Botanizing the Neighborhood

Illus. of Corn Gromwell from my notebook.

One one of the side streets around the neighborhood I spotted several flowering plant in this one stretch of roadside turf.  The flowers are only a few mm wide and so I had to use my new microscope and 15X loupe to be able to draw it.  Neat part about modern botanizing is that you can record it's local with GPS coordinates.  Also, you can sometimes get a bird's eye few via satillite or arial imaging.  I found that once you can narrow the plant to it's family it is much easier to ID the species using the internet.

Here is a google image of the location.
Down the street (N. Norfolk) is Shangri la

What is living in your birdbath?

Birdbath sample and 100X field microscope

Since I had my microscope out to look at white fly nymphs I decided to take a look at what lives in the birdbath.  When there is no water in it many of the creatures encyst until it either rains or I fill it up with water.  During the summer you can see a reddish deposit on the bottom and I've read that this is carried in by the birds and is rotifers. A good place to see what grows either in your birdbath or garden pond is to visit Ron's Pond Scum.  An interesting web site that gives you lots of interesting photos of micro-critters and plants.  Sure would like to have his microscope and camera setup.

I was expecting to find rotifers but haven't seen a one so far.  It was pretty lifeless when I looked at it right after collecting the sample.  But I placed it in some sunlight and have spotted some nostoc growing.  Also there are a few critters swimming around in the soup but I can't I.D. them.  I've ordered a student microscope with zoom from 50-250X in hopes of getting a better look.  There is also a lot of dead plant tissue fragments in the mix that the birds brought in.

BTW I scrub the birdbath with a stiff brush and rinse out the debris each time I refill it with fresh water.

Update on Poinsettia Rescue

3rd & 4th instar nymphs 

Well, the concoction I made up the other day is not working.  Today I saw a white fly emerge from the poinsettia plant as I tapped it.  I decided to put one of the leaves under a microscope at 100X and sure 'nuff there they were...about 6 nymphs on the leaves.  I could not find any eggs which gives me hope.
 Lady Stickfigure banished the plant from the house and my reply could only be, "Yes, your Linesse."  I promptly curtsied and left with a pitiful looking poinsettia out to the patio.  Its fate is hanging on the edge of doom.

At right is a drawing I made of the little creatures.  I compared them with some online pics and they look pretty close.

That plant sat out on the patio all summer last year and really took off.  But when I brought it into the house the flies went to work unopposed.  I figure they must have been prayed upon outside to such an extent that they could not do much damage.

I gave it another dose of the pepper/soap concoction and left the plant outside to see what happens.

Blogger's Bloom Day 3/15

I think the flower is posing. :)

Jonquils

Crocus

Hey folks, it's Blogger's Bloom Day.  Spring is here and it looks like a good one.  We had a late bout of winter weather but nothing looks damaged.  I can't wait for the iris but that is in late April around here. Click on the tag below to see the other bloom day posts of mine.  Also you might want to look up May Dreams Garden.  It's a great tradition that connects you with fellow garden bloggers.

Potting up Veggies with Sloanie Mae

Sloanie, (my grand daughter), and I potted up some veggies.
Green and Red Bell Peppers, and Petunias.

We made a special pot for her where she planted 3 beans so that she could watch them grow.  All the while she was singing Farmer in the Tail (Dale).  She is 3 and a half years old.  Hope she takes up gardening later in life.  We always say a bracha (prayer) whenever we plant or harvest something.  There is a saying, "Those closest to nature are closest to God".

Springtime

There are infinite segments of a moment in time.

There is a spring somewhere
  for a little seed.
And she awaits it's coming
  from here on winter's day.
The urge within her swells
  of wanting for the robin to come home
  and the trees to dress their naked, knotty limbs;
  for the children to laugh and sing...they too have gone.
I fear her fate.
 Should she thrust her infant spriglettes up
  to taste the sun
  too soon.
  Would the frosty night return
  beheading her, her frail existence,
  before the chance to bloom?
And if she waits another year
  her fate I still must fear.
  Could then a blizzard come
  to freeze her thoroughly to the bone;
  her Spring denied.
But then that fateful day appeared.
  She laid her trust upon the hand
  of a circumstantial god.
  Should if the frosty night return
  her effort will not have been in vain.
  Because that finite day contains
  An infinite of infinite springs.

