Happy Halloween!

In honor of the harvest and the spookiest season of the year, as this cycle winds down to its close, what better icon than the pumpkin to commemorate this day?

This year we didn't get around to carving the pumpkins, but we still like to have them around gracing the steps ... and as you can see, the morning glories are still hanging in there at this late date. I took a few other ambient light shots along with this, but most of them didn't turn out ... I should have known better and used the flash!

In any case, however you celebrate the big spook day, I hope it's an enjoyable one for you! We usually just take it easy (now that the annual haunted open house and big trick or treat night are past) and watch a favorite scary movie, and I think this year's choice will most likely be Robert Aldrich's classic Bette Davis -- Joan Crawford guignol fest Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? the special edition (2 discs!) which I just received the other day. It's one of my favorite guilty pleasures and if you've never had the experience of watching Davis and Crawford tear each other to shreds, you should definitely treat yourself this Halloween. (Or any time you're in the mood for some grand guignol high octane theatrics!) It's a shocker you won't soon forget, during which you will find yourself chuckling at inappropriate times ... only one of the charms of this fine example of black comedic camp cinema.

Trick or Treat! As Hosted by Queen SkelePepa ...

Blogger finally seems to have gotten over its hissy fit from earlier this evening ...

I thought I'd post a few shots from our hometown Beggars' Night. Des Moines has a somewhat odd tradition: instead of a trick, kids are supposed to tell a joke, most of which barely register on the groaner scale. Most of the time, with the smaller ones, you can barely understand what they're saying, while some of the older kids try their best to come up with something a bit more risqué. Which also usually registers but a bit higher on the groaner scale.

We did have one particularly vocal little girl (about 3 or so) tonight dressed as a cat who was quite insistent that she tell us a joke ... she arrived chiming "I've got a joke for you!" and repeated it (and repeated it) until she made her turn up the cauldrons of candies and toys. "So what's your joke?" I ask her. She proudly declaims: "What does a dog eat?" "I don't know, what does it eat?" I oblige. "Dog food!" she proudly exclaims as she realizes she's accomplished her mission and the candy and toys are hers now. She was amply rewarded and left with a big grin on her face ...

Though the weather was great tonight, we had a lower than usual turnout this year, which seemed odd given the balmy temperatures. Last year the temperature plunged about 40 degrees from afternoon and evening accompanied by a fierce wind and we only had about 55 kids (a lot fewer than the previous year). Tonight seemed especially sparse and we ended up with just 42 in all, most of whom arrived in groups. In any case, those who did come by didn't leave disappointed!

Of course Pepa played exceptional greeter and (g)hostess to all, and seemed to earn quite a few fans with the kids. Why, you could even say she was glowing (she was)!

The first shot (not the greatest but the one that turned out acceptably without the flash) is Fernymoss the Crowboy and Queen SkelePepa lying in wait for the kids who were soon to arrive. As you can see, we were well stocked, with chips, candy and two cauldrons of toys for the lucky beggars .... They made a decent dent in the loot, but in previous years these would have been virtually empty by the end of the night. Maybe kids just aren't trick or treating like they used to, or the ones we used to see in previous years have grown up too much to find the activity "cool" anymore. Whatever the case, we've got a reputation to keep up in the neighborhood for some kids, who tell us each year we're the first place they go ... that always makes it worth it for us, so we'll keep on doing this each year until the kids quit coming.

Harvey, Pepa and the Mammoth Castors

Just a few quick shots of Queen SkelePepa and her friend Harvey, posing late this afternoon by the Mammoth Castors in the back yard ... all ready for the trick or treaters soon to arrive! The poor kids here only have a window of opportunity from 6-8 p.m. so this will be an abbreviated, photos only post for now!

Now who ever said IVG didn't like bunnies? Pepa likes this one and so do I!

Well, this is an update of sorts ... I tried to upload the photos to Blogger hours ago, but it was acting up at the time. So here they are, after the fact, as it were.

Trick or treat blogging will follow shortly!

Halloween Preview: The Wolf Lair

Well here we are, one night away from the big event, and we barely (and for us, sparsely) got it together in time ... This year, Halloween just came too soon, barreling at us and caught us unaware and unprepared. Instead of spending much of late September decorating (as we usually do), this year we were in the big clean up and rearranging mode, which took up much needed Halloween time. But anyway, with a manic push last week, we got the house cleaned up, a lot of Halloween decorations up and threw our annual Halloween Haunted Housewarming party last Saturday. Though hastily organized and not as big as previous years, we were quite content with the results and had a fun, relaxing evening with friends, topped off by watching one of my all time faves, William Castle's The Tingler which for me is always a treat, no matter what time of year. (Recommended seasonal viewing from a previous post)

