Christmas eve

 Happy holidays everyone!  Having just celebrated the winter solstice, and recognizing that most of the images and trappings of Christmas are of pagan origin, TPP has no particular religious connections with Christmas, but most of my childhood memories were born of the American Christmas traditions, so all the decorating done by Mrs. Phactor make me quite happy.  The weather here in the upper Midwest has turned quite cold for a couple of days after highs in the upper 30s and 40s.  Late season garden work included picking up lots of small limbs from several windy days and fencing several garden areas where otherwise the bunnies would damage many smaller trees and lots of shrubs.  Later in the season and the stakes for the fencing wouldn't push into the frozen ground.  

The interesting transition taking place is the invasion of chipmunks (now in hibernation) and gray squirrels, where formerly it was only fox squirrels, a bigger, but slower species.  In an area near us and often including our garden, a melanistic black form of the gray squirrel has also appeared.  No idea why these darker coats might be of some advantage, if they are; the black coats seem quite obvious to our eyes.  But the grays are becoming more numerous.

The longer nights help promote flowering in house plants that have been in the garden until well into October.  First the "Christmas cacti" and an Aeschynanthus flowered.  Then the Queen's tears flowered (see the last FFF blog) and the Christmas azalea, which looks much better having been cut back to promote some denser growth.  Now a large Hatiora salicornoides cactus.  All the orchids are putting up new flowering stalks.  So it seems a bit silly to sprout paper-white narcissuses, but the bulbs were a gift, and they do smell great. And all of these plants are in the same room with the Christmas tree, a Frasier fir.  We are taking a number of precautions in order to have the F1 over for Christmas, along with a refugee from Australia who remained rather than travel back to down under.

  

A couple of emails have enquired about my blogging hiatus

 A couple of concerned followers/readers have enquired as to TPP's well being.  Thank you very much for caring. TPP is just fine, and not at all interested in becoming a pandemic statistic.  When not much is going on day to day there just isn't anything much to blog about.  Several more out door tropical plants have begun to flower, an orchid cactus and one of TPP's favorite flowers, the Queen's tears (and here) are flowering right on schedule (almost to the day) and they do make one happy.  This year a hort student who received a chunk of its rhizome is thrilled to see it flower again; quite reliable this plant. The flowers do not last long so do enjoy them.  

Got most of my shopping done for the immediate family.  Extended European 
"family" have their gifts on the way, particularly the candied, spiced pecans for the young woman with the big sweet tooth.  The gifts aren't much, but its nice to remember people.   Sort of self guaranteeing for the sake of some holiday visitors.  So staying away from shopping crowds seems like an excellent idea anyways.

TPP has been wasting way too much time worrying about our lame duck president who wants to demonstrate just what a poor loser he is, and he doesn't care if he does damage to our democratic traditions in the process.  That so many people (gullible?) believe his fabrications is quite troubling.  Supposedly the whole process should end today, but TPP doubts it because he craves attention probably more than anything, and he must do something to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms.

The house is beautifully decorated as a result of Mrs. Phactor's efforts.  It is quite cheerful and much needed, even if not seen by anyone but us.

Hope the rest of you have a nice, safe holiday season.  

Staying safe and mentally healthy during times of plague

 Like many other people the Phactors have pretty much stayed hunkererd down although the new propane patio heater has been used to keep the cooler temperatures at bay for a few days longer.  However having a big thermos filled with hot gloggwine also definitely helps.  In an effort to not let culture totally take a vacation, an exhibition was mounted to visit Chi-town and see the Monet exhibit before the 30 paintings privately held by local people once again retreated from public view.  It was a good exhibit and the museum did a good job of keeping people spread out.  Unfortunately the state of the 'ronavirus here in Lincolnland has led to the Art Institute reclosing for the time being.  Good timing.  

Gardening came to a rapid halt with a huge leaf round up effort.  A bit of parsley in very good condition is all that remains of the 2020 garden.  A nice late crop of dill weed was put to good use with goat cheese and thinly slice smoked salmon.  

