiteflies, but these looked tinier than the ones I was bothered with last year on the brugmansias.

It's in a very small bonsai pot that has holes on each side, so it dries out quickly and when I took it to the sink to water it well, I noticed the two white blooms. As soon as I saw them, I could see its Solanum connection. They're very similar to the eggplant blossoms I had last summer in the vegetable garden.


One of the very first houseplants I ever owned was a Jerusalem Cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum), which I'd bought at Frank's during my first year of college. It wasn't variegated like this one, but it had orange marble-sized "cherries" and I hope my variegated one will get them, too.

Maybe by next Garden Bloggers Bloom Day I will have some outdoor spring flowers to show, as some of our fellow garden bloggers further south are having now.

Wildflowers in Winter - A Stitch in Time

I've had a lot of passions throughout the course of my life. First this, then that, but always something that seems to take up a majority of my time, thoughts, and energy. For the past few years, it's been gardening, but in the 1980s it was counted cross-stitch. I made many things - pictures, Christmas ornaments, baby bibs, and a Precious Moments quilt for Kara's bed.

In 1984, I started stitching on a piece of wool for an afghan. It had sixteen squares and each square was to have a different wildflower stitched onto it. While I'd been working on it, my grandma had been watching and always commented on how beautiful it was going to be. I got it about halfway finished and for some reason that I can't remember now, I put it aside in the cedar chest where it remained for the next 11 years.

Sometime in the late '80s I lost my passion for stitching and went on to other things. Then in 1995, my grandma was in a serious car accident. A young man ran a stop sign and broadsided her on the driver's side - and she was the driver. At 80 years old and for the second time in her life, she was nearly killed by injuries suffered in a car accident. In 1968, she and my grandpa were in another and my grandpa died.

Grandma's injuries were nearly the same as the first time: broken pelvis, broken arm, broken leg, and a severe concussion. In addition, this time she lost her left kidney and her lung and heart were bruised. She was life-flighted to a Fort Wayne hospital via the Samaritan. She lived and made a complete recovery, just as she had the first time.

Imagine! Eighty years old and going through this again! Grandma didn't lose her sense of humor though. Once it was determined that she would be okay, she told us, "If this ever happens again, just leave me lying on the ground for 24 hours and if I'm still alive, then you can call 911."



The Christmas following the accident, I wanted to finish the cross-stitch afghan and give it to Grandma. It's difficult to do something for which you no longer have the desire, but I wanted to surprise her and I finished it in time. Grandma was surprised and very pleased to receive it. Today, it lays draped over a chair in her family room, where she spends most of her time with her kitty, Abigail. She was 93 years old the day after Christmas and is still in good health.

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Join Elizabeth Joy at Wildflower Morning as she marks the time
until spring with weekly wildflower themes.

Valentine Roses of a Different Kind

In the flower world, many times a pink flower will be identified as "rose" and while we think of Valentine's Day as all about red, pink is lovely, too. On this rosy sweet day, let's look at what is pink at Our Little Acre (in warmer days, of course).

Dahlia 'Hawaii'

Caladium

Alstroemeria 'Zavina'

Oxalis

Zinnia

Gazania

Bougainvillea 'Imperial Garden'

Dianthus 'Bouquet Pink Magic'

Echinacea 'Pink Double Delight'

Tiarella 'Spring Symphony'

Columbine

Weigela 'Variegata'


Rosa 'Kordes Perfecta'