The Wolf Lair is a new acquisition this year to our collection of Halloween Houses, and though Fernymoss didn't have the time to put up the whole displays (alas, the cemetery didn't happen this year), what he did with the Witch/Wolf Lairs I think is pretty remarkable. Perched atop the newly installed media centre, this particular display contains the witches' lair house and a spooky country scene integrated with a haunted barn and various people celebrating Halloween ... all guarded over by this pack of watchful wolves lurking in the nearby woods. I particularly like the reflections captured in the 'river' that leads up to the Witches' Lair (coming soon), which at least justifies having had to use the flash to take these shots. Unfortunately the flash also cancels out all the cool spooky lighting the pieces themselves emit (nifty LEDs, you know!) but it seems to be the only way to get the detail these pieces demand.

I should have a few more of these to post tomorrow (the whole view of this scene, with more detail) as well as some pre-Beggars' Night shots of the Halloween loot we are giving out this year (bigger and better!). We also have to get some good shots of 'Skeledog' (her highness Queen Pepa approximately, in case you hadn't guessed!) to include. She's become quite fond of her new outfit over the past few days and seems to enjoy lounging around in it (see previous post). And soon ... for Halloween Night itself, we should have this year's version of Grizelda's lair assembled on the porch, so stop by again soon ...

Photos and Arrangement by Fernymoss. Taken 28 October, 2007.

Almost Halloween! ... sleeping on the job ...

This could quite likely be the night when we get our first frost or freeze ... though I suspect we'll get a glancing blow or light frost, I think the hard freeze is at least a few days off. So, for now, we still have the towering Castors in the garden, late blooming Toad Lilies and valiant mallows, morning glories, calendulas and other annuals still hanging in there. Amazingly, a lot are still blooming though the garden is clearly in definite decline ... just in time for Halloween.

Time for the bones and tombstones to take over the front bed ... the porch soon to be transformed into Grizelda the witch's lair, along with her ghostly entourage ... yep, we have a lot of work to do and have barely begun! At least we have all the candy and toys stocked and ready to go next week!

Oh, and Pepa has a new costume this year ... after a good 10 years of mostly being a Devil Dog (and sometimes a bumble bee), she's finally got some new spooky threads that she actually seems to enjoy. Though you can't tell in this picture, it's a body length skeleton shirt of sorts ... kind of like a doggie onesie? Anyway, she took to this immediately, since it's more like a cuddly t-shirt than a costume. Cool! And she glows in the dark as well, hehe. And the full moon is today ... hmm.... with it getting cold and windy, it's feeling like the season is truly upon us! I'll have more pics of the decorations as they are installed, so check back soon.

Film programming suggestions we've seen recently and recommend!

The Devil Rides Out -- a 1968 Hammer production with the stellar Christopher Lee fighting nasty Satanists who want to baptize a few of his friends into the dark arts ... it's a good one! Atmospheric and effective, with a great screenplay by Richard Matheson (see below).

The Legend of Hell House -- the 1973 and only (I hope) adaptation of Richard Matheson's Hell House, scripted by the author himself. I bet you're familiar with his work, even if the name is not familiar ... he wrote many classic Twilight Zone episodes, numerous screenplays (including the above title!) A tale somewhat reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting (so inferiorly remade a few years ago, wasting the talents of Catherine Zita Jones, Lili Taylor and Liam Neeson among others), it truly stands on its own in my esteem. And I was a huge fan of the book when I was a teenager (and Matheson in general too) ... it's an extremely literate --and yes, psychologically scary-- (read boring for the less patient modern audience) haunting tale well worth the effort of seeking out and viewing.

For that matter, the original Robert Wise version of The Haunting linked above is one of those haunted house stories that still gives me the shivers decades later. If you've never seen it, turn the lights down low and get ready for some real chills. Interesting lesbian character portrayal for the era too (1963), and Claire Bloom sure seems to love vamping it up as "Theo." I can't recommend this film highly enough ... that abomination remake probably had Shirley Jackson spinning wherever she is these days ....

For fans of the legendary William Castle, TCM recently broadcast an evening of his classics, one of which, Homicidal, I'd never heard of, nor seen ... so that was a real treat, though not quite on the par with his classics The House on Haunted Hill and my all time favorite, The Tingler. It is one to check out if you see it pop up on some late night schedule and unlike most Castle productions, managed to keep us guessing till almost the end of the film. Some see it as a blatant rip off of Psycho, and it does share some details, but it's still a fun, schlocky ride, as only William Castle could do them. I could go on for hours about his films (one of my many guilty pleasures), but I'll spare you for now.

