Hostas - Palntain lilies

The Phactors have a lot of shade provided by several notable big trees.  And you do not have perennials in your shady garden without a healthy representation of Hostas.  In one area the big varieties grow; in another area next to the patio, the little varieties grow.  We make no attempt to collect or represent anything more diverse; just a bunch of plants that appealed to us at the time (oh, pretty!), for some morphological diversity to make things interesting.  Over the weekend a number of plants were dug and replanted in an attempt to make them happier, to grow better and look better.  A few other plants were mover around also.  It's always funny how some plants respond so well to new locations, a others show their displeasure by dying.  And then there is the worst part.  In a moment of insanity, TPP bought the Ms. the massive tome ( over 1000 pages) called the Hostapedia.  And now an effort is being made to keep track of the names of varieties just for the heck of it.  You can also download the definitive hosta list with probably almost 30,000 varieties, of which our gardens have a not paltry 65 varieties in a very asymmetrical distribution among plants having several hundred really old fashioned varieties that came with the property, and then 1 or two of all the rest.  This helps describe both our hobby and senior exercise program.

Are pumpkins squashes?

Somehow the near annual arrival of a reporter to interview TPP about leaf color was unintentionally avoided; they were sent to find my lair, but TPP was out and about collecting seeds. The also nearly annual question arrived by email: are pumpkins squashes?  Short version: yes. Here's a link to a nice discussion of pumpkin/squash diversity. As an added bonus, and in case you did not notice the recent post on the Botanist in the Kitchen blog, here's a very good discussion about giant pumpkin/squashes. Growing up, TPP's Father got a big kick out of growing big pumpkins, but he never had any as big as these although they remained impressive anyways. The pumpkin TPP is posing with is a mere 901 pounds, while this year's big pumpkin is 2.5 times bigger! And as long as TPP is on the subject, a couple of weeks are left to visit the Great Pumpkin Patch near Arthur, Illinois. Can't think of any place where you can see more varieties of pumpkins and squashes than there (300+!). And do try the pumpkin ice cream.   

Apples

The Phactors took an excursion yesterday to the Wolfe orchard just east of Monticello IL.  Since this is just a "hobby" orchard they only have 350 trees and about 66 varieties of apple for sale, 33 were available yesterday.  And most importantly, one of those varieties was northern spy, our favorite apple, so we bought half a bushel.  This variety originated as a seedling around 200 years ago just about 50 miles west of where TPP grew up in upstate NY.  A few new varieties were on hand.  One was Kandil Senap (image), a variety of Turkish origin with Orange Pippin parentage.  It's a very oval apple, quite crisp, but a bit dry.  Among the heritage varieties are Baldwin, spitzenberg (probably a parent of Johnathon), golden russet, Ben Davis (no harder, drier apple exists, but it stores well), smoke house (tart), and winter banana (a pale yellow apple that will taste better after some storage).  They also have a variety called buff from a relative's farm in western North Carolina, a big apple with a crisp white and juicy flesh; it performs well for making pies.  Here's the best thing: they'll let you taste every apple they've got.  Wonderful!