Move to California for yourself...

Today is a very nice day.  In all senses of the word.  After all, this is what it looked like outside today while I was working out (which is another reason today was a nice day.  Me working out is a great accomplishment).

While pondering that beautifully scenic vista above, here is some background music, which I dedicate to everybody in my entire family.  (West Coast >> East Coast!  And I miss you, move already!!)

Nice day aside, some lovely things are happening in the garden.  First of all, a third dahlia has bloomed, a lovely fuschia/hot pink type color, my favorite so far!

Three more dahlias are mystery colors and somewhat refusing to produce anything but leaves.  Two are afflicted by a mystery mildew type disease.  But that is a problem for google and I to solve another day, because today, I am feeling pretty good about solving the problem of the nasty green worms.  A couple weeks ago, I went to the garden store and bought quite a lot of loot, feeling bad about the fact that it felt like my entire garden was failing (really, it was those green worms eating away at my happiness).  While there, a nice garden store man told me about something google failed to mention, which is that there is an organic pesticide called spinosad that is like the sarin of insects -- both act via hyperexcitation of the nervous system.  That made me feel a little bad to attack these possibly innocent hungry insects with a neurotoxin...  but only for a second until I looked at all the holes in my tomato plant again.

A brief side note about the tomato plant:  I was walking past Rite Aid this week and there was a dying tomato plant in a small plastic pot for sale with about 35 baby tomatoes on it (yes, they sell plants there, sad-looking ones).  Mine has zero tomato babies, just a few yellow flowers which subsequently wilt and fall off.  My plant is also incapable of supporting it's own weight (thus the life supports).  I'm finding there is significantly more to the hybridized tomato than just the flavor of the tomato...  But at least the worms have been dealt with!

Quarantined to the corner and on life support, but still alive.  Tomatoes to date: zero.

The skinny on spinosad:  As dramatic as the mechanism of action is, it's organic, derived from a type of bacteria called Saccharopolyspora spinosa.  It is fed to dogs and cats to rid them of fleas.  And it's recently been approved for topical use in humans to rid unlucky humans of lice.  Apparently, there is no ill-effect to humans of this chemical, though the bottle states to wait a day before eating whatever you've sprayed.  According to garden store man, use spinosad for chewing bugs (caterpillars, worms, etc) and neem oil for sucking bugs (aphids, whitefly, etc).  The best part of this discovery is....  so far, it seems to have worked!  I sprayed once and the worms are gone!  So I'm quite excited about this new finding.

I've also finally hung the Italian tile in the garden.  It's reminds me of our wonderful vacation every time I look at it, and it's a nice pop of color.  I'm pretty happy with how the garden's looking now. It might not yet be a Better Homes and Garden type garden, but it's significantly better and greener than last year, which was significantly more impressive than any previous years, and that's what's important... Progress!

Where is the tile?  Do you see it?

Science experiment: Magic Succulents!

Alright, alright.  This is a science experiment!

In light of the recent discovery that not one, but TWO of my recently dismantled succulent appendages are growing new mini-plants, I have decided to conduct the following experiment:

Title: "Are succulents really magical?"

Purpose: To determine whether or not accidentally chopped off succulent leaves can truly regrow into full grown healthy plants *under my care.*  Note -- I am aware that it has been done in the history of gardening, but if I am personally able to facilitate this, it would indicate that any dummy could... This would, in my mind, make them magical.  That, and I would never have to buy a succulent again.

Hypothesis: My succulents, having grown a little tiny mini-plant already, will be able to take root and grow, grow, grow! into a succulent jungle in the designated pots (see below).

Procedure: There are four plant types involved--
1. Echeveria
2. Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, aka "Aurora Borealis"
3. Jade plant
4. Crassula perforata

The first three have had leaves fall off recently that have been found to be turning into independent mini-plants, the last plant... I cut off a piece today from a plant that was growing too tall and threw it in there just because.  All of the plant pieces have been put into a pot with the appropriate soil and moisture, with the plan to observe what happens.

Today is Day 1!  Data, results, and conclusion to follow!

