Aunt Ruth's Award-Winning Amaryllis!

"Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul."  The Koran  

Photo Credits Paul Butler

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• AUNT RUTH'S AWARD-WINNING AMARYLLIS!
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

Daffodils

Merry mum!

AUNT RUTH'S AWARD-WINNING AMARYLLIS!
Well, I am SO excited to present this post today as we have been eagerly awaiting this topic! My Aunt Ruth is an award-winning gardener who is known for her amazing amaryllis! Today she is going to share with us her secrets to growing those beautiful flowers!


We are trying a new thing! A Podcast! For those of you who don't know what a podcast is, it's like listening to the radio interview of someone. So,bear with me, it is my first attempt at podcasting and I have no idea what the results will be! You have a couple of ways you can access this information. You can either listen to the podcast (hopefully it will work on your computer), you can read a written synopsis of the podcast, or you can click on the link and download the audio file to listen to on your own device.


1. PODCAST Here is the link to the actual podcast.


2. Here is the written synopsis:
Aunt Ruth was originally given an amaryllis in 1976 as a Christmas present. She was hooked! Soon, she was buying her own; in fact the very next one she bought (just in a bin) ended up being a Best of Show winner!

Best of Show 1990

The Dutch people brought amaryllis from Africa and started them in the United States. She has them in many colors -red to red orange white, mini red, pink, salmon and  white with red stripe, to name a few.

When growing your amaryllis, she picks a location that gets morning sun from the East and afternoon sun from the West. She waters once a week.

From  December to January she feeds liquid Miracle Gro to them once a month. She feeds them their favorite snack, compost tea!They do not handle the frost so she covers them when there is danger of frost.

 Although the amaryllis like to be crowded, they shouldn't be TOO crowded and need to be repotted if this happens. Put into a pot with soil halfway up the bulb. When parting out older bulbs, be sure to wash the bulb off so you can clearly see the smaller mini bulbs as well. She had some as small as her thumbnail!

When you get a Christmas bulb or kit, those are 'forced' bulbs, or ones which are forced to bloom before their regular bloom time. So, for example, if you received an amaryllis at Christmas 2011, it will not bloom again until Spring 2013. Their regular bloom time is the end of March, April or May. In direct sunlight or Santa Ana wind conditions, the blooms will last about a day. In the shade, blooms will last a week to ten days, but take longer to bloom.

Aunt Ruth and Amaryllis Friend

If you are lucky you can sometimes get two stalks at a time. You must be patient! She had a mini-amaryllis that did not bloom for 18 years! She finally told them, "Okay fellows!If you don't bloom this year, out you go! I'll give your spot to someone else." Well, they bloomed! (Guess they heard her!). 

Once they bloom be sure you use snail or slug treatment immediately as every snail within 100 miles will be ready for dinner! She recommends Sluggo, or using crushed eggshells around the plant (a great alternative if you have pets or are going organic!).

 Her favorite memory about amaryllis was when her garden club friend moved and gave everybody at the garden club bulbs to plant. She had planted them straight in the ground at her house and when they bloomed, there was a drift of them and they looked so pretty!


So, with a lot of patience, you will be rewarded with beautiful flowers for all to enjoy!


3. Here's the link to the audio file if the above podcast would not work for you.

 GARDEN GIGGLE

You Might Be White Trash IF...

• The Halloween pumpkin on your porch has more teeth than your spouse
• You let your twelve year daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids
• Last year you hid Easter eggs under cow pies
• You've been married three times but still have the same in-laws
• You think someone who is 'out of your league' bowls on a different night
• Anyone in your family ever died after saying "Hey y'all, watch this!"
• Your sister's hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan
• Your Junior/Senior prom had a daycare
• You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off its wheels
• You had to remove a toothpick for your wedding pictures
• One of your kids was born on a pool table
• Your toilet paper has page numbers on it
• You have flowers planted in a bathroom fixture in your front yard

FAUNA

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!

Those-Those-Those Numbers Again!

