L is for Lily

H. Barbara Mitchell 

If you've read my articles for any length of time or depth, you know I have a bad case of "Daylily Madness"!  I've written almost twenty articles on daylily topics and another on hybrid lilies.  No one can say I'm "lily livered" or "weak as a lily" about this topic.  As a result, I've been mulling over simply not revisiting lilies for the alphabetical line-up of "L".  In the end, who can resist - apparently not I.

H. Lunar Max

What makes a daylily crazed person?  I'd say the ease and hardiness rank right up there with the beauty.  Plant a variety of daylilies and the garden will be in bloom from summer through fall.  Here are the boundaries of daylilies:

• The name:  Hemerocallis is the name of daylilies and you will see that at the beginning of the flower's name or simply an "H".  There are virtually thousands of named (registered) daylies.
• Price:  Gardeners often share starts of daylilies and that falls under the "free" category.  On the other hand, newly hybridized daylilies may run in the hundreds of dollars for one fan.  Big cost does not necessarily mean big happiness. 
• Color:  Daylilies started out as orange and yellow and later a pink.  Today, they expand on most every color of the rainbow except a true blue and I expect that barrier to be broke in the near future.
• Height:  Daylilies scapes (stems) may be a short twelve inches and the hybridizers are working on breeding scapes taller than six feet.  Today's averages run 18 - 36 inches.
• Size of bloom:  Diminutive 1 inch flowers to almost a foot in width are in the offering today.  
• Bloom form:  Doubles, spiders, curled, ruffled, unusuals, flat, and the list expands every season.
• Pattern:  Single color to many different combinations deliberately hybridized.  Edges and throats and everything in between are of different colors and hues.  Surfaces may be pearl dusted, velvet and more.
• Foliage:  Obviously green and now in stripes, blue-green, light or dark green, and different habits, heights, and width.
• Hardiness:  Evergreen, Semi Evergreen and Dormant are the three most common.  It can be a confusing category and not always a dependable way of choosing one that will survive in your zone.
• Availability:  The "orange ditch lily" known officially as Hemerocallis Kwanso double or the single H. Orange Tawny is free for the digging in this area and over most of the U.S.  Every garden store and nursery in this area has at least a H. Stella de Oro for sale and generally more.  On-line stores & catalogs have many many more.
• Pests:  Let's just say there are some (more in some areas of the country) but most of us never have big problems.  It is very important to keep the roots from rotting.  Good sanitation in your garden is your best defence. 
• Needs:  Average garden soil (although they enjoy and prosper with enriched good soil), full sun (some do well in semi shade), average water & most will do fine except during drought  (never let them sit in wet soggy clay), fertilize prior to blooming for more & larger blooms (will do alright without), deadhead blooms daily for a clean appearance (will do fine if you don't), mulch gently to suppress weeds, gently rake out dead after danger of spring frost (for a cleanliness), cut back foliage after blooming and the leaves will come back fresh looking (don't do this on re bloomers or if you don't care about a few tattered leaves).           
• Oddities:  Some dark colors will fade in the hot afternoon sun.  Different soil types will affect the color (pinks may be peach for example).  Large lilies may not withstand strong winds without shredding that day's bloom.  Some flowers rain spot.  Some bloom over most of the summer - some re bloom and most over several weeks.   Some send up scapes with several buds, others have branching on scapes with each having buds.  Some lilies spread while others stay in a clump.   

H. Wind Frills

In the eye of the beholder?  Yep, beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to daylilies.  That faint lavender-pink may be your favorite and I may consider it boring.  Your bright orange seven inch spider may be the thrill of your garden and I may consider it garish.  Who cares!  There are enough daylilies and daylily versions for all of us to be happy.

H. Miss Tinkerbell

The fact of the matter - daylily madness is a pretty wonderful garden problem and I'm willing to share!

An unknown pink double

Spring Fever!

Seems as if Spring Fever is bigger this year.  Impatience for nice weather and all things green and warm.  Want - NEEDING - that first peek of green leaves pushing up through the ground.  Sunshine in all its warmth and abundance.   

Every gray day with temperatures still freezing and the hint of snow brings about groaning and downright hositility.  Those that managed to tough out February have apparently reached their tolerence level in March.

Our area nurseries and greenhouses are working full tilt right now to get ready for their April openings.  Most have updated their web sites to feature the plants that will be available and the events they will present.  Catalogs and on line sites are pushing orders with deals and discounts.

I'll list a few things going on in this area.

WQPT Storm (severe weather) Spotter training is being held.  There is one in Colona IL April 4th from 6-8 pm at the Colona Fire Station.  It's free and open to anyone.  Contact donna.dubberke@noaa.gov for more information.

