| Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - 04:50 pm: |   
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One small sprout in
pot #17
Cyclamen alpinum |
| Posted on Sunday, March 06, 2005 - 04:14 pm: |
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3 cyclamen with husks that stuck on and crippled the cotyledon are growing leaves from the swelling at the base. One is clearly a leaf, one is just starting to unfold and the third is just poking up a stem with a nub at the top. I tried to keep the seed heads moist but it was no go for these. It's good to see them taking hold anyway. (pot 5 mirabile, pot 10 hederifolium, pot 12 coumb)
Several clematis have seedlings !!! -- some look normal (though small), others are grey-green and don't look good -- one of those is quite large -- wish I'd caught it earlier, but they are almost impossible to see. Six pots altogether; five are Barb_i's, one is Brian's.
Some pots had moldy seed which I removed with the nearby soil & grit.
I'll record more details tomorrow and take pictures later in the week. |
| Posted on Wednesday, March 09, 2005 - 03:44 pm: |
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Two of the pots of clematis definitely have seedlings: #4 (Alpina, possibly "Willy") and #7 (Blue alpina), both from the seeds Barb sent. |
| Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 12:29 am: |
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Cooler temps are predicted, so, since the soil finally thawed yesterday, I thought it wise to put Helleborus "Ivory Prince" into the ground. He'll brighten up the spot south of the front steps. The pansies removed for this purpose went into the space I had just made when digging up the creeping mint for Maggie. I hope to mail the mint off tomorrow morning.
The iris reticulata also went into the ground today, north of the front steps. And KK gave me two big pots of asters which I planted just south of the back porch steps.
The new daylily went in along the east fence, between the big orange poppy and the chrysanthemums.
Nelly Moser is showing some green buds. Looks like she's survived thus far, anyway.
I dug carrots yesterday. They're not as good as spring carrots usually are, but I've bought worse at the supermarket.
The clematis seedlings are looking good (alpinas).
... and one of the cyclamen has a second leaf coming (tiny stem, extreme left).
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| Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 06:02 am: |
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Ann, why not post your cyclamen updates in they cyclamen forum too? I am sure Tim would be happy to see your progress and Guff would be interested too. They look like they are doing well. |
| Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 07:59 pm: |
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The new daylily is "Pardon Me", a red mini that blooms early and long, with rebloom expected. |
| Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 09:57 pm: |
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Here are the plants that we brought back from our adventure meeting Zephirine in Richland/Pasco.
Helleborus Ivory Prince has been in the ground several days and still looks good:
The blue iris reticulata have finished blooming but the purple are still smiling at those who approach the front steps.
And the thrift (sea pink), rock cress and peony remain to be planted.
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| Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 06:53 pm: |
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Three seedlings have appeared in pot #6 labeled "Pink Flamingo." |
| Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 11:09 am: |
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28 cyclamen seedlings potted up yesterday.
26 clematis seedlings to do today (I hope!). |
| Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 11:50 am: |
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What a busy lady you have been! The hellebore is beautiful and I am so envious that you are out in the garden already! Each day the snow melts a bit more and maybe by the weekend I will be able to see my hellebores too.
Did you take pictures of your cyclamen to post on that forum? |
| Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 10:48 pm: |
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Yesterday -- creeping mint edging had its spring clip. String trimmer has a bad bearing. Awful noise. Awful job anyway -- good it's only needed once a year.
Long day today. Rebekahs' float for St. Patrick's Day Parade. Decorating, Finding rides for people. Sorting out the test for the UN competition.
The peony Karl Rosenfeld is planted out in the space where Terry (DH) dug out that humongous white yarrow yesterday.
The cyclamen seedlings are all still upright and looking good. In fact, I think they've grown a little.
And today the 26 clematis seedlings went into their pots.
3 pots #6 (Pink Flamingo) (short round pots)
11 pots #7 (Blue Alpinas) (5 tall round pots, square pots 1-7)
11 pots #4 (Alpina, possibly "Willy") (square pots 8-18) |
| Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 11:47 am: |
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All the seedlings still look perky ths morning. Hooray.
As I plant things, I've been noticing how plentiful the earthworms and nightcrawlers are this year, very different from last year. |
| Posted on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 04:39 pm: |
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Yesterday was transplant day. I transplanted 36 of the cyclamen babies into individual pots, and did the same with the Clematis florida from Brian Collingwood that Suzy sent. I brought them up to Huckleberry Mountain, and they still looked OK this morning. There are 11 more cyclamen awaiting transplanting but I am out of pots. Also six African violets have rooted and must be potted. I did get the zephyranthus bulbs into four large pots (finally!) and also repotted the amaryllis which had split into 6 bulbs.
