2009 Spring Fling in Chicago

I love Chicago. I love gardening. I love blogging. So how do you think I feel about going to Chicago May 29-31 for Spring Fling to spend the weekend with garden bloggers from all over the country? I'm EXCITED!


There's a full schedule planned, visiting gardens, talking gardening and blogging with people that I've never met in person, yet I feel like I know them from reading their blogs. Though my mom isn't a blogger, she reads many of them and when we talk about gardens and blogs and I mention this blogger or that one, she knows who I'm talking about. She'll be riding shotgun with me on the trip.

Last year, the first Spring Fling was held in Austin, Texas, and I dearly wanted to attend that one, but it just couldn't be worked into the budget. I was thrilled when I found out it was going to be in Chicago this year. I'm familiar with Chicago, since I've been there many times, and it's just a few hours away by car.

The Chicago Bloggers have a great site with all the details about Spring Fling 2009, including information about the schedule, lodging, and a list of the bloggers that will be attending. All the details will be updated as needed, so if you're thinking of going, be sure to get registered and stay on top of things by visiting and bookmarking their site.

The Clivia Club

I'd never heard of Clivia until one summer, when Mom and I were in our state capitol, shopping at the great Easton Town Center. We were in Smith & Hawken, when she spied a yellow Clivia on sale. I don't remember what she paid for it, but I do remember she was pretty excited to find it, and although it was on sale, I still thought it was plenty to pay for a houseplant.

She had it for a few years and it never bloomed for her, so a couple of winters ago, she asked me if I would take it for the winter. I put it in Jenna's old room, which is kept at a very low temperature all winter, and I watered it now and then. In the spring, I gave it back to her. She then gave it to another gardener, for whom it promptly bloomed. Go figure.

I never gave Clivias another thought until they started popping up here and there in the blogosphere. I'd seen them for sale in catalogs and they still weren't cheap. Park's Seed had seeds, but even those were relatively expensive, and it didn't seem like a plant that would be too easy to grow from seed and that might take forever to reach bloom size.

Then I walked into Meijer a couple of weeks ago and there they were - lots of them - in all their orangey goodness. Like rays of sunshine, they were. When I saw they were $19.99, I quickly dismissed all thoughts of an economic crisis and picked out the best one to come home with me. I was now a Clivia owner!

Jodi, of bloomingwriter fame, left a comment here, stating she was now a member of "The Clivia Club," having bought one of her own. I thought, what a great idea! There are those bloggers out there that are long-time Clivia growers and then there are the newbies like me. Wouldn't it be great if we could all help each other out to ensure success with this very special plant?


So, today is the first day of the rest of The Clivia Club's life. I'll be the President since I'm forming the club, and I'm appointing Jodi as Vice President, since she inspired the idea. I'm not sure we need any other officers, but we do need club members! I'll get my graphic designer daughter to make an official logo for us, that members can post on their blog. I've created a group on Facebook, for those of you who play there.

If you want to be a member of this club, the only requirements are that you own a Clivia. If you want to own a Clivia and want to play along, you can become an honorary member, because you just never know when a Clivia will jump right into your car and follow you home. Just leave a comment here and visit the Facebook page here.

Welcome to The Clivia Club!

Add your name to the Club Roster below:

Focus on Crocus

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus --
Crocus.

- Lilja Rogers

Inside Blooms

While spring is rolling along on its merry little way outside, we've got some blooming loveliness inside, too! Inside and out, life is good.

As I've mentioned before, I got a late start on potting up most of the Amaryllis, so that means later blooms, too. We are on Round Two with them, as the second wave of blooms has been opening for the last several weeks, with even more to come.

I was pretty excited when my species Amaryllis bloomed for the first time since I bought them three years ago. The bulbs were quite small when I got them, and apparently they are large enough for blooms this year.

Hippeastrum striatum



'Picotee'



'Red Peacock'



'Misty' is blooming AGAIN! That's never happened before.



'Royal Velvet'

The one I posted earlier, saying it was 'Royal Velvet,' wasn't (tags get mixed up). When you see them side-by-side, you can tell the difference. I think the first one was actually a very dark 'Red Lion.'



'Charisma'

The Clivia is still a marvel, with its two flower stalks blooming and what's that? A THIRD! I love this plant!


The Hoya is awash in multiple blooms after several months of none.



The Streptocarpella continues to bloom anew.



And the first of several orchids that began spiking several weeks ago has opened. All of them are reblooms!

'Kaleidoscope'

In the basement greenhouse, the Heliotrope and a Brugmansia are budding. The Brug intrigues me, because they have been basically dormant all winter. How do they know the seasons are changing when they're down there?

The meteorologist on our local news just spoke the 's' word. I'm certain he didn't mean it. But just in case he did, it's nice to know I can stay inside and stare at the eye candy in here until the weather comes to its senses again.

