Christmas Musical Entertainment

I am going slightly off topic- but I just can't resist posting this link to another blog.

Musicals are definitely not for everybody. For those of us that enjoy them and all the cheese that goes with them let's hear it for White Christmas! Click on this link to kindle your desire to watch the movie and dream about snow.  Living-in-white-christmas from Design Sponge

I always loved the "Sisters" song because it's so catchy and fun.

 

Filoli Spring Opening

2011 Filoli Daffodil Display

       I was excited to receive the Filoli bi-monthly newsletter last week because it announced their opening day celebrations called "Daffodil Daydreams".  Yippee Daffodils! I can imagine how great the daffodils smell from the pictures. Apparently Filoli is the largest ADS (American Daffodil Society) Display Garden in the West. Click on the link to see the events schedule Filoli Spring Opening Event
 
The Saturday events look like fun to me. Bob Spots will give a talk - I'll have to stop by with my official ADS National show pin and maybe do a little name dropping till he recognizes me.

"Not Just that Yellow Flower Anymore Bob Spotts, President of the Northern California Daffodil Society (NCDS) and Nancy Tucket, NCDS Member. Bob shares his experience and gives helpful tips for growing daffodils in the Bay Area."

There is also a flower arranging demonstration I'd like to attend.
"Demo: Flower Arranging with Seasonal Blooms."

So, if you are around the Bay Area Saturday February 25th let me know if you'd like to go with me. I have a free ticket.

In other news I received a huge bag of Paper White bulbs (white star shaped clusters of Daffodils) as a present. Lets see if I can force my first bulb! I'm so excited because I think these smell amazing. Well to be fare they all smell amazing to me. *sigh* It's only December a good time to read books and dream about spring flowers.

The Great Iris Planting

  
 
      Finally, my horde of Iris bulbs are in the ground. I dug up this very overgrown bed of Iris that the previous owner of our house let go crazy. I was able to give away about 30. But, still I counted planting 30 plus the four of a different variety my dad gave me. (Of course). Then I broke down and threw out the very smallest because who really needs more than 30 Iris bulbs in one planter?

     I am worried they stayed out of the soil for too long and won't bloom again. But, sometimes if it is not a "must do" item on the to do list it just won't happen. So I am OK with losing some of the Iris because I made other choices that I think were good choices and take care of my health.

     Other happenings in the garden included planting up other fun bulbs. My Daffodils are already in (of course they had priority). Then I was able to put in my Muscari and Anenomi. Two new plants for me which will make spring exciting! As advised by bulb experts, Brent and Becky, I put another layer of compost on top of the soil. This is the time of year to do garden maintenance if you live in California. This means there is still plenty to do to prepare for the spring and think about another vegetable garden. I think I need to start a calendar to keep track.

   

Japan

Me with the Chrysanthemum Display- There is a temple around as well

     Thank you for checking back in to see what is going on with my gardening attempts.I know I have been off with my consistency for writing in this blog. I need to find a more manageable way to post regularly about my projects and discoveries. 

     

     At the end of October I traveled to Tokyo, Japan for work and stayed a little longer to also visit Kyoto. Here are some images from the gardens I saw. Japanese gardens are very well manicured and have a lot of evergreen trees and my birth flower- the Camilia. Unfortunately I was there too early, just before the maples started to change colors and the Camilias bloomed. But, the weather was very mild and not too cold yet.

    
     I saw many palaces and temples. In front of them they would have these Chrysanthemum displays. Apart from this I didn't see many other dis-bud blooms. My guess is that there just is not enough space for people to have pots and pots of dis-buds. But, I did see some sprouts of Daffodil leaves. It made me very happy to know there would be daffodils in a few months.

Chrysanthemum pots grown by 3rd graders

More Chrysanthemums

Some Spider Chrysanthemums opening up

Daffodils will be blooming in Kyoto, Japan

One of the many Persimmon trees in Kyoto

Lots of this growing

     When in Kyoto I was traveling by myself. So, I took a bus tour to the three most popular temples. I saw the Golden Temple, Silver Temple, and this one on top of a mountain. My favorite was the silver temple because it was very natural (wooden- not actually silver) and it had a very large garden. I had to watch the time walking around this one otherwise I was sure to be left behind by the bus tour.

The Golden palace- yes real gold plating

This is "Mt Fugi" on the grounds of the Silver Palace.

Grounds of the Silver Palace- Bonsai berry

Famous temple on the hill- "I'm going to jump off this temple and do xyz crazy thing"

Chrysanthemum display in front of the Noji Palace.

     Noji Palace is well known for their "Nightingale Floors". They didn't allow photography - sorry- but really a video or sound recorder would be more appropriate. These floors were designed so that the sho-gun could hear when someone was approaching. Every step you take makes this little whistling and creaking sound. The wood felt ancient and full of history. I will remember that forever.
 
  This palace had their own Chrysanthemum display. I liked the fan and the tree.

Chrysanthemum Fan

Chrysanthemum Tree

Chrysanthemum Week

     I am a little behind in the garden since I was sick and then traveling for work in Japan. But now I am back and not a moment too soon for what I really must call "Chrysanthemum Week". Today I'll show how my three pots of chrysanthemums are doing. I'll show some pictures from Chrysanthemums in Japan - the official flower of the country. Finally to end the week I will be helping my dad stage his blooms for the Glendale Chrysanthemum Show.

My three plants are doing great! The little pots don't really count but they are blooming too. ;)

One week ago from left to right= Lili Gallon, White City, and Gold Finger

      White City was the first to bloom. It opened up looking a little pink which worried me. Then it aged into a nice full bloom and turned it's namesake white color. Right now I see the yellow center. I am told this means you can no longer enter it into a show. Oh well I kinda like it smiling up at me.