I now have 119 cyclamen seedlings. Eight have lost their leaves -- 7 of those have nice little corms, but the eighth may have bit the dust. I'm not giving up on it, though. Only one seedling has achieved a third leaf, and many of the leaves are turning yellow, going dormant, I suppose. They are still very tiny, but they were overheated while we were gone in March/April, and never quite recovered. I placed the plants that went dormant in the cool room in the basement, and 2 of them sprouted new leaves, so I brought them out in the light again. I'll be more careful about allowing them to become over-warm.
I'm having a hard time just keeping up with trimming the yard, especially because all the edges must be done by hand since we brought all the long extension cords up on the mountain and I can't use the string trimmer. The 2/3 of the back fence near the prune plums has not been trimmed since mid-March. Anyone need a grass skirt? |
| Posted on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 07:53 pm: |
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Another Clematis florida has sprouted -- just barely. The root was lying on top of the soil and it looks a bit feeble.
But the real excitement is the sprouting of the first Menuet from SuzyMac. Thank you, Suzy!
... and an Alionushka from BarbI. I believe this is the first of those, also. |
| Valia Posted on Monday, December 11, 2006 - 08:34 am: |
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Fred: a serious dog, loyal and fastidious. He was four years old when he joined the Williams Pack on Huckleberry Mountain, June 30, 1985. Here he learned to run and leap. To watch him run would make your heart sing.
Fred was am obsessive navigator, always keeping track, always concerned that we might not be going the right way. A "one-person dog," he constantly guarded Anne, but he also learned to love and trust Terry. His only play was to pretend to be afraid of Fozzie the Cat. When Fozzie first came to us, he thought she had come from the treetops and he kept at least one eye turned upwards for a month or more.
Favorite thing: bacon. He had some last week. Least favorite thing: our Australian terrier, Alfie, the red wiggler, the worm in Fred's apple.
Fred's last years were diminished by severe arthritis, but he still found many ways to enjoy life. He died at about 5 AM MST, December 11, 2006.
Rest in peace, Fred. You will not be forgotten as long as we live. |
| Valia Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 09:31 am: |
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We're starting from scratch in so many ways. There's still Terry and me and Alfie and Fozzie, but the Ione house is ours no more and the Huckleberry Mountain house landscaping was completely destroyed by gophers, and the house so damaged by burglars. Terry is still having problems with the kidney stones/horseshoe kidney/urinary tract infection situation (he's scheduled for another lithotripsy tomorrow), but Dr. Last has managed to find ways to straighten out his digestive problems, which is like a miracle, and we have both recovered from the injuries in last year's accident (minor, but persistent and debilitating), so this fall I am going whole hog on the landscaping for the house in Southern Utah.
Last year, the only thing I did was to remove a humungous hunk of half-dead cholla from the front yard, plant three iris in the front yard and a fig tree in the back. Once the fig seemed established, I deliberately stressed it for water and it seems to have recovered well, so I'm hoping it will be drought-resistant.
This summer, we fenced (4' chain link) part of the back yard away from the dogs. Our new pup, Reinee, is very destructive. She loves to dig and chew. The new fence is close enough to the house so that, with a few additions, it will form a lattice for some vines, mostly annuals, which will provide much-needed shade for the family room window in spring, summer and fall.
This fall, with the dogs fenced out, I was able to plant some evergreen vines along the back fence, jasmines (Star and Asian) in a bit of shade and honeysuckles (Halls and Texas red) where there is more sun. We attached wire fencing to the back fence to support the honeysuckles, and looped it over the TuffShed (I'm so glad we bought this little garden shed!) to support the jasmines. All the vines are looking good. The honeysuckles have put out more leaves, and the jasmines have plumped up. I think the star jasmine even has a new leaf or two.
We also planted an Italian prune plum in the front yard, and a Damron raspberry along the east fence.
This last week I have been working in the front yard (north side of the house). I bought some daffodils (bulk) from the local nursery (Ballard's, where I bought the fig, the iris and the evergreen vines) and ordered two bulb garden sets from High Country Gardens, the "Hardy Mediterranean" and "Inferno". Beautiful bulbs; great people to deal with. I wrapped the shade tolerant bulbs around the arborvitae, so they can take advantage of an existing soaker line, and then spread the sun lovers toward the west and north, where they will be happier.