Top 10 Reasons to Wear Garden Gloves (and a giveaway!)

Last spring, I was a gardener who almost never wore gloves. This year, I reached for them before I ever set foot in the garden. Yeah, I'm a believer! Here's why you should wear them, too:


10. The spring weather can turn cold in an instant.

9. Wearing gloves makes you look like you know what you're doing, even if you don't.

8. Cats think the world is their litter box.

7. There are far better ways to spend your time than cleaning dirt from under your fingernails.

6. Toads hibernate in the strangest places.

5. Miscanthus cuts are no fun at all.

4. Blisters.

3. Mud treatments are highly overrated.

2. There's a fungus amongus in that there dirt!

And the Number One reason to wear garden gloves:

Ethel Gloves makes such cool ones!

You already know I really like Ethel gloves - I extolled their virtues last year in another blog post. I still feel the same about them and have been using them this spring while doing clean-up.

What I like best about them is the fit. They fit so well that I had no problems picking up all those darn acorns that rolled into each corner of the garden and embedded themselves in the dirt over the winter. If I never see another acorn as long as I live, I think I can die happy.

Those nice folks over at Ethel Gloves told me I could give away a pair of their ultra-cool gloves to one of my readers. Someone is going to get lucky! What you need to do is leave a comment here, stating which style of Ethel Gloves you'd like to win. You can't just say, "Nice post." At midnight on Friday evening, April 3rd, I'll randomly pick one of the qualifying comments and the author will receive a free pair of Ethel gloves of their choice.

If you're in a hurry to get your gloves and you're one of those who never wins anything anyway, then have I got a deal for you! Just use the code LITTLEACRE when you order from their website and you'll get 10% off your purchase (good through Friday, April 24, 2009). Might as well order enough to share with all your friends and neighbors, because the shipping is free, too. See, I told you they were nice!

So before you leave a comment, head on over to Ethel Gloves and have a look at their designs and while you're there, be sure and read more about what makes them so special. The web site is as beautiful as their gloves, and just as easy to use. So get going already!


_________________
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.

Whose Cat Is THAT?

We are a Certified Monarch Waystation. This means that we grow plants that are good host plants for the Monarch caterpillar and good food sources for the Monarch butterfly. Even before I started gardening with a purpose, Our Little Acre was a haven for the Monarchs. We'd see them all the time in our meager flower beds and once saw a flock of them spend the night during migration. But now we're official.

We're also a Certified Wildlife Habitat. We provide food, water, places for cover, places to raise young, and practice sustainable gardening. This is the National Wildlife Foundation's way of promoting preservation of what has already been here for thousands of years. We can cohabitate with the birds and the bunnies and the frogs and all be happy together. Okay, so the bunnies can be a problem sometimes, but still.

It's no secret, too, that this is the place that furry fuzzballs, otherwise known as cats, seem to magically appear from time to time. We don't really do anything special to promote this, at least not with the intent of attracting them. But eventually, the word gets out in the cat world and one by one they meander into the garage and many times, into our hearts.

Just last week, we shared one of our "hang-arounds" with some friends. The most adorable brown tabby to ever roam these parts had been winding her tail around our legs for about two months and a search in the area failed to find an owner. If we hadn't already had nine of our own, she would definitely had been a keeper.






We've found cute little mice nesting in the garden ...










...and there was the snake that spent the winter in our compost bin...





So, with all this nature love floating around here, it should come as no big surprise that we got a wildlife visitor late last night. I'd already gone upstairs to bed when sometime around midnight, Romie came running up the stairs. Romie almost never runs up the stairs, so I knew something was up. He poked his head in the door and asked, "Want to take a picture of a skunk?"

Now I think skunks are cute. They're fluffy and they have an adorable waddle as they move from point A to point B. But they are best admired from a distance. If they feel like it, they can spray their musk quite accurately up to 15 feet away.

My first concern was for any of our cats that might still be outside. Romie informed me that Jack, Boo, and Sunny were still out. Oh dear. I'd just given Luna and Simon water baths earlier in the evening, and I didn't want to try to find enough tomatoes for a skunk bath.

We watched Mr. Skunk from the kitchen window as he scrounged around for sunflower seeds. There are two bird feeders just outside the window and there was plenty of seed on the ground, since the birds tend to be messy with their eating habits.


In order to get a good picture of him in the dark, I needed to use a flash. In order to use the flash, I needed to have the window open so the flash wouldn't glare off the glass. Romie tried to open the window as quietly as he could, but still the window creaked from having been closed all winter. The skunk gave a little startle, but didn't look up. He must have been really hungry.


I snapped a few pictures and the flash didn't bother him either. And then the cats appeared. They merely sat and watched from a distance (although within that 15-foot danger zone) and the skunk paid them no mind. Minutes later, the skunk - his appetite satiated - waddled away and Romie let the cats in.

Whew. Drama averted.

