Kaseys Korner

'Black Panther' Streptocarpus

I thought about starting this post out with something exhilarating like "there's a 'Black Panther'  lounging on my kitchen counter," but I knew I couldn't fool you.  Besides, if there was truly a feline of that nature in my house, I would not be on the computer.  You can bet your best perennials on that.  However, there is a 'Black Panther' of the Streptocarpus nature blooming by my kitchen sink ~ I even have proof:

I can tell you, it's soothing my already winter-weary gardener's soul and it's a lot less threatening than the feline variety! 

Have you noticed how anything dark purple, automatically gets assigned the name "black?"  Everything I've ever grown (from tulips to iris & violas, etc.) that are supposed to be "black" turn out to be deep purple.  Not that I'm complaining ~ I just find it interesting.

If the lighting isn't as good, the blooms can appear to be rather black (as in the photo above).  The moment the sun hits tho, they are decidedly purple!

 

I'll probably continue to purchase plants prefaced with that color since they intrigue me ~ I have no idea why??  Experience tells me not to be disappointed tho if the flower doesn't bloom true to the name.

Maybe someday I'll be in for a surprise?  There's always the possibility.  That's the fun of the hunt, right?  Have you had anything bloom in that elusive of all colors??  I'd sure love to hear so I can track it down!

How to thrill your cat

in one easy step ~ no subscriptions to "cat TV" required.  Here's how ~ you're on the edge of your seat, aren't you!??  Sow some cat grass seed.  No matter what other expression you think you might see, let me reassure you, this is the face of one ecstatic cat:

Oh yeah.  He's just discovered a brand, spankin' new container of freshly sprouted cat grass.  Planted with love.  By his human Mom.  :-)  Life is good.

Chow time. 

"Mom" is happy to do this for him.  It keeps him from snacking on her other houseplants (with exception of occasional deviate behavior ~ remember when he chewed the orchid buds???)  And grass growing in a glass container is pretty: 

Don't you think??  (Check out the water droplets clinging to some of the blades)  It also keeps his digestive track healthy so "Mom" doesn't wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of vomiting...  You all know the sound.  Ugh.

 

Let's not forget how therapeutic it is.  Sowing seed off and on all winter keeps a gardeners mind healthy, wealthy and sane.  Cheers to that.

Everyone's happy here...at least until the grass is gone.

A Halloween trick

definitely not a treat ~ this one compliments of Mother Nature.  The weathermen (and women) were right ~ drats.  I was hoping they'd be wrong (as often happens) but unfortunately not this time.  It started snowing almost right to the predicted minute and is still snowing as I type.  So far, we have approx 12" on the ground, (maybe more?) and it's not supposed to stop until tonight.  I took a couple pictures of the birdhouse (standing in my doorway) but haven't ventured out yet.  I'm hoping not to until it stops! 

It looks more like winter than fall, doesn't it? 

The pumpkins are toast.  We can forget about winning any carving contests this year unless we go out and purchase new ones.  Maybe we should just tuck away the Halloween decorations and pull out Christmas??!!  No, we won't go that far but I did do what I often do when it snows ~ a little papercrafting!  Usually I make cards but on occasion I'll still scrapbook like I chose to do yesterday.  I don't know what it is about creating a summer layout (on a wintry day) that makes me feel instantly better?  Maybe seeing, touching, and feeling the pictures transports me back to my favorite season?  I don't know.  I selected the swallowtail photos because we hardly saw a butterfly (of any kind) in the garden this summer.  I thought they deserved to be preserved.   The results of my creative time are below but I did want to say (before you take a peek) that I don't usually have to resort to this sort of therapy until much later in the year! I hope it's not a sign of what's ahead...

I don't know why I did this the old fashioned way ~ scanning and stitching the two halves of the layout together instead of photographing the whole page??  I guess you get the idea either way?  Maybe I'll go back and photograph then edit this post??  Sometimes my mind doesn't work right the first time around... FIXED IT!!  Besides the photos, I really love the June calendar card ~ I added the color to it using chalks.  They were one of those supplies I bought then realized the moment I got home they were already "out of date."  The year on the 12 month set was 2008.  arrggg.  I hate when that happens.  Instead of tossing them, I decided to cover the year and use them anyway.  Cute (and true) message on the card too, don't you think?