After having elected a new president, who knew it would be so difficult to get the old one to leave?  Can't figure out if T-rump believes his own fraud fibs or not.  At least the courts somehow keep demanding evidence although none seems to be forthcoming.  If this was all a giant conspiracy against him, how the heck did he get elected in 2016?

The Queen's gambit was a very enjoyable series set in the height of the cold war, when even playing a Russian game made you a bit suspect in the eyes of ever suspicious spooks and politicians.  Our recommendation is that you give it a try.  The chess parts were well researched and TPP loved seeing a cute Corvair coupe (he had 2, a sign of a definite slow learner) Interesting that the only place where success at chess was extolled was Russia. 

Only us and the F1 and her personal philosopher will be doing Thanksgiving.  Ms. Phactor is a world class pie maker, so in addition to apple using Norrthern Spys, should it be pecan or pumpkin?  This is important.  

New plant - a succulent

 A friend gave TPP several new plants, all part of a decorative pot of succulents.  All of the plants have some features associated with living in sunny, xeric environments.  My friend lacked the space and light needed to over winter such plants, but he decided we had more.  And well, he's sort of right.  

At any rate this plants leaves are shaped a bit like a banana, round in cross section and tapering to the apex. The most striking feature though is the darker green strip funning from the base of each leaf to the tip.  This is actually the top of the leaf, and far from being pigmented, the tissue is transparent, clear.  The photosynthetic portion is a relatively thin layer wrapping around the rest of the leaf leaving the center of the leaf filled with clear water storage tissue.  But more importantly, this tissue lets light enter the interior of the leaf to illuminate the chloroplast containing cells. TPP suspects that this clear tissue is a multiple layered epidermis.  Such windowed leaves are fairly common in succulent plants.

This plant is not a cactus although many people think succulents and cacti are the same thing.  Sorry, no.  This plant is a member of the aster or daisy family in the genus Senecio, one of the world's biggest genera containing over 1200 species.  TPP thinks this may be S. radicans, but there are several succulent species in this genus.  So pictured above is an inflorescence composed of about 15 5-lobed disk flowers (that would form the button of a daisy).  Each flower has a column of anthers and the pollen gets pushed out the top of the anthers as the style pushes the stigma up and out.  The two halves of the stigma then uncoil sort of looking like an antenna. Also of interest the flowers seem sort of spicy scented, a bit allspicy.  Generally the plant isn't raised for its floral display.

Friday Fabulous Foliage

 For whatever reason, our gardens are very colorful this fall.  Here are several examples: above are leaves on some lower branches of a sugar maple.  Two huge ones drop a ton or two of leaves on our lawn and gardens 

This is a Nyssa, tupelo, and it has very bright fall foliage.  Lacking a defined leader means in grows in an umbrella shaped crown, and stays short. A member of the ebony family.

These are the leaves of a Japanese maple, Acer palmatum a variety call aconitifolium, which Dirr says is among the best of fall color shrubs (Don't know Dirr?  Don't admit it if you want to claim you garden.)

This is Fathergilla, a spring flowering shrub in our front garden, but it's fall color is unbeatable, much like it's relative witch-hazel.  Definitely an orange-red color.

Another Japanese maple with pale green leaves 'viridis'. They turn a nice peachy color that contrasts nicely with the dark bark.

Lastly this is a mass of bottle brush buckeye whose leaves turn your basic yellow; quite handsome in the dappled sun of a boarder area.  

Recommendation

Sir Richard Attenborough is 94 years old and seems as sharp as ever.  He's certainly seen more of this planet than most, and it is clear that he has thought about what he's seen and what has been transpiring during his life more than most too.  His new netflix film, A life on our planet, is excellent, maybe the best film he's ever done. The Phactors recommend that you watch this film with your family, and then consider what this 45th president has done for the environment.  Just a look up the Bear's Ears national monument to see what is left after an axe was taken to the map.  Not sure how much more environment is left to be given away by people like this. The film begins at Chernobyl, which struck TPP as a funny place to start but at the end of the film the Chernobyl location makes sense. 

