New Year

I'm not one who normally gets all resolutiony at the New Year. It's an arbitrary day that doesn't even line up with a logical astronomical event (as explained in excruciating detail by the Bad Astronomer). Me? I'd put the New Year starting the day after the shortest day of the year.  That's what makes sense to my mind. Or the day the first spring plant catalog arrives in my mailbox. That's when I start thinking ahead.

But I guess January 1 works.  At least it's after all the Christmas hullabaloo, when things are starting to get back to normal (unfortunately it also marks the beginning of the 'you aren't thin enough' season).

This year, for a change, I am making resolutions. Not the typical 'I'll cut back my caffeine intake' (I have to do that in between semesters every year - seems my caffeine intake goes up as the semester progresses), or 'I'll work out more' (that'll come during warm weather when I can get out in to the garden).

Nope. This year I am going to break free of the funk I've been in since my dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.

Dammit.

When my dad got sick I was so busy running back and forth to visit I began to neglect My Life. And after he died I continued to pull in to myself and avoid the Real World. I was starting to come out of all this when The Husband had his really, really bad Gall Bladder Incident last summer (included as a free bonus - two middle of the night trips to the ER, complications from surgery and a week in a hospital nearly an hours drive from home!).

So basically the last two years sucked, I neglected my friends, got out of my work out routine and didn't get to spend as much time in the garden or on this blog as I would have liked.

And now, here it is, IN WRITING.  I'm done with it.  I'm going to grab my bootstraps and pull myself out of my funk, reconnect with my friends and spend more time in the garden this year.

Resolved.

The Flower of Resolve - a reblooming (and very funky) iris

Purchased from Rainbow Iris Farms but I forget which variety

Anthurium Madness

This has been a great year for Anthuriums here on The Edge.  Early in the year I visited a LGC [Local Garden Center] that is a bit further away and so is only visited about once a year.

'Otazu!'  They had this spectacular plant with very dark burgundy flowers.  Sexy!

I brought him home and found out that at least three of his blooms had been fertilized.

Look at those bulges on his spadix!

I harvested one to start myself (which I will post about in the future unless ALL the seeds get fungus [can you guess how it's going so far?]) and I mailed one to Mr. Subjunctive over at PATSP.  He's much better at seeds than I am.  If he has time between routine care for his over 1000 house plants.  [and people say I have too many plants!  Ha!]

Then, during July, The Husband and I went down to Connecticut for a weekend get a way.

No trip to Connecticut is complete without a trip to Logee's.  This is a houseplant fanatic's wet dream.  Well, at least humid dream.  Their greenhouses are packed with plants.  Benches contain plants in pots for sale but planted right in the ground are the show pieces (and probably stock plants).  Huge, gorgeous houseplants fill the space.  You often have to turn sideways to get past them.  

And there, tucked in the back, a PURPLE ANTHURIUM.

This plant has been on my desperately want list since I saw one in a garden in Panama.  I'd gotten to the point I was considering ordering one from Hawaii (or Florida if I could find a mail order place there that actually had them in stock) and pay the outrageous shipping.

I wish this one had come fertilized.  Maybe I can try to fertilize it myself....  

At this point I thought my life was complete.  I had my dream Purple Anthurium.

Then I visited another LGC that isn't so L.  What did they have?

ORANGE!

Wow!

Now what am I going to lust after?

Oh, yeah.

Tacca chantieri image by Pismire via Wikimedia Commons

TAAACCCCCAAAAA.

I think I might need more plant room though.

Fall, when a gardener's fancy turns to...

PLANTING!!!

I learned  how to garden in The South and down there it makes sense to put things in now.  There will be a long fall for them to get established, followed by a mild winter and a nice spring before new plants have to deal with the hardest Southern Season - Summer!  When it's HOT and, often, dry.

Aster x dumosus 'Alert' [is Aster a valid genus still/ again?]

Here in New England most gardeners put up their shovels in June (or July) and don't pick them back up until the following Spring.  

Chasmanthium latifolium var. $5!!!! [Sea Oats, or River Oats if you don't live near the ocean]

Not me.  I know we'll still have a nice, long, cool fall before the Worst Season (winter - brrr!) and because garden centers don't want to care for plants for another year, and no one else buys them, all the plants are ON SALE!!!

Gaura unk but the flowers have both white AND pink.  I hope they continue this way.

Unfortunately at this time of year selection is limited and labels are often missing or wrong.

Agastache hopeitsurvivesthewinter [I lost a few to the wet spring and a few more to my over-zealous neighbor's string trimmer.  Really.  There is a brick border on his side but he overseeds the property line into my perennial beds so he "can't tell" where the line is.  I may have to do something about that.  Next  year.]

Coreopsis found with the perennial Coreopsis varieties but I'm suspicious it's an annual.  Still, it was on sale.  I guess we'll see in the spring.

Still, new plants, dirt under fingernails, and I'm adding to the garden, not taking away.  Which is nice to do at this time of the year.  Just have to hope for a mild winter.

