Tag: shade

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08/19/2022

I tried cantaloupe in my oatmeal this morning, hoping it would be magical like peaches, but I think they’re best eaten cold and alone. The melon, not the person doing the eating.
Gram is too tall to stretch under this chair.
He came out from under the chair to stretch, then went back under the chair to continue observing his Doggie.
Two new blooms on the two leaf senna!!
I think one of the juniperleaf cuttings had some nearly ripe seeds on it and they sprouted!!! I kept them in standing water in the shade for the first few days as a cutting, then moved them to a dry spot but still in the shade, where they are now. Still watering every day. This is additionally interesting because the seeds I collected from the original juniperleaf in the winter have not sprouted anywhere I put them. I was reading today in Nokes’ germination book that sometimes fresher seeds don’t have such an impermeable seed coat.
A few little grasses in the backyard where I sprinkled the native grass mix from Plants of the Southwest! The mix was blue grama and buffalograss.
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08/13/2022 harsh sun

Paula noticed some of the baby Coryphantha sulcata were possibly getting sunscald, because they were turning a bit brown on the tips. She has cleverly shaded them with thin coffee filters that let some light in. They seem to be happier now. Presumably this better imitates where a baby cactus might grow up in the wild.
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05/12/2022 dramatic surprise

I realized today that these funny friends near the dining room window were blooming.
It turns out they are a native Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum)!!! Thanks to Abby for confirming the identification.
Apparently they do grow in the wild in Cleveland county, so these could be volunteers or they could be planted. Apparently the native species (as well as some non native species in the same genus) used to be more popular as a shade plant. The Chef mentioned seeing them in older people’s gardens in his home town in northeastern Oklahoma. The linked website also says one of the non native species has a strong odor to the flower, and these had no particular smell for either of us.
There is also a clump of them near the compost bin, shaded by the house most of the day.
They do have fun leaves, and have never spread far, so I had never bothered to pull them up before. (Having never seen them in the wild before, I had assumed these leaves were something non native.)
Sure glad I didn’t!!
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Melting almost complete

I don’t think it froze overnight so the streets are mostly dry except for water flowing along edges.  Shady spots and snow piles are less melted.

The front nook, dog for scale.
The front yard beds, distracted dog for scale.
It looks like everything in the rock garden survived!  Also more of the irises by the mailbox survived, so I guess only some leaves got damaged.
Since we’re back to usual late winter temperature I went ahead and brought out the coreopsis seedlings which I had cold stratified in the fridge. They have been waiting as little seedlings on a damp paper towel for probably a week or more. They are under the glass jars. They are to replace two seedlings I planted last fall that didn’t make it. This row is back to five evenly spaced plants now assuming everything survives.
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Roots shooting up??

This is in the right spot to be one of three bare root Canadian anemone plants I got from Prairie Moon Nursery last fall. Fingers crossed! I’m trying to fill in the bare ground in the backyard to keep out invasives like the non native species of wild geranium that is everywhere in our yard.