Happy Valentine's Day!

~~~~~

Be sure to visit Cottage Magpie for a list of other bloggers that participated
in Valentine's Day Pink Post Challenge for more pinky prettiness!

Big Box Bargains

I've had very good luck with my Big Box Store bargains, so periodically I'll stop in just to see what may need to be rescued. I consider it my organic duty to help a few plants out now and then and save them from the compost pile. Last week, I went twice. It had been awhile and I needed to make up for lost time. ;-)

Following our trip to the Botanical Conservatory in Fort Wayne on Sunday, Romie and I stopped at Lowe's and while I didn't find any orchids in need of rescuing, there was this yucca-looking thing. It had some damaged spears that needed to be cut off, so I asked a nearby sales associate if they would consider discounting it. He looked it up, noted that the original price was $15.53 and asked if $10 was okay with me. Sure! The green ceramic pot was worth that. So I went home with Bargain #1, even though I don't know exactly what it is I have. I like it though.

On Friday, after work, I visited another Lowe's on the east side of town that was on my way to an appointment and sure enough, there were two Phalaenopsis orchids just waiting for me to take them home and give them some tender loving care. As I was walking out of the garden department with them, the employee in charge smiled and said, "I wondered how long it would be before someone like you snatched those up."


One, labeled incorrectly 'Brother Little Yellowboy,' was in full bloom, with five healthy leaves. I'd read that Phalaenopsis normally have four or five leaves at a time, unless very healthy, in which case they can have as many as ten. For this one, I paid $10 and it came in a cream-colored ceramic pot.



The second one, labeled 'Wedding Promenade,' had me pretty excited because it had six healthy leaves and visible plump green roots, and TWO spikes with burgeoning flower buds on them! Price paid? $7.50.


I took them home and got them out of their soggy moss planting medium and repotted them in an orchid mix. As I was doing this, half of 'Not Yellowboy' fell into the sink. What the heck? Ahhhhh...there were TWO plants in that little pot! That meant I'd gotten two orchids for $5 each. Not bad, eh?

Oh, and as I had a 40% off Borders coupon, I just had to stop in there to see if there were any books that needed rescuing as well. (Isn't there always?) I found Plant by Janet Marinelli, a DK Publication that features native plants from all over the world. This will be a good book for reading about the origins of some of the parents of today's hybrids. This book lists for $50 and it was on the bargain table for $9.99.

I'd read about Down to Earth With Helen Dillon in Horticulture magazine and used my coupon to purchase it for $17.95.

So I guess that answers the question as to whether I got a new orchid or not...

Garden Sprinkler - The Real McCoy

Thanks, Elijah. Without you, many things growing in my garden last summer would not be growing there today. We suffered a drought, you see, and without the sprinkler, which you invented, I would not have had time to keep up with the watering of our many gardens.

February is Black History Month, and I first learned about Elijah McCoy on our local TV station, WPTA Channel 21 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Born in 1843 (or 1844) in Canada to runaway slaves from Kentucky, he spent most of his life living in Michigan, after studying engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was in Michigan that he obtained his first patent for an automatic lubricator for steam engines (1872). His lawn sprinkler was patented in 1899.


Legend has it that railroad engineers wanted McCoy's lubricator because it worked the best of those available, and the phrase "the real McCoy" was born. This has been disputed but is generally accepted as the origin of the phrase, which means "the authentic article."

McCoy is credited with holding 57 patents for his inventions, which also include a folding ironing board. He passed away in 1929, from complications related to injuries he received in a car accident seven years earlier, in which his wife was killed.

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Information and photo of Elijah McCoy from Wikipedia.
Illustration of patent for the lawn sprinkler from Brinkster.com.

Garden Designer I Ain't

Winter's getting long about now and I'm really ready for it to be over. Browsing plant catalogs and looking at photos from our garden in summer only make me pine for spring even more. It's the time of year when I get crabby just because of this. So let me apologize in advance for the forthcoming rant. You have been warned.

If I read another thing about design in the garden I think I'll scream. Okay, that may be a bit harsh, and I love to see beautifully designed gardens, but I just don't want to hear any more about how to do it. I'm a garden-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal and I doubt I could actually design a garden if my life depended on it. It stresses me.

When I walk into a garden center, rarely do I have a specific plant in mind for a definite space in my gardens. I may have seen a photo of a plant I liked and go looking for it, but I almost never know where I'm going to put it. I just want it. It will fit in somewhere. Does this make me a plant collector? And if so, what's so bad about that anyway?

Sometimes I plant something and later it's pretty obvious it's not in the right spot so it gets moved. No doubt if I did a little more planning, a lot of what's in my gardens would be bigger than it is because it wouldn't have suffered the stress of transplanting. But that's just not my style.

