Each Little World

Goodbye for real

I have not been able to fix — or get Typepad to fix — the problem of pictures dropping out of my blog. So I have decided to take it as a cosmic sign (ha!) that it is time for me to say goodbye. I will leave the blog up and my email is on the top right so you can continue to say hi when you feel like it or if you are in town and want to stop by the garden. I've been blogging for 16 years and I want to use my time and energy for other projects. I've made three Blurb books while the blog has been down and I wrote my obit among other things. (I'm not sick or anything; just wanted to do it!). Now I'm ready to get back to drawing and making collages. 

Thanks for all your wonderful comments, cards, letters and visits over the years. My best wishes to all of you.

Flowers picked in my garden on February 15th, 2024. 

Holiday greenery

I spent the afternoon of December 8 in the garden as it was unseasonably warm. It was a lovely day to work outside if you didn't assume climate change was responsible for the temperatures in the low 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

I wandered the garden with my clippers cutting evergreens to fan out around the big Mark Skudlarek plate by the front door. There's a long rolled-up tube of chicken wire curving behind the plate to hold the stems of the greenery.

Many of the evergreens in our garden are now mature enough that I had no qualms about cutting a few small branches off of any one of them. I ended up with the most mixed display I've ever had, using clippings from seven different evergreens. 

The mix includes Arborvitae, both Canadian and Japanese Hemlocks, blue Juniper, Scots pine, Russian cypress and an unknown lacy yellow Chamaecyparis. I put the Canadian Hemlock branches in with their silvery blue undersides showing for more contrast. 

I love how the blue tones echo the color of the plate.

I added a string of battery powered mini lights and then decided it needed something more. I tried a few still bright Allium seed heads.

But that bright pink seemed a bit much. So I calmed it down with a few bigger and much less colorful Allium seed heads and am generally pleased with the result. 

The only downside is that I learned via a discussion on the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society FB page that the professionals said not to do any trimming while it is this warm. They noted the trees and shrubs are not dormant and the fresh cuts could prove harmful.

I love the education I get on that Wisconsin site, but I sure wish the subject had come up before I went clipping here and there. 

A Pattern Language

Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" is a book about architecture, community and design solutions that came out of UC-Berkeley in the 1970s. I own a copy and have skimmed it over the years. I love patterns and recently kept noticing them, no matter where I was or what I was doing. So this is my "pattern language."

Winter bulbs: Amaryllis

For many years I got a big order of Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs. I've always liked the fragrance; though Mark was less of a fan. I used to put multiple pots of them in the front hall. I loved coming from the cold outdoors and being hit by an explosion of flowers and fragrance. I still have the containers and the pebbles I used to hold the bulbs in place, but it's been years since I bothered with those blooms. I also kept Amaryllis bulbs going and growing for multiple years and then got tired of them as well. 

But I decided to try my hand with Amaryllis again after seeing them in the charming Arthur Parkinson's book earlier this year. It's a gorgeously inspirational book (and so is he)! After much online searching I found a source for three bulbs of the variety 'Mandela' that he displayed in the book. It's a deep, dark red and a far cry from the sweet 'Apple Blossom' bulbs I used to grow.

Until I pulled this pot out of the cool front hall closet, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch these bulbs from day to day and even hour to hour. This is what 'Mandela' looked like on November 13th. The pot is in front of a wall of south-facing windows with the curtains drawn to modify the light level.

Arthur Parkinson used willow twigs to create a "fence" to help support the big Amaryllis blooms. 

I used a handful of late season pruning twiglets as you can see on this photo from November 15th.

After we had our roof and gutters blown free of leaves and debris in preparation for winter, I rescued all the tidbits of moss that came down onto the driveway. I thought they would be a fanciful addition to the Amaryllis pot. November 21st.

November 24th at 6:45 a.m.

November 24th at 4:30 p.m.

November 25th

November 28th at 8:30 a.m.

Given the dramatic differences in the heights of the stems and stages of the buds, I should have flowers for quite a while. I am already thinking about summering theses bulbs in the garden; letting them get bigger and bigger and more and more dramatic for next winter.

Wordy Wednesday

It's been a sunny and chilly week here and that pattern continues in our 10-day weather forecast. It rained a bit Monday night and turned into wet snow by morning but it quickly melted away. My rain gauge is plastic so it's been put away for winter and I am left guessing about how much moisture the garden actually got.

This weather is typical for this time of year, so I am not complaining after the summer and fall we've experienced with its clear signs of climate change. The Weeping Beech is one of the few trees in the garden still holding its foliage. The color has gone from deep gold when I took the photo last week to a rusty orange. 

Mark recently decided what types of photography most interests him and what cameras he wants to use longterm. Thus he sold off a number of cameras, lenses, film developing equipment and more. That was after doing a major clear out of his bookshelves. I caught the bug from him and took two loads of books to our local library sale and a big donation of all kinds of items to St. Vinnie's.

It's a drop in the bucket when we look at all the books and art we own, but it felt freeing and a good way to prepare for a few months mostly spent indoors.

