All the tiny buds on my Bhut Jolokia!

Look at all the tomatoes on my Micro Tom!

My find at the Bonsai show. Thought this had an interesting shape to work with.

My Bouganvilla bonsai I bought at the bonsai show. It had two flowers on it, but I knocked it off when I took it out of its bag! :(

Paph seedlings on top, Bulbophyllum seedlings on the bottom.

Tiny Tom!

Blooms on my Black Sambuca

Mystery sprouts popping up all over the garden! This one is right over where I buried my leopard gecko, Pinky. Later on I figured out they were Safflower sprouts! My little chipmunk must've planted them there!

'Sugar Ann' sugar snap peas are growing! Have eaten some off the vine already. There will probably be none left for cooking!

My garlic/lily patch.

Honeysuckle about to bloom.

Honeysuckle is full of buds! They are mostly in bloom already!

So much as been going on since my last entry...

My 'Sugar Ann' sugar snap peas are blooming and growing peas! They are quite tasty! I need to grow MORE! Surprisingly, the seeds under the honeysuckle aren't growing as well as the peas in the pots!

My honeysuckle has buds galore and the peonies are about done. :(

I put my Epiphyllums out for the first time (some in full sun!) and I am getting some mega growth on some of them! I am hoping they BLOOM!

Planted all my peppers except for Bhut Jolokia because I plan on overwintering it indoors. It has buds already at 4" tall! I gave my future Uncle B-in-law some seeds and my future Dad-in-law a plant I had started later. Both their plants are the same size if not taller than mine, but it takes about 180 days to reach maturity and mine has buds already, albeit small buds! They are buds nonetheless! I will be drowning in hot peppers this fall!

My Dahalia 'Seattle' has grown back! I was wondering if it would cuz by spring it was looking a bit shriveled up. I planted it in the ground this year because the peas are in the big pot it grew in last year. I might have to dig it up and transplant it because if it gets really big it's going to block my tomatoes, which is growing right next to it.

I still gotta find room for my one leftover ostrich fern, oregano, columbine and asparagus. I think I'll plant my thornless blackberry (Really! There is not one thorn on it!) in my neighbor's yard. It's a rental and there are already raspberries there. The owner said we were welcomed to eat from them as well as the fruit trees. He was the one who sold us our house too.

Peony 'Sorbet'

It finally bloomed its first bloom! :D

Great Deals!

Oh man oh man oh man! I love deals! Because I broke my toilet seat last night...I know, never heard of it! I went to buy a new toilet seat! Got one on sale and then headed over to the gardening department at Lowes to get more safflower seeds. My birds are voracious! I watched a little finch flinging all my safflower seeds everywhere! I guess they have learned that if they keep digging the good food will come out since I was layering the no mess seeds w/ the safflower to deter my squirrels!

So lucky me, the safflower was on sale for $1-ish off. Then I saw the Scott's no mess blend was on sale too! 5.5 lbs for $2.39 vs. the other brand I usually get, which is 5 lbs for about $5-ish! So I swiped the whole shelf clean of all eight bags :D

I had also been eyeing the Strawberries & Cream Hydrangea when they first came in, but didn't get one because they were not hardy here in zone 6a. I found one half dead on the sale shelf for $3! But because it looked so bad I got it for $1 instead! I also got a, get this....a THORNLESS blackberry! Also for $3 and perfectly healthy!

I am a happy camper even though I should not have bought more stuff LOL

Birds, Finds, Growth and Disappointments

My bird feeder seems pretty popular. After the rain stopped today it was buzzing with activity! It's probably because I never let it run out. Soon as it gets low, I fill it! I love watching the Mourning Doves peck around. They remind me of mini wild chickens or something! My lily leaves are less deformed from insects eating them this year. I think the birds had to do with that!

While I was out there tonight, I also noticed that someone had weed whacked two of my garlics! They are completely beheaded! Not one single leaf left! I don't know if they will be ok. They are supposed to start bulbing soon...they might not make it :(

My sugar snap peas are getting quite tall, but no signs of buds yet! The Arugula and Mustard Greens are growing quite well, albeit small still.