MG Morris

The turnips are up

My turnips are up and they made a pretty good stand.  This time I'm going to make a special effort to thin them out more than ever in hopes of having healthier plants that could fight off the aphids.  The soil they are in is very good and that should also help.

Turnips and Radishes have arrived.

I've noticed the iris greening up.  A sign they have broken their winter dormancy.  Here in Oklahoma they also go dormant in the hot summer months and put on rhizome growth in the fall and early winter.  At one time I had 400 varieties but there is no way I could take care of that many now.  In fact I'll have to thin the herd even more this year.

Grape hiacynths

The grape hyacinths are blooming now.  They are quite plentiful around the neighborhood and quite beautiful when blooming in mass.

Poinsettia rescue

I'm working on the fall garden log that I made up in 2013 while we are having this cold spell.  I have it all in a spiral-bound notebook and am in the process of putting it into a book using Microsoft word.  I would like to offer it as a download to provide a snippet of our fall garden experience.  I'm hoping to have it finished by the time the garden demands my full attention.

I had problems with the poinsettia in the south window.  We bring it in each year to overwinter.  It was attacked by white flies and almost died.  I tried this that and the other but finally had success by first taking it to the garage and using the sprayer from the facet to wash the critters off.  Next I picked off the worse leaves and rubbed out the nymphs with a small artist's brush. After that I made up a concoction of jalapeno peppers, water, and dish detergent.  I didn't have a blender so I ran the peppers through an old antique meat grinder I had, then strained it using an old T-shirt.  What ever you do DON'T TOUCH YOUR EYES UNTIL YOU WASH YOUR HANDS FIRST....OKAY, WEAR GLOVES. :)  I sprayed that plant top to bottom and both sides of all leaves.  Afterwards I re-potted the poor fellow and gave it a light dose of liquid fertilizer and placed it in a north window.  It is now showing signs of recovery by little leaves sprouting out after about 4 days there.  I don't think I'll have to say Kaddish over it, thank heaven.  It's very beautiful and I've tried to shape it to look bonsai-ish.  It needs another pruning but I'm going to wait until it has fully recovered to do that.  Check out this 21 year old poinsettia bonsai.of Nigel Saunders.  Mine is only 4 years old and will probably out-live me if I can manage to keep it alive. :)

Click on image to enlarge.

The Daffies are Blooming

The daffies are blooming and they are absolutely beautiful.  I planted them in the fall of 2013 and they are still looking good.  I planted  several clumps when we moved to Shangri la back in 2001 but the last of them died last year.  I just figure I will have to plant more every so often to keep up the numbers.

A note in passing:  The clematis showed up two days ago.

Jubilations! It's plantin' time in Shangri la.

Planted lettuce, radishes, onion slips, and put compost into raised bed.  So happy to get out into the garden and plant something.  BTW the little critter perched on the row marker stake is a cabbage butterfly watching her dinner being prepared.  

The bed on the left is raised about 6 inches while the one of the right is only 3 inches.  I've tried making them higher but they dry out too quickly in 102 deg weather.  The plants in the hog wire cage are black-eyed Susans...a native plant to Oklahoma.

Mr. Woodpecker is knocking

I'm watching you.

As I was making my daily rounds through the garden I suddenly heard a woodpecker hammering away on one of the trees.  We have seen the pileated woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, and a northern flicker here at Shangri la.  Before the ice storm, the landlord who thinned out all of his properties, and the power company trimming and removing trees we had a lot of bird life here in the 'hood. Also most of the abandoned houses have been torn down which provided nesting for several species.

A Valentines Poem

Struggle two cups of dust to be
a corporeal she and he.
It takes a long Eternity
to create a finite we

And then to fall in love
baffles Probability...
two spirits intersecting paths;
traversing two in infinities.

Our We is just a blink
of a universe's eye.
But what we see in just a wink
others could never share.

MG Morris

Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium

Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium

I gathered this at Osage State Park on a botanizing trip in 2004.  It was growing in a semi shaded area on the top of a wooded hill.  The image is 8.5x11 to give you a perspective of the size.  I really don't have the facilities for a herbarium and so keep these in a large, heavy book after drying.  I thrown many of them away because I don't have room but I keep them long enough to ID them and perhaps illustrate them.  As the main spring planting time approaches I'll have to put my winter projects aside and tend the garden.  But I can't resist botanizin'.  I can no longer go wading in the river to fish but I can botanize even with my walker or wheel chair.  You'd be surprised at how much botany there is to discover in your own yard, and especially if you own a garden.

