Which Zinnias to Choose?

So many zinnias to choose from! Those seed packet displays at the nursery are so enticing, especially in the chilly days of winter.  But I found these seeds especially tempting, with their pretty watercolor designs. I always plant zinnias from seed, and I picked up a few packets of 'Peppermint Stick' and 'Cut and Come Again' last week at the nursery. But I will be choosing more varieties in the weeks ahead and am going to order a few also that I can't find locally.  It's fun to look at catalogs online and see the multitude of varieties that available.  I can't seem to help myself when it comes to zinnias. Below are some of the zinnias seeds I plant every year~ I always do the 'Cut and Come Again,' they are great for cut flowers and I find they are the most mildew resistant. I also plant the 'Peppermint Stick,' the lime green 'Envy,' and the small 'Profusion' zinnias, which are great to use as borders.

I love this 'Queen Red Lime' zinnia, but have never seen the seeds around here. That is one I will be ordering from Burpees. Also the 'Tequila Lime,' another lime green variety I want to try. If you sign up for their email newsletter, you get free shipping. There's a bunch more  ('Purple Prince') I'll probably order too. I could look at pictures of zinnias all day long...

'Queen Red Lime' zinnia (via Burpee)

White 'Profusion' zinnias (via Burpee)

'Candy Cane' zinnia (photo via Fine Gardening)

How to be Perfect

Excerpt from "How to be Perfect" by Ron Padgett


Get some sleep.

Eat an orange every morning.

Be friendly. It will help make you happy.

Hope for everything. Expect nothing.

Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room before you save the world. Then save the world. Be nice to people before they have a chance to behave badly.

Don't stay angry about anything for more than a week, but don't forget what made you angry. Hold your anger out at arm's length and look at it, as if it were a glass ball. Then add it to your glass ball collection.

Wear comfortable shoes.

Do not spend too much time with large groups of people.

Plan your day so you never have to rush.

Show your appreciation to people who do things for you, even if you have paid them, even if they do favors you don't want.

After dinner, wash the dishes.

Calm down.

Don't expect your children to love you, so they can, if they want to.

Don't be too self-critical or too self-congratulatory.

Don't think that progress exists. It doesn't.

Imagine what you would like to see happen, and then don't do anything to make it impossible.

Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not possible, go to another one.

If you feel tired, rest.

Don't be depressed about growing older. It will make you feel even older. Which is depressing.

Do one thing at a time.

If you burn your finger, put ice on it immediately. If you bang your finger with a hammer, hold your hand in the air for 20 minutes. you will be surprised by the curative powers of ice and gravity.

Do not inhale smoke.

Take a deep breath.

Do not smart off to a policeman.

Be good.

Be honest with yourself, diplomatic with others.

Do not go crazy a lot. It's a waste of time.

Drink plenty of water. When asked what you would like to drink, say, "Water, please."

Take out the trash.

Love life.

Use exact change.

When there's shooting in the street, don't go near the window.

Feels Like Spring

Isn't it funny how one day of sunny weather and mild temps makes you feel like winter is over?  A week ago we had snow, and then boom,  three days later it felt like spring. On Saturday everyone was outside in their yards, working or playing.  Our neighborhood has lots of kids, and they were outside all weekend long, playing street hockey in the cul-de-sac.  Anyway, I got started on garden cleanup, and I decided I need to do more of that in the fall. There's just too much to do to leave it all until the spring. I felt kind of overwhelmed looking at everything I had to do.  So on Saturday I started in the backyard garden,  cutting back all the old and matted leaves of the hellebores--what a difference that makes. The flowers really stand out better and the increased sunlight will produce more blooms.

Once I finished with the hellebores, I was into it, and so I started raking leaves and debris from the beds. My usual routine is to clean out the beds, then go over it with a hoe and scrape away any weeds and break up the soil around the existing plants, then sprinkle bone meal around all the existing perennials.  I cut back all the perennials, and even found my snapdragons had survived the winter. They are pretty hardy and often survive a mild winter.  Walt cut back hard the smoke tree and the buddleias (butterfly bushes).  I should have taken a picture of all the garden debris out on the curb waiting for the recycling pickup!

Lots of the perennials are showing signs of growth, heucheras, perennial geraniums, and sedums,  especially after cutting back all the old leaves and stems. It's always fun to see those bright new leaves!

Heuchera

Sedum

And one of my tree peonies in the backyard already has several big fat buds. I think it's because it grows in a more sheltered space, as my big tree peony in the front yard isn't showing  any new growth yet. Looking through my garden journal, I can tell we are about 10 days behind last year. In 2012 I was doing this clean up on the first of March, and had even cut back my hellebores on a sunny day on February 23.

Tree peony

Tulips For a Rainy Tuesday

I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain and it looks like it's going to rain steadily all day. I love a day like this, especially in the spring when I can just imagine all the happy plants and trees, drinking in this good rain. Just think how good this is for all the bulbs that are just peeking through.  And I can have another cup of tea and sit here and make my plans and lists for the spring garden...

