Cosmos bipinnatus

I loved growing cosmos when I was growing up. In elementary school our only fundraiser was selling seeds each spring. You got a box with one packet each of lots of flowers and radishes and lettuce. We always just bought the whole thing since my mother and grandfather both loved to garden and I was always the helper. The photo above is what most, if not all, of the cosmos looked like. I know the fashion now is to grow perennials, but my big gripe with them is that even though they will come back year after year, the bloom season for most of them is fairly short, measured in weeks rather than in months. This time of year when the garden is starting to get a little ratty looking, my annuals are still gorgeous.

Now, annuals can be expensive if you're buying those pricey ones at your local big box store in gallon pots, but seeds are relatively cheap, at least compared to those fancy gallon pots. Of course they can't beat the price of those 10 cent packets I sold back in the 1950s.

This year's packet of cosmos was an assortment. All seem to be fairly tall plants, some are taller than I am with stout stems that don't seem to be bothered by rain or wind. This sort of semi-double is a much darker shade than I usually see.

And this one was a total surprise. I don't think I've ever had a double cosmos before.

These I have had, thought, and my assortment has a lot if large white single blooms.

This red shade is also new. It's not the same as the magenta I'm used to; much more of a true red.

This last type is sold, I think, as 'Seashells'. It's different, but I think I like the old-fashioned ones better.

Cosmos are native to Mexico and are sometimes called Mexican Asters. They like full sun and are fairly drought tolerant once they're up and growing. They will frequently self seed, though the only ones from last year that came back were orange ones that are a totally different type.

Butterflies, especially monarchs, are quite fond of cosmos.

Jane

George

George was born in May of 1995 and died late this afternoon after a courageous battle with cancer. (Even kitties deserve a proper obituary). He had been sick for quite awhile and we were surprised that he held on this long. We will surely miss him.
Back when we could still let the kitties out to play - before coyotes, eagles, the semi-paving of the road which brought speeding cars, and crazy neighbors who thought of cats and dogs as target practice - he loved playing outside and sleeping in the sun. He was the only cat we ever had who chased, and caught, frogs. He would lick them until he just about licked their skin off. He rarely ate them, just played with them. He also liked to wander, even though he knew he wasn't allowed across the road. We'd call when we couldn't find him and it was time to come inside at the end of the day and then he would suddenly appear, as if out of nowhere. Then one day we caught him running full speed down the hill across the street and sneaking into the yard where he suddenly sat down and started taking a bath, as if he'd been there all the time. That was near the time we stopped letting any of them out. Just not safe.

My bread mixing bowl has always been a favorite of all of the cats. This was George's turn. Actually, if they try, two of them can share this huge bowl.

George and Linus were great friends and loved being outside together. Linus was even harder to find than George because his coloring so closely matched the mulch and he loved to hide under some of the giant hostas.

When someone has been a daily companion for so long, it's hard to say goodbye, but he will always with me in my heart, even though he'll no longer be napping in a sunbeam on the porch.

Fennel

This is a bit of a continuation of my post on herbs. This is one of the swallowtail butterflies. (Eastern Black Swallowtail) It would have markings in a lovely shade of bright blue on the top of its wings. It just wasn't interested in being cooperative. It is here because it is end end product of a caterpillar, the celery caterpillar, that eats fennel and makes its chrysalis on the fennel plant (among others). Anise Swallowtails will have caterpillars that eat fennel also.

This is the bloom on the bronze fennel (foeniculum vulgare) that we grew this year. Those yellow flowers will eventually turn into fennel seeds that I can use for cooking. The foliage and stems can be used in salads or in cooking. They have a licorice flavor. This one doesn't seem to form a bulb at its base like Florence Fennel, and all green version.

And this is the caterpillar. It is about 2.5 inches long and not very camouflaged, to say the least. There were 4 on the one plant and I noticed them from quite a distance.

A bit about the 2 kinds of fennel. Fennel was brought to this country in the 1600s by Spanish explorers, to what is now California. Bronze Fennel is hardy in zone 5 and warmer and can be grown as an annual in colder zones. It is feathery and has the most wonderful bronzy color leaves. Not much in the garden can match that color. It has a long tap root and so plant it where it can stay because moving it will be difficult or impossible. It grows in full sun to part shade and seems at least moderately drought tolerant.

Unlike the herb fennel which is a perennial, the veggie fennel is an annual, Herb fennel makes usable seeds, but not an edible bulb and veggie fennel makes that wonderful, round, edible bulb, but not seeds that can be used for anything except growing more veggie fennel.

When I first grew veggie fennel, it was difficult to find any recipes for it. Most cookbooks were lucky to have even one. With the internet, that problem has been solved, and finging lots of recipes is easy, but sliced raw in a salad or with dip will probably still be my favorite.

