Month: November 2018

The Supreme Schlumbergera

| Flower Roberts

It is so difficult to choose a favorite Schlumbergera bloom.

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How can one possibly pick a favorite among these lovely and vibrant contestants?

It takes an experienced judge to discern which one should be given the honor.

Should it be salmon, orange, fuchsia, red, white or pink?

 

The competition is tough, but not Ruth-less.

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Our wise judge seems to be pointing to the salmon-colored Schlumbergera truncata.

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Such an appropriate and well-thought-through decision.

So the salmon Schlumbergera has been selected Supreme for 2018.

Great call RBG.  Keep up the good work.

FLOWER

 

 

 

Life Comes to You

| Flower Roberts

I was expecting a quiet and lonely day today.

I even slept a little late, thinking I would not miss anything by sleeping in.

But sometimes life comes to you.

I turned on my computer to find a message from “Another Mother” half a world away.

I have another blog you see.

Her crying made me cry.  I messaged my family, especially Rose.

Then there was all this noise. Chain saws?

I looked out my window to see a man high in a tree.

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The memories flooded back to the days I climbed trees.

I can remember being high up in an oak looking at the moon.

Me up a tree. Those were the days.

So as I write this, there is a lot of noisy action going on next door.

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Quiet and lonely?

I have a new friend in Vietnam and an acrobat performing out my window.

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Glad I got out of bed.

I would have hated to miss all this.

FLOW

 

 

Saving My Ears

| Flower Roberts

Elephant ears are mostly water.

Mojito Elephant Ears Colocasia

So if they freeze, they turn to mush.

I let the frost kill the leaves, then I cut off the droopy parts.

I dig them up and haul them inside my already crowded workshop.

There are too many plants in there to get much work done,

but it’s a great place to go think and breathe.

Black Beauty came inside in its pot.

My Mojitos are in a box.

The Frydeks are in a bucket.

And YES, I did bring in those trouble causing Coffee Cups.

They are reclining in my lawn cart.

Flower has more heart than sense.

I must not end this post without a photo of the cutest ears of all.

Bunny ears.

Barley and Charlotte, New Zealand Lop Rabbits

FLOWER

 

How Do They Know?

| Flower Roberts

(Lyrics sung to the tune of “How Will I Know?” by Whitney Houston)

How do they know that it is November?

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They’re making buds on every segment.

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They will be blooming in a few weeks.

I’m asking you what you know about these things

How do they know that it’s time to get lovely?

I brought them in to escape the frost (Halloween)

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Watching them bloom is such a sweet treat.

They won’t bloom long, only several weeks.

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How do they know?

How do they know?

How do they know?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from the Thanksgiving cacti , Schlumbergera truncata

Singing FLOW

 

The Four D’s for Dahlias

| Flower Roberts

Dahlias cannot survive our winters here in North Carolina,

so they must be stored inside over the winter.

There is a process to doing this.  I call the steps of the process the “Dahlia Four D’s.”

The first D is to let them die.  Okay not really, but they must be killed back by frost to know to go dormant.

The second D is for dig.  I chop off the dead stems to about three inches height.  Then I dig around then down. That way I do not chop the tubers with my shovel.

The third D is for dry.  They need to spend a few days drying before the soil is removed.

The forth D is for divide.  Once the tubers have dried a bit, they shrink a little. This makes it easier to untangle the separate stems.

Store these in peat and/or vermiculite. I use boxes that I can stack on shelves.

Leave room for air.  I shake these boxes periodically and open them every few weeks to make sure none are rotting or shriveling.

So if you have dahlias, it’s time for the four D’s.

Die, dig, dry and divide.

FLOW in the Know

Itty Bitty Bird’s Nests

| Flower Roberts

These fungi have the common name of “Bird’s Nest” or splash cups.

Each may look like a tiny nest full of eggs, but it acts like a catapult .

No bird mama would shoot her precious eggs out of the nest like balls from a canon,

but this Cyanthus olla does just that.

These tiny splash cups are ripe and ready for rain.

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Bird’s nest fungi Cyanthus olla

When a raindrop plops into the cup, it triggers an ejection mechanism (funiculus)

to shoot out the eggs (peridioles) with a coil and sticky blob attached.

This contraption flies a few feet into the air and the coil wraps around whatever it hits.

The “egg” hangs around until it dries and splits open, releasing its spores.

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Bird’s nest fungi Cyanthus olla

Then many more itty bitty bird’s nest form.  Who knew fungi could be so fun?

FLOWER

Camellias: Too Hip to Be Square

| Flower Roberts

I first saw this beautiful Camellia sasanqua decades ago in a church yard.

Jean May Camellia sasanqua

A wise (or maybe careless) person left the plant tag on it. That’s how I learned its name.

This particular church has a big barbecue the same week as my daddy’s birthday.

My family has gone to this barbecue every year for over thirty years.

So each November, I have looked forward to eating the wonderful food and seeing this shrub in bloom.

Jean May Camellia sasanqua

In 1994, I found a Jean May Camellia sasanqua of my own.  

I love its evergreen leaves, its white bark, its open shape and  its dreamy pink blooms.

I even love when it loses its petals. It’s like pink confetti.

Jean the Party Queen throwing her own fall festival.

I am not sure of when this happened, but several years ago some well-meaning person trimmed the church’s Jean May.

I arrived at the BBQ to find a square shrub with only a few blooms visible. No confetti. No petal party.

Square shrubs make me scream.

There is such a thing as plant abuse. (Just ask a Crepe Myrtle.)

Just because there is no bite with their bark, doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings.

So my dream  Jean May shrub at the church is now square.

But my own Jean May is a giant delight.

If you have a square shrub, please at least go out and cut off its corners.

You don’t want to find FLOWER in your yard screaming.

FLOW

 

Filling in the Holes

| Flower Roberts

This is the time of year when I do a lot of digging.

I have to bring in all me tender plants that will not survive the winter outside.

So when these plants are dug up and brought in, there are empty holes.

This is the perfect time to amend the soil for next year’s planting.

I start out by throwing in a few shovel fulls of nasty compost.

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This gets chopped up and mixed with some of the removed soil.

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Then I top this off with some seasoned bunny litter.

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More dirt and mixing.

Then the hole gets filled in with the remaining original soil.

There is a science to this messiness.

My compost is never seasoned enough nor balanced before going into the ground.

Therefore, I have to chop it up in the hole

and mix it with soil to get the bacteria in good contact.

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Re-nitrification first involves de-nitrification.

Never put unseasoned compost near a plant.  It needs to decompose.

Also, the bunny litter on top tends to discourage the critters

that would love to dig up the slimy fruits and veggies for a nasty feast.

Come next spring, the soil in these holes will be fertile and full of worms.

This is my dirty way of preparing for spring as everything dies.

FLOWER surviving the fall.