Well, I can't believe it. Luckily, I was lazy about throwing my rose cuttings in the compost bin! I went out on my porch and noticed that one of them is still alive. It's the one in the cruddy dirt! (All dirt is cruddy, but by cruddy here I mean not expensive and special.)
Those white fungi = roots!
I think I'm going to leave it alone just like I had been doing. I hadn't looked at it in about 2 weeks since I had final exams and papers to write. That thing just grew all by itself. I'll post pictures some time soon!
Clearly the best thing to do is this: Stay out of nature's way!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Refined Flour Skills
I love to bake. When the summer is at its hottest I start thinking about September and those cool autumn evenings that are perfect for baking.
Baking has always been special for me. My earliest memories include my Sicilian great-grandmother baking bread in the kitchen. She would bake the smoothest, fluffy little buns of sweet tasting white bread for Sunday dinners. I don't have anything material to remember her by. What I do have is the ability to make fresh bread and enjoy the smell of it while it bakes. This reminds me of her. (The other thing that reminds me of her are turtle or frog soap dishes. I don't remember if she actually had one of these. I do know they must have been pretty popular when I was a child. I could have just seen one at another relative's house sometime in the early 1980s and thought it was hers.)
Baking also makes me think of my dad. He shares my love of baking. When I was little he used to make chocolate chip cookies almost every week. I would sneak cookie dough from behind his back whenever I could. For the record, my mom did the same thing! Oh, and so did my sisters.
I got pretty sick off of at teaspoon of cookie dough about ten years ago. I wish I could say that made me stop eating it...
My dad also makes the best ever spread of Christmas cookies. He makes buckeyes, mini-cannolis, and pumpkin rolls. All are great.
I've been trying to develop my own cookie spread. As it is, I've been copying a variety of recipes at Christmas time and other times. I'm starting to think I'd like to learn how to bake well enough to make my own recipes based on ingredients I have on hand. So, with that in mind, I've been looking for a really good learn to bake book. That way I can learn some techniques beyond what I'm using now.
Hopefully, I'll find one before September.
Baking has always been special for me. My earliest memories include my Sicilian great-grandmother baking bread in the kitchen. She would bake the smoothest, fluffy little buns of sweet tasting white bread for Sunday dinners. I don't have anything material to remember her by. What I do have is the ability to make fresh bread and enjoy the smell of it while it bakes. This reminds me of her. (The other thing that reminds me of her are turtle or frog soap dishes. I don't remember if she actually had one of these. I do know they must have been pretty popular when I was a child. I could have just seen one at another relative's house sometime in the early 1980s and thought it was hers.)
Baking also makes me think of my dad. He shares my love of baking. When I was little he used to make chocolate chip cookies almost every week. I would sneak cookie dough from behind his back whenever I could. For the record, my mom did the same thing! Oh, and so did my sisters.
I got pretty sick off of at teaspoon of cookie dough about ten years ago. I wish I could say that made me stop eating it...
My dad also makes the best ever spread of Christmas cookies. He makes buckeyes, mini-cannolis, and pumpkin rolls. All are great.
I've been trying to develop my own cookie spread. As it is, I've been copying a variety of recipes at Christmas time and other times. I'm starting to think I'd like to learn how to bake well enough to make my own recipes based on ingredients I have on hand. So, with that in mind, I've been looking for a really good learn to bake book. That way I can learn some techniques beyond what I'm using now.
Hopefully, I'll find one before September.
Monday, July 11, 2011
"Rooting" for success! Part 2
As expected, all of the rose cuttings I took a few weeks ago have died. They seemed to turn black from the soil line and rot from there.
After the first one died, I tried changing out the soil on the remaining healthy cuttings. I kept it moist but not quite as moist as I had before. This only delayed the inevitable. The last cutting that hung on was in the soil that I'd initially thought to be the worst. That is, while four of the cuttings were placed in a nice seed starting soil (the bag said it would optimize root growth) this last one was placed in a rather clumpy cheap potting soil that had some pieces of wood in it. I thought it would die first, but it died last and differently from the others.
Instead of turning black, it softened from the base and some small off-white fungi grew along the stem.
I'm going to try this experiment again, but this time I'm going to use two different kinds of roses and put them directly in the ground with a bell jar over them as described in the article I linked to in my last post. Right now, things here in Ohio are very dry and very hot, so I don't think conditions are optimal.
I do have two roses getting ready to bloom that should have stalks ready for an attempt in a few weeks. Oh, boy!
As a side note:
You know, after this super wet spring I've had more trouble with fungi than ever before! I wonder how many others out there are having the same problems. I don't want to spray fungicide. All of my hollyhocks were decimated by rust. (I've read it's not supposed to affect the blooms...but it sure did! After a good start, the blooms stopped opening.) I tried cutting out the affected leaves but it kept getting ahead of me. My peony didn't bloom this year and research showed that it was affected by a fungal disease called botrytis blight, so I plan to dig it up and thoroughly clean out the area this fall. Hopefully that will work because I love peonies, and missed it so much!
One thing doing really really well: coneflowers. Those look fabulous this year. I think I want some more and in different colors. I already have them in three different flowerbeds. They're just so great! They've shown no signs of distress and I've barely touched them. They're doing well in half sun locations and in a mostly shady location. *swoon*
After the first one died, I tried changing out the soil on the remaining healthy cuttings. I kept it moist but not quite as moist as I had before. This only delayed the inevitable. The last cutting that hung on was in the soil that I'd initially thought to be the worst. That is, while four of the cuttings were placed in a nice seed starting soil (the bag said it would optimize root growth) this last one was placed in a rather clumpy cheap potting soil that had some pieces of wood in it. I thought it would die first, but it died last and differently from the others.
Instead of turning black, it softened from the base and some small off-white fungi grew along the stem.
I'm going to try this experiment again, but this time I'm going to use two different kinds of roses and put them directly in the ground with a bell jar over them as described in the article I linked to in my last post. Right now, things here in Ohio are very dry and very hot, so I don't think conditions are optimal.
I do have two roses getting ready to bloom that should have stalks ready for an attempt in a few weeks. Oh, boy!
As a side note:
You know, after this super wet spring I've had more trouble with fungi than ever before! I wonder how many others out there are having the same problems. I don't want to spray fungicide. All of my hollyhocks were decimated by rust. (I've read it's not supposed to affect the blooms...but it sure did! After a good start, the blooms stopped opening.) I tried cutting out the affected leaves but it kept getting ahead of me. My peony didn't bloom this year and research showed that it was affected by a fungal disease called botrytis blight, so I plan to dig it up and thoroughly clean out the area this fall. Hopefully that will work because I love peonies, and missed it so much!
My beautiful black hollyhocks before the rust overtook them.
These are supposedly what Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello.
One thing doing really really well: coneflowers. Those look fabulous this year. I think I want some more and in different colors. I already have them in three different flowerbeds. They're just so great! They've shown no signs of distress and I've barely touched them. They're doing well in half sun locations and in a mostly shady location. *swoon*
My coneflowers: 2011 saviors of my garden.
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