Happy gifts

I am a sucker for flowers.  I think that they are beautiful in a way that is so simple.  They are beautiful if someone is there to appreciate them or not.  They are beautiful if they are sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere, they are beautiful in a garden, and they are beautiful in a crack of a highway side lane where the seed happened to fall.  And it's simple reproducible formula (though nature does it better!):  seed + sun + water + food = flower.   I know scientifically flowers exist to attract insects/birds to spread pollen to make seeds to reproduce etc etc.  But it still feels like flowers exist just to make the world beautiful, just because.  When I'm there to see it, they feel like a gift from God to me.  I feel the same way about the ocean, each wave I caught when I used to surf, sunsets, cool cloud formations, sunrises, scented flowers, and beautiful scenery.

I will be honest, I haven't had a great couple days.  Bad days happen.  They're worse when they come in series and when you realize how blessed you are, but you still feel like you're sitting under your own personal storm cloud.  But those are the days when I go into my garden, stare at my flowers and think, gosh, how beautiful this is, and just for me.

Is that weird?  You should try it with whatever makes you happy -- keep a whole patio full of it!

Here are the happy gifts this week:

1) This is so great. My second dahlia plant has bloomed, a lovely peachy pink color.  I love it.

2) More mind-blowing succulent reproductive magic.  This time on a form of Kalanchoe I have.  How interesting that the Eccheveria grows new babies from the broken off base and the Kalenchoe produces new baby plants from the tip.

3) This is actually a birthday gift for me that we bought in Italy.  A ceramic hanging to be hung in my garden.  By an artist named Innocenti.  How Italian!  We have to figure out what type of elaborate contraption will be able to hold this heavy thing up very very securely (it was rather expensive and I love it to much to let it break).  But once we do, it will make a great garden addition.

Life is too short and full of beautiful things to feel bad for very long.  Here's to finding our happiness!  

Great gardens: Keukenhof!

The Keukenhof is heavenly.  I purposely saved going to this place for my 30th birthday because I was really looking forward to it, and it was everything I had hoped and dreamed.  I will let the pictures do the talking.

Tulip fields adjacent:

And at the Keukenhof:

 

In case you couldn't guess, the red tulip background is also from the Keukenhof.  Those were my favorites -- bright red tulips about the size of little melons!

Now, should you ever want to visit, the Keukenhof gardens are in Lisse, The Netherlands, they are open for about 2 months in the spring only, and this is their website.  

Beautiful, isn't it!  "Hup, hup, hoera" for Dutch flowers!

The amazing and the really truly terrible

When someone says, "I have good news and bad news," which do you prefer to hear first?  I have always wanted the bad news first. I wonder if that says anything about your personality...

The Bad News

My mortal enemies have returned.

 

I hate them. I get as angry seeing these worms as Evan does when his favorite team loses (last week it was the Caps. Let's not talk about that). As aforementioned, pests tend to attack sick plants. So unfortunately it was somewhat inevitable.



It is a huge plant now in a tiny pot... like a very big lady with tiny feet (have any fellow doctors or people-observers noticed that that happens a lot?)... and it can't even stand up straight. It's so oversized for its pot that it dries out and wilts daily when it is hot.  Thus the hose.  I just leave it there now.

There are a wide variety of green worms that attack tomato plants.  The largest of which are hornworms (baby versions of future Mothra), the smallest of which can burrow into your ripest tomatoes undetected, leaving a bunch of difficult to see caterpillar skins and eggs inside (!!!!).  That's disgusting.  These worms are somewhere in the middle, and not one that I have yet been able to identify from my friend the internet.  What the internet does say is that solutions for "green worms on your tomato plants" include "picking them off", spraying soapy water at them, and/or using serious pesticides that are likely toxic to humans.  And praying.  

Basically, my tomato plant may be doomed.  I have been picking these worms off (or rather cutting them in half again, Godfather style) and will likely try this soapy dishwater nonsense spray, but I am also going to quarantine it tomorrow.  Let's not talk about this. It makes me sad.


The Good News!

On the upside, this is really cool. It may just blow your mind.

Remember the near death experience of my Echeverria? Well! Turns out it truly is a magical plant.

Not only has a small offshoot grown from the mother plant at the site of amputation...


But the amputated parts have also sprouted tiny new micro-plants!


Mind blown!  I will continue to follow these little plants and update you periodically.