When I've had visitors to my gardens, they all have commented on how beautiful they are and I wonder if they're just being polite. If so, thank you! If not, thank you too! The biggest part of what makes gardening fun for me is simply growing beautiful plants and flowers in the space I've been allotted. Great garden design isn't something I even aspire to do. Is that bad?

I garden for my own enjoyment, no one else's. Sure, I love to have people visit our gardens and I like it when they compliment them. Who doesn't enjoy that? But in the end, it's me who spends the most time in them and if they make me happy, then it's all good.

Garden design be damned.
_________

Author's note: I wrote the above about two weeks ago, when I was in a foul mood. (Could you tell?) I later thought it best that I didn't publish it, until Hanna over at This Garden is Illegal dared me to go ahead.

Reading it now, I feel I need to say that maybe I wrote it because I'm jealous of those that can put things together in gorgeous color combinations and lay their gardens out in structural sensations. I have great admiration and respect for gardeners like that. But I will never be one of them.

Time to Force Forsythia and Pussy Willows

Though spring is a ways away yet, there are some things you can do to bring a bit of it along a little sooner. One winter, I forced some Narcissus bulbs and loved their sweet white blooms. But Romie absolutely hated their smell and asked me not to do that again, so I haven't.

But we both love the bouquets of forsythia and pussy willows that February brings. Even though the temperature is 8° (F), both the forsythia and willows are sporting swollen buds, poised for warmer temperatures when they'll burst into bloom, announcing spring's arrival.

It's plenty warm in the house though, so I went outside and cut a few branches of both the forsythia and pussy willow (Salix chaenomeloides) to bring inside where they'll be fooled into thinking it's spring already. I only cut a few because we'd done major pruning last year and I didn't want to cut so many that both shrubs appeared to have holes. I soaked them for a short time in lukewarm water in the bathtub, then placed them in water in a vase. In a few days, they'll open up and we'll enjoy their cheery yellow flowers and fuzzy pussy toes.

We have a Japanese Fantail Willow (Salix sachalinensis 'Sekka') shown in the garden in the photo at the top of the post and at right), which gets those little fuzzy pussy toes too, although they're a little smaller than the regular pussy willow's. What this Salix really excels at though, is its form. Many of its branches are fasciated and curled, making for an interesting addition to floral arrangements. I cut two of these to add to the forsythia and pussy willow cuttings.

This is what I ended up with, and within a week, the buds should have opened. I'll post another picture when that happens!

Kalanchoes Have Minds of Their Own

Just a week ago, I reported my yellow kalanchoe was now white. Now one of the two new ones I bought in January is doing its thing. Ninety percent of the blooms on the kalanchoe shown above are yellow with subtle coral-colored eyes. The other ten percent are blotchy or striped with a deeper coral color that is distinctly delineated from the yellow.


I don't know what causes something like this, but I like it. It will be interesting to see what it does when the next bloom period comes around. I wonder if this section of the plant will be odd like this again, or whether it will be just like the rest. Maybe the whole thing will turn white.

Those houseplants...they're like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

Join

Late Winter is Like Having a Baby

When you live in the great frozen midwest, February begins that time of the year when you just don't want to do it anymore - "it" being winter. It's kind of like when you're having a baby and you're in your tenth hour of labor. You've had enough and you just want to get it over with. You know the end will come and you'll have your baby as a reward that makes any unpleasantness worth it. But for now, labor and winter just plain stink.

There are the gray skies for days on end. There are the days with above normal temperatures that get your hopes up that maybe you'll have an early spring, only to have those hopes dashed by an Arctic cold front reaching out to you with its icy fingers. And even on the "normal" days hovering around freezing, Old Mother West Wind blows in and sends a permanent shiver down your spine.

I've said for years that I could hibernate. It's extremely difficult for me to leave the house during winter. Of course, I can't stay in - there's work and doctor's appointments and church and darn, I even have to walk the 100 feet from the front door to the mailbox to retrieve the mail. And 100 feet back.

You expect winter when you live here. It's a fact of life that I know all too well, because I've lived my entire life within a 30-mile radius of where I was born. I've visited some warm climates and dream of what it must be like to live there. Florida is nice, especially in winter. It even smells good, with all the tropical flowers in bloom and the breezes blowing in from the gulf. Ecuador is even nicer, with their every-day-is-spring climate in the Andes.

So why don't we move?

There are a lot of reasons why we stay. Probably the number one reason is familiarity. It's what we know and it's in our comfort zone, climate excepted. Right up there at the top is the fact that our family is here and we like living close to them. And then there are the jobs. Once you find a job and have been there for many years, with salary increases and benefits, it's difficult to take the chances involved with walking away from that. So we stay.

