The Variegated Thumb

Last year I transplanted all of our Irises from various places in the yard to one central location around the light post in the middle of our backyard.

Two tone iris - Sorry I don't know the name.

At the time, it looked pathetic, but I knew all of those rhizomes would sprout new leaves and fill out the area. This year, the irises definitely filled the area with green. There weren’t as many blooms as I would have expected, but we did get two Irises to bloom.

My pups sure know how to stop and smell the irises

Simple white iris

I’m hoping for considerably more to bloom next year!

The last time I showed you the brick garden path, it looked like this:

Brick path back in mid-March

Here are some updates, now that the sod has been laid and plants are established.  Right around the brick path and along our back porch, we laid fescue sod, which is doing really well.  We also seeded in the area surrounding that and our grass seedlings are starting to blend in with the sod so the harsh corners of the grassy area are now rounded off and extended to a broader area.

Completed brick path and garden around the greenhouse

In the garden between the brick path and the greenhouse we have planted Blue Star Junipers (Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’), Gauras (Oenothera), Pieris (Pieris japonica ‘Valley Rose’) and mouse tail plants (Arisarum).  You can also see in the picture above that I have pulled out many of my plants from the greenhouse, my potting bench is in getting use and there are pots all over the place.

Blue star juniper (Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star')

The Forsythia is all green now, with the yellow blooms of Spring gone.  But the Gauras (Oenothera) have established themselves well and are covered  in really nice pink blooms.

Gaura (Oenothera), Juniper (Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star') and Forsythia

Opposite the Forsythia bush is a variegated Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense ‘Variegata’), which I think really helps carry the feel of the garden around the corner with the brick path.  The Privet is in the olive family, Oleaceae.

Privet bush (Ligustrum sinense 'Variegata'), which helps your eye round the corner

The Privet has been blooming, although you wouldn’t know it unless you were looking at it as closely as I have been.  The flowers (pictured below) are tiny and have a sweet fragrance if you get your nose right up on them.

Extreme close-up of the Privet bush (Ligustrum sinense 'Variegata') blooms

I already told you about the orchid I purchased at the OOS show and sale a couple of weeks ago.  I promised pictures of the show, so here they are!  I wasn’t quite as snap-happy as I can be sometimes, so the number of pictures is not overwhelming.  Just 64 decent pictures of some really nice orchids.

2011 Oklahoma Orchid Society show and sale - click picture above to view photo album

I’m getting my photo album posted to the blog just days before attending my first OOS meeting.  When I was at the orchid show, I decided to join the OOS.  Hopefully I’ll have something to post about the meeting next week.

A friend of mine from the International Aroid Society recently offered seeds from his Anthurium pallidiflorum plant.  He sent me a package of about 10 seeds and I took them out to my potting bench to get them started.  It was a windy day and before I knew it I was searching the ground on the back patio for these seeds.  They aren’t small, but they also weren’t easy to find.  In the end, I could only find two of them.

Anthurium pallidiflorum seedlings - April 9, 2011

I started the seeds on March 21 and started seeing signs of growth just a couple of days later.  When I received the seeds they were still coated in a bit of fruit, so I first removed that by squeezing until the seed came out.  Then I sifted my potting soil to remove any large particles.  I moistened the soil and then laid the seeds on top.  Next I put the entire pot in a ziplock bag and sat it on the kitchen window sill.  Every couple of days I open the bag and mist the soil surface with my sprayer which includes a couple drops of apple cider vinegar.  This keeps destructive mold from growing in this very humid environment.

Anthurium pallidiflorum seedlings - April 23, 2011

It wasn’t long before I realized another lump of green on the surface, so I brushed the dirt aside and found that there was a third seed in the pot.  The third seed has been sprouting a little more slowly, having been partially covered by the soil.  You can see the hint of green in the picture above.

Hopefully these seedlings will continue to grow at a rapid pace, but I have noticed they are already slowing down.  When Anthurium pallidiflorum is a mature plant, it grows long, pendant leaves.  You can see a picture here.

I’m not quite sure what sparked this project, but on Friday evening when I got home from dinner I was feeling creative, so I made good use of some sticks in our yard.

My homemade orchid basket

First I broke sticks by hand into similar lengths. Then I used a pair of pliers to snip the ends so they were a little more regular. I searched the garage for a while until I came across an old roll of wire. This was perfect because the wire was rusted and blended in with the wood even better – one of the advantages of living in an old family house!  After just about 30 minutes of work I had made a hanging basket for an orchid.

Edge of the orchid basket, where you can see the wiring a little better.

I think it turned out pretty nice for my first one and that I’ll make some more soon.  The orchid that’s in the basket in the picture above is Stanhopea wardii.  Stanhopeas are ideal for hanging baskets because they produce blooms that hang below the plants.  Other orchids actually produce their bloom stems from the roots, hanging down, which makes the open slats in the basket perfect (assuming the plant is directly in the basket, without a pot).  I really only have one or two orchids that require (or appreciate) a hanging basket like this but we have a lot of limbs and sticks in the backyard and I would like to hone my skills.  I think I can make the next one sturdier than the first model.  Maybe someone in the orchid society will want one…