One closing note for David Lynch and Twin Peaks fans out there (you know who you are!). Finally, this 30 October, the "Definitive Gold Box Edition" of the entire series, including the elusive pilot episode (and European version), is being released on DVD. Now, if you're a fan of the Peaks, I'm sure this is exciting news (I've had mine pre-ordered for over a month now, hehe). If you're not, but are open to discovering one of the most innovative and unique oddball soap operas to ever hit the prime time airwaves, you should at least see if this shows up in your local video store. (There's enough of a cult following and legend built up about this series that even FM's local video store might have it. After all he does live in a college town, no?) It also appears that they've included lots of goodies in this 10 disc set, so I'm going to be enjoying this one for a good, long while when it arrives. We used to countdown to Halloween by viewing one episode of Twin Peaks per night up until the big day, but this year decided we'd have to delay it due to the new set. Who knows? We may be marking advent this year by watching David Lynch's work instead ... damned secular liberals that we are.

More Halloween soon ...

Update 30 October, 2007: still barely a light frost and no freeze yet. First Halloween in many years this hasn't happened, to my memory.

Good Luck, Al ... We're Rooting For You!

In case you've been wondering when the announcement might come (or been living in a cave lately), today is the big day when we'll find out whether Al Gore will win the Nobel Peace Prize. Though most articles are saying he's "tipped" to bring home the award, we won't know for certain until Friday morning around 5:00 a.m. EDT. One tantalizing detail I saw today fueled speculation that he would indeed win because "Mr Gore cancelled his attendance at a global warming event in San Francisco on Thursday night, citing an unspecified overseas event on global warming." I also read that he was scheduled to appear at a fund raiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer, but called to cancel citing an "unexpected need to travel" to said "overseas event." (Sorry, but the link at RawStory was gone when I went back to find it tonight.)

Now I usually don't get so personally invested in who the Nobel Prize Committee ultimately selects for its awards, but this time it's different, and intensely personal for me, for various reasons, not the least of which is that many in this country desperately need to realize (and publicly recognize) just what a huge injustice was done to him in December, 2000. Of course his Nobel nomination has absolutely nothing to do with the criminal usurpation of his presidency. Nor should it. This Nobel nomination just serves to prove the unrecognized and much maligned brilliance of the man whom I consider to be the best president we never had.

I'm sure that if he wins, the right wing noise machine will still find it fodder for mockery and no doubt attribute the win to the evil liberal conspiracy in Oslo. Honestly, at this point, in what should by all rights have been Al's presidency, I could give a shit what they think. I'm way beyond trying to reason with wingnuts and neo-fascists, because if they aren't going to grant me the courtesy of hearing my views, I can stick my fingers in my ears and go nyah nyah nyah nyah as well as they can. The time for trying to reason with them is long past and they don't even deserve the effort. (Just witness this week the disgraceful smearing of 12 year old Graeme Frost and his family, as only the most recent example.) Nothing would make me happier than to hear the sound of wingnut heads exploding across the country in their rabid froth filled rage. Now, I'm not intrinsically a vindictive person, but where the likes of the minions of the right wing noise machine are concerned in their treatment of Al Gore, I take it very personally. Why? Because Al Gore has been a personal hero of mine for going on 20 years now, and I will defend his honor and his greatness tooth and claw.

I first saw Al Gore back in 1988 when he made his first run for the presidency and during that campaign I was lucky enough to hear him literally making his stump speech on the streets of Madison, WI, where I was finishing my graduate degree at the time. I was so impressed by his passion for the environment that he had me mesmerized ... no one else running was even bringing up the issue of global warming at the time, and many were mocking him for being a tree hugger hippie type. Now, I've known plenty of hippies in my time, but that passionately sincere man sweating in the suit on a hot Wisconsin summer day was anything but a hippie. He was so obviously brilliant that I was astonished that so few people were giving him serious consideration. I fell in love with him then and there (and, you have to admit he was then and still is a very handsome man, not that that should be a consideration, but still ... how many politicians can you say are truly handsome?). I was, being the dirty f*ckin ex-hippie I was at the time, totally on board and proudly voted for him in the primary. (To hell with that bland Massachusetts technocrat everyone was buzzing about, and for whom I ultimately would not vote, out of sheer disgust. And, for the record, that is the only time I have not voted in a presidential election because I was so disenchanted with the Democratic choice that year.) And for those who remember, the guy who blathered on for what seemed like hours on end at the Democratic Convention, (a guy from Arkansas named Bill Clinton), positively bored me to tears ... perhaps because I felt that Al got cheated in the race that year, even though a lot of what Clinton had to say did resonate with me at the time.

