Flies in (and out of) Drag

Because of the recent and ongoing ruckus about honeybees and colony collapse disorder, I've been watching carefully for honeybees on the various flowering plants we've got outside this year. So far, not a one, though that might just mean we're not growing anything they find appealing.

There are plenty of other insects to look at, though. A few are even bees. They're just not honeybees.

Is

Random plant event: Clivia 'Aztec Gold'

You may or may not remember last summer's Clivia blooms. I apparently never bothered to say, officially, that the blooms had turned into fruits (or at least some of them did; I wound up with about a dozen), but that happened too.


In mid-May, I noticed that one of the fruits had begun to change color, which was exciting, because it signified that they were about to be ripe enough to plant up. I

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Golden Crest

Not much to say. Paphiopedilum Golden Crest is Paphiopedilum fairrieanum x Paphiopedilum Wallcrest.


I'd be chattier, but I was up at about 4:30 AM yesterday, because a storm was rolling through and it was loud. I could have tried to sleep through it regardless, but I was worried about the plants outside -- the forecast had said there might be hail -- so I stayed up worrying about them until

Random plant event: Phalaenopsis NOID

In March 2009, the husband and I went to Cedar Rapids and bought a NOID Phalaenopsis at Frontier Garden Center. I didn't want to, because I was pretty sick of Phalaenopsis by this point, but he paid for it, so okay, fine.

Then, five or six hundred years passed.

And now we have this:


How did this happen? I do not know. It just did.

Am I happy about it? I do not know. I think I'm confused?

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

For a while yesterday, Google/Blogger wasn't letting me upload this photo (I tried three or four times), so you almost didn't get to see this. But I tried again after a few hours, because I care, so you do.

You're welcome.

Not really any Sheba news to speak of; she's been getting some hot spots over the last month or so, probably because it's been a terrible year for biting insects (I didn't

Pretty picture: Dendrobium Mini Snowflake

Gosh, you know, I thought after I got back from the orchid show and I was going through the photos I'd taken that this year's batch was pretty decent, but the last couple are making me rethink that.

In fairness, part of the reason why this picture isn't great is that I couldn't get close to the plant.


Not sure how I feel about Dendrobiums in general these days, but this one is impressively

Random plant event: Tagetes patula 'Durango Bee'

This is one of those things that I expect will be minor -- possibly even trivial -- to most of you, but it's new (more like "new") and exciting to me, so I'm blogging about it anyway.

When we first moved in here, I bought some 'Durango Bee' marigolds to plant, because . . . well, it's one of those cases where although I can see perfectly well why people might not like them, and sort of feel

Music: "The Hymn of Acxiom (1st Draft Demo)" (Vienna Teng)

I ran into this last week sometime, through MetaFilter, and it's been on my mind a lot since then (not to mention getting stuck in my head: it's really quite catchy). Not only is it timely, given the recent revelations about the PRISM program and what the U.S. government's been doing with our phone records and on-line information, but for me, anyway, it's also perfectly balanced on that edge

File under "better late than never:"

It's been some time since PATSP's "Rumble Among the Jungle," in which PATSP readers voted in a single-elimination tournament to determine the Best Houseplant of All Time. The winner, Schlumbergera cvv., was declared a year and a half ago, in November 2011. (The results of all matches are collected here, if anyone cares.)

At the time, I made the comment: The husband suggested photoshopping a belt

Pretty picture: Rhyncholaeliocattleya Memoria Irene Feil 'Ruby Red'

The tag said Potinara, but apparently that's now Rhyncholaeliocattleya. Really we should know not to pay much attention to what the tags say anyway.

And it's not the best picture either, but you should probably also not be paying all that much attention to the pictures. Highly saturated reds and pinks always make my camera completely lose its mind: sometimes I can adjust it into a reasonable

The Strawberries Finally Pay Off

Those of you who have been reading PATSP for a while will be familiar with the story, but just to make sure everybody is crystal clear about what this means:

We moved to the current house in 2009. I had a lot of ideas in the gardening department, and more enthusiasm than sense, so I'd bought all kinds of plants (where "all kinds" means "mostly annuals") in preparation for the move. One of the

Giveaway results -- updated

I announced the book giveaway winner on Sunday, but it's been a few days and they haven't e-mailed to claim it, so I'm drawing again. The new winner is comment #2, Paul.

Paul: send an e-mail with your mailing address (I think I know which Paul you are anyway, but just to be sure), and I'll forward it to the relevant people so you can get your book.

Random plant event: Eucharis grandiflora

Finally it's gotten warm enough that this year's outdoor plants can all stay outside for a few consecutive days, which makes my life a bit easier. (It's also been very rough on me mentally -- it's just too weird to be hoping for the weather to be warmer.)

I'd put the younger Eucharis bulbs (the ones I bought two years ago) outside a while back, but then it got cold for several days, and I put

Giveaway results

The randomly-chosen commenter for the book giveaway was #8, Dave.

Dave, please contact me by e-mail (address in the sidebar; please note the instructions) to let me know where to have it sent, as your links do not include an e-mail address.

A Cautionary Tale

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I've tried, of course, to be conscientious about hand-washing and so forth, but as many Euphorbias as I have, and as long as I've had them, I was going to get Euphorbia sap in the eye eventually. So here's my report about that.

What happened: On Wednesday night, our weather forecast predicted a low of 58F/14C, which was probably warm enough that I

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Pinocchio

Paphiopedilum Pinocchio is a primary hybrid (hybrid between two species, as opposed to a hybrid of a hybrid) between Paphiopedilum glaucophyllum × Paphiopedilum primulinum. I can't say I see anything particularly Pinocchioish about the flower here, but I gave up a long time ago on expecting orchid names to make sense.


The flower looks more or less exactly like most of the primulinum pictures on

Random plant event: Canna NOID

Last year, I saved as many seeds from the Cannas as I could collect, with the intention of starting all of them as new plants. Because everybody -- I in particular -- always needs more Cannas. It wound up being about 150 seeds, which I sanded down and soaked in water for a couple days, as you do, and then I made a bunch of little holes in a bed in the yard and dropped a seed in each hole. Flooded

Book Giveaway: America's Romance With the English Garden (Thomas J. Mickey)

Book Give-away Rules: To be eligible to participate in this Book Give-away for a copy of Thomas Mickey’s book America’s Romance With the English Garden, you must comment on this guest blog entry between 8:00 a.m. (EDT) Monday, June 3, and 5:00 p.m. (EDT) Friday, June 7. LIMIT one entry per person. The name of the winner will be drawn from the list of those who comment. The winner will be

Question for the Hive Mind: Iris cvv.

Three or four weeks ago, I was talking to my Dad on the phone, and he mentioned that the Irises where he and Mom live (fairly close, south of us) had buds on them already, and that they were sufficiently developed that you could tell what color the flowers were going to be.

We didn't have any Iris buds at that point, but about a week after that conversation, I saw a couple stalks were forming.