Just moving from our house itself doesn't appeal a whole lot to me. We bought it when we'd been married just two years and the house was as many years old. We've made improvements inside and out and it only faintly resembles the house we bought so many years ago. The property has changed a lot too, with the addition of the swimming pool, the pool house that doubles as a garden shed, and all the gardens. Many trees, shrubs, and flowers have been planted that have stories and sentimental value attached to them. All of this would make it very hard to leave and turn it over to strangers.

So we trudge along through February and March, groaning all the while through their laggard, sluggish days, pressing ever onward like the good northern soldiers we are. When spring finally makes her grand entrance amid the cheery, colorful blooms of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths, spring fever erupts in all its delirious glory and life is good again.

And that's about all I'm going to allow myself to even think about spring because it's just too darn far away yet. The anticipation gets to be too much to handle. In the meantime, the sun is shining today as if it's trying to make up for the single-digit temperatures that arrive later tonight.

Yep. Still winter out there.

Sigh.

What the World Needs Now

There are many kinds of love and it can be found in many places. We love our family and we love our friends, and we love those people who enter our lives in various ways and make our world a better place just by being in it.

We were watching "Modern Marvels" on the History Channel tonight and we were led through the evolution of computers and the internet. It's estimated that 20% of the world's population uses the internet. That means that 1,319,972,109 people have a way to "meet" each other from the comfort of their living rooms - a way that until a few decades ago wasn't possible nor even imaginable.¹

In 1997, when we first got online at Our Little Acre, one evening found me chatting with a college student in Bangladesh. I don't remember the student's name - it was just a short and friendly conversation like you might have if you were sharing a train ride with someone. But it was at that moment that I realized just how much smaller my world had become, while at the same time making it wide open to me as never before.

I've met some wonderful people by way of the internet, which has led to incredible opportunities that otherwise wouldn't have been possible. I'm immersed in internet culture more than the average person and likely have enough stories about that to fill a book. (Hmmmm....)

More recently, I entered the blogging world and once again have been brought together with some pretty amazing and fabulous people. Some, I've met in person, and I hope to meet many more. This may be difficult to understand if you have never developed a relationship with other people in this way, but that doesn't make it any less valuable or real. People are still people, after all, and if you use a little common sense, good friendships can develop.

One of my garden blogger friends, Cindy of Rosehaven Cottage in California, understands perfectly what I'm talking about. She has shared her life with us through her wonderful posts about her garden, her cats, and her travels in a way that makes us feel as if we were her next-door neighbor. That's undoubtedly why she was the recipient of the "Spread the Love" award given to her by another blogger, and it's well-deserved.

Mica at Garb-oodles Soup, the originator of the award, describes it this way:

"I have met so many lovely and very talented ladies here in Blogdom, what more can I do or say to express my humbled heart to each, than to give all my Dearest Readers and Friends a special award filled with Love. So, Spread The Love dear ones, Spread The Love to those you love. Except (sic) my award in which I have specially designed and share it with others. Enjoy the day."

What a lovely way to express gratitude and appreciation for the spirit of love and friendship that develops from getting to know people through the sharing of their lives through blogging. And now Cindy has seen fit to give this award to me. Thank you, Cindy. I'm honored and I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know you better through your blog posts and e-mails.

Some of the people that I wanted to pass this award on to have already had it given to them (Jodi, Yolanda, Cindy, Robin, and Kate), but I want to add Lisa over at Greenbow. She is always so upbeat and has been a faithful reader here at Our Little Acre and leaves encouraging comments nearly every day. I'd like to pass it on to Kim (a.k.a. Blackswamp_Girl) at A Study in Contrasts. Kim and I share a northwest Ohio upbringing and have met in real life. I suppose she could be considered a neighbor in the global sense, but I wish she lived closer than 3½ hours away. We both agree we could get into some serious nursery-hopping trouble.

I'm always a little reluctant to pass awards like this on, because there are so many people that are deserving and my list would be ridiculously long as these things go if I named them all. But know that I appreciate each and every one of you that read my blog and leave comments. It's so fun to get feedback like that. Thank you.

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¹Statistics taken from World Internet Usage Statistics.

Comparisons