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies" Gertrude Jekyll

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• GARDEN UPDATE
• THOSE-THOSE-THOSE NUMBERS AGAIN!
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

Mountain Laurel

Pansy                   

GARDEN UPDATE

Just a wee note to bring you up to date on how things are going. Last night it was 25F and good thing everybody was snug under their covers! The bulbs, of course, were delighted and are popping up all over. First wave will be the tulips, now that the narcissus are fully grown. We have been enjoying our fireplace and our neighbors cleaning up their yard made us nice and cozy with those dead branches! We try to use almost everything we can salvage from our garden and there is so much garden waste from the wind and frost we make good use of it.

THOSE-THOSE-THOSE NUMBERS AGAIN!
Well, yesterday we learned the unlock codes for the big three of fertilizer-Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. I also mentioned there are other minor nutrients that plants also need. Let's look at those.


CALCIUM-MAGNESIUM-SULFUR- Some fertilizers contain these important elements, some do not. They are in most soils. Calcium and sulfur enter the soil in other garden products: lime(calcium), lime-sulfur fungicide and soil conditioner(calcium and sulfur), gypsum(calcium and sulfur), superphosphate(sulfur) and other soil sulfurs used to acidifying alkaline soils.


WHAT THEY DO- Calcium plays an important part in cell manufacture and growth, as most roots must have some calcium right at the growing tips. Magnesium forms the chlorophyll molecule in the cells of green leaves. Sulfur acts with nitrogen in making new protoplasm for plant cells.


IRON-ZINC-MANGANESE- Iron is essential to chlorophyll production. Manganese and Zinc seem to function as catalysts, or triggers to help absorb the other nutrients

 

Now that we know what makes up fertilizers, how do you choose the right one? The first thing to learn is the differences between the types of fertilizers. Let's look at some of the different types of fertilizers.


DRY FERTILIZERS- These are the majority of fertilizers sold. You sprinkle or spread them on plants, rake, scratch or dig them in. Dissolving when they contact water, the granules start their fertilizing actions quickly, and can last several months.

LIQUID FERTILIZERS- Easy to use, especially on container plants, and nutrients are available to the roots immediately. They are more expensive and less practical than solids because they must be applied more often and the roots use them up more quickly. All are made to be diluted with water. Some are concentrated liquids, others are powders or pellets.


COMPLETE FERTILIZERS- Any fertilizer that contains all of the primary nutrient elements- nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium- is called a complete fertilizer. Say a label says 10-8-6. You would know that this fertilizer contains 10% total nitrogen, 8% phosphoric acid and 6% water soluble potash.The higher the numbers in the analysis, the stronger the concentration of fertilizer. And the higher the concentration (of nitrogen especially) the less you apply at a time. But if you want only the benefits of say, nitrogen, you should choose a simple fertilizer.

SIMPLE FERTILIZERS- The simple fertilizer contains just one of the primary nutrients. Most common are the nitrogen only products, such as ammonium sulfate (21-0-0).


INCOMPLETE FERTILIZERS- These contain two of the primary elements such as a combination of N and P, N and K, or P and K.

SPECIAL PURPOSE FERTILIZERS- These are ones who do the guesswork for you. Examples would be 'azalea food' or 'camellia food' or 'rose food'.

ORGANIC FERTILIZERS- The word 'organic' simply means that the nutrients contained in the product come from the remains, part of the remains or a by-product of a once-living organism. For example- cottonseed meal,bone meal,manures, blood meal, etc. In general, the organics release their nutrients over a fairly long period. One drawback is that they may not release enough of their principal nutrient at one time to give the plant what it needs for its best growth.

 

Although manure is a complete organic fertilizer, it is typically low in N-P-K(1-1-1). Manures are best used as mulches or soil conditioners. We always mix our soil with either cured horse manure or chicken manure.


CONTROLLED RELEASE FERTILIZERS-  These beadlike granules are balls of complete fertilizer which are coated with resin. When moistened, the fertilizer diffuses through into the soil, a little bit with each watering.


STICKS, STAKES and TABLETS- These contain compressed fertilizers. You push or hammer sticks or stakes into the soil or drop tablets into holes. These release nutrients gradually, dissolving slowly in the presence of water. These are especially good for getting phosphorus and potassium into the root area of established shrubs and trees.


