Amaryllis Step 2

Here in my garage sit the various amaryllis and the lily I propagated from a bulb I purchased many years ago. They got their last drink of water---just a little last week and now they will not get anymore water and very little sun. Soon they should begin to go to sleep, I hope! Then I will put them in dark garbage bags and move them to my basement. I do not really have a cold basement, so their is always the chance they will spoil, but they have not thus far. This past winter I had to replant the lilies in the cold of March and as a result, they bloomed in late spring and early summer. I hope to reset their clocks!

Amaryllis: Fall Steps

I have had great success with my amaryllis bulbs over the years. I started with two or three and now I have dozens and find that I have to give them away every few years. Since bloggers have asked what I do, I will start with my fall regimen to prepare the bulbs for rest. (Please note that this is what works for me and is something I just did without too much research!) My amaryllis plants are moved outside in the spring as soon as the weather is warm enough and there are no frosts and they sit outside in pots through the summer months. They are on the northeast side of the house and do not get a lot of direct sun. The first week of September I stop watering and feeding these bulbs. If we are getting lots of rain, I will move them to a sheltered area where they will get no water. Since I see we are possibly facing the remnants of at least two more hurricanes, I will move these pots to sheltered areas. This is the beginning process of forcing them to go dormant early so that I can encourage blooms in January and February inside my house.

Post Script: The bulbs are currently planted with the top half of the bulb exposed in a good potting soil that drains well. The pot is not too big and so by fall the bulbs can be somewhat root bound. The pot in the photo above has four small bulbs that I transplanted this past winter. They are too small to bloom so all I got this year was the nice foliage.

Fall Prince

Stripes that zig and zag
Tiny black feet that pad and pad
Your true beauty waits.

Summer Sunset

Click on this for a high resolution sreen saver if you desire.

Morning Rush Hour

It is a cool early morning as summer wanes and the chairs on the deck are still wet with dew. I spread a towel and sit back to welcome the start of the day. High above flocks of swallows are heading somewhere nearby, perhaps to chase insects above the cornfield. A blue jay sits on a nearby oak branch working on his breakfast ground worm shaking away the dirt by banging it against the branch at his feet. In the distance across the river two osprey, resembling gray kites, swoop up the river and then down looking for their breakfast. On my right where the sun hits the trees first, a female cardinal finds a clear place in the warm rays and does not move for a long time. Nearer to the tops of the tulip trees directly above, a pair of hummingbirds complete their love-ballet against the blue sky zooming one way and then back and then like bee bombers dive and hide in the gold green leaves to complete their tryst. The forest rush hour has started.

Timeless Beauty

This love visits every day and drinks from my lantana on the deck. It's summer beauty is so short and special.

This is a gift from and at the edge of the river. I have two of these plants that have volunteered their summer beauty each year. Each blossom lasts only one short day. It closes in the late afternoon and bows its head as if forming a cocoon.

Meeting Royalty

He is now joined by his friend.

Late in the day close to 5:00 I stop my activities or reading and go to the front door as if on autopilot. If someone were watching me, they would think I had been called by someone outside although they would hear nothing.

I open the door quietly, and just as I expected, there he stands at the end of the drive-way in all his male glory. The four points of his antlers are now tall and majestic. His coat is the golden brown of early fall, and sometimes if he is not in the late afternoon sun, he ghosts like a summer shadow against the trees.

Each time I have seen him he wanders closer to the house. I go down the flagstone steps and begin talking to him about my plants and how I don't want him to get too friendly, too comfortable in my front yard. He looks at me gently and wisely with his brown eyes. He does not move and stands tall and comfortable in his maleness. I keep walking steadily toward him and continue my careful explanation of my love of my garden and how hard an I am working to get it established.

He stands statue still and does not move until I am within a few yards. As if he has heard enough of this one-sided conversation, he quickly turns and with a flash of his white tail gallops back into the pine trees and crosses down into the ravine.

I know he is not afraid of me, because like the setting sun, he is back in my driveway at the end of each day grazing the grass at the side of the road. Once this week I saw him with his two does and a growing fawn.

It is like a courtship, this dance with the prince of the forest. I cannot help but be seduced by his beauty and confidence and yet I know that if I give in I will regret it.

Did You Notice?

DID YOU NOTICE:

The air smells fresher and flatter?
The air tastes interesting?
The breeze now makes a whushing sound that is crisper than the sound it made this summer?
The angles of the sun are cleaner?
The shadows made by the sun are deep tan brown instead of bright yellow brown?
The afternoon sun angles are so richly golden and do not stay as long as they should?
Thunderhead clouds are round and full and complete and no longer linger on the horizon but drift overhead?
The lines that separate the beautiful elements of summer are clean?