Yesterday at Lowes, I found 2 qt. size basil and oreganos for $1 each! All looking quite healthy too! I picked up four basil and two oregano! I also picked up a new peony. I couldn't help it...they were so pretty in bloom! At least this way I'll know it is blooming sized already! I think I have the white one I picked up last year on sale planted in too deep of shade. It should've bloomed this year I think, but then again, it was a pretty small plant last year. I will give it one more year before I try and move it.

Now that those trees are gone in the backyard. I was thinking of planting some sunflowers there as well as my two new peonies. I think I will add my veggies there too. It's a nice location for those items as it gets a lot more sun than the rest of my yard does. Hopefully the tree stumps won't be in the way for the peonies. I hope they rot quickly, but then again, the one in the front yard is STILL there....! :\

Itoh Peony

About two years ago I had eyed these peonies. They are a cross between
a herbaceous peony and a tree peony. Since tree peonies grow in full
sun and these were recommend to grow the same way, I was hesitant to
pay $60 for one! The vendor said he was testing them out in shade.
Upon checking up with him this year and describing my conditions to
him, he confirmed that it would grow and bloom! So I picked up a
'Kopper Kettle'! I am technically out of room, but for this plant...I
gotta make space! I would love a peony garden....

-
Cindi
Rabies Challenge Fund :: www.rabieschallengefund.org

Mushroom Sandwiches at May Market

Fondant Strawberries at May Market

May Market Finds

$15 for a 2007 limited edition Swarovski ornament and 25¢ for the little tub!

May Market 2010

Went to May Market today. I thought I was early enough, but people were already shopping by the time I got there! I bought a Cherokee Purple tomato (since they didn't have my favorite, Black Krim), Micro Tom tomato, Thai Red Hot Pepper, Red Habanero, Doll's Eyes, Twinleaf, and a dwarf Ginkgo! I also ate the famous mushroom sandwich and also had the mushroom bisque. Managed to burn my hand pretty well on the bisque! Don't ask...! I also had to have the famous strawberries too!

In the afternoon I manned the Pot-A-Plant booth, which was total disaster. The tent we were in was away from all the vendors and no one came by. There were no signs to show the customers what was going on in our booth and we weren't part of the festivities. Oh well....! Tomorrow I go back for the same thing, but it's supposed to be cold, windy & rainy! :o

First Slide:

Left: Doll's Eyes - Actaea pachypoda, Woodland plant with small white blooms in May with white berries with black "eyes" in late summer. Grows 1-3' tall in part to full shade.

Right: Twinleaf - Jeffersonia diphylla, Woodland plant with white flowers growing singly on each stalk. Leaves are divided into two leaflets growing 1-2' tall in shade and average soil.

$0.50 Poppy

This is one of two poppies I bought for $0.50 each. This one bloomed today!

Cyp. Aki Changes Color

Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve Sale Finds

Wild Strawberry

Mayapple

Bloodroot

Foam Flower

Rue Anemone

Pale Violet

Downy Yellow Violet

Canada Violet

Greek Valerian

I did also get two ostrish ferns, but did not take pics of them. I planted all but the one fern. Not sure where I want to place that yet. Hopefully they are all happy where they are and that the native fauna appreciates it!

Cyp. Aki is Open!

Dividing Pings and Cyp. Aki

Pinguicula moctezumae needed dividing again...I got 12 plants total!

Cyp. Aki is opening up! You can see the pouch in this pic taken today!

Paph. Pinocchio 'Dresden' x Paph. hel #5

Something must be right! A Paph that I knew was budding up turns out to have THREE buds! WOOHOO!!!!

Deals & First Timers

Cyp. Aki today....bud is opening up!

My 50¢ & $1 deals I got from Lowes! I got two Columbines, two Poppies, and three Wallflowers! Had no idea Wallflowers were fragrant! No idea what kind of Poppies they are or what color, but you can't beat the price! I was thinking of putting the columbines and wall flowers into my planters!

This whole time I forgot and thought I had planted a Trillium....turns out it's a Jack in the Pulpit! First time bloom for me! There seems to be a lot of those this year!

SPRING!

So it's about 3 weeks till our last frost date....and the garden centers are stocking up! I couldn't help but buy some stuff!

Found two Caladiums that I thought would look nice in my planters up front since mine are still dormant! Also got two black Heucheras that were pretty and cheap to go into those planters. Still need something tall to go into them... My sweet peas are germinating in there so these will not be planted till later.