COMBINATION PRODUCTS- These are fertilizers combined with insecticides or weed killers or fungicides.

So when choosing, just remember what you are looking for- Nitrogen helps green leaves and foliage; Phosphorus promotes strong roots and helps flowers, fruits and seeds; Potassium brings healthy growth. Flowering and fruiting plants need higher phosphorus, while green shrubbery need less phosphorus but more nitrogen. Know your plant and then choose your type of fertilizer! If in doubt you can always consult sources online or the Sunset Western Garden book. After this, you have mastered the secret codes and now you're the one others look at in the garden section of the store!

GARDEN GIGGLE

A New York city yuppie moved to the country and bought a piece of land. He went to the local feed and livestock store and told the owner how he was gonna take up chicken farmin'. He then bought 100 chicks. "That's a lot of chicks" the owner commented. "I mean business" the city slicker replied.

A week later the city slicker was back."I need another 100 chicks" he told the owner. "Boy, you ARE serious about this chicken farming". The man replied "Yeah, I am, if I can get a few problems ironed out." "Problems?" asked the feed store owner. "Yeah", replied the city slicker,"I think I planted that last batch too close together."

FAUNA

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!

What do those-those-those numbers mean?

"Gardeners know the best dirt."

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• WHAT DO THOSE-THOSE-THOSE NUMBERS MEAN?
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

Purple Stock

Apricot Blossom

 WHAT DO THOSE-THOSE-THOSE NUMBERS MEAN?

 Although some of you are garden experts, I have to admit I'm totally clueless when it comes to understanding those mysterious numbers-numbers-numbers on the fertilizer and plant food bags. I see people in the store importantly reading those numbers and I wonder if it's a secret club, where you learn the unlock codes if you join.Well, I wanted to be a member, so welcome to learning those secret codes and what they mean.

 

In addition to light, air, water and growing space for roots, plants need a supply of nutrients. Most of these are provided by the soil. But there are three major nutrients that plants need in larger amounts for consistently good growth. They are:

• NITROGEN (N)
• PHOSPHORUS (P)
• POTASSIUM (K)

Besides these top three nutrients, there are six minor nutrients essential to plant health. When poor growth reveals a deficiency, you'll have to add it in form of a fertilizer. Let's look at each one.

NITROGEN- Nitrogen is not naturally found in soil, but rather comes from decomposing organic matter, air or fertilizers. Rainfall can carry nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil; but conversely, it can also leach nitrogen from the soil in a rainstorm due to run-off.

Plants use large quantities of nitrogen to form proteins, chlorophyll and enzymes needed for plant cells to live and reproduce. When nitrogen is low, leaves yellow from their tips toward the stem, the plant yellows from the bottom upward, and the growth is stunted.Many plants need supplemental nitrogen from time to time in order to grow as well as we wish they would.

The first of three numbers shown on a fertilizer label indicates the percentage of nitrogen. In the natural course of nature (without fertilizer) nitrogen that comes into the soil as either dead animal or plant material must undergo several changes before it becomes the nitrate form that plants can use.

Here is where it pays to read your fertilizer or plant food label! If a fertilizer's label says that all or most of the nitrogen contained is in either nitrate or nitric form, nitrogen will be released quickly and plants will be able to use it immediately. But if most of the nitrogen is in ammonium form (ammonium sulfate, for example), nitrogen release will be slower-taking anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months- but should be more sustained once it starts.

Then there is ammonium nitrate, which consists of half ammonium nitrogen and half nitric nitrogen; it therefore yields some of its nitrogen quickly and some slowly.