Horticultural Oddities

Amatueraceae concoctio

Asteraceae octopi

I haven't done a watercolor in 45 years.  I bought a cheap set this November and tried my hand at it.  My technique definitely needs more work.  Both these flowers are a figment of my imagination, hence the peculiar nomenclature. :)  I'm going to keep at it in hopes of producing more colorful illustrations.  I did a lot of this sort of stuff in Biology and Zoology while in college but it was strictly with pen and colored pencil while viewing through a microscope.  I also have a little antique field microscope of 100X that focuses by sliding the lens assembly up or down a tube attached to the stand.  I wish I had binocular set with 10X-50X for more macro work.  

Botanical NOIDs ID

Noid 1 Legume?

This is a specimen I discovered in and antique Grays Botany book I purchased many years ago.  I have no idea what it could be.  My guess is that it is vetch....but?  If you have any idea please leave a comment.  BTW NOID means no ID.

Noid with scale

As you can see it is very small.  The pods are only 2cm long and are attached in pairs nearly opposite on the stems.  It appears that the stems are attached to the base of the plant in a whorl.  It fell out of the book and I don't know which page it went in and could not find a ghost of where it was placed.  It could have been in there for 100 yrs or more.

A horse in Shangri la

A new species has moved in

Equus ferus caballus

Guess what my neighbor brought home?  Yes, a horse.  Now I can add Equus ferus caballus to the group of mammals that we share our neighborhood with.  To name a few: squirrel, rabbit, dog, cat, goat, deer, (yes deer from the railroad tracks through the heart of the city), and mice.  The next day it started snowing and the wife made him put up a shelter for the poor thing.  We were all wondering why they were keeping the horse in the middle of town, (something that hasn't been done since the junk man and his horse drawn wagon roamed the streets of Tulsa in the 70s.  Anyway, a few days later Ole Point was gone.  We suppose it was a rescue operation or the city gave them a call.  Our granddaughter still asks where the horsey is.  I'm waiting for the camel to arrive. :)

Knapweed vs Bachelor Button in Winter Condition

Knapweed in winter condition

Here is a plant in my garden that looks similar to my bachelor buttons.  I don't know but I suspect it is spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa).  It is bigger than usual and does not have the silvery look to it.  The leaves, though, look exactly the same.  I wonder if it is a different variety of Bachelor Button.  Knapweed puts out toxins that deprive other plants around it of nutrients.  Two of these plants are growing in my iris seed bed and so they must go.  The other one I may let flower and pull it before it goes to seed just to see its flower in hopes for a positive ID.

Rose in Acrylic botanical illustration

This my first floral painting and first acrylic painting.  I attended the painting session taught by Rosemary at her class here in Tulsa.  Please visit Manic Pixie Studios from the links on Stickfigures home page.  I really enjoyed the class and her paintings.  She is going to do more flowers and I hope to be able to attend at least the one with an iris....my favorite flower.

Bloom Day at Shangri la

Speedwell in Winter Condition

Today is Bloom Day and the only thing blooming now is henbit & speedwell.  I love the speedwell in the lawn next to the sidewalk but try to keep it out of the garden as best I can.  Yes, I let weeds grow in my garden but try to keep them tame.  Worst of all was the morning glories.  I made the mistake of putting the spent plants in the compost pile and for about 4 years I was overwhelmed by them.  I found a place along the fence next to the sidewalk and they reseed themselves only in that spot.  The spent foliage and seed go right into the trash now. :)

Spring Planting Guide for Tulsa, OK

Spring Planting Guide for Tulsa, OK

This is my Spring Planting Guide for Shangri la, (Stickfigure Gardens).  If you use your own starts then sow them in flats 3 or 4 weeks before the planting date shown.  For example I start my broccoli in the middle of January and place them in a southern window.  Feel free to copy the guide or make one yourself using this format.  My guide was made up following the Oklahoma Agricultural Extension's pamphlet and then modified it a little for my particular garden.  You can do the same for your area.  This format is easier to follow and I made one up for the fall as well.

  I looked out my window and the cabbage moths are waiting for me. :)  I love to see them doing a ballet with my garden as a stage.  The only real damage they do is to cabbage that heads....I stopped growing them because the catapillars would turn them into swiss cheese.  The sparrows and wasps do forage for the catapillars and if you ever saw a wasp suck the life out of that poor creature you'd be glad your not one of them....the catapillar, I mean.