Fast forward to 1992. Clinton won my vote by choosing Al Gore as his running mate. I figured that if someone with Al's integrity would run with Clinton, there had to be something good about him, even if, in my gut, I had my doubts about him and his non "cookie baking" wife being in the White House. (Anyone else remember him promising to establish a "New Covenant?" That freaked me out....) All I hoped was that we could end the dreadful 12 years of Raygun and Shrub the elder. Gore was why I didn't have to hold my nose that year when I voted (in of all places, Sarasota, FL, where just getting registered to vote was an acrobatic feat in and of itself). Well, we all know the rest of the story and how that all turned out. But, I would remind you, did Al ever give up on his environmental causes during the whole time? A resounding NO, even if he was, at times by circumstances, held back in his efforts.

Yeah, Al made some big mistakes in his campaign in 2000 (the biggest of which was choosing LIEberman as his running mate), but I never once doubted his sincerity and integrity, even after the last few Clinton years. If only he were able to be in charge, I was certain that he would ultimately do the right thing for the country and stick to his principles. Well, we all well know how that turned out. I wept and spent an angry, sleepless night (well, many of them) that November and December. I've wept many times since for our country ... most recently last week when we watched An Inconvenient Truth again, especially during the part about the Florida recount, when I was sobbing uncontrollably about the loss imposed upon us.

But, you know what? Al Gore has acquitted himself admirably in the intervening years, despite the mockery, despite the charges of alarmism about global warming, despite all the shit he has had flung at him by the right wing noise machine. He has stuck to his principles above all and pursued his great passion for the preservation of the earth, no matter what his critics have said. That alone demonstrates his integrity and his dedication not only to this country but to the world at large. And finally he has gotten some of the well-deserved recognition he should have been getting all along. Let's hope that today brings him the prize that will cement him in history as the visionary he truly is, and will surely remain for the rest of his career, no matter what he chooses to do. I've had a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator for months now (it was intended to celebrate Rove's indictment, oh well...) and if Al brings it home we'll open it and toast his victory!

I'd be remiss if I didn't say at least a few words about whether Al should run this time around. Though he has yet to make the "Shermanesque" pronouncement about his future plans, I'd just like to say that whatever he decides to do, I will accept and profoundly respect his decision. He's already proven himself a true patriot and servant to his country and the world at large, and honestly, I'd not blame him one bit for deciding against running. But if he does (and if the Draft Gore movement does ultimately convince him to run), I will be on board one more time, with all my heart and hope and passion to ensure him the win he so richly deserves.

The Tricyrtis Trifecta

If I haven't yet convinced you that Toad lilies are one of the most amazing unsung flowers of the shady perennial bed, maybe a few more recent shots will work their magic. I have to admit that before we planted our first specimen (top photo), I had no idea what they were and I took it on Fernymoss' word that they were "really cool and look like orchids."

So, at that point (about 7 years ago) we planted this unassuming looking little plant and waited. It grew a bit the first few years, but didn't bloom until it actually put on some size (at about, say 10 inches) and then -- whoa! We were delighted and amazed by the beauty of these diminutive shade lovers. Though the flowers rarely are bigger than maybe an inch or so, they make up for in quantity what they lack in size! Once this first specimen bloomed, we were hooked, and just had to add to the Toad Lily collection over the next few years.

At this point we now have some six specimens planted in two different shady areas, four in the Woodland Garden on the north and two just next to the front steps on the east. This year we added three to the mix because I found some intriguing cultivars in the spring ... one's a white one and the two others are varying shades of purple. We still have to get some good shots of the white and purple ones but with some sun and free time they should be gracing these posts sometime soon!

The second and third shots here are more examples of the Tricyrtis hirta 'Amethystina' cultivar, which was the second specimen we planted. And it's a doozy! I planted this one about three years ago in the fall when we put out a lot of bulbs, and this is the first year it has really bloomed with any passion, but if this year's show is any sign of things to come, we'll be waiting eagerly each September for its arrival. Lest you get the impression that Toad Lilies take a long while to bloom, I should say that the first two we ever planted were very small plants less than a year old, so I attribute their tardiness to bloom to having started with immature plants. And back then, they were harder to find in garden centers than they are today, when luckily, more mature specimens can be found that will often bloom the same year.

Tricyrtis isn't a particularly difficult plant to grow, provided you give it the basics it needs: a part or full shade exposure (it likes some early morning or late afternoon sun), a relatively moist loamy soil (and occasional feedings with fish emulsion) and plenty of room to spread out, as they are known to form colonies after a good number of years. And of course, you want to show them off as best you can, so planting them in the darkest, most inaccessible corner of the shade garden might not be the best idea if you really want to appreciate their beauty. I'm pretty certain that many gardeners have had the same experience we have -- initial success and delight with the first specimen leads to a desire to find more (and more) eye popping varieties to plant. We Midwestern gardeners do have to pay close attention to hardiness, because not all species can take our winters, but there seems to be an abundant number that do quite well in Zone 5. (In fact, the first couple of years we weren't too sure about that so we mulched it in the fall after the first freeze and the plants died back.)