All the stink on skunks:

• Mephitis mephitis
• Peak breeding activity is late February through March
• Gestation period is 63 days
• Litter size of 2-10 offspring
• Adult weighs 2.5 - 11.5 pounds
• Adult length is 22.5 - 31.5 inches
• Typical foods include insects, small mammals, fish, crustaceans, fruits, grasses, leaves, buds, grains, nuts, and carrion.

Description
The striped skunk is about the size of a house cat, with a large deep body, small head, and short legs. The hair is long and black, with a broad patch of white on its head and shoulders. Two white lines forming a “V” from the shoulder area may extend part way or all of the way to the base of the bushy tail. Color variations include brown, white, cream, black, and, occasionally, albino. Males and females are colored alike with males being slightly larger in size.

Each foot has five slightly webbed toes with the forefeet having long, curved claws designed for digging. The rear feet have shorter, straighter claws.

Habitat and Habits
Striped skunks are highly adaptable and occupy a wide variety of habitats in Ohio from rural areas to the suburbs. It is this adaptability which accounts for their numbers growing stronger as civilization and humans encroached.

Although not true hibernators, skunks store quantities of body fat in the fall. When the weather gets cold they will retreat to protective dens where they might remain for several weeks or a month at a time.

Skunks are primarily nocturnal animals and very seldom do they wander around during the daytime. They will occupy dens that they have dug or in dens that have been used previously by groundhogs or foxes. These dens may be located beneath buildings, in open fields, on hillsides, or under logs in the woods.

Reproduction and Care of the Young
Skunks mate in Ohio in late February and continue through March. Females are in heat for four to five days and will typically mate several times during this period. Males tend to be a bit promiscuous and will move from den to den mating with females.

Litters tend to be from 2 to 10 young which are born pink-skinned and blind. By the second week they are furred and by the third week their eyes have opened. By the sixth week they are weaned and will be out and about with their mother on nightly hunting forays. This family will stay together until the next spring when the young will go off on their own.


_____________
Information about skunks from Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Blinded By the Light

Got your sunglasses on?


No?


Go get them. I'll wait.


Ready now?

Crocus x luteus

Fleurs du Jour

Every day brings a new bloom it seems. Just yesterday I commented that I didn't have any irises close to blooming. I know that Iris reticulata are the first to show, but I only noticed very recently that they were even a little bit out of the ground.

Leave it to my plant children to make a liar out of me:

Iris reticulata 'Harmony'

And just a few yards away, the Chionodoxa began opening to show their "glow in the dark" blooms:

Chionodoxa luciliae

That was today. Late yesterday I noticed the species crocus were blooming. These are probably my favorite of the crocuses:

Crocus sieberi subsp. sublimis 'Tricolor'

The first blooms of the Double Snowdrops were so exciting when I saw them! They seem so passé now. But this just means that spring is on a runaway train and I'm along for the ride. Whee!

First Crocus and Other Things

First Crocus
March 15, 2008

It's as if they were waiting for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day to make their debut. Several days ago, I noticed the purple crocus (that I didn't plant) was showing color. This little clump (that I didn't plant) is the first to bloom every year. I don't know where they came from, because I didn't plant them. I simply enjoy them.

These are blooming earlier than in previous years. In 2007, the first blooms of the season were the double snowdrops and they burst forth on March 14th. The crocus were much later. Last year, they weren't even "showing any color in their buds yet" on Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for March.

They may bloom first because they are on the south side of our family room, which is my famous microclimate. I'm certain it's a solid zone 6 there, maybe even bordering on 7, and I'm hoping this means the Coreopsis 'Limerock Dream' that I planted last fall will prove it to be true.



Other outside blooms this Bloom Day are the double snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis 'Flore Pleno'), which have been in bloom for a couple of weeks or so.



The witch hazel hasn't really dazzled me like I expected it would. The blooms are very small and have to be looked at up close and personal to be appreciated. Maybe it's because it's the first year for it since being planted last year. Maybe it's because it's a native and not a hybrid.

Both the pussy willow and the Japanese Fantail Willow are blooming with their soft pussy-toes. The Japanese Fantail toes are much smaller than the pussy willow's.

Japanese Fantail Willow
Salix sachalinensis 'Sekka'

American Pussy Willow
Salix discolor

I brought some of the pussy willow branches inside a few weeks ago and forced them. Now I'm letting them remain in water to hopefully root so I can have more plants. I did that with forsythia last year and now we have another shrub.

The warm temperatures coupled with the fall leaf cover have produced a few surprises. As I've been working in the gardens to clear out the leaves that blew in over the winter, I'd estimate that 90% of what's out there is showing signs of life, either with buds along the stems of branches or new green growth at the base of the plants. The remaining 10% will likely not be far behind if the warm weather persists.