We're going to relatives on the other side of town for Thanksgiving. It's an easy drive and we were assigned an easy dish to bring. So it will be a relaxed holiday. Hope yours is as well. 

IVOM: The goodbye bouquet

Last Wednesday, before the weather changed, I clipped a crazy assortment of foliage and flowers and made a giant bouquet. Partly it was a test to see what plants have the potential to last in an arrangement, but mostly it was just fun to grab a bit of everything. 

Toad lilies and Aconitum are the main flowers here, along with fading Agastache 'Blue Fortune' and Eupatorium 'Chocolate.'

I've never cut a stem of Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' for a vase as they make too important a statement in the garden to do that. But they were about to bite the bullet anyway, so I did it. And now I know it works well in a display. Here with Arum italicum and the underside of a yellowing Hosta leaf.

The view from the other side shows the beautiful red backs of the hardy Begonia foliage and the sori on the ferns.

I couldn't resist trying a big Rodgersia leaf which didn't last too long. Not surprising given how far gone it was when I cut it. The stems on Anemone 'September Charm' were so long they just wanted to keep flopping. So I let them.

When I brought the display into the house, Mark insisted on taking a photo with me to indicate what a large bouquet it was. I look like a woman who has spent a week fighting a cold and had to cancel her haircut appointment so she wouldn't pass on her germs. 

From one extreme to the other

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny autumn day, so I took advantage of the weather and got the last spring bulbs planted. We met with our arborist about getting the big Honey Locust over the house pruned. And Mark cleaned the garage — after doing the same in the basement the day before. The high hit 79°.

The weather had the Crocus pulchellus in full bloom. It was a thrill to walk up the steps to the Tea House and see how they're finally spreading around. 

The rain forecast this week is mostly missing us. But I'm sure the overnight lows into the 20°s this weekend are not going to pass us by. So I walked around the garden in late afternoon clipping all sorts of foliage and a few flowers to make a goodbye to the garden bouquet. I'm definitely not ready to say hello to the next season.

IVOM: Compositions for company

Mark's book group met at our house last night. These guys start their meetings with pie and ice cream before they dig into the book they've just read, so I got a treat as well.

I decided the meeting was a good excuse for me to cut some flowers for indoors. The overnight lows are creeping downward and I want a chance to enjoy anything that is flowering before they get hit by frost. 

I brought in this Begonia boliviensis 'San Francisco' to see if it's anything I can overwinter. I cut it back a bit and did an early Halloween display with the prunings. I love its long drooping stems dripping with these big bright blooms.

My Monkshoods are dramatically tall this year and have just started to open in the last couple of days. I thought it needed a spray of equally dramatic foliage. This leaf is from Begonia 'Cotes de Cotillion' that I overwintered and am going to try doing it again. Currently it is an immense plant that make a gorgeous statement by our front door. 

These flowers are typically a very dark blue, so we'll see if that still happens once they're cut. They look a little pale to me. I love to watch the blooms open down the stem starting at the top.

The bench by our front door has a small orange pumpkin on each seat. But it's this big blue/gray/greeny squash that is my Farmer's Market prize. I love these subtle colors which perfectly echo the ceramics.

Not IVOM . . .

but a grouping around a plate by the front door instead. The weather and the squirrels have small Oak tree branches hitting the driveway daily. As I was picking them up I was struck by the warm beauty of the leaves. I put them into the roll of chicken wire that I sculpted around the back of this big ceramic plate. 

I added a few dried flowerheads of Oakleaf Hydrangea along with Allium and Thalictrum seedheads.

Though I usually appreciate asymmetrical design, every time I glanced at this display it bothered me. But the driveway was bare. Then Mark and I went for a walk on the new paved path on our street and I found a few more stems to add.

I'm much happier with the way this looks now. Of course, I'm not sure how long the Oak leaves will stay so colorful and fresh but it's fun for now. 

The full view of the display space next to our red front door. This area is a tiny wind tunnel and is always fulll of leaves, thus the bamboo broom.

GBBD: 9.15.2023

Too little rain, too many days in the 90°s and now too cool and cloudy. It means a lot of flowers are half fried and many are not yet blooming. But the road work is nearing an end and it's pleasant gardening weather, so I'm not really complaining. However, as a result of the weather, I did decide to just use this recent vase as my Bloom Day offering.

It is filled with sprays of the massive Thalictrum 'Splendide', Agastache 'Blue Fortune', Anemone japonica 'Max Vogel' and the first flower of Tricyrtis 'Togen.'

Also in bloom in the garden are Anemone japonica 'September Charm', Kirengeshoma palmlata, Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy', multiple varieties of Heuchera and Geraniums and swaths of Calmintha nepeta ssp. nepeta.

The more pleasant weather has seen me working in the garden for hours at a time: Watering, weeding, pruning, deadheading and working on beds where I ripped out half the plants last fall and need to get them replanted to my new design before the weather cools down too much.