Calla Lily

I am hoping that I can stop buying flowers and start picking them in my garden soon. But early spring is painfully slow in New Hampshire and so far all I have in the garden are snow crocus and some snow.

We have a little grocery store on Maine Street and I stopped in a few days ago for some cookies. Outside were pots of daffodils and crocus and other flowers; I could not resist a pot of callas. The clerk informed me that I could just put them in the ground and they would come up next year like tulips. Well yes I said that is probably true in Florida.

No callas are not hardy in New Hampshire or other cold climates, only being hardy where there is no frost. But they are easy to grow in a pot and if you are attentive you can hold them over from year to year. They like lots of water.

Callas are much beloved of photographers and artists. I photographed these with my Lensbaby. Buying flowers is not an indulgence for me, I need them as I need food.

Find of the Day:

This is a platinum print, a print made in a darkroom with traditional methods but using platinum-palladium metals brushed onto paper rather than the more standard silver papers. In addition rather than exposing the paper using a tiny negative in an enlarger, the artist creates a large negative the size of the final print and contact prints it onto the paper. The process is lenthy and labor intensive but the final product is exquisite.

Unfortunately, all I can show you here is a digital rendering of the original print which can only hint at its beauty.

Few people are able to make these beautiful prints today, I encourage all to support this traditional art form.

This calla is part of a limited series from artist Luca Paradisi, an Italian artist working in Ireland. His work is available from the Etsy shop Fineartplatinum.

Forcing Branches

These Korean azaleas are so pretty, I have fallen in love with them. My friend Elaine sent me branches through the mail in early march. They were wrapped in wet paper towels to keep them moist. I put them in water and in a few weeks they began to bloom, all pink and frilly. What a joy, especially this time of year when it is still cold and dank and muddy in northern New England.
The botanical name is azalea mucronulatum 'Cornell Pink'. (Not to be confused with rhododendron yedoense, which is also called Korean azalea). This is a tall azalea which thrusts upward rather than mounding. It needs the same acid soil and dappled shade as other azaleas. It is an early bloomer which makes it a great plant for forcing. Elaine thinks it would be hardy here (she is in Connecticut about a zone warmer I think) and is rated for zone 5 . A flower this beautiful is certainly worth trying even on my cold hillside.
Forcing branches into flower is easy, all you have to do is pick them in late winter and put them is a vase of water out of direct sunlight. I think I will try to be more experimental next year and try things beyond the ubiquitous forsythia (though that is a wonderful flash of yellow in the house when outside it is still all snow and mud).

Find of the Day:

I seem to be featuring a lot of soap on this gardening blog but who can resist soap as beautiful as this? These gorgeous translucent bars could be a centerpiece on the table.

The soap is called Ocean Rain and is a glycerin based soap. Only $4.75 from karenssoaps on Etsy.

Allium

I am a great fan of alliums, the lovely ornamental onions. Most gardeners are familiar with the spring and early summer flowering bulbs. They emerge as great purple or white balls of tiny flowers and then their foliage dies away like daffodil and tulips foliage.
Although I have read that only people eat onions I have found that many of my alliums disappear after a few years. I don't know if they are dinner for my underground neighbors or the conditions in my garden don't meet their long term needs.
Luckily two of my favorites are very long lived. Allium Globemaster is a hybrid cross of A. Christophii and A. elatum. It is a huge allium with a 10" ball of little purple flowers that can soar 3 feet tall. Although it is expensive you only need a few for a spectacular display, a display that will come back year after year. Plus, the flowers are sterile so they last and last in the garden or in a vase, keeping there color for about a month.
But for a lasting dried flower they can't compare to their parent species, allium christophii. These huge silvery balls dry to spectacular dried flowers that last for years in a dried arrangement. A. christophii, alas, tends to disappear from my garden over time.

The alliums in the photographs are allium tanguticum, a less well know but very long lived species. The alliums I discribed earlier are classified as SUDS, summer-dormant species. As noted they act like typical bulbs and their foliage dies back after they flower. A. tanguticum is a SUTS, a summer thriving species. It does not flowers until July and the foliage stays pretty and green all season. It is a wonderful perennial with the clumps getter larger and larger each year. I think this can occasionally be purchased in pots at nurseries. I buy mine from the McClure & Zimmerman bulb catalogue, http://www.mzbulb.com/ and plant it in the fall at the same time as tulips and daffodils. This is not a huge allium, just a foot or so high but with dozens and dozens of pretty purple balls.

Garden Resourses;

The Perennial Gardener by Frederick McGourty
A wonderfully informative and entertaining gardening book. It has a very detailed and informative chapter about alliums, SUDS and SUTS.

McClure & Zimmerman
Quality Flowerbulb Brokers
http://www.mzbulb.com/
An excellent and reliable source for bulbs including many rarities.

Flower Find.
I am in love with Jennifer Morris's jewelry. (Please note if my husband is reading this, something to remember for Christmas) She makes the beads from polymer clay and each is a tiny work of floral art. Esquisite. You can see her jewelry at http://www.jennifermorrisbeads.etsy.com/.