Probably the biggest surprise was the 'Pink Panda' strawberry plant:


Kind of ragged, but a bloom nonetheless!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apologies to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, for the lateness of my post (again). Let's see...what can my excuse be this time?

My Irish Garden

Facebook is famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) for their quizzes. They are quirky and a total waste of time. That doesn't stop me or thousands of others from taking them now and then, however. You can take a quiz that tells you what season you are (I'm Summer), what flower you are (Nigella), and where you should be living. I took that quiz yesterday:

"You belong in Ireland. You love the countryside and you want to spend your life being surrounded by green. You love small towns where you can relax in the pub and have a chat, and several pints! Sunny destinations aren’t important for you, you’d rather be in this beautiful country, where the people are chatty and down to earth and where culture surround you everywhere you go.”

Okay, let's go! Well, in reality, that's not going to happen, so how about a little bit of Irish in my garden? Not in time for St. Patrick's Day - not in my garden - it's too cold yet on March 17th for much to be blooming besides snowdrops and crocuses. But later there will be Oxalis.

Oxalis is better known as the shamrock plant, because it has three leaves on its foliage. That's what we're familiar with, and some of the Oxalis plants have interesting foliage. That, combined with their delicate flowers, makes for a fun and garden-worthy plant.


Often called Brazilian Butterfly Plant or False Shamrock, the burgundy leaves of Oxalis triangularis (subsp. papilionaceae) are in sharp contrast to the pale lavender flowers.


The Iron Cross (Oxalis tetraphylla) is the one better known to be the "good luck" shamrock. These amazing little bulbs just keep producing leaves and flowers all summer long if you let them soak up the sun and give them plenty of water. Both bulbs are tender to our zone, so I have to be sure to bring them in for the winter, but they store well and have performed year after year for me.


And what garden would be complete without a leprechaun? They can be elusive, you know, but when I saw the rainbow over Max's Garden one day, I just knew he was somewhere nearby.



Ah, yes. . . here he is. . .

Hemerocallis 'Leprechaun Eyes'

And more eyes!

Rudbeckia hirta 'Irish Eyes'

On this St. Patrick's Day, I will be spending the day in the garden, as it is unseasonably warm and will be near 70° F. It's my favorite kind of day. I hope you enjoy yours, too.

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine on your windowpane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

~Irish blessing~

Kaffir Lily (Clivia miniata)

Clivia miniata

It's both Green Thumb Sunday and Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Oh, and the Ides of March, too. What a day! I haven't ventured outside just yet, to see what's blooming out there. I expect to find the first blooms of crocus and perhaps the primrose has opened up, but inside, there is plenty. Numerous amaryllis are still providing vibrant color, the Streptocarpella is still in bloom, and of course, the orchids. But there's a new girl in town.

Yesterday, I attended a continuing education class on ethics and jurisprudence, as required for my license renewal to practice dental hygiene in the state of Indiana. This was part of the total 14 hours I need, and while I've got more than that already for this licensing period, I still have one more required class to take before I'll be finished - CPR. I'll get that one before the year is over.

On the way home, I stopped at Meijer to see what they were offering in the way of spring flowers. They generally have something that's a little out of the ordinary and I wasn't disappointed.

As I walked through the front door, I think my jaw probably dropped open when I saw a large display of Clivia miniata, in all its orange goodness right there, before God and everybody. It didn't take me long to pick one out. I found one that had a second flower stalk coming up, so I grabbed that one and checked out.

I'd been wanting a Clivia for some time now. Mom had one a couple of years ago - hers was yellow - and I'd seen them several times at the botanical conservatory in Ft. Wayne. Now I have one of my very own, and as everyone knows, I really needed another houseplant.

Clivia miniata

Origin: South Africa

Zone: 9-11
Soil: Clivias require soil that drains freely, as these plants like it on the dry side. A mix that includes bark will work well. They like to be pot bound and only require repotting about every 3-5 years.
Water: During its winter rest period, keep the plant fairly dry. When growing period resumes in the spring, water thoroughly when the soil has become dry, then let it dry between waterings. Misting of the leaves is not recommended.
Light: No direct sunlight. They grow well inside with a northern exposure, or anywhere that receives bright light without direct exposure to sun. Outside, place in a shaded area.

Clivias are known as a tough and easy houseplant, if you don't overwater it. During the winter, keep it fairly dry in a cool room (50-65°F) for about three months. You must do this to trigger blooming, which follows the rest period. Fertilize monthly with a half-strength 20-20-20 fertilizer during the growth period until September.

Join

"It's too cold," I said to myself.

The sun was shining brightly as I looked out the window this morning. The birds were singing and the cats were lounging in various locations, taking sun baths. It looked like a nice, warm spring day out there.


But looks can be deceiving.

I wanted to do some more clean-up in the garden, so I got dressed, put my jacket on, grabbed my new green leather gloves I'd gotten yesterday at Walmart and my Felcos. As I headed out the back door, I glanced at the outdoor thermometer.

