A Visit to N's Garden - I have a question?

How dare Fall leave so abruptly!

These photos were taken October 6.
I was visiting a new friend who shares a lot of my same interests...
artwork, gardening, food... ;-)

This is "N" beside a zinnia!
Have you ever seen one grow this tall?

A view of their retaining wall.

This plant is a relative of the celery plant.
Do you know what it is??

Perhaps "N" will remember... check out
the straw-like stem! You can use it for a straw. :-)

Hey Frances! Look here... another hypertufa!
"N" attended our workshop this past Spring at my house. :-)

We need to get her set up with soil and plants...
perhaps Next Spring.

I'm going to schedule a post for Thanksgiving... otherwise, I won't be on-line until after my family goes home. At which point, I will be missing them sorely! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you're celebrating with family and/or friends and that you are able to enumerate many, many blessings for which you can be thankful! :-)

Am I Thankful? You Betcha!

Thankful for this Messy Basement?

Absolutely!

Let me explain. There was no hot water for my husband's shower Tuesday morning...

No Hot Water??

Uh, oh.

We raced to the basement... and yes, the water heater had "gone out."

Don't you think someone would invent a bell tone or buzzer that would sound before something like this happens?

At any rate, there was a little creek of water that had flowed from the water heater across the south part of the basement, under the walls and into the carpet areas.

It had soaked about 1/3 of this area when we found it. Mr. Shady began using his shop vac and I ran to the phone to call our wonderful plumber/friend. Then I began using my steamvac to draw out water.

In the meantime, our wonderful plumber/friend rode up on his white stead (pickup), surveyed the situation and left for his shop to get a new, energy-efficient model he had in stock. Before you could say "Jack Robinson" 50 times (lol) or so, he had returned and began removing the old and replacing with the new!

It took about 3 hours of vacuuming before I was unable to get any more water out of the carpet. Enter our new dehumidifier and a couple of fans...

By 10:00 P.M., I was able to run around downstairs in my stocking feet without picking up a hint of moisture. Hurrah!!

The Old

The New

The entire situation could have been So Much Worse. Given that thought... I am Very Thankful indeed! :-)

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - late

Today's weather forecast predicted rain at 100%. You can see that it was accurate!

But indoors, that second Christmas Cactus was blooming...

Here's an overhead view of the backside of the plant.

Did You Know? - The Latin American rain forests are the home of what we call the Christmas Cactus. They are widely available in Brazil. The genus name of the Christmas Cactus is
Schlumberger, but there are several cultivars. For example the Christmas and Thanksgiving plants are actually different cultivars.

The quickest way to tell the difference between the two plants is by looking at the stems. Thanksgiving cacti have tooth-like notches and soft spines along the the edges of their stems. Christmas cacti have rounded notches on the margins.

My plants seem to be the Schlumbergera truncata (Thanksgiving Cactus) and not a Schlumbergera x buckleyi (Christmas Cactus). They are supposed to bloom around Thanksgiving, and they're being very good at it! :-)

You can propagate holiday cacti quite easily by removing a single segment and planting it a quarter of its length deep in a pot filled with slightly sandy soil (it also helps to put some kind of rooting hormone on the base of the cutting). Place the pot in a well lit area (but not direct sunlight) and keep the soil moist. The cutting should begin showing signs of growth after two or three weeks.

Oh, oh! I forgot to ask my friend Joan the name of this begonia, today.
We found it last Summer on an excursion, and we each purchased one!

Here's the one flowering orchid...

And here's another with a new shoot... Yea!

Yep! Late again, but I really wanted to get this post finished before 24 hours had passed! ;-)
Happy Bloom Day - Late! If you haven't visited Carol at May Dreams Gardens, head over there (click on her name) to see who else has already posted!

Randy and Meg's Video

I just couldn't help myself! I visited Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise today... and found the Youtube video below. You will enjoy the video. I hope you don't mind my reaction, below! :-)

One little ladybug, looking for fun,

Decided the dragonflies needed a run!

She got their attention, I'd say, rather heartily
When on their heads, acorns dropped smart-ily.

Offering the challenge, she presented "raspberries,"
And led them a chase, more intensely than merry.

Her pursuers, outfoxed, they dropped here and there
While our little ladybug, it seemed, tired nare.

When at last one lone dragonfly had pursued her,
She dropped down to gather her breath.
Our little dragonfly lighted beside her,
And wondered, I'm certain, "What's next?"

All of a sudden, out of the blue,
a small band of ladybugs appeared, it is true.

The poor little dragonfly took off like a shot,
and the ladybugs chased him... and likely as not,

They'd gained a victory o'er that fly, But
A thousand more dragonflies just happened by...

You might wonder what, as this sonnet does end,
lesson those li'l red bugs might just rend?

Perhaps they would tell us,
"Hey! When you go out to play,
Don't tease the big fellows---
They might chase YOU away!"

PS There are quite a number of related little videos you may enjoy over there...
Thanks, Randy and Meg!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Nope!

This is not a post about Friday the 13th.
It's only about what I did that day!

I accompanied a group of young people (9th graders in our Church confirmation program) and our minister to Des Moines (Iowa's capital) to visit the state office building and a long-time ministry downtown.

This is the Bidwell-Riverside Center. It operates a preschool for neighborhood children, as well as a food and clothing distribution center. Correct me if I'm wrong, kids, but I believe he said the Bidwell Center itself has been in operation since 1893... with clothing and food available for area residents in need.

We're pretty close to the State Capital building. I really used my zoom to get this close-up!

We were outfitted with gloves, rakes and yard bags.
Our job was to clean up outdoors!

Here are two of our fellows on duty! :-)

Maybe I haven't been doing so much just lately in my yard,
but it felt sooooo good to be able to clean someone else's flower beds!

