***plAnt dAy!***(a running commentary on the most interesting collector's plants I own) *GUNNERA*

GIANT GUNNERA (gunnera manicata)
This one isn't mine!

i first discovered Gunnera ( AKA Giant Rhubarb and "Dinosaur Food"! ) when i began leaf casting. i was browsing the Web for articles on the subject, and i could see it was a fave with leaf casters in the Pacific Northwest (far from me), so i decided i HAD to have one, too! It is not hardy in my region, (that rarely stops me from trying things, though), and i knew the leaves wouldn't get anywhere near the 5-6 feet across that they would if the plant was happy, but, really, did i WANT to try to cast a SIX FOOT leaf in cement anyway? So i sent for one last Spring, potted it in an old washtub with a spigot in the bottom, thinking i could hopefully control the water saturation for the soil it was planted in, and set it on the patio. Did very well, i ended up with several nice sized 8 - 10 in (20 - 25 cm) leaves to cast, definitely not huge, but very nice. She lived in my unheated sunroom all winter, except for that VERY cold spell, when I moved her into the house for 3 weeks. Just relocated her outside in a protected spot near the house till the weather really warms up.

...Not bad for zone 5b in April!

Delicious Daffodils

Daffodils, by far, are my absolute favorite flower! They're the "official" flower of my birth month - March- so that may be a reason i'm so attracted to them. Actually, it's about daffs being the first large blooms to show up around here! i like collecting different forms and color combinations - no expensive bulbs - the brand new varieties i can't afford today will be plentiful and reasonably priced in a year or two (same goes for Hostas!).

I just plant a few "new to me" varieties each Autumn. There are white, yellow, and orange flowers, and even more colors and shapes of the corollas (the center cup ) - pink, red, small, large trumpets, split, ruffled, double ( the doubles have the most fragrance).

Here's a tiny one






...Take a walk around my garden to see how many others i have!










Here's a peach and white form

Most of the "pink" corollas are orange at first and fade to a pink in a day or two.

All Daffodils are Narcissus, but not all Narcissus are Daffodils!

(All Daffodils, Narcissus, and Jonquils are in the genus Narcissus).







Nothing says "Springtime" like Daffs glowing in bright sunshine!

Last but not least, a split corona form



Hope you liked this little tour! :o)

RANT - Solar Power Failure

i have been an environmentalist for many years - recycling, composting, organic gardening, etc....i would also love to switch our outdoor lighting to solar- too bad it's nearly useless! Had low voltage lighting for years, and bought the cheap sets of plastic lights, but they worked well for years. The sun finally got to the plastic, though, and they got too brittle (i thought plastic takes hundreds of years to break down - why does it only take FIVE for mine?)* i had used solar lights many years before, i knew at the time they did not throw much light and did not work well during the winter months, but during the past couple of years, we could hardly find low voltage lights to replace ours - they were all solar! So, i (erroneously) assumed that solar lighting must work a lot better these days, since they have all but replaced LV in the stores. Uhhhh..no.

We purchased quite a few of them last year (it was late spring, when the days were longer), and they were OK during the summer, but when the nights got longer, they were even WORSE than I remember! They didn't light at ALL on cloudy days, which is about all our winters consist of, plus they were a copper colored metal, (which is why i chose them), and the color faded within 3 months! I did write the company (Westinghouse, which i thought should have good quality items), they just told me to send them back with the box, which i did not have after almost a year. Don't get me wrong, for little accent lights here and there with no real purpose (security, safety), they're cute, but we don't have street lights, and it is very dark in my neighborhood - we all have post lights and landscape lights, but when my lights go out at 2 AM or don't come on at all, it doesn't do any good!..i DO like the floating solars, though!...

Anyway, we did finally find some LV lights, scattered the solars here and there in the garden, and all is well with the world...

* Just being funny- i know plastic breaks down in sunlight, and not in a landfill because it's buried and light doesn't get to it!

***plAnt dAy!***(a running commentary on the most interesting collector's plants I own) *VARIEGATED HORSERADISH*

VARIEGATED HORSERADISH

This was one of my first "must have" plants - Armoracia rusticana 'Variegata' . I love finding variegated forms of ubiquitous garden plants that you rarely find variegation on (unlike, say, a Hosta, since a great percentage of them are variegated). Variegation in leaves is caused by a loss of light absorbing pigments in the plant cells. Remove only the chlorophyll and the result is yellow variegation. Remove both chlorophyll and the yellow pigment xanthophyll and the variegation is white. The white parts of the leaves do not make food for the plant, (that's what chlorophyll does), so as a result, a lot of variegated plant aren't quite as robust as their green parents. Always an exception to the rule, though - don't think i'd ever trust a variegated MINT to behave more timidly! In my limited experience with this Horsie, it does not spread as much as the green form. Two other points: when you plant a root of Variegated Horsie, it will take a year or so to develop it's variegation - also, lots of people ask me if they can make prepared culinary horseradish with it, but i would stick with the green type for that (IMHO). It can be a knockout, though!

Moo

We spent Easter at my Sister in Law's house in the country. Grandma and Grandpa, mentioned below, are her real grandparents, evidently they made an impression on her, too, since she has always loved the country, and that is where she and her husband live now.

A lot of the people where she lives have "farm ponds", i.e., large bodies of water that are actually utilised for their water supply. i have to be careful when i mention "my pond" around there, because they are thinking of a BIG pond, and mine is just a "water garden". This pic is of ONE of her ponds..

They also raise some bovines (i'd rather say that, i always call them "cows" and i know they're boys, so i always get corrected!) , actually for food, but i think it's funny that SIL always gives them names! Oh, well, i probably would, too - when i go out to look at them, it doesn't take me long to find a couple of favorites!