PHOSPHORUS-The second secret code on the fertilizer label is phosphorus. It is listed as available phosphorus acid. Unlike nitrogen, phosphorus does not dissolve and move through the soil for the roots to absorb.The soil has to 'give it up' and it does so reluctantly. The soil, mixed with the microscopic film of water releases the phosphorus ions to the soil particles in small amounts. As the root tips grow into contact with the soil, they absorb the phosphorus the soil has released in that area. Usually it is not enough to satisfy the plant so the roots grow into another area to get what they need, and the cycle starts again.The release of phosphorus into the soil particles by the soil can affect the plant's rate of growth.Therefore, the most effective way to use a fertilizer with phosphorus is to concentrate it where the roots can get to it. For established trees and shrubs, use fertilizer sticks, stakes, or tablets.

 

POTASSIUM- The third secret code on the label is potassium. It can be described in various ways, including available or soluble potash or water soluble potash. Plants remove from the soil more potassium than any other nutrient except nitrogen and calcium.

Potassium exist in soil naturally in several forms. Plants can't use most of natural soil potassium, except about 1%, called exchangeable potassium, which acts an important source for plants.Exchangeable potassium is not soluble until changed by a slow weathering process. However, roots can pick up exchangeable potassium from clay or humus particles. Like phosphorus, potassium is only effective if placed near the roots.

Tomorrow: continuing with those-those-those numbers!How do you choose the one that's best?

GARDEN GIGGLE

A farmer was driving along the road with a load of fertilizer. A little boy, playing in front of his house, saw him and called "What've you got in your truck??"

"Fertilizer", the farmer replied.

"What are you going to do with it?" asked the little boy

"Put it on strawberries," answered the farmer

"You ought to live here," the little boy advised him. "We put sugar and cream on ours."

FAUNA

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!

Disco Bee

"Eat honey, my child, for it is good." Proverbs 24:13

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• GARDEN UPDATE
• DISCO BEE
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

   

Apple Blossom

Daffodil

GARDEN UPDATE
Sorry if some of you who access the blog by e-mail were unable to view yesterday's video. I hope you know you can always scroll down to the very bottom of this blog where it has the subscribe info, and there will be a link to go directly to the online version. I know my Blackberry will not do Flash, so some of you might have had problems viewing. If you did have problems and still want to view that video, here's the link to see it on You Tube.


Today I planted freesias so they could get a little more cold-in-ground time. The onions I planted back in January? are about 2" tall. I also planted more rhubarb, and was delighted to see my other rhubarb coming back.I'm going to use Aunt Ruth's great tip to freeze some rhubarb so we can have that killer rhubarb sauce in the winter when you cannot find any in the store. I added to my new indoor edible garden, with new lemon balm, spinach and basil. I have to say it sure was lovely having fresh thyme at my fingertips for cooking!


The apple, apricot and peach trees are all in bloom and the bees have bee-n busy, busy! As I was trying to photograph one close up today, it buzzed at me, and I said, "Sorry, know you're on a mission!"



DISCO BEE
Yesterday we learned all about how bees make honey; But did you know bees can dance?


It has long been known that successfully foraging bees perform a dance on their return to the hive, known as the waggle dance, indicating that food is farther away, while the round dance is a short version indicating that food is nearby.

In 1947, Karl Von Frisch, correlated the runs and turns of the dance to the distance and direction of the food source from the hive. The orientation of the dance correlates to the relative position of the sun to the food source, and the length of the waggle portion of the run is correlated to the distance from the hive. He learned also that the more vigorous the display is, the better the food. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973 for his discoveries.

In 2004, a scientist named Dr. Zachary Huang found that pheronmones play an important part in how a honey bee colony figures out who does what job. In order to survive, a bee colony of sometimes 50,000 to 100,000 individual bees has to be adaptable to the seasons and the availability of food. While the division of labor in a bee colony is quite complex, the work is pretty much broken down into work outside the hive and work inside the hive. Younger bees take the jobs inside the hive while the older bees are working outside the hive mostly as foragers.


Huang found that forager bees gather and carry a chemical called calledethyl oleate in their stomach. The forager bees feed this pheromone to the worker bees and the chemical keeps them in a nurse bee state. The pheromone prevents the nurse bees from maturing too quickly to become forager bees. As the forager bees die off, less of the chemical is available, allowing nurse bees to become foragers.And the cycle goes on...


