March So Lovely, Part IV

The annual Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden has been running for almost two months, and today was the last day. So after church, we headed for the garden, had lunch in the lovely Sassafras Cafe, and then ventured into the exhibit hall to enjoy this extraordinary collection!


This morning started out snow-covered, but with brilliant sunshine there was little of it left by 2 p.m. when we got to the garden. I was chagrined that I had left my camera at home. Then I remembered that my cell phone has a camera. Duh. I wasn't sure how good the photos would be, but many of them turned out well. A few were out of focus, like this one above.

We made three separate trips through the exhibit. On the first trip I was taking a lot of pictures and even got Norm to hold still for this one. On the second trip we looked up and down to see some plants we had missed the first time through. On the last trip, we took the route backwards to get a different perspective.

The many varieties of orchids are always amazing, and we see something new and different every year. The bright reds, yellows and oranges are always quite eye-catching.








Every variety was my instant favorite, but these beauties, that reminded me of day lilies, simply glowed. I wish my hand had been steadier or that I had a better command of the phone's zoom feature.







These creamy yellow blossoms with touches of orchid were one of Norm's favorites. Maybe my hand didn't shake. Maybe it was the light breeze blowing through the hall that made them wiggle.





Tucked in a corner was this unusual orchid variety. The spiky blooms reminded me of some types of Liatris (also known as Blazing Star or Gayfeather) that I have seen growing in gardens. These were a typical "orchid" color, though.

The plants are arranged in color families, or in contrasting colors. This nook was an oasis of cool and calm colors. The orchids are kept in a greenhouse and rotated in and out of the exhibit over a course of weeks. One year we saw a very rare "blue" orchid, but none was to be seen today.

These orchids are striking because of their upright habit and bicolor appearance. I think I have to take a picture of them every year! We finished our trip to the garden with a visit to the Garden Gate shop where we stocked up on organic plant sprays in anticipation of the coming growing season. We also got a new rain gauge to replace the old one, which was cracked.

Here is the most unusual orchid we saw today. These spiky flowers grow along a horizontal stem. They look like some kind of secret weapon. Perhaps their prickly appearance helps discourage predators. I didn't write down the variety, although the tag is visible...but a little too small print to read. We treasure our St. Louis botanical garden and bless the memory of Henry Shaw, an Englishman who made a fortune in hardware, loved plants, collected them, and willed his "country" home to the city of St. Louis over 150 years ago.

March So Cruel, Part III

Today was long- awaited Scrap Quilt Club Saturday! We gathered from 9 to 3 and worked on various projects. I am off to a slow start on this year's projects, but I was able to bring this finished project to show and tell today. It will need to be quilted, and I am thinking of trying to machine quilt it myself since it is not very big. Now, on to the next challenge!

When I drove to the meeting place this morning, the streets were dry, and all of Friday's snow had melted overnight. Pear trees were in bloom along the roads. But a Winter Storm Watch was upon us. About 1 p.m. the first flake fell. By the time I was in the parking lot clearing off the car about 3:30, nearly 2 inches of very wet, sticky, heavy snow had accumulated and was coating the driveways, walks and streets. Still, I made it home without trouble. Even let Gracie show her stuff by chugging up a fairly steep hill that hadn't been treated...and she didn't slip once! Sadly, at home I discovered this daffodil from yesterday, bearing a 2-inch snow hat.

The row of bushes and daffodils along the driveway looks very different than it did three days ago, or even 24 hours ago! About 2 more inches of snow fell after I took this picture.

In the back yard, birds had started a feeding frenzy. The two feeders on the left have caps almost 4 inches high on them. This was a zoom shot, and the birds were flying about so quickly that they don't show up clearly. Norm was glad he filled the feeders Friday night when it was calm.

Meanwhile, out front, the redbud I photographed yesterday with snow frosting its buds was completely encased in white. Actually, this may not be all bad. A hard freeze is forecast tonight, with the low around 26F. The snow, however, will insulate the buds it is covering so perhaps something will survive. Certainly we have had worse snowfalls in March--I recall some 15 inches that fell in mid March one year in the late 1970s. But this is enough already! Another storm, this one with sleet, is forecast for Tuesday. Finally it will get into the 50s toward the end of the week. It's enough to make a sane person buy a plane ticket for Florida!

March So Fickle, Part II

When I woke up Friday morning and looked out the window, it was raining snowballs! The radio came on and told of traffic tieups everywhere, although it was warm enough most of the streets were merely wet. I hurried downstairs before breakfast to try to get some pictures of this wet snow before it turned to rain and disappeared.
The front yard redbud wore a frosting of snow on the emerging flowers. They should be OK if it doesn't get any colder than 28 tomorrow night.