I also picked up a new Rosemary and since it was buy one get one free, I decided to try an asparagus! I have not a clue as to how to grow those!

At the gardening symposium marketplace I got a Masdevallia, Fuschia 'Autumnale', Milkweed, Tomato 'Tiny Tim', and another plant I'm not sure what it is called off the top of my head.

I saw that my Bhut Jolokia needed repotting as well as my black cherry tomato so I went ahead and did that. I also put them outside while it was cloudy and about to rain so that the adjustment isn't too harsh going from growing under lights in the basement to full blown outdoors. I may have to rescue them tonight and slowly acclimate them again or re-arrange them so they get a bit of shade from some of the other plants till they get used to being outside.

I am almost done adjusting the two orchid flasks I got to lower humidity. They are doing well so far! Hopefully they will continue to do well.

The garlic has been growing like weeds. I have been foliar feeding them seaweed and fish. The garlic book I read said to do it every two weeks, but I have been doing it more. Hopefully I get a really good harvest this year!

Cyp. Aki is about to bloom! I am excited!!!

The arugula and mustard greens I started from seed has sprouted! I almost thought they were weeds too, but luckily did not pull them before I remembered what they were!

There is also a mystery plant out in my front yard that is ready to bloom. I will find out what it is soon!

Orchid Meeting

As I pulled into Costco today, right before going to the orchid meeting, I realized that the "weed" seedlings I pulled out of the front yard the other day were indeed NOT weeds! :( They were the radishes I had planted! Ugh! So now I have to plant new ones!

I had only planned on buying one orchid at the meeting that I had pre-ordered along with some Neofinetia pots. I got to meet the infamous Jason Fischer that so many Phragmapediums are named after! Well...my eye caught Neofinetia 'Red Emperor', the one I had originally wanted when this other speaker came to us, but forgot to bring! Unfortunately for a fellow member, who was looking for a non-white one, I had picked this one up! So...I bought it LOL

After Jason's talk, he expressed his regret on bringing so few plants and that he would give us a discount on what was left, which was about eight plants. By the time I got up there to see what was left, there were only three to choose from, two of which were $100 each! Uhh...no thanks! lol So since I did not buy any Phrags from Jason, for which he is known for, I bought Phrag. Barbara LeAnn. Just what I needed! LOL Oh well...I don't buy $100+ shoes so I will just have to wear my orchids!

On a sad note...Don Crawford passed away. :(

Peonies!

I was clipping spent Hyacinths tonight and took a look at my growing peonies to see if they needed their supports hiked up. As I inspected them I found....BUDS! Granted, I did get them two years ago...I did not expect them to bloom on such a small plant! I am excited to finally get to see two of the three of my peonies bloom! Must've done something right! The one that I do not see any buds on I bought on sale last summer at Lowes. It's supposed to be a white one. It's planted in a much shadier/drier spot so I am not sure how it will do. Hopefully well since I really like these plants! If it does well, I might get more for the backyard!

New Tries

Since it got warm and since I have been home I have been fertilizing my garlics and everything else with a kelp or fish emulsion foliar feed. I am hoping that following the books I read about growing garlic's advice that I will have a GREAT crop this year! I chopped up the stems that didn't rot over winter and added vermicompost, grass clippings and this soil builder stuff I bought to help the lawn's bare spots.

I also did a similar thing to my two pots out front. Every year they fill with leaves from the big tree out front. There were some dead nasturtium twigs in there also. They were nice, dry and crunchy so I just cut them off at the base and with my gloved hands, crushed them up into fine pieces. I then dropped some sweet pea seeds in each and just brushed the leaf mulch around to make sure they were hidden. Hopefully my new idea works! Forgot to water though....that might help!

Spring Happenings

This is how big the Bhut Jolokia seedling has gotten since I started it last September!


Here's a potato growing in my worm bin. I thought they were too shrunken to do anything and look what happened when I tried to compost it!

Long Awaited Bloom

Nine years ago, at my first meeting at the Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania, I fell in love with Paph. lowii. I bought a "seedling" from the speaker for $20 and thought that was expensive! HA! Little did I know....! Well, nine years later it has finally spiked! It has been in bud for over a month! It has me sitting on the edge of my seat! Well this morning...I saw the first crack of the bud! It is starting to open up! I can't wait!!! I will be updating this slideshow as it opens!