Distinctive Gardens in Dixon IL has updated their web site to include new plants and events.  Don't forget their container class April 16th at 10 am.  Call them for details.  Their open house is April 30-May 1.  AND, mark your calenders for their August 20th "3rd Annual Gardenstock Art and Music Festival."  

Hoerr Nursery, Peoria, IL, because they are full time landscapers, can be accessed anytime but their nursery starts the spring plant sales in April.

Sunnyfield Greenhouse and Nursery, Kewanee IL has not yet updated their website to feature 2011 plants and information but they typically open for spring plant sales April 1st.

Red Barn Nursery, Sheffield, IL is planning on having their plants ready for sale mid April.

Hornbaker Nursery, Princeton IL is shooting for April 10th for spring plant sales.  Check out their March newsletter for workshops and other garden days.

Garden Shops typically start having their plants on display a little after the nurseries because most have a majority of plants outside or must buy them from other sources.  If it's anything like last year, plan on hitting them early as they managed to sell out of many new offerings.  Some of these smaller shops have some really interesting plants not often found in the big nurseries.

And then there is all the garden "stuff":  Tools, decoration, maintenance items, and the list goes on. 

“All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.”  Helen Hayes  

Fat Tuesday

Fat Tuesday?  I was fat on Monday, too, does that count?  Does it mean I have double the parades, more necklaces thrown my way, is my costume made of more red beans????

Even though Mardi Gras embraces many different traditional Cajun-Creole dishes AND even though we can't go to the creek running through the back forty for shrimp, we can grow some of the ingredients for these savory and sweet dishes.

In the world of fast food and fast food prep, many women have stopped cooking with dried legumes.  It's a shame, really, because they are so darn good for you.  My problem was I could never remember to start them soaking the night before.  Then, I found it was perhaps better to just boil them for an hour before I was ready to start my recipe and I'm back in the legume recipe game.

When the sugar plantation owners in Haiti fled to Louisiana (another French holding), they brought red beans with them.  Their Red Beans and Rice recipe, created in the French Quarter is still one of their most popular recipes. 



To plant red kidney beans your soil pH should be 6.0.  Sow the seeds 1 inch deep, about 6 inches apart, in rows 18 inches apart. They must have room on either side for maximum production. Plant as early as possible after all danger of frost has past. Avoid overhead watering and do not handle plants when they are wet. Most germinate in about 90-100 days.  Wait till the pods are straw colored, then pull the plant up and hang to dry. When dry, shell pods individually or bash plants back and forth in a bag or pillowcase.  Store clean dry beans in a sealed dry container.  Old canning jars work well.

The beans are considered in the "dry" category - (Phaseolus vulgaris). 

Following is Chef John Besh's Red Beans and Rice recipe.  Southern Louisiana raised, Chef Besh is owner of 7 restaurants - that and he's certainly holds the "most hunky chef" title!

2     Onions - diced
1     Green bell pepper - seeded and diced
1     Stalk celery - diced
2 T  Rendered bacon fat
1#   Dried Red Kidney beans
2     Smoked ham hocks
3     Bay leaves
1/2 tsp     Cayenne pepper
3    Green onions - chopped
      Salt
      Freshly ground pepper
      Tabasco sauce
3 C Cooked white rice

Sweat the onions, bell peppers and celery in the rendered bacon fat in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat.  Once the onions become translucent, add the kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves and cayenne, then add water to cover all by two inches.

Increase the heat and bring the water to a boil.  Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low and allow the beans to simmer slowly for 2 hours.  Periodically stir the beans to make sure that they don't scorch on the bottom of the pot, adding water if necessary, always keeping the beans covered by an inch or more of water.

Continue cooking beans until they are creamy and beginning to fall apart when they're stirred.  Remove the ham hock meat from the bones, roughly chop it and add it back to the pot of beans.  Stir in the green onions and season with salt, black pepper and Tabasco.  Serve with a side of white rice.  Some add a side order of sausage.

Makes 6 servings. 

The good news:  443 calories per serving - 18 g fiber, 24 g protein
Paying for flavor:  9 g fat, 23 mg cholesterol, and 234 mg sodium.

Someone just told Rex there's a bowl of red beans down the street with his name on it!

Lettuce Anyone?

I was reading a story from Lehman's Country Store in Kidron, Ohio.  Their retail store was hit with a freak flash flood a few days ago.  They had 18-30 inches of nasty mud and debris as the powerful wave moved through their store.  The damage (such as moving a 18 cu freezer from one end of the large store to the other) to their inventory and structure was as amazing as it was sad.

Anyone who has had to deal with natural disasters and the following clean-up knows it initially is a shock, then hopelessness, and then moving forward.  Lehman's originally served the non-electric plain people of Ohio.  A family run business, they have become popular with those of us who like good sturdy quality, make in the USA and prefer to use natural ingredients and products.