 

While we're doing close-ups, let's take a better look at the title:

I'm going to have to keep staring at this layout all day instead of looking out the window ~ maybe it will convince me that we're still in "sweet days of summer?" 

It'll do (for now)

referring to my makeshift winter "greenhouse" which is really my bathroom.  Since I don't have a real greenhouse (still on my wish list) I have to make do with the best light in my house.  Wouldn't you know it's in the master bathroom?  We'll take what we can get, right?  The small hallway is lit up by one large, glass block, south-facing window and one smaller east facing window.  Both windows are letting in considerably more light since my new neighbors revved up their chain saw (the photo below was taken on a cloudy day and you can see how bright it is).  While that's positive for my winter assemblage of bulbs and tropicals, it's still a sore subject with me.  Enough said ~ why did I even bring it up??  For optimum storage, I place both of my 3-rung vintage step ladders side-by-side then load 'em up with amaryllis, clivias, orchids & cat grass (you have to keep the cat happy so he won't chew on everything else, right?):

There's even one tiny sprig of a 'Triloba' passion vine that I'm nursing along.  I hope it can make it indoors since it failed miserably outside.  Passion vines and I did not see eye to eye this year because 'Maypop'  crashed on me too.  Back to the amaryllis, some are new while others are being "nursed" along (because they hardly produced any leaves over the summer to feed the bulbs).  Two in the latter category are 'Sumatra' and 'Night Star.'  Do you remember them from last fall/winter??  

(Sumatra)

(Night Star)

They both have exotic spidery flowers so maybe they need a different treatment than the bulbs I'm more familiar with??  Jump right in if you know the answer ~ I'm a willing pupil.  Otherwise research is in order to learn more about their care requirements.  They were so stunning in bloom that I'd hate to lose them.  All the sleeping my daughter is doing during her recovery has allowed me to get the new amaryllis bulbs planted up & the old ones re-potted:

The four bulbs pictured above are new and will give me something to look forward to over the long winter months.  Included in one of the pots is my first ever double amaryllis!  How fun is that?  Something else exciting is the discovery of a bud on my only 'Paph' orchid.  I bought it for 50% off this spring (because it had just finished blooming) so if I can get the bud to blooming stage, it will be my first time seeing the flower.  Good thing I have everything settled in because our weatherman forecasted 10" to 20" of snow over the next two days.  Remind me again what season are we in?? 

ray of sunshine

A quick update for all my friends and family (those that don't already know) and my blogging buddies as to my recent absence from the blog.  My only precious daughter (16 yrs old) came down with the H1N1 virus two weeks ago.  After three days of typical flu syndromes it seemed she was on the road to recovery and we could forget about the scare of contracting it.  Unfortunately, several days later, her fever returned and we ended up in the back of an ambulance, being transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at our local Children's Hospital.  She spent a very long, excruciating week in critical care and I have to say I was scared to death at times that she might not pull thru.  Thank goodness, I can now tell you she is home, finishing her recovery in a familiar, comfortable environment. 

I've never been afraid of the flu before but I can say from here on out, I will have a healthy respect.  The complication of pneumonia is what really took her down.  The hospital was full to capacity while we were there, something they said doesn't generally happen until January and it was so sad to see so many very sick kids.  The Intensive Care Unit was eerily quiet despite every room occupied ~ most of the kids on ventilators.  I said a million prayers during that week and thank all of you who did too.  I am hopeful she will continue to improve each day and we won't have to go back.  The Brugmansia bloom above was waiting for me in the garage when we arrived home on Sunday.  (I put it there before we left to save it from the snow)  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seemed symbolic ~ like a  ray of much needed sunshine....  

fall makeover

Poor vintage wheelbarrow.  It's glory days of summer are over.  I knew the time was coming (although no matter when it happened, it would be too soon for me).  Let's look backwards (one more time) so we can "ooh" and "aah" over it in its "prime:"

Wasn't that just beautiful?  It hurts my heart (slight over-exaggeration) just looking at it.

