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Repost: Water for Elephant Ears

/ Kevin / 17 Comments

A year ago, April temperatures were warm.  This year, it’s been cool — especially the overnight temps, which have approached the freezing mark.  As a result, my patience to get my hands dirty and to get my tropicals into the ground has grown thin.  My solution?  An experiment.  

Since I did not start any seeds in the potting shed this winter, it’s quite empty.  My plan is to plant the Elephant Ears and Canna in pots, place the pots in the potting shed, and then let the heat get their juices flowing.  And that’s the purpose for this repost — I’ll be doing exactly as I spelled out a year ago.  Happy gardening.

Elephant Ears Dried

Attractive, aren’t they?

The last time I saw my Elephant Ears, they were clipped back, packed into peat moss, and stored in a cement bunker.  With the very warm April temperatures, I couldn’t resist opening up their winter palace.  But unlike Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone’s vault, I found my treasure.

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Bloomin’ Update 39: Spring Awakening!

/ Kevin / 37 Comments

Climbing Hydrangea

I am so distracted these days, and spring is to blame.  There’s the smell of freshness on the breeze, the chirps and calls of birds in the morning, and the daily display of fifty shades of green.  All I want to do is work in the yard: clean the beds, rake the lawn, bring out the terracotta pottery, inhale deeply — but I do have a day job that demands much of my time and a post to write.

Writing, though, is near impossible.  Spring stimulates all of my senses, and each time I step outside, I am overwhelmed with words, feelings, and adjectives.  Rather than write them down, they swirl inside my head as I become lost in the intoxicating world that is spring.

And so, I surrender to those who have already placed their words on paper, words that illustrate the beauty of the gardener’s most magical season.

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Repost: One Week In Two Zones

/ Kevin / 16 Comments

It was a gut-wrenching, heart-aching goodbye.  As we drove north on I-95, we watched spring disappear, its greens and blooms falling away with each passing mile.  And now, on a very cold spring day on Long Island, I am once again looking at a world of brown with only a few patches of green growth — a far cry from South Florida’s lush jungle.  So as I re-acclimate to my climate, I am thinking of a post from last year when I gardened in two zones in one week.  

Please, forgive me for this repost, but I am a sad gardener.  Just days ago, I tasted renewal — and this morning, I scraped ice from my windshield.  It hurts.  It really hurts.

Banana Leaf

One day, you’re on vacation in South Florida, gazing at the pattern of a banana leaf sunlit from behind (above) — and the next, you’re bundled up against the wind chill of Long Island.  After arriving home, I went through some random Florida photos and then walked around the yard on Long Island to make a comparison.  Can you guess which photos came from which zone?

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Field Trip: Color Crazy In Florida

/ Kevin / 18 Comments

Purple Queen

Purple Queen

When most people go on vacation, they take photos of family and friends on rollercoasters or at the beach or standing in front of some historical monument.  Not me, though.  I’d rather go for a walk and take photos of plants.  For starters, they really don’t fidget or get caught in mid-blink.  They also inspire and teach me, captivate and fascinate me.

Here are a few stolen moments with some beauties on a recent stroll around Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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Bloomin’ Update 38: It’s So Easy Seeing Green

/ Kevin / 19 Comments

Shamrock

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner and me tuning up my bagpipes, it suddenly occurred to me how appropriate it is that this most Irish of celebrations, where green is the color of the day, is held in March.  This third month, after all, is the time when green returns to the landscape.

Irish eyes may be smiling, but on a recent walk through the garden, as I brushed aside brown winter leaves, I found my gardener’s eyes smiling at the excitement and promise of once again seeing green.

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Amaryllis Boo-Boo: From Wallflower to Supermodel

/ Kevin / 38 Comments

Amaryllis Triptych

Amaryllis.  With a name like that, I should have known she was destined for stardom — but who could have anticipated any such thing on the Christmas morning that she arrived on my doorstep?

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Walking In A Winter Blunderland

/ Kevin / 41 Comments

The same bench from previous post.

The same bench from previous post.

Yesterday, I was humming Christmas carols.  Today, my lyrics sound more like this:

“There’s got to be a morning after, if we can hold on through the night

We have a chance to find the sunshine; let’s keep on looking for the light.

 Oh, can’t you see the morning after? It’s waiting right outside the storm.

Why don’t we cross the bridge together and find a place that’s safe and warm?”

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Wish I Was There . . . Again (Part 1)

/ Kevin / 30 Comments

SicilyThere was a time when cameras used film, and that film had to be brought to a photo developing retail outlet, and that outlet would print your photos and supply a free second set.  One set for the photo album; another set for . . . well, I guess, a box.

That’s the box I recently came across while in the attic — for Joe and me, that’s 25 years of negatives and photos of vacations gone by, and so many “ahhhhh” moments captured — the sort of moments that begin with a single picture and then goes something like this, “Remember when we. . . and that’s when . . . and we saw . . . “

Soon, the moments are stitched together, like a verbal photo album.

In the photo above, Joe and I were driving through the heart of Sicily in search of the village from where my maternal great-grandfather began his journey to America.  At one point, there was a curve in the road and a view of the valley, orderly rows of olive trees caught in a game of hide-and-seek sunlight.

Join me as I take a walk down memory lane, or, rather, down the global garden path . . .

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Bloomin’ Update 37: Hazy Shade Of Winter

/ Kevin / 30 Comments

Rain Reflection

The forecasters have predicted all week about spring-like temperatures this weekend.  So when Saturday morning arrived, I jumped out of bed like a kid eager to hear news that school was closed for a snow day.  I know mild January temperatures are out of the ordinary — unless this is the new ordinary — but I had big plans for this weekend, even if it was just some basic tidying up of fallen twigs and leaves.

Imagine my surprise, though, when I looked outside and saw nothing but gray and wet.  I don’t know if the forecasters neglected to mention rain with the spring-like temps or if I just stopped listening to the forecast when I heard spring.

In any event, I decided to make the best of it — because when life gives you rain on your garden, grab a camera and take some pictures.

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Whiling Away A Winter’s Day

/ Kevin / 31 Comments

Oak Leaf In Snow

What to do?  It’s an early January day, one of those odd ones that’s wedged between cold fronts.  On Long Island, that means it sort of feels like March, and there is an urge to bundle up and start spring cleaning — while the inner voice says, “Don’t be too quick.  This is just a winter lull, and there will be icy temperatures at any moment.”

As if to serve as a reminder, there are the remnants of last night’s flurries (above) and autumn leaves encased in ice on top of the pool cover (below).

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