Is an early spring to much to ask for???

Pollinator Season

It's August and my pollinator populations are at their peak.  

I admit to choosing plants that attract pollinators because I like to watch the little ecosystem in my yard.  I watch the bees, wasps, their mimics and their predators darting around my flowers.  I feel like I'm contributing to the environment - increasing the population of a group of organisms that are in decline.

Plus I kind of think they're pretty. 

And, no, neither The Husband nor myself has gotten stung in the garden.

Liars, Politicians and... Your Local Garden Center?

I try very hard to buy the right plant for the right spot.  For example - I purchased a Buddleia (Buddleja) Nanho Purple for the corner of my yard, to anchor the perennial beds that run along the side and front of my property.  Nanho Purple, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden, the plant tag, Dave's Garden and several other sources, grows to between 3 and 6 foot.  Big but not massive.

Right.  

Here's my Nanho Purple now.  I'm starting to worry that it will hit the overhead wires soon.

All right, so someone mislabeled the plant.  Everyone is entitled to a mistake now and then.

Here's another Buddleia (Buddleja).  I ordered this one on-line as Evil Ways.  It grows to be 3-4 foot (again using MULTIPLE web sites for information).

Ummm.

One more.  How about Cornus Garden Glow (a shrub dogwood)?  With a mature height of 5-6 foot.  Perfect for under the kitchen window (which is about 8 foot off the ground).

Damn.  

I'm having problems seeing out the kitchen window into the backyard.  Think we can move this?

What's really frustrating is that I bought these three plants (and my [not pictured] "annual" Sanbucus Black Lace [a 6-7 foot tall shrub]) at DIFFERENT PLACES.  I can't even just say that one garden center has a problem with labeling.  The problem is more wide spread.  Three different Local Garden Centers and one (well respected) mail order catalog.

The Husband chalks this problem up to my overly green thumbs.  It's true that most of the plants in my yard reach the maximum size they're reported to reach (or a bit more) but these are clearly not my "fault."

What is a gardener to do? 

What Were They Thinking?

There is a rather large house with a fair amount of road frontage not far from where I live.  I guess they weren't sure what to do with that long stretch of road side and so they decided to entertain passerbys.

It's a wonder more people don't wreck from closing their eyes at this monstrosity.

Can you image how much they must pay for upkeep?

And one more, just for the NSA.  Now they can use their satellites to find this hedgerow and narrow down where I live.  I'm sure they'll just file that information away.  Until I do another anti-pesticide rant.

House Plant Update

It's June.  The weather is warm and sunny and it's prime gardening season.

Yeah, that's not what's happening this year.  It's been a mostly gloomy, overcast, and cool month so far.  My garden looks great but it's been raining so much that I haven't kept up with weeding so I'm going to do an update on my indoor plants.  The ones who don't care that's it's gloomy, overcast and cool.  They're growing and blooming anyway.

My Anthurium possibly 'Otazu' continues to look great.  I think the blooms were fertilized in the green house before I bought this beauty.  Look at the swellings on the Spadex (the, ehem, suggesting looking part of the bloom)!  I promised seeds to Mr. Subjunctive at PATSP as soon as they're ready.  Because he needs more houseplants.  And because I'm lousy at seed starting (I can get them started but they usually don't make it to transplant size).

I've been thinking about making some changes in my house plant collection.  I've had this Hoya for years - I got a cutting from a friend and it's never done much.  It's a long vine and I have filled all of my "hanging" pot spaces.  Since it doesn't look spectacular (I like LOTS of leaves on a plant) I had been thinking of replacing it with something else.  So I move it to a different spot and then it does this.  Yep.  It's going to bloom for the second time in as many months.  Maybe I'll try cutting it back and keeping it.

I've also been thinking of getting rid of some of my "spiky" plants - aloes and Sanseiveria sp. (of which I have five different varieties).  They are hard to manage in limited spaces.  There's no squishing the plants together to fit more in the same window.

This one I'll have to keep.  Yes, it's a Sanseiveria trifasciata, the most common species in the house plant trade.  But it's from a cutting from a plant my mother got back in the mid-70s.  I've had it grow up and taking cuttings and had those grow up and rinse and repeat several times.  This is not the first time it's bloomed, either.  The first time it bloomed it took me quite a while to figure out the source of that smell.  Especially because it's a night bloomer.  Great for the bedroom if you have enough light.

Lastly, I had a recent (sort of) message on an old post about a fern that had spots on the leaves and I wasn't sure of the cause.  No word on the cause but I wanted to let the writer know that the fern in question is still doing well.  Too well.  I split it into two baskets because I was tired of the too-frequent watering and now it's filling two baskets and starting to need frequent watering...  Anyone want one?  

And now, just for our friends at the NSA, a short video of common loons. 

Those males are just so sexy when they puff up their chests.  And I love their sweet calls.  Almost as attractive as male pigeons displaying [I'm serious - if men could coo like that!  Whew!].

Better version is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmyUc00QCoA&feature=youtu.be