Most photographers know that some images are more attractive with color and some look better without. On occasion I'll remove the color from the original image and have a look at them side by side. I get Romie's opinion, and while his taste in art and mine are worlds apart, I still value what he thinks about it.

Yesterday's photos of the fog left me wondering which was which when it came time to post them. Color? Black and white? It was too close to call. That's how drab things are out there right now. No snow anymore, thanks to the rain we've had for the last two days, but much of the landscape is still covered up - with brown flood waters.

To illustrate the point, here are two photos. Each is shown in color as well as black and white.























See what I mean?


Let's look at another subject from yesterday's post: the gorgeous Scotch Heather (Calluna vulgaris 'Robert Chapman'). For some reason, I never thought heathers would grow well here and I'd not seen them in local nurseries until last fall. I liked how this one looked as it sat in its gallon-sized pot on the metal shelf at Lowe's. It wasn't in bloom, but it had me at "Hello! Look at my foliage!"

The identification tag stated it was hardy to zone 5, so I bought it. I didn't exactly have a spot in mind for it in the garden, but you know how that goes. At the moment it's a short distance away from a white pine and on its other side is a row of four Burning Bush (Euonymus alata) shrubs positioned at an angle to the pine and the heather, somewhat following the curve of the nearby stone fire pit.

The red fall color of the E. alata leaves contrasts nicely with the fall color of the heather. The heather's unique foliage is a softer and more compact form of the needles on the pine branches. A plant like this really holds its own when you consider the different looks it takes on as it passes from season to season. In September, it looked like this:



In October, it was going through its peachy stage...



By mid-January it was turning a definite shade of red...


...and as you saw yesterday, it's stunningly scarlet. This doesn't do it justice; it's even darker than it shows here.


This is one photo that does matter whether it's in color or black-and-white!

Great Garden Plants - Where Superior Garden Plants Cost Less

When I find a good deal or a product that excites me, I've been known to blog about it here. I'm about to do it again. This time, it's about a company that I recently came across by way of Dave's Garden, called Great Garden Plants.


Located in Holland, Michigan, owners Chris and Mary have been in the horticulture business for 25 years. Mary says:

"We are also avid gardeners and are very particular about plants and how well they are grown and shipped."

As I browsed what they had to offer for sale on their site, I got more excited with each new page view. Their inventory isn't huge, by some mail order plant standards, but what they have is impressive. New introductions as well as reliable older favorites are there, and at great prices.

At first glance, the prices might not seem all that fantastic until you realize that they ship one- and two-quart container sizes, allowing for greater root expansion. This means that the plants are more likely to take off and thrive in your gardens.

That brings up the subject of guarantees. You can't really beat theirs:

GUARANTEE #1 - Robust Growth

• We guarantee our plants to grow through one full year - the initial growing season and with new growth the second year. (Zone hardy in your area)

GUARANTEE #2 - Best Value

• We guarantee if you can find a better quality plant for less, we will refund the difference.

GUARANTEE #3 - It will be beautiful

• We guarantee our plants will meet or exceed all your expectations in color and form.

If not delighted with Great Garden Plants -
you will get your money back, period.

No questions asked!

One of the other things I like about this company is that they don't charge your credit card until they ship your plants, and they don't do that until the weather dictates it's appropriate to plant them.

They offer wholesale pricing when you buy in bulk and reduced prices for even small quantities of the same plant. I think their prices are already excellent, but they also have clearance plants that are reduced even further. And right now, they are including a free 'Strawberry Candy' daylily with every order.

The Garden Watchdog doesn't yet have ratings for this relatively new company, but I'm going to place an order and give them a try. Shipping for my area isn't until the last week of April, but I'll report back when I receive my order and let you know how it goes. Maybe you'll want to do the same!

Winter Fog and First Signs of Spring

I've been known to have brain fog at times, which I'm told is commonly referred to as "fibro fog" and affects most people who have fibromyalgia. It's like your thoughts just can't maneuver their way through your brain and you're left searching for things that you know are "in there" but have gone into hiding. I know we all suffer from not being able to come up with names or words from time to time, but this is different. Trust me.

I wasn't in a fog yesterday though until I stepped outside. WOW. The fog that had developed overnight was of the pea soup variety. We'd had some freezing rain as well, so driving conditions were dangerous. I was scheduled to work and just as I was about to walk out the door, my phone rang and it was Renee, telling me that our boss had gotten ill and the morning patients were being canceled. WHEW!

The temperatures rose throughout the day, and with the snow on the ground, this created conditions that just made the fog worse. The official high for the day was 50° but our thermometer made it up to 54°. Since it was so warm, I grabbed the camera and headed outside.