TWENTY-EIGHT DEGREES?? "It's too cold," I said to myself as I stepped outside.







"Oh really?" said the Stokesia.

"You don't say," said the heather.

"What's that?" asked the Geranium 'Samobor.'

"Too cold for what?" the delphinium wanted to know.

"Who's cold?" asked the creeping thyme.

"Not us," answered the Asiatic lilies.

"We're not cold," declared the Veronica 'Aztec Gold.'

"We haven't been cold since January," bragged the sedum.

"Did someone say it's too cold?" asked the variegated oregano.

"What a weenie," snickered the Primula, as it prepared to bloom.

Okay, okay. Never mind . . .

Just One Snip

Accidents happen, and I had one on Tuesday. Oh, nothing serious, but I wasn't happy about it nonetheless. It happened in my garden.

I'm no stranger to mishaps in the garden. The one that stands out most in my mind is the time I nearly put my eye out planting tulips. Yeah, gotta watch out for those tulip bulbs. They can be vicious. Oh wait, that was the willow tree that got me, not the tulips. Gotta watch out for those willows. They can be vicious.

I've had other more minor incidences where I forgot to put gloves on and suffered cuts on my hands from dead Miscanthus blades. I guess that's why they call them blades. Those can give you injuries like paper cuts times ten.

And then there have been the numerous times - too many to count - where I pulled a weed, just to realize two seconds later that it was a flower seedling. Almost as bad as pulling them out is stepping on them. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy, I swear.

Famous "We have met the enemy..." Pogo strip
from Earth Day 1971

Tuesday was a pretty nice day around these parts. It was mostly sunny, 68°, and even when the rain came later, it was a warm rain and I stayed out in it, continuing the garden clean-up.

The roses, in all their thorniness, had trapped lots of brown oak leaves among their canes so it was a good thing I was wearing my leather work gloves as I pulled the leaves away.



Part of the clean-up involved cutting back ugly dead stuff like the Echinacea stems. The birds and weather had pretty much stripped them of most of their seeds and I didn't want to look at their brown selves anymore anyway. So I grabbed the stems in my left hand and snipped them off with the Felco pruners in my right.

And that's when The Accident happened.

The only good thing I have to say about this is that I'm glad my finger wasn't all the way in the end.

The Little Bulbs

The book is a classic among gardeners. The author is, too. And I've had The Little Bulbs by Elizabeth Lawrence gathering dust on my bookshelf for too long. Since my little bulbs are coming up and preparing to bloom, I figured now was a good time to dust it off and read it.

In case you haven't heard of Elizabeth Lawrence, she was a gardener living in North Carolina and wrote several books on gardening, as well as a weekly column in the Charlotte Observer from 1957-1971. The Little Bulbs is not the first book by Ms. Lawrence that I've ever read.

A year or so ago, I read Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters, in which she recounts her years of correspondence with Katherine White, wife of author E.B. White (Charlotte's Web). As one who had pen pals from a young age and has continued to this day, I thought I'd love this book. I didn't. I became bored with it about halfway through and while I continued reading it past the point of boredom, I don't think I ever finished it.

But The Little Bulbs is good. I've not finished it yet, but I don't think that will be a problem this time. In this one, she starts by discussing the little bulbs in a garden - those first harbingers of spring, both literally and figuratively. (Yes, there's a flower called Harbinger of Spring!) She then takes us through the rest of the botanical year and tells us about each season's little bulbs.

Galanthus nivalis f. pleniflorus 'Flore Pleno'
March 10, 2009

In my own garden, the double snowdrops have finally popped up through the mud (it's been raining - a lot), and just yesterday the first one opened fully. These doubles haven't multiplied like I'd like, so I think this fall I will just have to get some more of them. Some singles, too. They're the first things to bloom around here, so more would be nice.

I imagine the next spot of color I'll see will be from the crocuses, although the daffodils on the south side of the house just might beat them to the punch. They're standing tall, with pregnant buds about to burst forth with the ugliest daffodils I've ever seen.

Yes, I'm talking about those 'Repletes' that I've vowed to dig up and just throw away for the last three years. They're way photogenic though and maybe that's why I let them stay. Either that, or I get busy and forget about them until spring rolls around again.

There are other daffodils here though -

• 'Faith'
• 'Rick'
• 'Sagitta'
• 'Thalia'
• 'Tête-à-Tête'
• 'Rip van Winkle'
• 'Jetfire'
• 'Avalon'
• 'Delibes'
• 'Pipit'
• 'Golden Bells'
• 'Baby Moon'
• 'Pink Charm'
• 'Lemon Beauty
• Poet's Daffodil
  

I like every one of those.