Yes, it is on it way...

Elegance

This lovely mushroom awaited me on my walk this morning. It reminds me of an elegant Victorian nun's habit. It was waiting peacefully beside the path.

The Partial Solution

A brief visit to K-Mart or Wall-mart or one of those huge stores where I purchased this rubber snake in the toy section of the store. It works as a Cardinalis deterreo...at least for this window. The cardinal does still hit the other windows...but at least I don't sleep on that side of the house!

August in the Garden

Above is the first bloom of my Echinacea 'Pink Double Delight'. This hybrid was developed in the Netherlands and lives up to its photos. I will get two more...this fall or early next spring to fill in the area.



It is amazing what ten minutes more of sun will do. These potted ageratums were grown from seed and thus are blooming just now. They are stair steps because the sun reaches the blooming one first as it peaks over the tree tops.

Hot Summer

Sometimes you are too hot, too sweaty, too tired to get up and take that shower.

Butterfly Head

Granny said after I made my bed,
And after I was fully fed,
After I put on that shirt dark red
After we had cleaned out the shed,
And if the sky was still blue overhead
We would go where I led.
But as we set out...
Wait, is that a butterfly on my head?

The Watch Frog

Throughout the world people use various means to protect their valuables. Besides technology we also use animals. In the U.S. (and elsewhere) dogs with their excellent sense of smell and hearing protect us from robberies. When I lived in Indonesia they used peacocks because they had a piercing call if a stranger approached the yard at night.

I guess I have a volunteer watch frog in the potted patio tomato...or perhaps he is just free-loading. The look he is giving me says "What's with all this drenching rain every morning?"

A screen saver for you'all

If you click on the photo it will be higher res and then just right click to save image to you PC!

Summer Lovin'?

While checking the new plants, I found the salvia and Russian sage and Veronica are tempting the lovely swallowtail butterflies to visit.

This gentle fellow (gal?) is almost lovelier on the front side!

Then suddenly a second appears and they immediately tangle on the ground. Are they fighting or mating?


Soon one leaves and the other in either extreme ecstasy or pain remains behind on the gravel and I slowly approach. He/she gathers needed energy and soon flies off into the air.

Freedom

Free to leap
Above the why
Into the arms
Of strange

Free to fly
Far from real
Into the arms
Of away

Free to sail
On the craft
Into the arms
Of sighs

Laughing and yelling and screaming with joy
I spin the sun at my command

An Evening

The fragile beauty of a summer evening as the sun begins its low glow above the silhouette of trees was the perfect time for sitting in a coasting canoe.

For a while we chased the reflection of the half moon up the river until we reached the end of a finger where the sanctuary begins. Small schools of bait fish bubbled ahead on the surface on each side of the bow. Quiet evening air was punctuated by the raspy call of the blue herons behind the marsh and later by the lyrical beauty of the warbler's call. We looked up to see a juvenile bald eagle without his balding color glide to land gracefully in the crook of a nearby tree becoming camouflaged against the darkening shadows.


The pink and purple surface of the water was gently rippled by the cool and welcoming breeze that also kissed our faces. Windows from houses nestled against the sheltering trees on the distant shore glowed warm and golden as the evening lamps were turned on.

Three blue herons glided smoothly ahead of us following the shoreline. One landed at the top of the tallest tulip tree and remained like a sentinel arching his neck and balancing his head in perfect yoga pose as we slid past below.

The sun's bright glow diminished rapidly, and reluctantly, we turned back skirting the gray fingers of fallen trees near the shore as we headed toward home.

Ha Ha...!

The house is quiet as the sun is not quite up. I am standing in the bathroom washing my face. I hear a repeated bird call in the nearby woods that sounds a little different.

ME: "Do you hear that bird call?"
HUBBY: (Lying peacefully in bed.) "Yeah."
ME: "What is that?"
HUBBY; "A cardinal"
ME: "Gee. Sounds a little different, sort of raspy. Like it has a sore throat."
HUBBY: "You'd sound raspy too if you spent the better part of your day beating your head against a window."

Sometimes a Surprise

After the hectic weekend of guests and grandchildren, we decided a woodland walk was in order to calm our spirits and return our pace back to something more rhythmic and less jazzy. We discovered a new state park nearby that warrants a return visit. It seemed that the time of fungus is upon us.