Thank you, ace photographer-around-town Ema:
There’s a rumor going around that orchids are a BJ favorite. Good thing then that I visited the NY Botanical Garden and its orchid show.
(The red and yellow plant is not an orchid but I liked the way it looked.)
***********
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
eclare
The orchids are so gorgeous, thank you.
WereBear
And thanks for the Frank Zappa earworm. Though not like Mr WereBear doesn’t keep in constant supply…
HeartlandLiberal
Beautiful pictures of beautiful orchids!
Le Sigh. My gardening days are over, except for the potted flowers on our new small deck. I have spent the last week frantically trying to do final cleanup on our house of 30 years, which went on sale yesterday. I go back to do some final cleanup this morning. I leave behind a 2000 sq ft garden, plus an herb garden 12×6 ft, which I developed over the years. I sold my $1,000 rear tine tiller to a couple of brothers who were moving to rural area, and wanted to plant garden for both families. Got $200, considering it was 15 years old, but well maintained, that was a good price. On the plus side, the gardenia at our new house on the much smaller deck just bloomed, a glorious white blossom, so that is good. I think I may get a raised planter so I can grow herbs, at least, on the deck.
NotMax
Did someone say orchid? :)
(The line abut the rabbit foot cracks me up every time.)
Kristine
Lovely photos—thank you!
Yesterday I planted begonias in the front yard planter. I also found that last year’s not-very-successful transplant attempt of some milkweed from a friend’s garden was in fact not a failure. I counted at least ten plants at various stages. I also found a volunteer offshoot of one of my ninebarks that’s a good size for transplanting.
In bird news, both orioles and catbirds really like oranges.
Rachel Bakes
Didn’t know even think about taking out my camera in that show. Too busy gasping at the colors when we went.
Gvg
This week I found out that the disease intrusion greening is really finally killing Florida’s citrus industry. It’s been a big part of the states identity for generations and I thought it would always be here. Citrus greening showed up over 20 years ago and we fought it. In 2000 we produced 230 million boxes of citrus fruit. This year the estimates are something like 20 to 16 million. The factories are empty or closing. The groves are probably going to be houses. News programs are showing huge empty production facilities with very few trucks bringing in citrus. I knew the backyard trees were getting it and people were taking out the trees but we are way north of the commercial groves and I thought the research was making more progress. One of my trees has it. The fruit tasted awful. I have to spray the tree before I cut it down so the bugs don’t fly on per instructions. These tiny bugs are carriers which is how it spreads. Anyway, it’s a big blow to our state.
Florida used to way out produce other states in citrus. It wasn’t close. California has passed us now because we have dropped, not because California has increased. Citrus Greening has been found there also recently. Research into resistant trees is probably the only hope.
we also found predator species for the carrier but evidently not soon enough and California would have to do their own testing because they have a different ecosystem so the same predator might not be safe for them.
Our legislature hasn’t done much in the last decade on this. They did try in the beginning before Trump. Actually I think 911 thinking screwed a lot up. Not enough focus on local state issues.
There has been a lot of denialism in regular people too. My parents have been denying that their trees have it for 2 years but the news got through to them and they are having their citrus trees cut down soon. They loved giving away bags of oranges to friends for all these years and ignored the signs when we told them. Orange trees have been so easy to grow till now. It is fun to have loads of fruit. I gave always fruit at work to students and coworkers for decades and loved getting the thanks.
satby
Great photos ema, thanks!
@Gvg: That’s really sad. I hope research eventually finds an effective way to fight that disease though it probably will come too late for a lot of the groves.
MomSense
Beautiful orchids!
MomSense
@HeartlandLiberal:
With all of your experience, I wonder if there is a community garden nor school garden project that could use a pair of green thumbs.
MomSense
@Gvg:
Damn that’s just so incredibly sad. I had no idea that it was happening until my dad said something about it when I was visiting in March.
Did the state do anything to try to combat it?
satby
I got seriously carried away with the summer bulb sales and had to buy a lot of pots to plant them in. Today’s chores will be to plant 8 dwarf cannas plus the leftover few I still need to plant from last year, and plant the gladiola bulbs I bought, then give away all the extras to my neighbors. I had heard coffee grounds was a good squirrel deterrent, as is clove powder, so I put one or the other one the beds I planted already and it’s working so far. Many of the Starbucks stores put out bags of used coffee grounds for gardeners, in case anyone else wants to try. Also great for acid soil loving plants.
satby
@MomSense: What a great suggestion! Which I’ll have to remember for when I downsize some day.
OzarkHillbilly
Wonderful pics Ema, muchas gracias.