Isn't it is nice to end on a good note? Isn't science cool? Hooray!

Orchid-land!

By now, you know that I like orchids.  So this is exceptionally cool to me.  I have brought up in the past how my cousins' cousin Walter has an orchid greenhouse.  Well, the first day we arrived in Holland, Evan and I went to visit it again where we got another tour of the place.

The essence of what Walter does there is grow orchids for the flower.  This is in contrast to the vast majority of orchid growers who grow orchids to sell the plant.  The result is that they pay special attention to the quality of the flower when breeding (many of them were the size of grapefruits). 

One cutting from a orchid they like can produce up to 100 or so plants which start as little orchid babies and grow slowly until 3 years later it is full sized and ready to produce wholesale quality flowers.

In the greenhouse (which maintains a warm, humid environment for optimal orchid growth), they have an area for all these orchid baby plants which rotate on a schedule while they grow.  I neglected to take any pictures of these baby plants because I was too obsessed with all the flowers.

Me, obsessed with the flowers

Anyway, once the flowers are ready and they have a buyer, they cut them and put them a plastic water-filled tube at the end of the stem, box them, and put them in a cooler.  They go in cooled trucks all over the world (many of them to the US!).  This is a stressful stage for the flower, as certain things like contact with fruit, especially pears and apples, can kill them (for the scientifically minded, the fruit emits ethylene which is no good for flowers -- I grew up hearing this about roses too).  As for who buys the flowers, there's lots of buyers.  Recently, Dior put on a show with themed color rooms walled with flowers.  Walter's company supplied the orchids for the "white room."  (This picture was taken from his company facebook page).

Pretty awesome!  Anyway, my family lives in the part of Holland covered with greenhouses, all growing profuse amounts of flowers and food.  I have always loved all of the greenhouses, but this visit, I also was struck by how many orchids you see everywhere -- it seems like every Dutch person has at least one orchid plant in their house.  My grandma has a tiny 2 inch pot with a very healthy-looking orchid in it on her dining table.  So effortless!  I love it!  And it made me feel like maybe my love of orchids is also a little bit Dutch.

For those interested, here is a link to Walter's company and a few more photos for the orchid lovers.  Enjoy!

Home sweet home

Well, I'm back.  A little sad that my super awesome vacation of a lifetime is over, but also recognizing that there's no place like home.  I also think that given that Evan and I have both grown little guts from the huge amounts of pasta we ate, it's a good thing we are back.  Before moving on though, despite being completely unrelated to gardening, I feel compelled to post these photos of the two best pastas we had in Italy, just so I can look at them again...

 

...Mmmm

Okay, two shout-outs! Happy Mother's Day, Mama!  I have the best mom in the world (I know everyone thinks that, but I really actually do, as well as the best mom-in-law).  And secondly, thank you Brooke, Taylor, and Mark for watering my beloved garden while I was gone!

I will be honest, I actually worried a bit about my garden while I was gone.  The husband attributes this to me being a little "obsessive," but hey, this garden was kind of a lot of work to get started.  Obsessed or not, after setting my luggage down, I walked outside and was greeted by this first bloom of my Figaro dahlia (it was a mixed pack, so I have been eagerly awaiting the blooms to see what colors I end up with -- yellow is great!):

And these blooms of my chrysanthemum which wins the award for hardiest plant (I did not water it all winter because I thought it was dead):

My parsley is miraculously now aphid-free (hooray for the spray!) and my tomato plant has also grown to ridiculous, scary heights (It is a few inches away from being as tall as I am -- I wish it would stop growing because the pot is too small to support it!).

A few plants in the vertical planter have moved on, unfortunately, including the previously-thought-to-be-unkillable Santa Barbara daisy.  But I somewhat expected that may happen.  Evan says, "Give up on that thing, it sucks."  The essential problem with it is that the small felt pockets is that they dry out very quickly (I am going to find a solution for this).  When I am home, I check on them every day or so to make sure they are not too dry.  I can't exactly ask my lovely friends to come over every day when I am out of town.  Oh well... a chance to plant new flowers :)

Lastly, I would like to say this about my trip:  So many flowers!  More on this in posts to come.  In the meantime, here is a preview:

Tulips at the Keukenhof!