Here's what I think is the best feature of Toad Lilies: when everything else in the garden is looking haggard and spent, when things are winding down in the early fall, they leap out of their shady spots and shower you with unusual vibrant colour! And once they start, they will bloom reliably up until the first hard freeze, then die back and go dormant until spring. One of the posts I found on them while researching this post (and so aptly titled), Better Toad Lily Than Never posited, they may be late to the party but they sure have a commanding presence when they arrive!

People often tell us that they have mostly shady areas in their gardens and bemoan the real lack of punchy colour with what's generally available, and we almost always recommend Toad Lilies as an unusual solution. Like most of the uninitiated, they're not impressed by the foliage at first until they see the blooms ... and then they're hooked. Another Tricyrtis junky in the making!

Note: Photos courtesy of Fernymoss, taken 30 September, 2007.
I just realized this is the 200th post here on Urban Oasis. Some kind of benchmark, I guess ....

October Surprises -- Toad Lilies!

Here's Fernymoss' greeting to the great month of October, a lovely afternoon capture of one of our Toad Lilies (Tricyrtis hirta 'Amethystina') currently blooming away out in the Woodland Garden amongst the ferns. I'll have more to say this week about these unassuming beauties, but for now, feast your eyes and senses on this one, 'Amethystina' is a specimen we put in about three years ago, and is just now hitting its stride. Fernymoss was out today clearing out the weeds and making space for two more new additions we hadn't gotten in the ground yet, and since fall definitely has the wind at its back, it was high time to get them 'grounded' so to speak. We just have a few more neglected perennials (well in the sense they're not in the ground yet!) to get planted, and then we can concentrate on getting things cleared out for fall and winter, then seeding down the plants we want to see next spring. We've also been talking about planting a few more Dragon Arums, but just need to order them and get them in the ground before a hard freeze ... we'll see if that happens!

Anyway, yes, it's been a long while again since I've posted .... things have been pretty busy of late, and just last night we finally tackled the great living room re-arrangement with the transfer of the media equipment into the Entertainment Armoire (I guess that's what you'd call it!). Transitional habitat change might be a better description, but in any case, when the work is done, our downstairs will be looking a lot classier, just in time for our favourite holiday Halloween! I'm sure the dogs will be somewhat disappointed that two chairs are going to the curb soon, thus opening up a lot more space in the room. I think they'll find a way to survive! We look at it more as uncluttered, more spacious digs, finally, LOL. Lots of fall change going on around here, and I think it's for the better ... and we can't wait to get the spookiness going soon ....

One other note: I just got a new computer system up and going this week. So here goes my venture into the world of MS Vista, and my first impressions are generally positive, despite my misgivings about putting XP into the past. Though the configuration I've linked to is only the bare bones CPU, the one I got also came with a 19" LCD widescreen monitor, and I souped it up slightly with a faster processor and some other goodies. So ... just getting transitioned from the 'old' system (a mere fast Pentium 4) and thinking about how we next get high speed access and a small home network going eventually! Thus far, I'm loving the new set up (especially the extra monitor real estate!) and have only experienced a few hiccups relative to software compatibility. Time will tell ... but honestly, if I'd had the option to go for XP again, I'd have taken it. But Vista does seem to be a prettier, cleaner looking version so far, so we'll see if my great trepidation was worth it after all. For the time being, let's just say that I'm having a lot of fun getting it adjusted to my liking!

Photo courtesy of Fernymoss, taken 30 September, 2007. Flash enabled on this one, thus the detail and colour ....

Return of the Mantis!

The mantis is back! Well, Fernymoss spotted and caught a mantis again a few times last week. He took these two shots last Tuesday as s/he was hanging out on the stucco near the back door of the house. We're pretty sure this isn't the one he brought back from work a while ago, but we're not ruling out either that it might be the little one I spotted on the Coreopsis earlier in the summer.

This got us to thinking about whether Mantids have the capability to change colour to blend in with the surroundings, especially since this one was playing near invisible on the stucco. I don't recall reading anything about such a talent, but with the huge number of species of Mantids, I can't say definitively ... I'm not an entomologist, nor do I try to play one on this blog. So your guess is as good as mine!

Notes on these shots: Taken by Fernymoss, 11 September, 2007. I think the first shot really gives a good view of the wings in detail, something that we don't usually focus on (at least I don't) probably because the pincers are so arresting that our attention naturally goes there directly. There's so much to take in when looking at a Mantis, and since time is usually pretty short to view them, I think it's just amazing that we sometimes have the chance to capture them up so close. The second shot could easily be called here's looking at you, for obvious reasons! If you look really closely at the enlarged version, you can actually see its pupils.