I got the last of my flower beds sown this week, started work on the veggie garden yesterday. I’ve got a “little” more clean up to do but will get the maters and peppers in the ground today. The cukes and melons sown too, I hope. The beans and sunflowers on Tuesday I hope. Gonna try gourds again. They’re supposed to be easy to grow, right? Right???
JPL
The orchards are gorgeous!
Geo Wilcox
@satby: Cayenne pepper and cinnamon work well too. Those spices also keep away a lot of harmful bugs.
MomSense
@satby:
My neighbor who started our neighborhood composting and gardens got a grant to teach elementary school students how to keep bees. He has several schools who have bee hives and all the gear. He works with them and they v produce a lot of honey. They absolutely love it and he really enjoys working with them.
Princess
@Gvg: that’s terrible news. Florida citrus tastes so much better than what comes from anywhere else. When my mother was a child, she’d get one orange a year, in her Christmas stocking, for a treat. Looks like we’re heading back to those days.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Doc H
Oooo orchids – I love ’em! Beautiful photos – yay!! Back when I was building naturalistic (and regionally approp) vivaria for my poison dart frogs, Andy’s Orchids was the the go-to for small species orchids. I took a southward bend from my usual route this February to pay Andy & co a visit in Encincas CA – it was worth it! Flickr photo album here.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m beginning to think the only way I’ll get the out of control back raised beds usable again is to call in a tactical nuclear strike and start over 😥. This may be the year I just use a ground clearing herbicide and then solarize the whole thing until next year. Nothing else has worked because I can’t be out there weeding daily. I’m so fed up with trying to save the plants I want it may be easier and cheaper in time and money to start over.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
sab
@satby: Rent some goats.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Some times, giving up is the smart thing to do.
Baud
@satby:
Two words. Hard Scaping.
satby
@sab: I’d have to own them to keep up. And this is a city, even though it’s small: no farm animals.* Edit: I have over the last 7 years paid twice to have it completely cleaned out. But inevitably due to multiple years worth of weed seeds and rhizomes the disorder creeps back in; and then explodes during the dog days of August.
@OzarkHillbilly: Beginning to feel that way.
@Baud: covering with concrete has crossed my mind 😂
MomSense
@satby:
I’m heading towards concrete as well. Tried to work in the yard and ended up covered in ticks.
satby
@MomSense: THAT WOULD DO IT FOR ME TOO!!! Yikes. Just the thought gives me the creeps.
Kristine
@MomSense: it’s chiggers here in NE Illinois. I brushed my jacket-covered shoulder against a branch the other day, and almost immediately felt the sting. They’re so small they slip right through the weave.
We have ticks too. But the chiggers are unavoidable.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: @satby:
The ticks are really bad this year. I am pulling 1 or 2 off every day (the itching gives away their game) as well as picking off a half dozen travelers. If history is any kind of guide, their numbers will begin dropping in a month or so.
I got my fingers crossed.
eta: @Kristine: Chiggers are the devil’s spawn, absolutely the worst kind of torture one can endure.
oldgold
@satby: Until recently, I used to fight. Then, I woke and adopted the Tao method of lawn and garden care. I now live in harmony with the mystical source of everything and go with the flow.
For example, this Spring I purchased 10,000 pounds of Glechoma hederacea seed. If that is what my yard wants to be, I will assist it being so.
The neighbors are not happy. They said we thought you sought enlightenment by sitting on a koan meditating and doing nothing.
My response, that was Zen, this is Tao.
Quinerly
Gorgeous pictures!
Thanks for posting.
O. Felix Culpa
The orchids are beautiful! Thank you for the photos, Ema.
After selling our Little House on the High Desert with the extensive native plants garden we developed in the front and extensive vegetable garden we labored over in the back, we vowed to eschew (1) homeownership and (2) extensive gardens. So this year we bought a house with a tidy but ultra-spare garden–think lots of brown bark mulch, some large rocks, and 2 plants in about 300 sf–and guess what we’re working on! I went to the local plant nursery a few days ago and might have overbought a bit. This has turned into “amend the soil and plant the damn plants weekend,” and I have the aching back to prove it.
O. Felix Culpa
@oldgold:
Snort.
MomSense
@oldgold:
👏👏👏👏
WereBear
@oldgold: LOL
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
💚
WaterGirl
@ema: beautiful orchids!
@Kristine: Congrats on your milkweed!
WaterGirl
@MomSense: shudder!
WaterGirl
@oldgold: oh my god, you bought and planted creeping charlie???
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: Howdy! Been trying to catch up with you. Let me know if/when you want to meet up in ABQ. We’re going out of town for a few days to visit my younger son, but will be back after Memorial Day.