They started and continued to run the business as if they were serving the Lord - OK, they are serving the Lord - but they treat their customers with customer service that revolves around, "treat others as you would want to be treated."  And, a few days ago, that came back to them by customers & neighbors who appreciate that ethic.

Besides their employees, they had about eighty volunteers show up to help.  What might have taken months or closed the business, took less than a week.  It reminded me of the Amish from Michigan that showed up at my folks place when it had been destroyed by a tornado in 1965.  They show up unasked, they quietly do quality work and they leave expecting nothing in return.  Whether you embrace their religion or mode of life, their doctrine regarding helping others it's something all could emulate for a better world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While on Lehman's web site, I looked at their heirloom garden seeds and that reminded me of planting lettuce.  Lettuce planting time will be here before you know it and it's time to think about what kind you want to plant.

Lettuce seeds may be purchased in most any garden shops, farm and box stores and catalogs.  Most of our local nurseries offer seeds and plant sets.

Here are just a few Heirloom Lettuces and who offers seeds.  Also, check locally for these and others.
Lehman's: 

Yugoslavian Red Butterhead Lettuce   (mild flavor)

Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce    (sharp flavor)

Burpee:

Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce   (mild flavor)

Reine des Glaces Lettuce  (sweet flavor)

Yugoslavian Red Lettuce   (mild flavor
Heirloom Seeds:
Key Lime Lettuce (sweet flavor)
Pablo Lettuce (sweet flavor
Seed Savers Exchange:
Susan's Red Bib Lettuce (mild flavor)
Bronze Arrowhead  (flavorful)
Diane's Seeds:
Forellenschluss Lettuce (flavorful)
Annie's Annuals: 
Drunken Woman Fuzzy Headed Lettuce (savory flavor)
Mascara Lettuce (mild flavor)
Renee's Garden Seeds:
Garden Ferns Lettuce  (sweet flavor)
Merveille De Quatre Saisons  (flavorful)


Heirloom, organic and newer varieties have many fine flavors, texture, size and shape, length to germination, rate of bolt and variety of lettuce.  Besides being a good food choice, they make great edging for the garden, look pretty in pots, fill in empty spots in the perennial beds, and last most of the summer.

If your garden is ready and prepared, plant the seeds before the last frost (see seed packets for times).  If you must wait until later in the spring, consider plant sets to get the earliest production.  Lettuce makes a great "sharing" vegetable - pick a bag and take to work, to church, to neighbors and family.  Share the love. 

Tornado Alley

If you live on tornado alley, street or country lane, Spring means severe weather in the Midwest.  Face it folks we do have our one biggie and it rotates and it's ugly. 

The following is thanks to Anthony Peoples - meteorologist for WQAD, Channel 8 in the Quad Cities.  Check out Anthony's BLOG which may be accessed either directly from the news channel's web page or by "liking" it on your Facebook.  

Anthony reports, "As of March 1, 2011, there have been around 42 confirmed tornadoes across the country. At least four people were killed on February 28th in Tennessee in severe weather."

"Severe weather is more widespread across the southern United States in the months of January through March because of the proximity of the jet stream, the high powered winds aloft that steer weather systems and separates the cold air to the north and the warm air to the south."

"As that jet moves northward in the spring to southern Canada in the summer months, the severe weather moves northward with it."

"The number of tornadoes drastically increases as we head into spring and summer. Here are the average number of tornadoes across the U.S. (based on reports from 2008-2010): January 45, February 64, March 96, April 219, May 326, and June 340."


"It’s important as we head into spring to know the difference between a “watch” and a “warning”, whether it’s for severe thunderstorms or tornadoes."


"Here’s how my colleagues at the National Weather Service office in the Quad Cities distinguishes a watch from a warning:

A WATCH is issued to give advance notice when conditions are favorable for the development of severe weather, whether it be severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, or flash flooding. When a watch is issued for your area, it is time to take precautions and make sure you are prepared should bad weather strike. Make sure you have a flashlight, radio, and weather radio with fresh batteries handy in case you lose power. Monitor weather radio closely for the latest statements or warnings. It is also a good time to move vehicles and animals to shelter and secure loose outdoor articles.

WARNINGS are issued when severe weather is occurring or imminent. When a warning is issued for your area, you should take action immediately to protect your life and your property.”


"Even if you’re not dealing with tornadoes, all severe thunderstorms produce lightning and those bolts are responsible for about 93 deaths and 300 injuries each year. Lightning is also very costly. It causes several hundred million dollars in damage to property each year."

Even thought I usually write about my own little meanderings, I thought Anthony's facts might help my readers, too.  If you're into all things weather, check out my earlier article "Spring Weather #11."

 To my knowledge, none of the above clouds developed into a tornado - I just enjoy clouds and taking pictures of the beautiful skies out here on the hill.  But and that's a big BUT, I respect the power of storms and being prepared is not only smart - it could be a life saver.