Friday Fabulous Flower - last

OK lost track of the calendar but there must be a friday somewhere around.  It's also late in October, so except for tree color, and there is lots of it this year, the gardens are just about done for this year.  But not quite.  In the shady edges of our gardens at least one plant is in flower having started blooming just a week or two ago.  The funny thing is that this perennial is one of the first plants to sprout new shoots in the spring, and then it is the last thing to flower, monk's hood, Aconitum. TPP doesn't remember what species our gardens have, maybe A. noveboracense, as several cultivars exist.  This is a very toxic plant, so it gets left alone by the wildlife.  It's also called wolfbane, and several other colorful names that suggest toxicity.  The newest studies place this genus close to lark's spur, Delphinium and Consolida, in the buttercup family.  

Gardening during time of plague - End of the season summation

 Our kitchen garden was a great success this year, although it took some watering to make it happen.  Our successes were tomatoes, Asian eggplant, sweet peppers, zucchini, and basil.  Notice that there is a culinary theme here, and as such we ate well particularly in a Mediterranean sense. It helped to have a new herb and spice store whereby we could get really good harissa.  And even better, most of the garden kept producing until late September and early October.  A late crop of basil allowed for considerable  production of pesto much to Mrs. Phactor's great delight.  A special semi-vacation  new potato and green bean pesto to reprise a Ligurian dish  along with a very nice Tuscan wine. 

There are only two of us, so the zucchini don't have to be awesomely productive to be quite adequate.  The same with tomatoes.  A quart of cherry tomatoes every 3 days is more than enough, but we had some nice little tomato recipes.  The eggplant was nearly our match, and while not large, 6-8 a week is more than enough and fortunately a seared eggplant tinga was originally for zucchini, so it expects you to be nearly over whelmed.  The cucumbers decided to stay male most of the summer and then finally became monoecious in September as sort of a surprise.  Usually cucumber succumbs to a bacterial wilt, but vine survival made for a late crop success, then a friend inundated us with cucumbers and they became a very tasty relish.   

Unfortunately  our Michigan apple source closed because of the family could no longer stay in the business, and we have not yet found a replacement orchard for our supply of Northern Spies. Let us know if you have any orchard suggestions.

The pandemic has not been much of a bother, although we had to cancel travel for two family weddings, and a trip to Scotland.  Mostly we gardened and it not only gave us something to do, but it paid some garden type dividends.  We traded red buckeye seedlings for green dragon seedlings, a good deal we think.  

Friday Fabulous Flower - Still in flower

 TPP went out to a nursery area to collect some seeds, and this rare species, Sanguisorba canadensis, was still in flower. The common name is burnett, but since it only occurs in 3 counties in Lincolnland, it is anything but common.  Although the flowers don't look it, this is a member of the Rose Family.  The display is basically all stamens and as they are rather lax they blow prettily in a breeze.  October 8 is a bit late for flowering but not for this plant.  Seed collected last year germinated well and come next spring we'll have a lot of seedlings to  add to the prairie plot.  

Friday Fabulous Flower - pretty tiny

Today's FFF is perhaps one of the rarest plants in our gardens.  It probably isn't all that uncommon, but it still is rarely seen, and so it seems rare.  The other interesting thing is that this is a total volunteer plant, all on its own, it found its way into our garden and found a fairly protected site under our star Magnolia.  Generally plants don't like growing under this Magnolia because its roots are very shallow and so it can compete strongly for water and nutrients.  But when you are such a small plant it doesn't take much in the way of resources for you to grow.  The whole plant is only about 6-8" tall, and each individual flower is only about 4mm long.  The flowers are spirally arranged on the spike and so the scientific name Spiranthes seems most appropriate.  TPP is no certain but this seems to be S. cernua (nodding ladies' tresses).  This also points out that small inconspicuous plants are often considered rare.  This little orchid is in flower now, in early October, and TPP thinks there are two little seedlings growing nearby.

1.