Evensong

Crocus blooming in the Bishop's Garden

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, and after spending most of the weekend not feeling very well, and working outside for awhile in the garden, I decided to go down to the National Cathedral for their Sunday Evensong service at 4 pm. We have been to this late afternoon service before, and really enjoyed it.  It is quite an experience to hear the service given almost entirely in music by Cathedral choirs, especially in such a magnificent place. This time it was the Cathedral boys choir singing. Of course it's also an excuse for me to walk through the Bishop's Garden on the grounds of the Cathedral,  one of my favorite places in DC. There were lots of people out enjoying the gorgeous weather, people reading on the benches, students lounging on the grass,  and kids were loving all the secret places in the garden.  There wasn't much blooming yet, some snowdrops, crocus, and lots of hellebores, but I could tell they had been busy in the gardens, as all the roses were neatly pruned, the perennials had been cut back, and beds were waiting to be planted.

Friday Fleurs: Primroses

 We can be sure spring is coming when the primroses first start showing up in the supermarkets in late winter. In fact their name, Primula, derives from the Latin for 'early.' There are many kinds of primrose but these are the ones most often seen in markets. One year I found a different variety with taller blooms that rose about 12 inches above the leaves, but I have never found them since.  I just can't resist their cheap and cheerful blooms. I always buy two or three pots to bring home and brighten up a window. Their colors are awesome and I could easily buy a dozen to place around the house. They were especially welcome this week during our short-lived, what- a- bust snowstorm. I have never had any luck planting primroses in the garden after they finish blooming, but I keep trying. I think I just need to find the right spot. Cool, moist, shady spots are not so easy to find around here.

Another variety of primrose that I have always been fascinated by are the auriculas. Auriculas are an old-fashioned variety of primrose,  with smoother, cabbage-like leaves, mainly grown in England and northern Europe. I think they also do well in the Pacific Northwest and in Canada and Alaska. Obviously they need a cooler, wetter climate, not the humidity and hot summers of northern Virginia.  I don't think I have ever seen an actual specimen, but I have always loved the old Dutch paintings of auriculas, a common subject for artists in the 17th and 18th centuries.  I read somewhere that auriculas were the first European potted plants that florists grew in Europe in the 1600s. They were grown in the mountains of northern Europe and supposedly have a wonderful fragrance. So pretty.

George Edwards

Joseph Redoute

Albrecht Durer

Books On My Nightstand

• In Sunlight and In Shadow, by Mark Helprin~Life in Manhattan in the mid-20th century.
• Arcadia, by Lauren Groff~Bit Stone grows up in a commune in upstate NY. My next book group selection.
• The Round House, by Louise Erdrich~Lots of good reviews for this new book by a favorite author.
• The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg~ Read about this somewhere and put it on my list.
• The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake~Reading next for library book group.
• Magic Journey, by Katrina Kenison~A memoir of middle-age self-discovery, change, and loss.
• The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, by Jan Philipp-Sendker~ A love story set in Burma, recommended highly by my cousin Carol.
• Her Last Death, by Susanna Sonnenberg~A memoir of  a disturbing and traumatic life with her mother.

Snowquester

Out my kitchen window

Woohoo, I have been waiting for snow all winter long, and today we are finally getting a real snowstorm. Those crazy weather people in metro DC have named this storm 'Snowquester.'  Aren't they so funny. All schools are closed, the federal government is closed, but guess what,  Fairfax County libraries are open, hmmm, no surprise there. Luckily they have something called liberal leave, which many of us are using today instead of trekking into work. It's really not too bad right now, but it is supposed to snow heavily all day long, so hopefully we will get a good snowfall by the end of the day. 

And of course I bundled up already this morning and went out to take some pictures of my snowy garden. It's a very wet snow, so we are worried about trees and shrubs breaking, and power outages. It sounds like there are already lots of power outages in Virginia.  It is really coming down right now, and because we are warm and cozy in our house, I am hoping it snows all day long. The other day at the library I was talking to a customer about the impending snowstorm, and she said she too was hoping we would get a lot of snow. I asked her where she was from, and she grew up in Cleveland!

Drink Your Tea Slowly

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

Sunday Dinner With Family

No field trips this weekend,  no flowers to show, as I had to work all day on Saturday and Walt was busy swimming, running, and biking--he is immersed in his training for a triathalon in June! And then yesterday we had my cousin Bob and his family over for dinner, and also my niece Jill and her family who now live in the area. Bob and Jill hadn't seen each other for years so it was fun for everyone to get to know each other again and see all their kids. And because you know we loved talking about food and especially all Tom and Evie's meals, here is what I made: Tuscan mashed chickpea dip (from the new Barefoot Contessa cookbook), lasagna, salad, and garlic bread, and apple cobbler and ice cream for dessert. It was so nice to have  a real Sunday dinner with our family!

Early this morning my old friend and neighbor Susan stopped by for coffee. She now lives in South Carolina and was in DC for the weekend to see her son Nick. She used to live down the street from me and we were really great friends. We met for the first time putting her son Nick and my Julia on the kindergarten school bus on the first day of school (1989?), and our friendship took off from there.  It was great to share a cup of coffee with her again, and catch up on each other's lives.

Hello Hellebores

I picked the first hellebores yesterday. They really make a great cut flower, lasting a week or so inside,  but a little messy, dropping their stamens all over. And they are such a great perennial--sturdy and dependable, green year round, and with flowers in winter. Mine have been blooming for more than a month now. They like sun in the winter and shade in the summer, so they are happiest under deciduous trees.  Nothing else coming up yet in the garden, no daffodils, but I have seen some crocus in my neighbor's yard starting to make an appearance.

This is such funny weather, some mornings this week I woke up and it felt like spring.  But it's colder than I think outside. And now it's supposed to get very cold over the weekend, and they're even talking about possible snow next week. Just when I start feeling like winter might be over!