Fog has a way of muting the colors to the point that the world appears to be in black and white. Any color you do encounter seems to be super-saturated and grabs your attention. Our Scotch Heather (Calluna vulgaris 'Robert Chapman') sure does that. This is one plant that is a kaleidescope of color through several seasons and right now it is a deep, deep scarlet that is impossible to capture in a photo. I could just sit and look at it for minutes on end.

While I was out there wandering around, I was joined by Jack...


He clambered up on the Morrow Honeysuckle, a favorite of all the kitties. It gives them an overall view of the garden and its ragged bark is perfect for claw sharpening. Being a tough native is a good thing, because they have shredded its bark in several places. Though it's on the list of invasive plant species for Ohio, we didn't plant it. It was already growing in the back corner of the property when we moved here and it's a rampant grower that we prune back hard every spring so as to keep it under control. The bees love it when it's in bloom.

There are lots of attractions in this garden for the cats. The small pond provides them with water to drink. The split rail fencing is another good spot for sharpening claws and practicing their balancing acts. And catnip grows there. Meow.


The cement bench is a favorite napping spot and gives good access to the Maiden Grass (Miscanthis sinensis 'Gracillimus'). It's a multi-purpose plant for me because it provides structure in the way of height and grace as well as winter interest. The cats like to munch on it, in spite of its sharp-edged foliage, and its swaying in the breezes makes for good play opportunities.


Robin, over at Robin's Nesting Place in Indiana, reported bluebirds being back, so I cleaned out the bluebird house last week. A family of wrens had a nest there last summer because we put the house up too late for the bluebirds. We'd not seen any bluebirds around here until last spring, so had not made any special provisions for them. Believe me, once we saw them, we ran right out and got a bluebird house and it's ready to go for them this year.


On the south side of our property, we have a short row of spiraea shrubs (Spiraea x vanhouttei). Last year, they were loaded with praying mantis egg cases - twenty or so. Yesterday, I counted 36. Some of those were leftover empty cases from last year (they turn black), but most of them were new. Looks like we'll have lots of praying mantids again this summer!

I walked back towards the house, past the half-tree where I planted a little fairy garden in what was left of the part we lost to a storm several years ago. Jack followed along and played lookout, just in case any dangerous looking creatures were out and about that we needed protection from.




The lamium planted there continues to grow, which I find amazing.







The Creeping Veronica (Veronica 'Blue Reflection') - also still green - has spilled out over its original boundaries and should look really pretty when it's blooming in blue late in the spring. This is a wonderful groundcover that spreads fairly quickly if it's happy in its location. I have it in mostly shade, right along with the lamium, some columbine, and English ivy.


Winding its way nicely up the remaining half of the oak tree, the ivy is wearing its winter colors and makes a nice contrast against the oak bark and the lichens growing on it.


With the rain and warm temperatures, most of the snow was gone this morning and we're now under a flood watch. I don't think there's immediate danger of that for us, but we are keeping an eye on the sump pump in our basement. We do not want another disaster like we had last August.

Just a few minutes ago, I went outside to see if any of the spring bulbs were coming up as they are doing in other zone 5 locations across the blogosphere and though I didn't expect to find anything...

LOOK!

Giant Mixed Crocus - These very same crocuses didn't come up until March 6th last spring!

Double Snowdrops
(Galanthus nivalus plenus)
These were blooming on March 14th last year.

And here's the real shocker ... TULIPS!

The Art of Charley Harper

Why do I always like such expensive things? Gardening can cost quite a lot of money if you consider all the ways that it can get you in trouble in addition to just buying seeds and plants. There are the tools and clogs and gloves and hats and garden whimsy. And related books and art.

I've wanted Emily Dickinson's Herbarium for quite some time. It's $125 ($101 at Amazon). And now I've seen something even more pricey - Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life by Todd Oldham, listed at $200 ($126 at Amazon). Both are undoubtedly worth every penny.

When Mom and I went to the Cincinnati Flower Show last May, we came across a vendor's booth featuring the art of Charley Harper. We both loved it and we purchased some note cards. I was given a catalog with my purchase and in looking through it, saw so many wonderful things, I couldn't stand it. Called "modern minimalist," Charley's style appeals to my love of contemporary art in every way, with his use of clean, geometric lines and pure colors.

Little did we know that less than a month after we'd attended the show, Charley would pass away due to pneumonia at the age of 84. I learned of this on Sunday, as I was watching CBS Sunday Morning. A segment was about the works of Charley Harper and the unique friendship the designer Todd Oldham developed with Charley over the years, even though there was quite a difference in their ages. Oldham had a book he had loved as a child that was illustrated by Harper and when he became an adult, he tracked him down, finding him in Cincinnati.