Pinguicula laeuana

With flash...

Without flash...

One Week's Growth!

This is how the alliums looked after a week!

Paph. lowii Bud Progression

This was the bud when I thought it was ready to open, boy was I WRONG!

Still growing! Look at what is inside! Not much!

The bud got even BIGGER when I was away! Still not much inside, but it is growing at least!

Paph. esquirolei Bloom Development

Alliums Coming Up!

These things are growing FAST! This is how they looked yesterday
before I left for Seattle. Will take a pic when I get back!

A Thought About Semi Hydroponics: Too Wet!

I finished re-potting the rest of my orchids today. The semi-hydroponic stuff keeps them way too wet if you water weekly it seems. It's ok if you neglect them a bit in between waterings. I had one paph that I kept upstairs that got that kind of treatment and it has very few rotten roots and a ton of good roots! I repotted it back into bark anyway for it's nutrient needs. Soon as those that are in flower/spike are done I'll re-pot those too!

Re-potting Paphs

I got out of class early today and decided to come home and do something fun! Repotting my Paphs! I got most of them done, but missed a few. I would've finished them off, but my back was hurting. I even repotted a few non-Paphs. That S/H keeps some of them too wet and I found some rotted roots, but luckily those also had some good roots. The Sedeira and Miltonia types seem to hate it as well as the Paphs. Some of the mixes have broken down quite a bit, but some of them are hardly decomposed. I think I will try and summer all my Paphs outside this year. My Paph. wardii seedlings did not seem to have grown many roots at all, but at least they did not lose any either! Hopefully I can get them finished tomorrow!

Recap of Orchid Show 2010

Wednesday: Got there on time at 6pm and found out they were almost done! They had most of the structure up, but I did help out with supplies as well as some other things.

Thursday: Had a L-O-N-G day at the hospital and did not leave on time. Everyone was grumpy and as I was about to leave the house, Dave, my show exhibit partner called to say that our water feature is leaking. GREAT! Ugh. I get there at 6pm only to be told by someone else that our exhibit was leaking. Yes, I know. That just ruined the rest of the day! Ken, Dave's son, came and figured out why our water feature was leaking. THANK YOU KEN! We were able to finish setting up after that. Had everything done by 9:30pm except for covering up the pots with moss, which I did the next day. Missed the vendors coming in so I did not get first pick like usual. :( Picked out some anyway and reserved them!

Friday: Put moss on the pots and helped to clerk the judging! We lucked out and got a small amount to judge! Did not do the preview party...wanted to save my money for orchids! Purchased a few of the orchids I had set aside.

Saturday: Helped Robert's Flower Supply sell orchids. As nice as it was we sold A LOT! I was surprised b/c in the past, good weather = bad sales! Brought home a few more plants!

Sunday: Sold almost ALL the plants for Robert's Flower Supply! WOOHOO! It was another nice day! Even nicer than yesterday! Brought home my last two plants. Didn't get to pick my favorite vendor's brain about un-flasking. :( Will have to email him! Someone dumped out my bottle of wine that no one drank. Grrr! Show is over :(

Snow in March

It's March 19th and there is still snow in my backyard!

Spring Stuff!

Potatoes and Pet Waste

I had these old shrunken wrinkly potatoes that weren't edible anymore that has sprouted. I threw them into my vermicompost bin and to my surprise they had grown! They won't be growing any potatoes since they are not getting any light to grow further, but thought that as interesting!

I also just threw a few worms into the dog poo bucket along with some handfuls of shredded paper. Hopefully they will do their job. If not, oh well!

Snow Melting!

I couldn't believe it when I walked out this morning...the snow was
like 99% gone! It must've rained a lot last night considering that I
could barely see any ground yesterday! I am also finally able to not
put out that chair to save my parking spot anymore! Yipee!

Paph. lowii is still not open yet :/ The bud is quite swollen though!
I reAlly hope it blooms in time for the show next weekend...!
Actually, I need it to bloom before Friday!

-
Cindi
Rabies Challenge Fund :: www.rabieschallengefund.org

Japanese Fantail Pussy Willow

I had seen these last week at the Home and Garden show, but resisted because of what I had heard about growing willows. When my fellow booth mate brought back the coveted gnarly willow and the black one I had to pick her brain about it! She said it was just the curly willow so I bought a bunch of the gnarly looking one, but what I have read online said any water loving plant is an issue. So I dunno....what do I do now? Where do I plant it? It is rooting in a bucket of water now.

