Whorled Peas and Other Botanical Musings: 2010-08-24 Around the yard

Windows! I got 10 nice clear, 4ft, double paned, vinyl picture windows installed. Good price on Craig's list. There are still framed out spots for two more and I'm thinking sliders so I can get a breeze from front to back if I want one. It's a world of difference in there already with the brightness and the warmth. I got some shadecloth to help with the ferns and whatnot in the back.

Outside looking in.

Inside out.

In the back, next to the ferns, Agapetes and Neofinetia's are my Asimina trilobata, Paw Paw trees that I grew from seed from One Green World. I started them this June and they're already about a foot tall. I have 10 and they have to go be planted in pairs or triples for good pollination. Very small trees. 10-15ft in as many years. Very tasty fruit: like a cross between a banana and mango flavor. Full sun once they are 3yrs old (since they burn when young!). Native to the SE USA.

Still in the GH, my very first Castilleja miniata from seed is blooming! Castilleja are hemiparisites and this one's host is a grass out of which it sucks water and nutrients. Those that didn't take to their host aren't doing well at all.

A weed, Monarda hybrida Lambada that I like for some reason.

The first flower on my Epilobium rigidum from seed. Goes in the rock garden, eventually.

Outside the GH, Lisa's Echinacea Hot Papaya is putting on a good show.

And the Silphium laciniatum attracts all sorts of bees.

Speaking of attracting all sorts of bees, nothing does it like the Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium purpureum. This is the one I dug up from WV. It also spent some time in E WA for a while... It's had an adventure. The hummingbirds like this one too, but they don't like all the bees that it attracts as well.

The white currants are almost ripe... I think. They've looked like this for a month and continue to be sour.

The Plumeria is blooming. Great scent.

Sarracenia leucophyllum, the white top pitcher, is growing its fall pitchers, which are the biggest and most colorful of the year.

One of my 3yr old Protea repens is setting its first flower bud. Pretty exciting. No idea when it will open. Frankly, I thought it would be open by now.

I fertilized my Protea's with Alfalfa meal, which is 2-0-3 NPK and also gave them a double dose of Ironite, which is 1-0-1 plus a bunch of trace minerals, mostly iron, which they supposedly need a lot of. We'll see if it helps them grow and form buds for next year. Until now, I don't think that I fertilized my Protea's at all.

My Leucojum has apparently been renamed as Acis autumnale. An Acis by any other name would still be cute.