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perfectly petrified

1/25/2015

This very unique petrified wood resides in my garden - and it's beyond heavy! Ange got this for me at a garage sale, so I have no idea where it originally came from. I placed it close to our house where I can see it year-round, unless the snow covers it up.

Petrified wood is actually fossilized wood. According to gemologists, there is no wood left in petrified wood, only rock that takes the same form and shape of the wood. Normally, trees decompose, but when a tree lands in a swamp or is otherwise covered up, decomposition is halted. The cells within the tree are hollowed out, and mineral-rich water seeps in. As the water evaporates, the minerals are left behind, creating a copy of what was there. Over millions of years, these minerals crystallize within the wood's cellular structure forming the stone-like material known as petrified wood. The wood, no longer wood at this point, takes on the hues of the minerals that fill its pores.

So here it is - the oldest piece of whimsy in my garden!

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techny peace

1/18/2015

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One of my favorite daylily colorations are blends. The exquisite colors in these flowers are often hard to describe accurately because they are so seamlessly blended. You can see from the above photo of Techny Peace how the colors seem to shimmer into each other. An established clump is absolutely stunning, as my Techny Peace was last summer. This plant also has 'diamond-dusting' (a glitter-like quality on the petal surface). And to top it off, Techny Peace is a late-bloomer that started on July 30th and continued blooming abundantly until September 4th this year.

Techny Peace was hybridized by Brother Charles Reckamp, who was a member of the Society of the Divine Word missionaries in Techny, Illinois, but was also a horticulturist. He worked on the Society's farm and helped develop a market garden business to help the brothers be self-sufficient. He developed more than 140 varieties of daylilies, all dormants that withstood harsh Midwestern winters. Brother Reckamp passed on in 1996, but his beautiful creations continue to grace our gardens and make us happy.

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coyote chorus

1/11/2015

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I was jarred awake last week, during the night, by a pack of coyotes. They sounded like they were having an epic feeding frenzy -- barking, yelping, screeching and howling! I immediately thought of our neighbor's dogs and cats and seriously hoped they were all safe inside. If you have pets, it's not safe to let them outside for any length of time in our neck of the woods...they may never come back. The frequent "LOST" posters on the nearby electrical poles attest to this.

Coyotes can be quite brazen. I was gardening one spring morning and a skinny, mangy-looking coyote nonchalantly trotted right by me (only about 20 feet away) and barely gave me a look sideways. That started my heart beating! Coyotes are quite adaptable, even in the city. They hunt rabbits, rodents, fish, frogs, and even deer. They also eat garbage, insects, snakes, and road kill. They can run up to 40 miles an hour, which doesn't give the rabbits much hope for escape. In the fall and winter, they form packs for more effective hunting.

I don't see coyotes often, but I sure do hear them!

(Photo courtesy of David Kingham, Flickr Creative Commons)

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daylilies and self-control

1/4/2015

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Should the words "daylilies and self-control" ever be paired? Probably not. The most difficult part of being a daylily enthusiast is trying to control how many cultivars to grow. When there are 70,000+ registered daylilies out there, plus each year more new and exciting varieties are introduced, it becomes increasingly difficult to resist adding new plants to the collection.

Even though I live out in the country and have lots of sunny space, I have made my mind up to only grow what I can take care of and keep looking nice. So…I have set my limit at no more than 200 daylilies. That sounds like a lot, but many people can easily grow that many (and more) in a city yard. I've also decided that when I get new daylilies, my current collection has to be culled. This is sometimes very hard for me. Funny part is--I'm a less-is-more type of personality and I really dislike clutter. Daylilies are the only part of my life where things went haywire! Does this scenario sound familiar to anyone else?

(Daylily pictured is "Baby Blues")

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