MomSense
@satby:
@Kristine:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Heebie Jeebie scale is off the charts. It’s raining today and I’m relieved of feeling I should be out in the garden.
I’m going to deep clean inside because I’m sure some of those tiny motherfuckers are in the house.
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense: Eek. Good luck!
oldgold
@WaterGirl: Yes, I am going with the flow of the universe.
But, I also bought a few pounds of bluegrass seed. I planted that in the driveway and sidewalk cracks.
Quinerly
Good Morning! As I said above, these pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Reminds me of the yesrly Orchid Show at Mussouri Botanical Garden. (That garden is a must if you are ever in St. Louis. I really miss it) Hope everyone has a great day! We had a full day of rain Friday. The first 24 hr rain since I moved here in April, 2022. So amazing how everything greens up at 6700 ft after a soaking rain. My new cactus garden (all cuttings that I took from my little acreage) is in full bloom. First year for it and I am thrilled. Another “Flagstone Sunday” here and building a short latilla fence to add a wind break for this new “winter” patio on the SW side of the house, in JoJo’s side yard. I bought some more ice plants and sedums to add to the rock garden in this new patio area and more chocolate daisies and Apache plume to add to the mulched area. The Home Depot in Santa Fe is much better on plants than Lowe’s here, but Plants of the SW is my true guilty pleasure. I’m adding more ornamental grasses from there along the latilla fence in this side yard since critters ate every sunflower seed that I planted (and every seed that I transplanted from sprouts started inside)
And my first Red Racer/Coachwhip sighting. He was hanging out on the front porch in my big pots of geraniums and marigolds. He was quite beautiful, but I will never get used to all the close encounters of the snake kind.
Gardening is sure different here than my NOLA style courtyard and porches at my old place in St. Louis. Lots of failures, but some great successes.
kalakal
What lovely orchids.
Here we are absolutely desperate for rain, we have had about 1 days rain in the last 2 weeks. A brown and sere back yard
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’m actually in Albuquerque Thurs (cataract consultation with a new specialist…very excited after that weirdness with the young doctor a few weeks back). It will be a long day since I need to do a major Costco run. Will let you know about June later. This is so funny…the now meeting in Albuquerque when for 6 months or so we were just a few miles from each other. Everytime I made that turn at the church to go over to 14, I would think of you and that sweet community there. When did you actually move?
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly:
There’s one in Albuquerque too. I transferred my overspending from the SF to the ABQ store. :)
We had quite a few snake sightings when we first moved into our SF County home, which had been vacant for many years. One–also a red racer–was sunning him/herself right in front of our front stoop as I was about to take the dog out for a walk. A shriek might have been emitted and the walk was postponed. The snake sightings diminished over time, as we established our presence. I wonder if you’ll experience the same.
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: We sold our SF County house and moved to a rental last August; bought our ABQ house and moved again in March. Hope to stay in place for a very long time. Good luck with the new doc!
MazeDancer
Even Nero Wolfe would be happy!
satby
@oldgold: 😆😆😂
O. Felix Culpa
@MazeDancer:
I just finished the first book in the Nero Wolfe series (Fer-de-Lance). After Subaru Dianne’s mystery discussion, I was inspired to try to read the entire Wolfe series. It’s a funny but so far pleasing mix of hard-boiled detective via Archie Goodwin, and cerebral, eccentric detective in Wolfe. And of course lots of orchid talk.
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
A good friend I made out here works at Plants of the SW. I met her at the SF store and she has helped me quite a bit. Her husband is Bogart…he has helped Miguel and me here. She is now in the Albuquerque store. Ask for Juana. She’s a beautiful girl originally from LA. Moved out here about 2 years ago. Fascinating life story. I just adore her. She and the baby visit here and hang out. I gifted her and Bogart the greenhouse. I buy eggs from her. She has several varieties of chickens so the eggs are all these beautiful colors. Her days at the store vary but it you go do mention that a friend told you to specifically ask for her. She really knows her stuff. I laugh with her boss and say, “Juana is my personal shopper.” I try to promote her everyway I can. Every little bit helps. Juana is juggling a lot. 2 yo, no family here but Bogart, few friends. They live in Moriarty and the Trumpers out there are very vocal.
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: Thanks for the info. I’ll keep an eye out for her, the next time I want to burn some more bucks on plants. ;-
ETA: Yes, Moriarty and Edgewood are RWNJ havens, alas, although I know a number of good Dems who are struggling valiantly to make inroads there.
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa: wow!
You have been gone for quite a bit. I haven’t seen Cheryl since she came to an impromptu party here last summer. Are you keeping up with her?