I see the Dutch Iris starting to make an appearance, too, as are the tulips and some of the alliums. The only spring bulbs I don't see yet are the large Dutch hyacinths, of whick I've got three or four different kinds. But the grassy foliage of the tiny grape hyacinth clusters has been up for weeks. No flower buds yet, but it's early.

Back to the book...

Written in 1957, the information is still pretty accurate and relevant. Ms. Lawrence mentions her friend from Ohio - Mr. Krippendorf - quite often and relays his accounting of blooms where he lives. From the times he reports blooms from those things that are familiar to me, I knew he lived in a different part of Ohio than I do.

When I researched it, I was right - he lived near Cincinnati, which is a zone warmer than here. Mr. Krippendorf's home and woods of which he often speaks are now part of the Cincinnati Nature Center. Mom, Kara and I are taking two days in April to go to Cincinnati for the Flower Show and a visit to Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum. Maybe we'll swing by Mr. Krippendorf's place, too.

In The Little Bulbs, Elizabeth Lawrence and I got off to a good start straight away. In the preface, she writes:

"It is not enough to grow plants; really to know them one must get to know how they grow elsewhere. To learn this it is necessary to create a correspondence with other gardeners, and to cultivate it as diligently as the garden itself. From putting together the experiences of gardeners in different places, a conception of plants begins to form. Gardening, reading about gardening, and writing about gardening are all one; no one can garden alone."

Wouldn't she have been a great garden blogger?

Poet's Narcissus - April 29, 2008

For the Love of Animals

Kara took her kitty, Cali, to the vet's last Monday, to have an infected claw removed. She had to go back to work, so Romie picked Cali up at the end of the day and brought her back to our house. Kara and Adam came to pick her up that evening and stayed for supper.

Dr. Paul Kleman has been our veterinarian since the beginning of pets at Our Little Acre and has given wonderful and affordable care. Kara and Adam had taken their cats to a local vet in Defiance, but prefer the care that Dr. Kleman's office gives, so they drive the extra mileage for it.

Last Thursday was Simon's day for his annual shave session, and Chris (from Dr. Kleman's office) did an awesome job, as usual. I picked him up late Thursday afternoon and saw Dr. Kleman of course, and his associate, Dr. DuVall, while I was there.


Sunday, I got a phone call from my mom with some sad news. Dr. Kleman had suffered a fatal heart attack that morning. I couldn't believe it. I had not given it a thought that this wonderful man would leave us so soon. He has taken care of every single one of our pets when they required a veterinarian's care.

First Smokey, the long-haired gray cat we had when we first were married, then Misha, the long-haired black/brown cat we had when we moved to our present house.


Mimi knew Dr. Kleman for 16 years and his face was one of the last she saw when she left this world. I will never forget the kindness and empathy he showed while having to do what he was trained to do to end her suffering.




And so it was when we were faced with the same situation with our dog, Simba.

Though extremely professional, Dr. Kleman had a way of showing his love of animals - a love for our pets - that shone through his quiet exterior. You just knew he wanted what was best for both pets and their owners.

Last year, when we took a stray in for neutering, we had a change in heart due to the myriad of problems the cat had and we questioned the wisdom of the surgery. Dr. Kleman said he couldn't make that decision for us, yet let us know that he would understand if we chose to euthanize Barney. As I sat in his office, crying over a cat I barely knew, you could see the empathy in his eyes, as no doubt he'd been in that position many times before.

With a family of nine cats (presently), you can imagine that Dr. Kleman (and more recently, Dr. DuVall) has been a very important person in our lives and the lives of our cats. We're very sad to hear about his passing and he will be extremely missed by so many.

We mourn the loss of Dr. Kleman and pray that God will give comfort to his grieving family, especially his grandchildren that he talked about and enjoyed so much. May they find peace in knowing that he was loved by those whose lives he touched, through their pets.

Almost Full

We are actually about 27 hours away from a full moon, but as I passed under the skylights in the family room just now, it sure looked full to me.

"I see the moon,
The moon sees me.
God bless the moon,
And God bless me."

Absolutely Amazing Awesome Amaryllis

Few words here - just photographs of the amaryllis (Hippeastrum) that have been blooming at Our Little Acre.

'Rembrandt van Rijn'

'Solomon'

'Solomon'

'Limona'

'San Remo'

'Royal Velvet'

'Royal Velvet'

'Piquant'



'Grandeur'



'Blossom Peacock'

A great book, with photos of many amaryllis cultivars is Amaryllis by Starr Ockenga. Unfortunately, it's out of print at the moment, but you can still find some copies for sale on Amazon.

Spring Weather Idiosyncrasies

I was trying to put together a post with pictures of all my amaryllis blooms that are cheering up the place, when several e-mails came in from the National Weather Service. They went something like this:

4:25 PM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTHERN INDIANA HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND WARNING...WINDS WILL RAPIDLY INCREASE TO 30 TO 40 MPH WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS OVER 60 MPH. THESE WINDS...WHEN COMBINED WITH ALREADY SATURATED SOILS MAY DOWN TREES AND POWERLINES.