Heavenly Blues

Almost everyone loves Morning Glories (Ipomoea tricolor ), those carefree, easy to grow vines who reward gardeners almost everywhere with abundant flowers in late summer and early fall, often right up to frost if conditions are right. They also self seed with a vengeance, and depending on how you feel about having them in weed status in your garden, they can be either a joy or an infernal pest and sometimes both.

Years ago we planted a mix of blues, purple and pinks along the sidewalk fence and haven't replanted them since, and they've since reached noxious weed status in that part of the garden now, much to Fernymoss' chagrin about the profusion of pink blooms. We really have been striving to eliminate the pinks (sorry, Olivia!) the past couple of years, but we just can't keep up with the number of seedlings that come up every year. Though I usually protest that we have more purples ('Grandpa Ott' variety), he's not going to be satisfied until the pinks have been eliminated ... so sometime soon before frost and before the seeds mature, all the Morning Glories along the fence are going to be pulled and sent to the compost.

The new plan is to plant Spanish Flag (Mina lobata) along the fence in an attempt to get it to self seed, and confine our Morning Glories solely to the 'Heavenly Blues' and 'Grandpa Ott' varieties. Lest this plan sound a bit harsh to you, I'd just say that once established, Morning Glories can really become a pest ... they travel around the garden coming up here and there, and unless they are provided with support to grow, they can become positively noxious when a few escape pulling and start dragging down flowers in other parts of the garden. The lesson we've learned is that we needed to be more scrupulous where we planted them, thus the attempt at eradication plan we feel is necessary at this point. Don't get me wrong, we love Morning Glories, especially the blues, but we've decided they need to be reined in a bit and confined to another area, which this year is the small bed to the right of our front steps, in with some Bee Balm, Primroses, Meadow Sage and a couple of Toad Lilies. We'd tried planting a couple of Clematis on a trellis we have in the bed, but they never amounted to anything and eventually died out ... so did the supposedly hardy Passion Flower vines we planted there as well. After all that costly effort to no avail, this year we said: purple and blue Morning Glories only there! And this is exactly where you'll find the flowers pictured tonight.

At least this way we can guiltlessly pull others where they come up and reserve a few seedlings in this area to grace the trellis for the next few years until we've completed the pink eradication. (I know, that sounds suspiciously like a 'final solution' but sometimes in the plant world if you want to get your way with aggressive plants, it's got to be done!) In any case, I do think that any gardener worth the salt (or pepper) should have Ipomoea tricolor somewhere in the garden, and if you're careful about where you let them get established you might escape weed status if you're vigilant about it. Still, even if they get away from you, you're almost guaranteed non-stop blooming pleasure once it starts ... as long as you obey the cardinal rule of growing Ipomoea: don't ever feed them with any kind of fertilizer. If you do, you'll get luscious, profuse, huge foliage and few if any blooms! Plant them only in poor to average soil in full to part sun, making sure that they have a support to grow up on and then let them do their thing. It's that simple. Let them die off at frost and either harvest the seeds or just let the vines go till spring (when they're all crispy and easy to clean up) and you'll be sure to have them come back the following year.

Photos by Fernymoss, taken 16 September, 2007

Castormania Redux

So now that work has calmed down a bit (at least for this week) I hope I can get some more late season shots of the garden soon. Since rain is in the forecast for most of Tuesday and the evening, I'll have to rely on Fernymoss' shots from yesterday to tide me through the week ... I somehow suspect you won't mind with what else he has in store for you! It's a good thing he's taller than I am because it's getting harder to shoot the really interesting things that are going on in this Castor way up high. And of course since Fernymoss is fascinated by capturing textures he did quite a few in this series that do a great job of getting to the underside of things (by necessity ... point up, focus and hope for the best!) These two shots are the same plants seen in yesterday's post, just from different angles. In the first you can see the shadow of a maple leaf that got caught in the cup of one of the upper leaves ... and you can get a really great look at the texture of the undersides of the leaves as well. Castors just scream tropical! in everything they do, especially in the second shot which nicely highlights a few remaining blooms and a whole stalk of developing fruit.which (with luck and no early freeze) will soon develop into the full-blown seed pods. The blooms are toward the bottom (it blooms from the top down) and look a bit like cauliflower ... nothing quite as dramatic as the spiny fruit they become. Not that I can imagine any critters brave enough to try to eat the fruit (since the entire plant is toxic, remember), but Castors aren't taking any chances that their seeds will be gobbled up before they can start the next generation. Though not as painful to handle as Datura pods, they still get pretty prickly when they dry out, and harvesting the seeds does need to be done carefully. Each pod produces 4-5 seeds, so you can see that if this stalk makes it to maturity, we'll have plenty of these to share!