White City just opening (pink city?)

White City looking good

             

White City with center

      Next to open is Gold Finger. It looks really awkward as it opens and makes me laugh seeing the little fingers poke out. But now it is starting to look almost "wow". It will probably be better at the end of the week.

Gold Finger starting to open

Gold Finger today

     Last to open will be Lili Gallon. I killed the first plants of these. Very sad and humbling. So this is my second batch. I think they are on the shorter side and I will need to use smaller stakes before they open. Let's see what they do later.

Lili Gallon showing color

Brent and Becky's Bulbs

The 2011 Spring Bulb Catalog

    I love Daffodils and have been "planting" them since I was a toddler. When they bloom I feel happy and that beautiful sense of new beginnings that is possible with spring. Daffodils also help me feel connected with my family in Southern California because it is another flower my dad grows and shows.
     Ah yes flower shows. I have helped out at so many with staging blooms or as a clerk. When I was younger we would enter as Junior Growers. Going to so many shows means I have met some big names in the business/ hobby. Two years ago I met Brent from "Brent and Becky's Bulbs" at the National show in Murphy's, California. He encouraged me by giving me a card and said get one of their catalogs. You can go the website here https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/  He was so happy to see a "young person" at the show and hoped I would grow my own daffodils once I had some land. It was very encouraging and I learned a lot about his business.
     Now that I do actually have a little bit of land I am memorizing the catalog. It is so tempting to order everything I could dream of for the backyard. But, I am practicing good self control. We simply can not afford for me to buy every daffodil I want. (I want them all). And I would like to try some of the other plants from the catalog like a Tulip, some Anemones, and Muscari that will act as shoes and socks for the daffodils. Oh it's exciting. But these others are risky since they tend to like colder climes.

Brent and I at the 2010 National Daffodil Show in Murphy's, CA

The Great Iris Divide

Last Year's Iris Bloom

     Last spring I was delighted to find that our house came with some very nice and classic looking Iris. But, there are so many of them. It looks like the previous owners never dug them up and divided them for at least 5 years. They are growing on top of each other. It really is a mess of tubers/ rhizomes.
     Since fall is the best time to dig up your bulbs and tubers I set about cleaning up the Iris bed. What I learned is that an Iris tuber does not bloom from the same place twice. It must generate a new portion for the following year's blooms. Over time the old parts can rot away or are no longer useful. For this reason it is a good to dig them up every few years to clean out the bad stuff. It also allows you to create new clumps with the good portions.
     Since this was maybe never done I had a huge task on my hands. Here's my progress so far.

 

Before Digging- Iris are the tall spiky leafed plants

Dug up Iris

Large tuber- it bloomed from the center part

Same large tuber- they look like lobsters to me.
The bottom portion is no longer useful.

  
















 
   After digging them up with a pitch fork (bought specifically for this task and turning the compost) I was ready to divide and break off the old parts. Sometimes it was really easy to tell what to break off. There were a lot of times I had no clue what I was doing though. I decided that if it looked healthy then I shouldn't chop it up.

Small good portions divided

     I separated my Iris by size. The tiny singlets are on the left. Midsize are in the middle. And the big ones are on the right. There are at least 30 big and midsize tubers. So, if you think you'd like some I am giving some away to good homes. My dad and I are already planning an exchange. :)

All the Iris after division

One particularly lobster like Iris

Should I break off the little ones?

     If you managed to read through this entire post - then you are either my parents, very curious about Iris, or wanting to see my after photo. Sorry you'll have to wait for the after photo because I don't have them in the ground. So, now I have a question about the tuber in the picture above. Should I let the little ones develop more before breaking them off? Or break them off now?
 

3rd Dahlia

Meeting Famous Bloggers

 
     I only follow a few blogs. One of them is a fabulous design blog called Design*Sponge. They are a big deal in the design world. I love this blog because they feature cool DIY projects, "before and afters", and the icing on the cake for me is a weekly post about flowers/ flower arranging. (See last week's post on Dahlias www.designsponge.com - the pictures are beautiful).

Stacks of the book

   The creator of Design*Sponge, Grace Bonney, just published a book that encompasses all that is great about the website. There is a section on flower arranging which sold the book for me. (Did you get that I like the floral components of design?) I am hoping to get a bit better at showing off my flowers inside the house. 

   So, this week I went to the book tour party in the San Francisco Anthropology store with my friend Kirsten. Yes, the Kirsten who did the wonderful flowers for our wedding. (Now Kirsten has a flower business Fairy Tale Flowers)!
     It was an amazing party! We snagged seats at the crafting portion where we made and personalized our own wax seals. Grace used Kirsten's seal for the demo.

       

Then I got my book signed and ate yummy cupcakes.

Me and D*S creator Grace Bonney

Lemon and Chocolate cupcakes

 

 Then we browsed the store while eating cookies, sipping Prosecco, and listening to the band play.

Everything was orange and gold to match the D*S book cover.

Tiny terrarium necklaces

 We took our pictures with the interactive cookie backdrop. YUM!
It was an all out party. Way to go D*S team

Interactive Cookie Photo Backdrop

I met a photographer during the craft time who took some great photos. She wrote about it on her website too.  www.jetkatdesign.com

2nd Dahlia

Pruning + New Vase

.    Yesterday I read that you should prune Hydrangeas right after they bloom. So, today I chopped back all five of our plants. My goal was to get these three to be about the same height. Below are the three big ones that bloomed really well this year. Now they look so sad. Here's hoping they come back in full glory next spring

Hydrangea in bloom

 

After Pruning

     This weekend's garage sale finds included this short green vase. It's quirky and seemed right to put a sunflower in it. Not sure the "arrangement" works- but my goal was to get some of what is blooming outside inside the house. I think it's cute and really does liven up the kitchen.