Yep, the ground is saturated, all right. This tree (not ours) came down a month ago when we had a lot of rain and high winds.

4:51 PM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTHERN INDIANA HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING...LAW ENFORCEMENT AND SPOTTERS REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD IN FORT WAYNE... A TORNADO COULD OCCUR AT ANYTIME. TAKE COVER NOW!
HEAVY RAINFALL MAY OBSCURE THIS TORNADO. TAKE COVER NOW! IF YOU WAIT TO SEE OR HEAR IT COMING...IT MAY BE TOO LATE TO GET TO A SAFE PLACE.

I guess that means I shouldn't be outside taking pictures like this.

4:58 PM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTHERN INDIANA HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING NICKEL SIZE HAIL...AND DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH... SEEK SHELTER NOW INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS!

But it doesn't look like there's a storm outside this window...

5:04...5:18...5:29 Three more Tornado Warning updates, stressing that this is a very dangerous situation:

...EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO WITH HOME DAMAGE NEAR NEY AND ALSO A FUNNEL CLOUD 2 MILES SOUTH OF MARK CENTER. THESE ARE TWO SEPARATE CIRCULATIONS! THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION! THESE SEVERE STORMS ARE ALSO CAPABLE OF PRODUCING NICKEL SIZE HAIL...AND DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH.


And then, just six minutes later...

5:35 PM ...THE TORNADO WARNING IS CANCELLED...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED THAT THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WHICH PROMPTED THE WARNING HAD WEAKENED OR MOVED OUT AND NO LONGER POSES AN IMMEDIATE THREAT TO LIFE OR PROPERTY.

Whew!

While we didn't have any damage, there were several homes destroyed or damaged just west of Fort Wayne, and some damage about half an hour north of us, so the warnings needed to be taken seriously and we were fortunate that they didn't go directly over us...this time. That's the thing about storms - they aren't entirely predictable as to where and how they'll strike. Better safe than sorry, I say, as far as the warnings go.

There's a field somewhere under that lake.

We're watching the water rise and are hoping that morning will bring lower levels, even though the rivers aren't supposed to peak until Monday afternoon.

Ahhhh...spring.

A Really Good Day

I've got Spring Fever. I and a few thousand of my closest Midwestern friends.

The high temperature for today was 67°F and if that isn't impressive enough, consider that the low just three days ago was 8°F. Two days later, the temperature at 11:00 PM was 58°F. And next week, we very well could have a full-blown snowstorm. That's March for you.

When we have a warm day like today, after weeks of winter, you'll find any excuse to go outside and stay there. If you're a gardener, you don't need a better invitation to find something to do in the gardens. There's plenty needing done around here and I was glad to get started on it.


Over the course of the afternoon, here's what I did:

• Cleaned the leaves out of the flower beds on the east and west sides of the house.
• Pruned the dead "winter interest" from the Astilbe, Hellebores, Echinacea, Japanese Painted Fern, Plumbago, and Sedum.
• Swept up the sunflower seed shells that were all over the patio from the two bird feeders hanging from the pergola.
  
  

The photo on the left was taken today, after I'd cleaned things up. The one on the right was taken in June 2007 (and was featured in the August 2008 issue of Old House Journal magazine). I'm looking forward to seeing it look like that again in about three months. Patience!


More tasks completed were:

• Fluffed up the mulch in the beds that had gotten compacted from the snows of winter.
• Cleaned the dead plants out of the flower boxes on the front porch railing and the large planter on the front porch.
• Hung the porch swing back up.
• Repotted the Goldfish plant (Nematanthus gregarius) - much easier to do outside, because I'm very messy!

As I was working in and around the gardens, I noticed the many signs of spring that at first glance aren't obvious. The Sedums are well on their way. The Hellebores have several thick shoots of new growth, and the Arum italicum are poking their heads out of the ground.

Crocus kotschyanus

The fall-blooming crocus are coming up at the base of the Sweet Gum tree, and will have nice grass-like foliage until summer, when they will go dormant. In the fall, there won't be new foliage, but there will be fragile, pale lavender blooms. Strange plant, that.

It was a wonderful day spent outside working, but it didn't seem like work, really. Things needed to be done and it looked much better when I was finished, but all of that took a back seat to the joy of being able to be outside without a coat and breathe in the fresh, earthy scent of spring, while listening to the nuthatches and other birds singing praises.

Oh, I almost forgot! Look what I saw today on the Witch Hazel (Hamamelis vernalis):



When it's in full bloom, I'll post a photo of the entire shrub in all its glory.

Whole Lotta Heavin' Goin' On

As we get teased by the warmer days of early spring - only to get chills from lingering cold days - we wander about in our gardens, looking for signs of life. We know they're there, hiding under the mulch and dead leaves, but we impatiently want to see them.