Now, way back when I first posted the earlier pictures of these Castors in August, I alluded to a story about a neighbor who was frightened by them the first year we planted them in the garden. We share a fence line with the woman behind us, and the second year we were in this house (hmm, that would be spring of 99), we went gung ho and planted all sorts of tall plants right along the fence line, just to see what we could do. We planted broom corn (which gets to about 9-10 feet tall too) and Castors, along with lots of morning glories which quickly came to be called those vines by our neighbor. Uh oh. We realized we had a plant phobe living behind us ... yikes! Come to find out, she was terrified of being 'tickled' by the dreaded vines when she walked her dog by each day.

Now of course we aren't the types to be terrified by plants of most kinds (unless they come with retractable jaws and very long, sharp teeth!) so we were a bit baffled by this and tried to keep them on our side of the fence as much as possible. That was nothing to compare with what came later in the summer as the Castors really hit their stride and grew to about 12 feet when a machete was threatened from her side of the fence. The broom corn wasn't a hit either. In fact, she was quite disturbed by these ferocious looking tropical trees that had sprung up in our garden ... so, we got an ultimatum: if it reaches over and tickles me, I will chop it off. So, in the interest of neighborhood peace (and our early reputation on the block), we said that was fine ... apologizing yet again for having troubled our neighbor (though we laughed a lot about it outside of her presence). Needless to say, the Castors lost a few branches and looked rather 'one-sided' from our perspective, but we had learned a lesson not to go for our gigantic plants in that particular location.

Since then, we try to keep the Castors far enough away from the fence or sidewalk so that no unprovoked tickling occurs ... though we do love to taunt her a bit by planting them in full view (ergo, where we have them this year), but at this point it's all good natured fun between the parties involved. You see, this was the eventual outcome of our friend the flower phobe ... after a couple of years, she got bitten by the bug and has taken up planting up small beds on her property, and no longer complains about the dreaded Castors (though she did look a bit askance at the Dragon Arum in May!). In fact, we've shared a few perennials with her (the non-scary kinds) and have given her a hardy hibiscus and toad lilies as gifts that she thoroughly enjoys. We take a lot of satisfaction in having converted her to the rampant evils of gardening, and she's done quite a nice job planting various perennials and annuals in her yard. So ultimately, we not only made friends with our initially skeptical neighbor, but also now think of her as an essential person in the life of the immediate neighborhood. And though she's recently retired, we're doing our best to keep her from selling her house and moving away .... that's how much we would miss her. And, since her young son just got married two weeks ago, a bit of the landscape has changed ... a bit sadder with his absence, and the potential change of neighbors should his mom decide to move.

Further proof of our basic gardening philosophy: gardening is sharing and sharing is winning people over in time. The green brings us together ultimately. And that's a good thing.

Random Thoughts and Notes on Recently Viewed Films

During my "hiatus" I did have the chance to see some really good films for entertainment and some of my precious off work hours were spent getting lost in a wide variety of films ... titles such as Tout va bien (classic Marxist/Maoist Jean-Luc Godard from the early 70's complete with Jane Fonda and Yves Montand), Billy Wilder and Gloria Swanson's classic turn Sunset Boulevard (gloriously remastered for DVD finally!), Network (need I say more about this classic?), Altman's masterpiece (and perhaps my favorite of his) Nashville, And lest you think I've been dwelling in the 'serious film' world too much, we also got lots of laughs from our favorite British comics Simon Pegg and NIck Frost in both Shaun of the Dead and their newest, Hot Fuzz.

And just so you don't think I'm only about those 'British' comedies, I did spend an engrossing time watching Helen Mirren earn every bit of that Oscar for The Queen one night after work last week. Frankly, I could give a sh*t about the British royal family, but Mirren's performance was just so spot on that she had me mesmerized from the start ... if she proved no other point than that she could positively inhabit Queen Elizabeth II (without -- or is it despite? -- making her more interesting than she could possibly be) Mirren demonstrates that she is truly one of the greats of her generation (it's not all Prime Suspect you know, though most of those are really good). Stephen Frears really tapped into the British zeitgeist circa 1997 (e.g. Princess Diana's death) and has created a very smart film chronicling the whole rise to fame of Poodle Boy Tony Blair ... in fact, I more than once wondered if the film were more about him than Elizabeth, despite the titular focus

Add in a couple of Almodóvar films for good measure and just the other night, one of Woody Allen's neglected masterpieces, Zelig. Yes, all that escapism and more, but a lot of times when I'm swamped at work, the best I can do to relax is to lose myself in a well made film ... from which it's difficult to extract me when it's over.