Jane

Herbs in my Garden

It seems I usually have to start my posts lately with an apology for neglecting my readers. Once again, I've gotten lazy about writing. Not that I haven't been thinking about gardening. As much as I can with this heat, I've been pulling weeds and working on some new beds that I've been creating. The rest of the time has been spent adding pictures and sort of re-doing the photo gallery on the Hoot Owl Hollow website. I'm almost done now, which is a relief. It always takes much longer than I think it will. Luckily, I'm not much for watching TV, so Hank watches and I listen while watching the computer screen. It always amazes me when I look up at something I've heard dozens of times and realize I've never actually seen it. But I digress...
This first photo is my parsley. I always grow some in a large pot to keep the rabbits from eating it. It's not exactly something I'd want to spray with rabbit repellent. I always grow a lot since I use it in my tomato soup and some of my other stuff I put up in jars. I also freeze it for winter. If you haven't tried it, it doesn't get much easier. Just pick it, wash the dust off, dry it and put it in zip loc bags or a freezer container. I usually use small snack sized bags so I have small portions to use in recipes and then put the little bags in a larger freezer bag. I never dry parsley because I like the taste of fresh parsley much better. Mine usually overwinters, but since it is a biennial, it will go to seed early in the second season. I usually get enough to have until my new crop is ready.
Thyme is one of my favorites. This is a variegated one, but any of them will do. Just be sure to taste them before you use then because they all don't taste the same and some are pretty bad. Trial and error here. These are perfectly hardy in our zone 6 garden and we probably have a dozen different kinds, mostly growing around edges of paths and such. Full sun and they can take light foot traffic and seem to tolerate a little bit of dry weather. Many stay evergreen, so there isn't any reason to dry it. I can almost always have some for turkey stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Basil seems to be a staple. This I do dry since it will go down with the first hint of frost. I pull up a plant and hang it upside down and then strip the leaves off once they're dry. Right now I've got some hanging outside since we've had so little rain. I also hang it inside or in the barn. I use it in any sort of Italian food and to make pesto.

Another Basil - this one with purple flowers. I bought packet of seeds that had 3 kinds in it. 2 seem to be green and I can't tell the difference, but this one with the purple flowers (which probably should be pulled off since you don't want it to go to seed) is quite pretty.

Sage is something I don't use much, but it is perennial here, so I just like to grow it. I do sometimes use it in pork dishes, but I find it a bit strong. It dries well.

Same flavor, prettier plant, is this variegated Sage. I've had this clump for 4 years now and it comes back better every year.

Not really an herb, I suppose, but it wouldn't be a garden without nasturtiums. They are quite edible and make a pretty, spicy addition to salads. My kids used to munch them up when they were little. Wonder if they remember that. Once you get used to the idea of eating flowers, there are quite a few that you can use, and growing them yourself, you don't have to worry about chemicals on them.

I've taken a couple hundred photos over the last couple of days, so I'll be sorting them out to share some here.

Happy almost fall - finally cooler temperatures tomorrow.

Jane

Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas, Lathyrus odoratus, have always been one of my favorites. We grew the cultivated types a few times when I was little, but they were never very reliable in our climate with such hot and humid summers. I've not had much luck with then since then either. If you look at English gardening books or nursery catalogs, you will find tons of sweet peas so I can only assume that the climate there is more to their liking. The exception is our native wild Sweet Pea which is pictured. The colors can vary slightly, but this is pretty typical, though you will occasionally see the odd white one. They grow across the road in full sun, happily coexisting with weeds and other wildflowers. The kind of ramble over other plants and can spread for quite a distance. They are impossible to transplant - at least I don't know of anyone who has had success - but this fall, assuming I can collect some seeds before the critters get them, I'm going to try to start some from seed so I can have some on this side of the road where I can enjoy them without walking down the road. They bloom from mid-summer until frost here and don't seem to be bothered by either insects or critters that eat plants. As a plus, they are nitrogen fixers, so a few in the garden would be a plus for more than their beauty.
Please note that although garden peas (Pisum) are quite edible and delicious, Sweet Peas (Lathyrus) are poisonous, both the flowers and the peas.
For a quite detailed history of the Sweet Peas, see http://www.ngb.org/gardening/fact_sheets/fact_details.cfm?factID=17
I've been working on wild flower photos, so there will be some more in the days to come.
Jane

Radishes

Doesn't look like a radish? But it is. A few years ago we had some radishes, planted too many, as usual, since I'm not crazy about eating them and Hank forgets to pick them for supper. Anyway, as happens to radishes that you don't pick, they go to seed. Now I'd never seen a radish bloom before and if you'd asked me to guess what it would look like, I would have said that that it would be something white/pink/red on a short stem. Wrong! Those little tiny radish plants turn into 3 foot tall, 3 foot wide plants that are covered with this little white, maybe a little pink flowers. We have just left them and they self seed nicely. We can always get a few radishes out of this patch in the spring, and then enjoy the flowers later in the summer. Now you know.
Jane

Anemonopsis macrophylla

The canning is done, at least for awhile and I was back in the garden all day today. This lovely little flower, or its plant, more properly, has been in the garden for at least 10 years. It didn't look especially happy where I had it, so this spring I moved it about 6 feet away where it wouldn't be so crowded. It must have appreciated the move because it bloomed for the first time. The flower is only about an inch and a half wide and down facing, so it took a bit of crawling and twisting to get this photo. I had totally forgotten what this was supposed to look like, it not having bloomed all this time. I even had to check the tag to see what it was called. I'm really pleased and hope it has lots more blooms next year since this seems to be all I'm going to get for this season. Now a little about the plant.
I did a google search and could only find nurseries in England and Germany who sell this, so I'm not sure you'll be able to find one. There is also a really expensive pure white flowered form, also not availabe except at Asiatica and they're closing any day now.
I didn't take a picture of the leaves, but they sort of remind me of an astilbe, and the plant is about the same size as one. The flowers are on wiry stems that can be up to 3 feet tall. (if mine had been that tall, I wouldn't have had to crawl on the ground to get the picture!) They need well-drained, humus rich soil in light to medium shade. It needs a sheltered spot as it doesn't like being in the wind. They will grow in zones 4-7 and are native to only a small area in Honshu Island, Japan.
I'll see if I can find something else unusual for tomorrow.
Jane