Before we leave our subject of the fascinating bees, I must take a wee look at another bee, the Carpenter bee. We have several of these in our garden, and they can be destructive, as they are SO big, they chew a nest hole to burrow in.

Carpenter bees make nests by tunneling into wood, vibrating their bodies as they rasp their mouths against the wood, each nest having a single entrance which may have many adjacent tunnels. The entrance is often a perfectly circular hole. The Carpenter bee does not eat wood; rather, they discard the bitten bits of wood, or re-use the particles to build partitions between cells. The tunnel functions as a nursery for baby carpenter bees and a pollen/nectar food pantry for them to live on.

 

As a final wrap up, did you know bees can see in color? Tests and experiments have been done that prove bees can differentiate between certain colors, which helps in their identification of flowers, mainly which type of flowers would have the most pollen or nectar. Green seems to be the one color they have a problem with because very few flowers are GREEN!

GARDEN GIGGLE

BEE JOKES

Where do bees go to shop online?

Bee-Bay

Where do bees go on vacation?

to the bee-ch.

Why was the bee drummer kicked out of the band?

She couldn't keep the bee-t

Where do bees cook their dinner?

on the bar-bee-que!

What did the bees say after dinner?

that was bee-licious!

FAUNA

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!

Show Me The Honey!

" A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside" Winnie The Pooh

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

• JUST BLOOMED TODAY
• SHOW ME THE HONEY!
• GARDEN GOODIES~FOAMING VANILLA HONEY BATH
• GARDEN GIGGLE
• FAUNA
• FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

POPPIES

    

 Crocus

SHOW ME THE HONEY!

Have you ever wondered how bees make honey? Yesterday we learned about how bees collect pollen from flowers to feed their young bee eggs to become larvae. Bees also collect nectar from flowers.

As the female worker bee sucks nectar from flowers it is stored in her special honey stomach which she uses as a 'nectar backpack'. This is separate from her other stomach although there is a valve she can open if she gets hungry. 

After visiting 1000 to 1500 flowers, the honey stomach is full and almost equal in weight to the bee herself. At this point she returns to the hive, where she is greeted by other workers ready to relieve her of her load. A mouth to mouth transfer is normally done between a field bee and one of the hive bees.

 

 The bee receiving processes the honey in its mouth and honey stomach by the addition of enzymes that break up the complex sugars into simple sugars that is more digestible to the bees. 

 

After processing the honey with enzymes, small droplets are deposited on the upper side of the one of the cell walls in the hive, where it will be turned into what we know as honey. When it arrives from the bee it is nearly 80% water and must be evaporated by the heat of the hive (typically 95F degrees) and the movement of air across the honey combs. Leaving nothing to chance the bees actually control the movement of air by fanning their wings- that is the buzzing sound you hear at night when it seems no bees are present. The end result is honey as we know it, at 17-18% moisture content. Hope you can view this great video!

In the peak summer hours a worker bee literally works herself to death visiting flowers and transporting the previous cargo back to the hive. During this intense time getting ready for the approaching winter, a worker bee lives only 35 days. At the end of her days, her wings are so frayed that her usefulness is over and she is rejected by the colony.
Tomorrow- Do bees see in color


GARDEN GOODIES
Foaming Vanilla  Honey Bath (SHARE OUR GARDEN RECIPE #002) 
Makes four luxurious baths


(1) cup of sweet almond oil, light olive oil or sesame oil may be substituted
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup liquid soap
(1) Tablespoon vanilla extract


Measure oil in a medium bowl, then carefully stir in remaining ingredients until mixture is fully blended. Pour into a clean plastic bottle with tight fitting stopper or lid. Shake gently before using. Swirl desired amount into bathtub under running water- then step in and descend into a warm, silky escape! 


GARDEN GIGGLE

BEE JOKES

What do bees chew?

Bumble gum

What is a baby bee?

a little humbug

What did the bee say to the other bee in summer?

Swarm here, isn't it?

  

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Honeybee.

Honeybee who?

Honeybee a dear and get me a soda.

FAUNA

 

FEEDBACK

 

As always, we would love to hear from you! Please share here; Or find us on Facebook!