I tried to follow the diagram I drew up, but the lava rock/gravel made it hard to plant things quite as closely as recommended, so the beds spread out a bit. That's OK. It will look a little sparse at first, but if the bulbs are happy they will fill in the spaces, and if they are not, I will find other things to slip between them. It's good to have things to fill in after the bulbs have finished blooming, anyway. I'm thinking oenothera, for one, which does extremely well here.
Terry wants a pecan tree. I'll try to find a place in the back for it.
Along the east fence, I plan to put in a couple of pyracanthas, a crape myrtle, and some bramble fruit. I'd like to put something between the crape myrtle and the raspberries, but haven't figured out what, yet. |
| Lindablond Posted on Sunday, November 04, 2007 - 11:15 pm: |
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I'm so sorry to hear about your loss of dear Fred. He looks like a wonderful friend and companion. May he rest in peace, indeed! |
| Valia Posted on Friday, February 22, 2008 - 06:39 pm: |
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The first two crocus buds opened February 18.
I bought bareroot raspberries at Ballard's today: 3 Dorman Red and 3 Fall Gold. I hope to plant them tomorrow if the rain stops.
I pricked out the baby cauliflowers on February 19. Showers started that night and they are looking good.
I also filled the frog and swan pottery planters with primroses, pansies and snapdragons. All the planters need repainting very badly, especially the swan.
The pyracanthas look terrible. They looked dry when planted last fall. I have tended them carefully, but don't think they have made it. We'll see.
The one cyclamen purpurascens that still looks good of those I started from Tim's seed is surprising me again. I repotted it, and was worried when it didn't put out new leaves. But the corm keeps swellng and has almost filled the new pot, which is an 8 inch pot, twice as wide as the old pot. |
| Valia Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 05:25 pm: |
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The pyracanthas have leafed out and one is blossoming. I am amazed. The crape myrtle is looking good, too.
I bought several bags of bulbs at the dollar store and planted them without much hope. But 10 sparaxis are coming up, 6 brodiaeas and about a dozen gladioli. There are bare spots in the beds, but that is true of the beds with the more expensive bulbs planted last fall. I know cats dig out there and this is probably the explanation. Other GB's have suggested squirrels, but there are no squirrels here, or rabbits, though there are rabbits in the nearby hills. The only rodent (or lagomorph) we have here is mice, and the cats are numerous enough to keep them under control.
In the back, some brodiaea is showing. There was some sparaxis and ranunculus showing near the bird feeders, but the birds (or someone who hangs out near the birds) like a bit of salad with their seed. All but two if the morning glory and cardinal climber seedlings have been bitten off as have most of the squash and cantalope seedlings. The half-dozen nasturtium seedlings are looking pretty good. The laurel looks OK. Three corkscrew vines remain viable, but only one actually looks good. The two clematis floridas from Brian Collingwood's seed (via SuzyMac) look pretty good, and the cyclamen corm from Tim's seed keeps growing since I repotted it even though it still doesn't have any leaves.
Edibles: We have about 10 apricots and 5 plums showing -- these trees were planted last fall. The fig has small fruit. There are 2 cucumber vines, 3 squash plants and a heap of cauliflower plants. The squash plants have blossoms. Three cantalope seedlings are struggling along. There are a few carrot seedlings that didn't sink into the coarse material where I planted them. I added sand before planting, but it sank, too. I planted a few more with newspaper to help them keep their heads up, but the newspaper dries out too easily. I have some ideas on how to fix that.
We have eaten radishes and a few sugar peas. There are quite a few tomatoes (celebrity) on the vines, the largest about the size of small cherries.
Three of the four daylily seedlings (children of the plant Zephirine helped me pick out) have survived the winter. They actually look OK.
We planted a Chinese wisteria last week and have a nandina to plant. The wisteria is impressive. We planted it near the bird feeders. Let them make salad out of that! I also picked up some heat tolerant annuals to replenish the planters -- portulaca and lobelia. We've put two pieces of shade cloth up and this helps protect the hanging baskets to some degree. It also keeps the family room a little cooler as it shades the windows for a good part of the day. |
| Stormdancer Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 10:07 am: |
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Hi Anne...from reading your journal...you have made a permanent move to Utah to the mountain now? Hope you are enjoying what sounds like a beautiful place. Hate that you had your mountain retreat tore up by burglars...one of the things that makes you a bit wary of leaving much of value in a spot where you don't get to spend much time I'm sure. |
