This week in the garden - #84

It's another gray and drizzly day in what has been mostly a gray and drizzly week. It is definitely December weather.

We did have one day of brilliant sunshine, just to remind us that it was possible, and to lift our spirits if only for a day, but it looks as though gray days are about all we have to look forward to for the foreseeable future.

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Meanwhile, inside, the timing of my seasonal plants has been decidedly off. My "Christmas" cactus turned out to be more a between Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus. It bloomed nicely but either too early or too late for the holidays. It still has a few buds but I seriously doubt they will develop. At least not in time for the holidays.

Same goes for the three amaryllis bulbs I've been nurturing in pots in my bathroom window. Two of them are coming along nicely, but one is just beginning to show a little green. I really don't think any of them will develop sufficiently to bloom for Christmas. New Year's Day maybe. I guess I should have started them a couple of weeks earlier.

This is 'Flamenco Queen,' the first one to poke its leaves out.

This is 'Cherry Nymph' which was second but has had a growth spurt over the last couple of days. It may be my best bet for a Christmas bloom.

And then there is the laggard, 'Grand Diva.' If I'm lucky it might bloom by Valentine's Day! Of course it was a bit handicapped by the fact that the nursery cut it so high. The leaves have to make their way through about an inch-and-a-half of last year's plant before they can emerge.

It's obvious that if I want some color indoors for this holiday season, I need to make another trip to the nursery. Maybe this weekend.

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Actually, I need color for outdoors, too. There isn't that much going on in the garden right now. I did add some pansies a couple of weeks ago, and there are a few indomitables that are still blooming, but mostly the garden looks brown and gray. Gray just like the sky and my mood.

Wordless Wednesday: Season of the amaryllis

At last - sunshine!

Today dawned bright and clear. The garden is flooded with golden sunshine. What a joy to see it after almost a week of cold, drizzly days. It's still cold today - in the 40s - but one doesn't mind so much when the sun is shining.

I went out to the garden to plant a couple of nandinas I had bought last week and a pot of Thanksgiving chrysanthemums whose blooms had faded. As I was working to plant one of the nandinas near the patio, I looked up and got a wonderful surprise.

I've told you about some of the Monarch caterpillars I've been monitoring recently. After waiting all year to find such caterpillars on my milkweed plants, in the last few weeks, the plants have been overrun with them to the point where most of the leaves are now gone. But I had not seen any evidence of the caterpillars' progression to the next stage of their metamorphosis. Until today, when I looked up from digging a hole to see this hanging on the back of one of my patio chairs.

A Monarch chrysalis!

This is the only one I have found so far, but then I haven't been out in the garden much lately. Surely, there must be others around and perhaps I will discover them. If the sun stays out.

Back inside, after I uploaded my pictures of the bright green beauty, I searched for a video I had seen earlier of the development of the butterfly, from egg to butterfly. It's a lovely and informative video and here it is.

Bubba

Bubba, the garden cat 

03/26/99 - 12/07/13 

A day that will live in infamy now for one more reason.

This week in the garden - #83

It's been a week of contrasts. Early in the week, we had temperatures above 80 degrees F. Yesterday, our high was 73 degrees and our low was 38. Today the high is anticipated to be 39.

 Early in the week, there were lots of butterflies about, including this little skipper on the purple trailing lantana.

This particular lantana is a great favorite with butterflies like the Common Buckeye.

There were several of these American Painted Ladies enjoying the lantana on this day.

On a cold and misty day like today, though, there are no butterflies about. And the gardener herself is staying inside.

But a few blossoms like this 'Ducher' rose continue to grace the garden, even on a cold December day. Is this the last rose of the season?

As cold air blankets much of the country, I hope your garden is doing well and that you are able to enjoy the week in the garden.

Wordless Wednesday: Late autumn leaves

New garden visitor

Over the weekend, I was completing my observations of my backyard bird feeders for Project FeederWatch when I became aware that there was a squirrel on the ground under the feeders picking up stray seeds. Now, this isn't unusual in and of itself. Indeed, there are almost always squirrels in the yard during most daylight hours. But this particular squirrel was unusual.

We have lived in our house for twenty-five years and during all those years, the only squirrels I have seen in our yard and in our neighborhood looked like this.

The fur on their bellies and ears tends to have a reddish or slightly orange cast, and they are relatively large for squirrels, weighing in at around two pounds. They are fox squirrels, the largest of the tree squirrels of North America.

But the squirrel that I saw feeding on the ground under my feeders was not a fox squirrel. It was one of the smaller gray squirrels, the first one I had ever seen in my yard. The animal was an adult - a female, I think. I went into the house to get the camera to document her visit, but, of course, by the time I got back outside, she had disappeared.

I kept the camera by my side and in a little while, two more gray squirrel visitors appeared under the feeders. These two, though, were not adults. They were about half-grown kits and I assumed they were the progeny of the earlier adult I had seen.

They were actually very cute and I enjoyed watching their antics. I had crumbled and spread on the ground some stale rolls that were left over from Thanksgiving dinner and the little visitors were enjoying a snack of bread.

Note the light gray or white belly which marks this as a gray squirrel.

The fur on the back of their ears is also white or light gray.

I realize some birders and gardeners consider squirrels a nuisance, but I admit I quite enjoy them. My bird feeders are protected by squirrel baffles which keep the seeds safe from marauding squirrels or their nighttime equivalents, the raccoons. They are welcome to glean what they can from the ground underneath the feeders. And they have their own designated feeder in the front yard. I consider them welcome visitors who repay the food they get with their entertainment value.