Spring!

While the spring equinox doesn't arrive till the 20th it is currently
56*F right now and most of the snow has melted. Even my hose has
thawed out! I was finally able to rinse my car of the salt it had
accumulated since the last visit to the car wash.

Today I noticed my daffodils, hyacinths & allium have made their
presence known! I think winter is finally behind us! February's four
feet of snow was enough!

Because the snow has receded from my garlic patch, I was finally able
to plant my sugar snap peas! Planted all I had left from the packet I
bought, but I also planted the seeds I saved last year. It'll be
interesting to see if my saved seeds do well too!

The snow had also receded some from my front yard and I was able to
plant some radish seeds to improve the soil. I should've planted some
in the backyard too, but didn't think about it at the time! Maybe when
I get home I will do so if there is enough daylight left to see still.

Anyhow, on my way to the home show to volunteer for Phipps!

Signs of Life!

That Bud is Getting Bigger!

Bananas For My Paph. lowii

Yep, you heard that right! Bananas! I am getting desperate LOL I'm hoping that the fruit in the same room thing works and that it will speed up the flower development! So before coming home after work today I went and picked up 5 bananas. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Blooms for Show

Now that we are less than two weeks away from the show I don't think my Phal. equestris' are going to bloom in time. Interesting, especially since everything else bloomed early! Maybe leaving the keikis on there delayed their growth? I think I will have a Dendrobium kingnianum and possibly a Paph. lowii if that bud would just get fatter faster! Those big fat petals might take some time to make! I also may have a Masdevallia with two buds on it bloom in time, we'll see! Anything else we won't have in time. :(

My New Hat

Spring Show Installation at Phipps

So I signed up to help with the spring show installation at Phipps and forgot since I did not make it an alarm on my phone. Luckily I was up early today, but still not quite early enough to make it there on time! I had to pick up dog food though since I had forgotten to pick it up yesterday and had to decide whether to skip volunteering or not so I decided to see how frozen the dog food was. I did end up going, albeit quite a bit late. I got there slightly before noon and stayed till 2:30-ish. It went pretty quick with so many people helping. I guess I should've taken a pic of our work, but that didn't cross my mind at the time. I did take some pics of some of the other stuff though.

I always have to visit the gift shop every time I volunteer there. They had these white sweatshirt hoodies with the Phipps logo on them, but they were asking $45 for them! Still wasn't worth it after my discount unfortunately. Instead, I got a baseball cap instead. I got khaki. There was a green, which was really nice, but I thought it was too manly and I also already have a dark hat. I didn't want the white one b/c I thought it would get dirty too easily so khaki it was!

More Spikes

The show is in two weeks and I think I will have maybe three plants ready! Found another Phal in spike! Wish some of my paphs would bloom! But it is only about 65˚F in the basement so....not seeing much going on with those guys. Replaced a bulb too that had been out for a long time, but I never got around to changing it till now! I'm sure they'll be MUCH happier now! Paph lowii needs to move along a teensy bit faster!

Carnivorous Plants

Pinguicula 'Aphrodite' blooms

Pinguicula emarginata

Just got these....Drosera lake badgerup
(nitidula ssp. omissa x occidentalis ssp.occidentalis)

Just got these too....Drosera roseana

I didn't realize how TINY pygmy Droseras were until I got these! Of course, they may not be full grown yet b/c my last pygmy was much larger! It's hard to tell how big they are, but they are real small!

Paph. Lowii's Growing Bud

Apologies to the Squirrels

My suet cakes had been disappearing really fast lately as well as the cable ties that keep the door closed on the feeder. I thought the squirrels were getting to it. Afterall...they have before! But the last time, even though the cable ties were gone, the door was still shut! Mysteries! Well I think I have figured it out....bravely I put out another suet cake and it was devoured in no time! These robin sized fat black birds with skinny yellow beaks have been visiting and they are voracious as heck! They are also a bit bossy preventing the other birds from feeding! At least the birds are eating it instead of the squirrels stealing the whole dang thing! Anyway, my aplogies to the squirrels for suspecting them! :)

Paph. lowii in spike in my kitchen window.