But seriously, it was very sad when I looked out the window yesterday morning to see this:

Boo hoo.  There was no way I could leave it looking like that.  Too, too hard to see.  Replacements were sought:

and replanting began:

Wait, wait, wait.  Something was wrong.  The new arrangement was not coming together to my liking.  It took some standing back, a few "walk-arounds," and an hours rest until I figured out what the problem was ~  the small mums were not to scale.  Very important, scale.  Let's try again and let's also move it around to the front flagstone patio where it can show off properly:

Aaahhhh, SO much better.  Now I don't feel quite so bad about losing my summer plantings.   The sting of dead zinnias has been soothed.  We have moved forward into the season. 

Let's hope we can enjoy it for a while without winter creeping into the picture too early....

the "patriotic" container

A first for me.  I've never used our countries flag as inspiration for a planting combination before but I'm proud of the concept.  Maybe that could be the theme of our container challenge next year?  We could spice things up by choosing either state flag colors or country colors.  I guess we have a lot of time to iron out those details, don't we?  Meanwhile back to my "patriotic" container ~ planted in the black pedestal pot ~ it contains only three different plants; Brachycome 'Blue Star,' White Calibrachoa, and Salvia Greggi 'Navajo Bright Red.'  This is another case where the parts might be greater than the whole?  or the more likely scenario is it was not photographed well.  I should have pulled it away from the evergreen background so the container was clearly outlined.  This photo was taken about a month ago ~ the Brachycome is done blooming so it's impossible to re-shoot.  I wish I could.  Besides moving it, I would wait until it wasn't in full sunlight.  *sigh*  A cardinal sin.  I should know better!

I do think I could "represent" better next year if we choose to use this theme.  I like the individual annuals but I'm not sure they mixed well?  I did enjoy the affect white Calibrachoa made tumbling down the front:

 

and these two photos of 'Blue Star' Brachycome make me smile even tho they are in soft focus rather than sharp:

 

Salvia Greggi is an "iffy" perennial in my zone 5 garden.  From time to time it winters over but the times it doesn't far outweigh those lucky years.  Because of that, I tend to use it as an annual instead of counting it among the perennials.  It definitely won't overwinter in a container so these will be lost:

They look decidedly more pink then red in this photo, don't they?  Let's chalk that up to "fade out" not another photography mistake!   There you have it, my "true to the red, white & blue" container.  I hope you enjoyed it (or at least the idea behind it).  :-)

Autumn pinks

No, that's not a typo.  I meant to type "pinks" even tho I realize the current season is not generally known for this princess color.   However, count on me to ferret some out, if they are there, and believe me, they ARE there.  A plethora of pinks as a matter of fact.  That makes me happy since the rest of my surroundings are turning increasingly russet.  I thought my favorite mode of photography (macro) would be a perfect way to appreciate/view them ~ starting with Clematis 'Josephine' ~ a lone bud in the "birdhouse" container:

I sure hope she makes it thru the winter ~ she's been touch and go since I purchased her ~ causing me a lot of anxiety about her well-being.   I wanted her specifically to be a container vine but I'm not convinced she's thrilled about it?  I've seen her growing in some of your gardens but don't remember where everyone located her?   In the ground or in a container?

I think Catherine has her in a pot (if I remember correctly)?   How about anyone else? 

Two dahlias are next on the list.  The first is 'Bonne Esperance' ~ a miniature single dahlia (blooms about 1" in size) also in the "birdhouse" container:

 

There was some lovely back-lighting going on when I was photographing her.  I think it was to offset the odd angle of the bloom and how difficult it was to get a good focus.  'Rosita' on the other hand, was much easier to capture:

I think she has diva qualities ~ maybe well deserved?!  It's a shame my dahlias waited until this late in the season to produce the most blooms.  Right when frost lurks at every twilight.  Maybe it's a good thing tho?  If they'd been this stunning all summer you all would be sick of seeing them by now! 

Here's one tho that maybe everyone hasn't featured ~ a Begonia anthole bud:

 

Blooms are airy and white but the beautiful shell-looking buds have this salmon/pink cast to them prior to opening.  A bonus I didn't realize ~ it was the large, textured foliage (with a reddish edge) that propelled me to initially purchase it.  Now, why didn't I photograph that?  Oh, I was focused on finding pink.  Maybe I can go back to that?  When I photograph the whole container ~ which includes only one other plant ~ a pale pink fuchsia (that I am too lazy to find the tag & properly name at this moment):

The final pinks are the shrub roses (unknown variety).  I tried something different with them this year.  Instead of deadheading all the spent blooms at the end of June, I only pruned half of them.  I've tried an assortment of methods over the years, from doing nothing to pruning everything.  Last year (when I pruned everything) I hardly had any hips because the frost got to the buds before the second bloom time.  The new cautious approach has paid off ~ I have some fall blooms but also have a crop of hips for winter interest. 