Gvg
@MomSense: yes at first. They killed and burned any trees that had it plus any in a certain range. Paid groves and homeowners millions too. Of course it was unpopular with homeowners who didn’t understand. But it didn’t work well enough. I think they couldn’t inspect well enough and it takes a few years to be visable so i would say testing wasn’t good enough while the outbreak was small.
The long term has to be immune trees.
The current legislature authorized a token sum over half for marketing! Dumbasses. Only research can save us now but they hate science and i think intelligent people.
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I really like the organization of the Albuquerque store. She’s great!
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: I saw her a while back, but then we got busy with the move.
Heading out to get some more damn plants into the damn ground. TTYL. :)
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa: I had to give up the best chicken I have ever eaten because of Trump. My bestie out her has lived in the Moriarty area for 40 years and another friend works at the antique mall there. I used to go to Moriarty quite a bit when I was traveling out here…and that “Broasted” chicken place was the bomb. Then my good friend that has lived there so long called me in St. Louis during Covid Times….the boycott was on….the owners had put up all these Trump/MAGA signs. Refusing to do masks, etc….
Damn, I miss that chicken. I still think of it often.
ema
Thank you all and here are some more orchids (and cherry blossoms and daffodils) for you (all YT shorts).
evodevo
@Quinerly: We used to get our meat locally (for years) at a butcher shop owned by a Dem friend who was formerly a union meatcutter at the Kroger store near Lexington. His son and DIL took over the business a year before covid – both were Trumpers, though they weren’t really rabid about it. Then came the Plague, and they weren’t into masking, and employed a couple of choads who were REALLY anti, and we finally quit the place entirely Nov. 2020 (it is a small shop, with almost no ventilation and unmasked rednecks with 5 kids would come in behind you with no place to avoid them). Mr. Evodevo had an argument with them about vaxxing and masking and we never went back – really miss being able to drive a mile and get fresh meat, instead of going 15 or 20 miles to the nearest grocery…
Quinerly
@evodevo:
We do what we MUST do. I was in Silver City, NM for about 10 days in February. It’s mostly a Liberal, artsy community (the newcomers). One of the old top rated restaurants there downtown put up all these “Liberty” and “Constitution” referencing banners during Covid Times. I was hanging with a shop owner (originally from San Diego, so I was a little unsure about her at the very beginning) I met…we were having beers at the wonderful microbrewery there. She told me the background on the restaurant owner. No one knew he was a Trumper until Covid Times. Locals were now boycotting him. He had literally turned into a screaming nutcase.
Kay
The orchids are beuatiful- thank you.
I planted a large area of new grass to cover ground torn up by work on the foundation. I made my own seed mix 70 bluegrass, 20 perennial rye and 10 white clover. I don’t know how clover will do in a mix. I added it because I like how it looks, it’s good for the soil and bees like it. The grasses are up and look good but no clover yet- I know it takes a little while longer than grass does to sprout. Have to wait 8 weeks to cut it? 8 weeks or 3 inches – 3 inches will be first.
Kristine
@WaterGirl:
I’m pretty happy. I may need to move some of it because it’s too close to the ninebark and would get entangled in the branches. But most can stay put.
StringOnAStick
@Quinerly: I was going to recommend High Country Gardens in Santa Fe but it sounds like you have an even better source of plants
The front yard was planted by the local best guy for native landscaping here 3 weeks ago and it is going crazy, though I suspect a few of the ultra grass lawn people here are appalled; oh well, there’s no HOA so they can deal with it while we use 10% of the amount of water in our landscapes that they do.
Yesterday a friend and I planted up a bunch of pots of annuals to decorate their house for their coming wedding. They don’t live here full time for another month though so I’m caretaking the pots until then. Then we had an absolute deluge of a rainstorm, which was wonderful and very rare here in the high desert of Oregon.
satby
@satby: update on cloves repelling destructive squirrels: not a success. I see one of my glad bulbs I just replanted after storing it from last year was dug up by a squirrel in the same bed they dug up all my beautiful peony tulips. Coffee ground beds untouched. Lesson learned.
Quinerly
@StringOnAStick:
Thanks for the comment. Waterwise Gardening here in Santa Fe is very good. It’s connected with High Country Gardens, I think. Unfortunately the owner behind Waterwise passed away unexpectedly. Waterwise is closing at the end of the month.
Another Scott
@satby: I use Cole’s Flaming Hot Sauce for the shelled sunflower seeds I put in our feeders. It keeps the squirrels and chipmunks away and the birds love it.
Various hot peppers may do the same for bulbs, but I haven’t tried it myself. Mammals don’t like hot stuff, but the birds don’t care.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Kay: 10% white clover is the recommended amount to mix with grass!