One of our fellows was grabbed by some "stick-tights!"

At least, I THINK that's what they were...

... but somehow they looked as though they could be ALIVE!

We did make it back in one piece. We actually had a great day! (At least I did. I'm glad they invited me to join them.)

Oh! P.S. This is what 1,500,000 Campbell's Soup labels can purchase!

A nice, silver vehicle.

Nothing at all "shady" here! Have a great weekend!

Check Out the Blooming "Christmas Cacti!"

Looks as though I should have cleaned my tabletop before taking this photo!
Lots of pollen all over! :-)

The cactus in the foreground bears light pink blossoms. I picked 34 spent blossoms off the plant (and table top) before I took this photo! Perhaps you can see there are still buds?

I have included a lot of information about what we normally call the Christmas Cactus below. My comments are in dark, bold, italic print. You can also visit this site... Purdue University Extension service.

Christmas cacti are not only popular holiday gift plants, but they are also the subject of frequent debate among gardeners. There appears to be much confusion about these unique tropical cacti regarding care, maintenance and, especially, on how to get them to re-bloom. The following tips address the most frequently asked questions.

Christmas cacti will keep their blossoms longer in cooler temperatures. Keep the plant in a well-lit location away from drafts from heat vents, fireplaces or other sources of hot air. Drafts and temperature extremes can cause the flower buds to drop from the plant before they have a chance to open.

Christmas cactus is a tropical type plant, not quite as drought tolerant as its desert relatives and, in fact, may drop flower buds if the soil gets too dry. (This happened to my pink flowering plant, as it got a little too dry while I was out of town last week.) The plants will wilt when under drought stress. Water thoroughly when the top inch or so of soil feels dry to the touch. The length of time between waterings will vary with the air temperature, amount of light, rate of growth and relative humidity. (I always keep a plastic tray under my plants... sometimes even putting a layer of rocks in the saucer, under my plants.)

The plant does not particularly need to be fertilized while in bloom, but most gardeners enjoy the challenge of keeping the plant after the holidays for re-bloom the next year. While plants are actively growing, use a blooming houseplant-type fertilizer and follow the label directions for how much and how often to feed.

While the Christmas cactus can adapt to low light, more abundant blooms are produced on plants that have been exposed to more light intensity. Keep your plants in a sunny location indoors. Plants can be moved outdoors in summer, but keep them in a shady or semi-shady location. (This is why, in the Summer, I place my plants outdoors in a bright, shady location.) Leaves may start to turn a bit red if exposed to excessive light. Too much direct sunlight can actually burn the leaves or may cause them to become limp. When it's time to bring the plants back inside in the fall, slowly adjust the plants to life indoors by gradually increasing the number of hours they spend indoors each day.

If your plant tends to dry out and/or wilt frequently, it may be time to repot the plant into a slightly larger container. Well-drained soil is a must for Christmas cactus. Use a commercially packaged potting mix for succulent plants or mix your own by combining two parts plain potting soil with one part clean sand or vermiculite. (My plants have been in their same pots for about three years. I believe I'll re-pot them to slightly larger pots this Winter.)

Pruning your Christmas cactus after blooming will encourage the plant to branch out. Remove a few sections of each stem by pinching them off with your fingers or cutting with a sharp knife. These sections can be rooted in moist vermiculite to propagate new plants. (I've never pruned my plants, but starting new ones sounds like a great idea!)

Christmas cactus will bloom if given long uninterrupted dark periods, about 12 hours each night. Begin the dark treatments in about mid-October to have plants in full bloom by the holidays. You can place the plants in a dark closet from about 8 P.M. - 8 A.M. each night for 6-8 weeks or until you see buds forming. Christmas cacti will also bloom if they are subjected to cool temperatures of about 50 to 55 degrees F, eliminating the need for the dark treatments. Plants should be blooming for the holidays if cool treatments are started by early November. (Because I've never done this, my plants bloom whenever they want... last Winter they each bloomed 3 - 4 times!)

(Mr. Brown Thumb, of Chicago, has provided this information. It might be interesting for you to determine the type of cactus you have!) Other species of holiday cactus bloom at different times of the year and have slightly different growth habits. Christmas cacti have scalloped stem segments and bloom at the stem tips. Thanksgiving cacti have 2-4 pointy teeth along the edges of the sections and will bloom earlier than Christmas cactus if left to natural day-length. Easter cacti have rounded teeth along the segments and bloom primarily in the spring but may also periodically re-bloom at other times of year.

The above subject contains only slightly shady topics. ;-)

That's It! That's All She Wrote! Finis! (I think...)

In Yesterday's post, I'd mentioned stretching fine, plastic "deer fencing" over the leaves used as mulch on several of my flower beds. This same fencing is often sold for stretching over ponds in the Fall - to keep out the fallen leaves. This is what it looks like (below).

You might want to click on the photo below to enlarge it.. so you can see the netting.

Tah-dah! My raking is completed! I know the yard won't stay this pristine,
but whatever happens now... happens. :-)

Perhaps if you click on the photos below, you'll see more detail. There's a bed at the left of the shed. The Woodland Walk begins at the right side of the shed. The Backyard Center beds are in the foreground on the left of this photo and stretch into the next two photos.
The LUMP of leaves by the shed, mentioned in yesterday's post is gone... the ravine is in the "Way Back"... again, if you click on the photos, you'll see it.

There are flower beds all over. But I've finished raking!

The only thing that occurred to me this afternoon was... perhaps I should find some very low, inexpensive fencing to put in the center and at the edge of the Woodland Walk to keep the leaves from blowing off.

I was not able to stretch the fencing over these beds. Too many trees. ;-)

Nothing Shady here today... the leaves are nearly fallen!
Have a great week!