Most people buy t-shirts as mementos of trips or visits to new places. I buy daylilies.

"Fall Remembrances" was purchased at the Chicago Dayily Society Sale (held at the Chicago Botanic Garden). What fun that was! I bought this daylily because it's a late-bloomer. I'm always looking for extra punch toward the end of daylily season. After the sale, the purchased fans were placed in a cottage cheese container with their roots in water overnight. The next day I re-wrapped it up in newspaper and plastic for the journey home.

This daylily turned out to be a spectacular keeper! It's tall, prolific and gorgeous. The blooms are large and consistent. In the morning it looks very copper in color and towards afternoon it mellows to the yellow/gold color in the photo. 

Here's the other beauty I bought at the Chicago Daylily Society sale named "Sir Knight." These fans also shared the overnight cottage cheese container with Fall Remembrances. This is a very unique daylily in that it starts the day just about pitch black in color. By the end of the day, when this photo was taken, it mellows to a deep purple.  And for such a dark daylily it holds up remarkably well in the hot sun.

I don't think I could ever part with either of these plants. They both remind me of my trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden and what a fun day it was viewing the many different garden designs.  The daylilies were the icing on the cake!

If you love gardens, the Chicago Botanic Garden is certainly worth the trip. Admission is free, but there are parking fees. The botanic garden contains 385 acres, 100 acres of woods, 81 acres of waterways, 23 gardens and 3 native habitats, 9 islands, 6 miles of shoreline, and 15 acres of prairie. If you're not up to walking there is a scenic railway you can take a ride on.

It's the second most visited botanic garden in the United States. In all there are 1,181,289 different perennials. On our visit the poppies were in full bloom. There were meadows FULL of them! The breathtaking sight transported me back to the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion were traveling to Oz and fell asleep in the poppies. Fortunately, we remained awake and could enjoy the spectacle we were surrounded by. 
http://www.chicagobotanic.org/

Our friends Tony and Christine grow the most incredible garden -- filled with a wide variety of vegetables and fruits! Their garden is organic and pesticide-free. It’s really a site to see, as it's hard to find a weed in residence throughout the entire garden (and it's BIG). Christine cans all of their produce to use throughout the year.

In an effort to get the season started earlier, Tony recently built an amazing greenhouse. In fact, they have radishes growing right now. Imagine that!

As you'll see from the photos, when Tony does a project, it is done impeccably, with much research and planning. Shown below is the first set of photos. The greenhouse is 10 feet x 12 feet in size.  It stands about 12 feet high at the peak. The floor is comprised of vapor barrier, then R-18 R-Board, then 2 inches of sand, then 18" x18" concrete blocks for thermal mass.

Christine will be periodically taking more photos as the seedlings grow this spring.

If you are interested in building your own greenhouse, Tony would be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Anthony Reed <treed1304@yahoo.com> 

Taking a well-deserved break!

(This happened a while ago, but it was so funny I wanted to share it)

A “Foul” Visitor 
My first encounter was after work when I tried to drive my car into the garage and was blocked by this chicken-like bird. It wouldn’t move. So I got out of my car, clapped my hands and tried to shoo it away. It wouldn’t move. So I waited. It wouldn’t move and it certainly wasn’t scared of people. Why is this chicken-thing here? My husband, Ange happened to be home and he swished it away with a broom so I could drive my car in the garage.

Over the next five days this chicken-thing followed/chased me everywhere. (Just picture me running around the yard with a chicken-thing on my heels.) As each day passed it became more and more "friendly." Getting the mail became scary! Chicken-thing even tried to get in the back door! On the fifth day it jumped on me and started flapping its wings—it had big claws. Chicken-thing had officially worn out its welcome.

We trapped it by putting a small shopping basket with lots of holes on top of it (chicken-thing was not happy!) and we slid cardboard underneath the shopping basket. Then we duct-taped the cardboard to the shopping basket and off to the La Crosse Humane Society chicken-thing went.

Turns out chicken-thing was a ruffed grouse. The Humane Society said that dog trainers often raise game birds to teach their hunting dogs how to hunt and most likely this one got away. The bird was obviously very well cared for as you can see by the photo! They were going to re-locate it in a forest; far away from homes. They were glad we brought it in; we probably saved its life.

We’ve experienced quite a variety of wild critters at our house, but this was our first ruffed grouse!

Sally's flower garden is a few blocks from my office. On lunch hour I often walk by her house to see what's blooming on various days during the summer. Her perennials are all so very tastefully arranged. She has a master gardener certification, and it's very evident by the strategic placement of all of her plants. Her garden has vibrant bloom continuously from April through October.

It was on one of my visits to Sally's garden that I first saw Pumpkin Kid. I loved it immediately. It was such an unusual color and had a waxy substance that kept it beautiful on even the hottest day. It's an older plant, hybridized in 1987, but it's just one of those plants that you want to keep around! Sally knew I admired the plant and towards the end of daylily season she gave me a few nice, hardy proliferations. I grew the roots in water and then placed them in the dirt. The proliferations had September and October to acclimate in the dirt and establish some roots. And that's how Pumpkin Kid arrived in my daylily garden. Pumpkin Kid has grown large enough that I've also been able to share proliferations with others.

In daylily lingo, a proliferation is a baby plant (genetically like the parent plant) that grows on the daylily scape towards the end of the season. Not every daylily produces them, but if you can get one from a plant that you really want, you're getting it for free! It just takes a few years to nurture them along. In the fall I inspect all of my plants carefully to make sure I grab all the proliferations I can find and pass them along to my friends.

Yep, this is what we see during the winter. The deer rest and sleep on the hill behind our house, sheltered underneath some white pine trees. The needles make a soft, warm bed for them. At night we often see glowing eyes.

It's interesting to see tracks in the snow and follow their movement. In the summer they lurk around in the night and we don't know where they've been (unless of course they are eating plants). I see their hoof prints right up close to our windows. Some days it looks like we have 12 little kids that play outside in our yard from the amount of tracks they leave.

The deer are probably sick of winter too. They are patiently waiting for spring to come, just like us.