I think I'll stick with this method again next season.... 

Sunday chores

Yesterday was a "bling" day.  Maybe because I spent 3 to 4 hours painting (can you believe there's anything left to be painted in my house??) I felt "entitled" to a little shopping spree?  Somehow I ended up with a LOT of sparkly baubles, I wish they were the real thing, but for now I'll make do with imitation.  ha.  Like there's any other choice.

oh yeah.  That's what I'm talking about.  I warned you I was a "girly girl" in the meme post.  I wore almost every piece to dinner last night except the necklace.  Talk about a sight.  I best quit while I'm ahead.  Today, I think I'll get back to chores, sans shopping.  It's safer, right?  and necessary since my bulb order (from John Scheepers) arrived last week.   I don't want to give any bulbs a chance to dry out as an excuse not to bloom next spring!  One thing that didn't arrive with my order are the new amaryllis bulbs I also purchased.  I try to add one or two to my collection each year.   In preparation for their arrival, I purchased this cool 4 piece pot set with tray:

I think it's going to work great for the bulbs.  I like that 4 bulbs can be grouped together yet the individual pots can be turned independently of each other.  I've planted bulbs together before and invariably one gets leaning too far one way and the others are not which makes it difficult (if not impossible) to keep them growing "straight."  This seems like a great solution and purchased for 50% off retail price.  Can't beat that.  The pots are part of my Sunday chores as well ~ re-potting my existing amaryllis bulbs ~ brought indoors before the frost last week.  The bulbs will receive "haircuts" then be planted in fresh potting soil before being stored in the dark.  It's that time of year.  Then I'll hope like crazy they stored enough energy to bloom again this winter.  I know most of them did because of the number of leaves they produced but one or two have me worried...

PS  I will not be planting bulbs in my new bling ~ just in case you were worried.  :-)

the back patio

features a whole line-up of containers, the most noteworthy of those being the "birdhouse" container.  I know I showed it to you earlier in the season (and I've showed you "parts" or macro shots since) but I thought you might like to see it once more before the frost gets it? 

It's the same as many of my other containers, pretty much devoid of impact.  Next year I seriously have to plan better.  Clematis 'Josephine' is in this container and I've decided I need to wrap some wire/netting around the post for her to climb on.  Originally I stapled some of the vines onto the post & birdhouse but those vines all died.  Another method needed to be adopted.  'Josephine' is starting over now and has one (almost open) bud on it.  At this point, I've just let her run amuck among the rest of the foliage in the container.  Other plants in the container include (1) Gardenia (back of the container), (1) Dahlia 'Bonne Esperance,' (1) sweet potato vine 'Blackie,' several Pink snapdragons & (2) White tuberoses (not currently in bloom).  Here's a look at the entire line up staggered along my fence line:

That just looks like a big green mass, doesn't it?  Let's take a look from a different angle:

Aaahh, that's better.  Now you can see actual pots.  From left to right, 'Black & Blue' Salvia container, 'Lemon Star' Thunbergia obelisk container, Veronicastrum container, Agapanthus 'Peter Pan' (in small pot), the featured "Birdhouse" Container, a 2nd Agapanthus 'Peter Pan' container and the "New Zealand Flax" container (shown individually in an earlier post).  Next year I want to do something with this fence to make my back patio more private.  I'm thinking of a stone/rock wall ~ maybe with a fireplace in the middle (that last part could be just wishful thinking)??  but that is a project to be pondered over the long winter months. Oh, one more photo before I close, the 'Lemon Star' thunbergia container just because my cute doggie is in it:

I've had this container planted similarly before and the thunbergia grew so full and thick you couldn't see the metal of the obelisk thru the foliage.  As you can see, not so this year.  Another "casualty" of our cool, wet summer.

PS  A big thank you for all the encouragement about the blog.  I will keep you posted about my decision.  Maybe I just need to discipline myself and apply limits to computer time so that the rest of my life isn't getting derailed?