Over the course of the years of their relationship, Oldham assembled a collection of over 700 works of Charley Harper's art and published them as a book. This book has 424 pages and weighs nearly 12 pounds!

There are other books that Harper himself has published that are less expensive and I think I'll spring for one of those. I plan to get one of my notecards framed. It's of a cat, of course, entitled "Birdwatcher." Charley's wife, Edie is an artist also and the other notecard I bought is one of her pieces. It's also of a cat, entitled "For You." She creates in a similar geometric style, but with slightly softer edges. I love his birds, too, and I'd like to have a larger print of one of those someday.

Birdwatcher

Ah Charley, I hardly knew ye but my love of gardening led me to your art and I'm grateful, even if it was late in the game. You've left a legacy for us to enjoy forever.

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Beguiled By the Wild
by Charley Harper
$29.97 at Amazon.com











Charley Harper's Birds & Words
by Charley Harper
$18.45 at Amazon.com

For more of Charley Harper's art,
visit Fabulous Frames & Art in Cincinnati.

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Photo of Charley Harper from Cincinnati.com

Blotanical! It's All The Rage!

The newest gardening community to hit the blogosphere is Blotanical and has been launched by Stuart Robinson of Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas, "down under" in Australia. He has put a lot of work into this site for the enjoyment of anyone who chooses to participate, whether it be a garden blogger or merely a garden blog reader.

It doesn't matter where you live, because after all, this is the internet. And that's the beauty of it. Bringing avid gardeners and bloggers together in one place makes it easy to get to know other gardeners and share information valuable to all of us. A community like this works because of the enthusiasm of its participating members and the more the merrier.

If you haven't visited Blotanical yet, you really should. You have nothing to lose but the time you'll spend visiting hundreds of garden blogs worldwide. See you there!

A Breath of Spring at the Conservatory

It's been tradition for the last few years to make at least one trip to the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in the middle of winter. We need this to preserve our sanity, because it's this time of year that we are bored with winter and needing spring in the worst way. The conservatory conjures up our memories of warmer weather with its colorful blooms and lush green plant life.


Last year, Mom and I went in February to see "the stinky plant" and play miniature golf (yes - in the conservatory!), but this year Kara and Adam joined us, as did Jenna, and we spent over an hour drinking in the colors and scents. Some of the blooming plants are changed out every few months or so, and featured today were Florist's cyclamen, Eyeball plants, Gerbera daisies, and various primulas.


There are three main rooms to the conservatory:

• The Showcase Garden, featuring seasonal displays among the permanent plants.
• The Tropical Gardens, which is home to palms, many tropical plants, and a waterfall.
• The Desert Room, with many species of cacti and other desert plants.

Outdoors there are gardens with displays of trees, shrubs and ornamental grasses as well as perennials. Too cold to tour those today, though.

And without further adieu, the conservatory as seen through my camera today . . .

Florist's Cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum)
and
Foxtail Ferns (Asparagus densiflorus)

Cordyline, Croton (Codiaeum variegatum),
and Gerbera Daisies (Gerbera jamesonii)

Tropical Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

Tropical Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

Camellia bud


Eyeball Plant (Spilanthes oleracea)

Primulas and Juncus

Ornamental Kale (Brassica oleracea) and ? Convallaria ?

I can't remember the name of these.
Anyone?

Snowbush (Breynia disticha)

African Daisy (Osteospermum)

Sanchezia speciosia

Primulas and Foxtail Ferns

South African Honeysuckle (Turraea obtusifolia)

Tropical Gardens View

Ixora

Red Powderpuff (Calliandra haematocephala)

Fishtail Palm (Caryota mitis)

Detail of Calathea louisae
This is how this was labeled, but I'm not sure it's correct.

Desert Room View

Soap Tree Yucca (Yucca elata)

Desert Barberry or Red Barberry (Berberis haematocarpa)

Turpentine Bush (Ericameria laricifolia)

Unknown cactus

And now for the orchids. Ohhhhhh, the orchids......










After we finished browsing the conservatory, of course we had to spend some time in their wonderful gift shop, The Tulip Tree. I fought with myself to keep from taking home a variegated Abutilon and a small Snowbush, and was able to resist. This time. But with their excellent low prices on their plants and knowing they will be at The Ft. Wayne Home and Garden Show in a few weeks, I'm not counting it as a win yet.

I did buy a stuffed house wren that makes chirping sounds. There were several species of singing birds, but this one sounded very realistic and like the house wrens we have all the time around here, so I got it for our kitties' enjoyment. When we got home and I started it chirping, Jilly came running right to it from upstairs. It got Baby's attention, but Simon didn't even look its way. It's interesting that the two indoor cats weren't as intrigued as Jilly, who is one of the outside cats.

And now, what you really want to know is - did I get a new orchid?

Green Thumb Sunday - Nodding Ladies' Tresses

Spiranthes cernua var. odorata