As for yesterday's daffodils nodding in the sun by the driveway-- here they are, struggling to hold up their heads as the wet stuff fell on them. The bushes wore some frosting too, for a couple of hours.

Zooming all the way to the back of the yard, I could see that the daffodils that came from my parents' house were trying to be small rays of sunshine in the bloom. At left, the yellow rose, which is all leaved out, was decorated as well. At least there are no rosebuds yet. Norm was planning to trim it back, but now he will have to wait for drier weather to tromp around in that bed.

This was the view from the back porch about 10 a.m. The total snowfall was less than an inch. Then it started to rain, which lasted until mid afternoon. After it stopped, Norm went out and broadcast grass seed in all of the thin and shaded areas, something we do several times a year, starting when the days get warm. He figured that the snow cover would provide some moisture for the seed, and also some cover to keep marauding blackbirds from eating it all before it can sprout. Then he went to Branneky Hardware and brought home a bale of straw to spread over the seed, for good measure.

This feeder is supposed to have a weighted perch that discourages larger birds from being able to get anything to eat. The grackles seem to have foiled that, as have a couple of squirrels. But in a rare moment a cardinal was able to get some lunch while the bigger birds were somewhere else.




I could hear a lot of blackbirds squawking in the trees next door so I aimed the camera up and took this picture of Jacinta's elm tree, or what is left of it after several storms. I expected to see grackles but these look more like robins, which have a very distinctive silhouette.

I guess the blackbirds were in Barb's evergreens. I never did get a good look at them but their racket overhead was pretty loud. By this afternoon, all of this finery had melted off the trees in the light rain that followed. We will have a quiet night, but the weather service on Friday afternoon issued a Winter Storm Warning for our area for today. They say we could get 2 -5 inches. I am hoping it won't disrupt our scrap quilt club meeting, or keep us from getting to church on Sunday. The ground is warm enough that the roads should be OK. But some of those delicate flower petals may find it too much to bear. It is still March, after all, and anything goes. Maybe we shouldn't have put away the heated birdbath last weekend when it was 82 degrees. Go figure.

March So Mild, Part I

The month of March has been full of meetings, travels to two weekend conferences in Jefferson City, some major sorting of our library to find books to donate, various church activities, and finally, yesterday, filing the taxes for 2010! For a lot of the time I've been limping along with one sore knee, sometimes two. I think they are getting better; only the orthopedic specialist knows for sure and I'll see him next week. March came in like a lamb, sunny and warm, with the tantalizing promise of spring. On March 1, the First Crocus appeared in the front flower bed. The feeling was, the spell of winter was broken and even if there was more cold weather, we knew it wouldn't stay around for long!

All around the neighbor- hood, birds have been returning. We have had lots of customers at the feeders, including cardinals, juncos, finches, goldfinches, and the less-than-welcome starlings and grackles. Robins have been casually around since sometime in February, but on Wednesday, March 23 I was out in the yard and got these closeups of a robin prospecting for worms in the front yard. This area was undermined by a mole through the fall and winter; it was finally caught in a trap the first week of March. With all the tunnels, we thought there must have been a dozen of them, but since the trapping, no more tunnels have appeared. Nevertheless, the yard is a lumpy mess.

The robin seemed to think as much as he crossed the front walk in search of something better. You'll note that the walk is littered with acorns... the squirrels think that all of our walls and walks are a special banquet table just for them. The robin was just sizing me up when Norm came around the corner of the house and the bird decided to check something out across the street instead.

This photo is from the archive; I took it on February 27 of this year but never got around to posting shots of our surprise snow on that weekend. The euonymous bushes by the driveway looked so lacy. You can just barely see the points of daffodils peeking out of the snow.

And some three weeks or so later, here the daffodils are in bloom... another photo from the 23rd. One thing we have noticed is that the blooms are much sparser this year. I'll put in a link here that goes to the same plot this time in 2010. I don't know if they bloomed themselves out last year, or if the bulbs are too crowded (probably) and starting to decline. They were already well established 10 years ago when we moved here. Nevertheless, it was such a treat to have sunshine, and to enjoy these glowing yellow beauties.

The entire yard is starting to green up, with buds swelling on the redbud trees, the lilac, and the maple. Some blue periwinkle is blooming under the tree, and the rosebushes are leafed out. The azaleas in front are loaded with buds. As I wrote on Facebook: it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood! But cold weather arrived on Thursday and Friday morning we woke up to a very different world. But that is the subject of the next post! Clearly Miss March still has a few tricks up her sleeve!