Faith wears thin right about now.

But look closely, and pay attention to the indirect signs that spring is happening right under our noses. Look even closer and it's unmistakable. One of those signs is heaving.

Unless you live in a climate where the ground goes through a freeze/thaw cycle, you likely don't experience this in your gardens. But to us northerners, it's all too familiar. And just what heaves? Plants, bulbs, plant markers, stepping stones.

As the ground freezes, it expands due to the moisture contained in it. (Think of what happens to a can of pop when you leave it in the freezer too long.) As spring begins to take hold, the frozen ground thaws a bit on warmer days, then refreezes on the colder ones. Plants such as Heucheras eventually end up with their crowns rising out of the ground.

When I was walking out through the gardens today, enjoying the 63°F temperature, I noticed some heaving had occurred. Iris rhizomes reminded me of crayfish tiptoeing through the mud.


It seems to me, that except for the root exposure, this could serve the irises quite well. Spring brings heavy rains and we know if irises are planted too deeply, they'll rot. However, for most plants and bulbs, heaving can mean death to the plant if the unprotected roots are continually exposed to the elements.

Lily bulblets lie close to the surface and can become exposed as spring approaches.

One of the best ways to prevent winter heaving is to make sure plants are mulched well. This insulates the ground from wide fluctuations in temperature. Another important preventative is to provide good drainage. The more moisture that's retained in the ground, the more you'll experience heaving.

When you see a plant or bulb that's risen out of the ground, you can gently press it back into the soft ground. If the ground is still frozen, just mound some mulch around the roots until you are able to coax them back down.


I continued my walk and noticed the mums had new growth around the base of the old plants.



The daffodils (Narcissus hybrid) on the south side of the house are continuing to grow taller and now have flower buds!



'Sensation' Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has swelling buds. The white Peolac has them, too.



I continued to search for signs of crocuses, but didn't see a single pointy leaf of them anywhere. However, one thing I did see - and yes, just one - was this:

Galanthus nivalis 'Flore Pleno'

A snowdrop! It almost looks as if it's in such a hurry to bloom that it can't wait to grow up a little bit more.

The summer snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum) are popping up, too...



With warm temperatures in the 60s expected for the next few days, I think we'll see a lot of changes in the gardens. Maybe the witch hazel will even open up and bloom!

"March is the month of expectation."

~ Emily Dickinson

Less Than Perfect Can Be A Good Thing

When we were at the Fort Wayne Home and Garden Show on Friday, sitting in on Dr. Lori's session "Trash or Treasure?" we learned a few things. She gave us tips on how to find an honest appraiser (don't choose an appraiser who also buys). But she gave us a tip that I already knew and have been employing for years, on occasion - ask the seller if they would take less for the item they're selling.

As gardeners, most of us know that the big box stores sell ripped bags of mulch at a discount, or plants that have suffered from underwatering, overwatering, or some other fate that gives them a less than robust appearance. Our plant experience serves us well here, because we can recognize those that just need a little TLC to bring them back to healthy goodness.

But what about the plants that are living on the edge? They still look fairly good, and the powers that be haven't noticed their flaws just yet. They're still selling at full price, but you know they're going to end up on the half-price shelf in the end. Who wants an orchid that has a broken flower stem, when there are a dozen more on the same shelf that don't?

*raises hand*

Friday night, after returning home from the home and garden show, Romie and I turned around and went back to Ft. Wayne, where we joined our girls and their husbands (and a few others) to celebrate Adam's birthday. We got there early, put our name in for a table for eleven, and ran over to Walmart so I could buy a card. There, greeting us as we walked in, were several lusciously green Phalaenopsis orchids.

There must have been a couple dozen of them, all wrapped in their cellophane sleeves, selling for $15. They had beautiful, unblemished leaves and were all heavily loaded with lemon-lime blooms. I am drawn to green flowers for some reason and I wanted one. As I picked through them, mentally eliminating this one, then that one, while also trying to make a decision about whether I would purchase one or not, I saw it.

"It" had nicely branched flower stems like the rest of its buddies, but was suffering from a broken branch. The mishap had probably occurred recently, because the flowers on the wrong end of the break still looked fresh and perky. There was even a bud that wasn't open yet and it didn't have that dull, wrinkly appearance they take on when they are no longer receiving their life's blood.


Hmmm... I wonder if they'd sell it to me at a lower price because of this? Can't hurt to ask, right?

I took the orchid to the check-out and asked if they would discount the orchid due to the broken stem. A phone call was made to a manager, and the verdict was, "Ten dollars." I thought for a moment and agreed. Ten dollars for a basically healthy orchid was a bargain, even with a broken stem. While I wasn't likely to pay $15 for an orchid with all healthy stems, given that I already had several orchids at home already, this was just too good to pass up.

Dr. Lori would be proud.