Continuing along the wildflower theme started by Elizabeth Joy at Wildflower Morning, this Nodding Ladies' Tresses is a native orchid to Ohio. I bought one when Mom and I went to the Master Gardener's Conference in Columbus in September. It doesn't have that typical orchid look to it, but it has a loveliness all its own.

The petals of the flowers are arranged in a spiral configuration along its tall spike. It's slightly fragrant, but nothing to make note of. Hardy to zone 5, I can attest to the fact that this is one tough orchid. Only when we got a hard freeze did it give up its show. Light frosts didn't harm it a bit. We'll see if it makes it through spring in my garden. I imagine it will, since its foliage still has a greenish cast to it - not brown and mushy like a lot of other things.

Join

Surprise and Success With Orchids

With so many different things growing in the gardens here at Our Little Acre, there are always fun surprises now and then. Peonies reappearing after an absence of ten years. English Daisies blooming in the middle of winter. Sometimes it happens in the house, too.

Remember the yellow kalanchoe that I've been waiting for its buds to open? It happened earlier this week, and imagine my surprise when it wasn't yellow, but white!

How did that happen? Did it wake up one day and decide it didn't like being yellow anymore? It's still pretty, but there's not even a hint of the cheery yellow it once was. Not only that, but the yellow was a double and this is clearly a single. Did it somehow revert to something earlier in its heritage? Or have I lost my mind and don't remember buying the white one? And if so, what happened to the yellow one? Scary...


In other surprises, two of the orchids are spiking! I noticed some time ago that my Miltassia Shelob 'Tolkien' was doing something down in between a couple of leaves. That 'something' is now large enough for me to safely say it's a flower spike. It seems to be growing very slowly, so it will probably be some time before it looks like it did when I first bought it a year and a half ago. This bloom is worth waiting for, though, don't you agree?



The other orchid putting forth a spike is the very first orchid I ever purchased, an unknown Phalaenopsis. This will be the second time it's bloomed since I bought it two years ago. It was in bloom then of course, and again in April of last year. As slowly as these grow, it will likely be April until I have a bloom this time, too.


Lovely orchid surprises - always worth waiting for. And their blooms last much longer than most other flowers' blooms do. I never thought I could make an orchid happy. This is one time I'm glad to admit I was wrong! In all honesty, I don't do anything special with them, even to the point that you could say I ignore them most of the time, so there must be a bit of luck involved.

There is a slight down side to having success with orchids, though. It makes you want to have more, and I do NOT need more houseplants. But when you're a gardener, that's never a good reason not to buy a new plant, is it?

Wildflowers In Literature

It's week three in Elizabeth Joy's Wildflowers In Winter series. This week's theme is "Literary Wildflowers." When wildflowers are presented in fictional stories, many times it is in a romantic vein. Picture the lover's bouquet gathered during a walk through the woods. Or a child clutching a bunch of dandelions and presenting them to Mommy. I've had my heart-melting share of both.




But wildflowers turn up in unexpected ways, too. A couple of years ago, my good friend Marsha gave me a book entitled Meet Me in the Meadow: Finding God in the Wildflowers, written by Deborah Hedstrom-Page. She knew I would love reading the facts and history of many of the common natives we encounter as we walk through the woods we call "Oklahoma" or on the many other treks where geocaching takes us. Better yet is seeing our Creator's hand in each one of the wildflowers highlighted in this book.

Taraxacum officinale

Take those dandelions, for instance. Often the black sheep of the wildflower family, we can see little good in them except that they herald the beginning of summer when we see them blooming along the roadsides. We take great measures to eradicate them from our lawns. But as we read in I Corinthians 1:27-29:

But God chose the foolish things of this world . . . and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.

God's got a purpose for everything and everyone, no matter what value we give them.

The dandelion is edible and more nutritious than most green vegetables. It's high in magnesium, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C. You can make jelly from its flowers, tea from its roots and wine from its greens. It has medicinal value, too. The early settlers and Native Americans used it as a laxative and diuretic.

And you thought it was just a weed.

Dandelion Jelly

1 quart fresh, bright dandelion flowers
2 tablespoons lemon juice
5½ cups sugar
1 package (1¾ oz.) powdered pectin
Paraffin to seal

Using an enamel or stainless steel pan, boil the dandelions in two quarts of water for 3-5 minutes; cool and strain, pressing the liquid out of the flowers gently. Measure 3 cups of the liquid; add lemon juice and pectin. Put into a deep jelly kettle and bring to a boil. Add sugar and stir to mix well. Stir and boil for 2½ minutes or until the mixture sheets from a wooden spoon. Pour into jelly glasses and seal with melted paraffin when cool.

Making dandelion chains.

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Information about the dandelion presented here, including recipe, is from Meet Me in the Meadow: Finding God in the Wildflowers.