WQAD does offer hazardous weather alert services that can go to your cell phone and/or computer.  It's great for parents, school administrators, business and all the rest of us who simply must know up-to-the minute bad weather watches and warnings.  It's where I got that cute little weather flag at the bottom of this BLOG.   

Scooby Dooby Newby

Garden people all over the world are reading catalogs which include the new and improved plants for 2011. We tend to utter fireworks kinds of sounds at a beautiful new introduction. (That’s “oo” and “aw” for those non verbal expressive friends.)

Which one of us would want to give up such wonderful improvements as spreading “Wave” petunias, mildew resistant bee balm, asters that no longer flop, and dwarf varieties for small garden space?

I am happy with a flower that “self cleans” by neatly dropping wilting flower heads without my help.

On the other hand, I like for many of my plants to stay traditional looking. For instance:

I want single petal hollyhocks not the new flowers that look like peonies on a stem.

I like my daylilies to be the single cup variety and not doubled like a rose.

Columbine is such a fragile looking flower with its little cup and the spurs nodding downward. Someone has bred a new variety without the spurs and the cups are ruffled and upright. Why, I wonder?

Breeders have gone crazy with pompon everything, trying to get a black flower, and often changing entire structures. If I wanted a shocking pink pompon coneflower, I’d simple plant a zinnia. I do not need my Rose of Sharon bush to have red, white and blue flowers all at once. I have a perfectly good flag for my patriotic purposes.

We now have sunflowers that are almost ground huggers and daylilies pushing six foot. I want to look up to my sunflowers and down to my daylilies.

Am I old fashioned and incapable of embracing change? I choose to think not!

I don’t want to lose the essence of what made a plant popular in the first place and has continued to keep it popular through the ages. Strengthen it and help it to be more disease and insect resistant. Experiment with flower and foliage color. Improve stem strength, improve upon the hardiness, and provide a means to increase yield.

But, please let the plant have some of the dignity and recognizable appearance of its own. Don’t try to make every plant into an over-the-top variation of something else. We already have something else!

The plant breeding industry does wonders for our food and farm production crops. They have improved many wonderful old plants to withstand and enhance the future. They also get a little carried away every quarter of a century and the outcome of some labs is a little like a plant Frankenstein.

The scary part is during these periods of exuberant change, we tend to lose heirloom plants – some forever. I’m thankful for seed collectors and the seed savers. Thankful for those nurseries and seed producers who refuse to let them quietly fade away.

Sure, grab that wild gold and blue striped marigold to match the Cats basketball uniforms if you desire – but also collect the seeds from that old fashioned Amish Gold marigold when you can.

As Scooby would say when looking at a twelve foot glowing lime green poppy, “Ruh-roh, Raggy!”

K Is For Knapweed

Knapweed is the less than a glorious name for a beautiful plant Centauria.  My particular plant is the Centauria Montana Blue.

If you think it looks a lot like a cornflower (bachelor button), you are right - it's a cousin.

This blue Knapweed is one of those flowers that is always prettier in person than in a photograph.  I think it's because it's so dainty and the color blue doesn't always photograph well.  Take my word for it, it's very beautiful despite it's common sounding name. 

Centauria Montana Blue is a hardy flower good to hardiness zone 3. The Centaureas are some of the most graceful flowers to grow in any garden. The flower heads are like showy, ragged thistle blooms of bright red, deep purple, golden yellow and blue. They grow from 2 feet to 3 1/2 feet tall and bloom during the Summer months.

Centauria grows easily in a mix of sun and shade.  If planted in their optimium garden spot (full sun & good garden soil) they will reward you with beautiful blooms.  (The Dusty Miller's flower heads are insignificant.)  They may be planted by seeds, division or plant sets. 

Here are some of the other Knapweeds you will find available in our area:

The Golden Knapweed (Ceataurea macrocephala) is perhaps the showiest of all because the thistle-like, golden yellow flower heads are very large. The plant itself is an erect and somewhat spindly grower and the stems are stiff.

The Knapweed (C. dealbata) has flowers which are lilac-pink to white in the center, or a bright red. This species seems to attract the birds when the seed is ripe, thus making it hard to save the seed.  C. babylonica is a whitish perennial with yellow flowers which grows at least 3 feet tall.

Several of the species are known as Dusty Millers; the foliage is white throughout the Summer. C. cineraria has less divided leaves than the other common species C. gymnocarpa, but the leaves are usually whiter.

Knapweeds look pretty in informal gardens.  Most produce long stems and lasting flowers making them good for cutting.  The Dusty Millers are great for contrast with bright perennials and may even be clipped to form a soft edging.   All Knapweeds will do well in pots - just make sure you are aware how tall they will become when you incorporate.

The drawings are from old botanical prints.