Another title of particular note I'd like to mention because it was only recently released on DVD, (though I'd like to write about it more at some point) was David Lynch's newest cinematic puzzle, Inland Empire. By turns engrossing, confusing and downright infuriatingly abstract, it's likely a masterpiece to behold when all is said and done (I'd say, oh... maybe about twenty viewings later!). Must see viewing for Lynch fans, but it might be a bit too obtuse for the uninitated viewer of Lynch's work.

Late last night I watched the fascinating documentary Inside Deep Throat, (yes, that movie!) that is currently playing sporadically on HBO (check the IMDB link for next showings if you're interested). It's a remarkably light hearted examination of the 'liberating' and 'revolutionary' porno that almost thrust hardcore into the mainstream of cinema, but ultimately failed for almost everyone involved in its making. At times hilarious and at others sobering, it's an eye opening look into the demi monde of the nascent porno industry, nefarious gangland connections, wannabe censors and wingnut reactionaries of the Nixon era, with commentary interspersed from luminaries as diverse as Norman Mailer, Erica Jong, Helen Gurley Brown, Xaviera Hollander, Gloria Steinem, Dick Cavett, John Waters, Bill Maher (who no doubt masturbated to it in his teen years) and even the inimitable Gore Vidal. It made me think of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights more than once, a film that also grounds itself in those freewheeling days when audiences were more adventurous, the fringes more visible and before the so-called 'sexual revolution' stalled in its tracks. Yeah, another one of those films I have to dig out of the archives and spend some time with soon ....

Finally, we got around to watching The Illusionist last week (which I mentioned in a previous post where I referenced The Prestige), and I must say that it was truly impressive, though spinning a very different kind of narrative from that of The Prestige. While they deal with a similar romantic theme (a magician's love thwarted), the two films take an entirely different approach, and I must say that narratively, I think The Illusionist had a much more complex and ultimately surprising and rewarding story arc. (It was, after all based on a short story by Stephen Milhauser, an author I've long enjoyed for his quirky novels.) Both films, however, are well worth the time you could invest viewing them ... if I had to draw the distinguishing comparison, I'd have to say that The Prestige deals heavily with the 'how' of the illusions and the ultimate implications of the act, whereas The Illusionist focuses more on the 'why' of what we see through the protagonist's perspective. I'm not always a fan of 'period' type films, but both these films are remarkable for their recreations of the magical milieu of the late 19th century. I highly recommend them both if you're looking for an intelligent and literate drama you can really get lost in and let it take you where it will.

Late Summer Castormania!

Well, it certainly has been a while since I've posted, and I'm sorry for the unwelcome hiatus ... but given work demands the past month or so (über busy, one project after another), I've just not had the time or energy to spend here, as much as I would have liked to!

In the meantime, the garden has managed to go a bit wilder than usual, and with the incredible heat and humidity we had for quite a while, neither one of us was really inclined to get out and weed ... so as a consequence, it's positively savage around the place. But some things have persevered and carried on (at least we did have regular rains), in particular, these two Castors we have planted in the back yard. This particular variety is called Zanzibariensis mix, mostly the larger greens but one of these does have a reddish cast to it, much like the Carmencita variety we have out front. These two have passed at least the ten foot mark at this point and could potentially top out at twelve or more before the season ends ... barring any early freezes.

Since they're tropical trees, the Castors really enjoyed the heat and humidity, shooting up quickly since we planted them in late June. They're fast growers to begin with, but these two have truly excelled this year, thanks to Fernymoss' regular feedings with fish emulsion! Who knows how big they could have gotten had we planted them earlier (say, late May) ... in any case, they're a great dramatic accent in the garden and really don't ask for a lot, save an occasional feeding and regular watering. A while back I posted a picture of the smaller plants in August here, and comparing the two photos, you can see just how much they've grown in about a month and a half! The large green one pictured has already bloomed and is putting on its seed pods (more on that in an upcoming post) so we should, with any luck, be able to harvest a bounty of seeds to share and plant again in coming years. I've already reserved a few for some blogging friends, so if you're interested in seeds for next year, just let me know. Providing, that is, that we don't get a killing freeze before they have a chance to mature ....!

Notes on the photos: Taken by Fernymoss, 16 September, 2007. The first view is from an angle that shows the entire plants (and exaggerates a bit, I must admit) so you can get some perspective on how big they've gotten. The second is a closer view including our dear Queen Pepa (approximately) to add just a bit more perspective. I'll be posting a few more in coming entries, so stay tuned for more of these dramatic and fascinating plants. (And if you look carefully in these shots you can see a Kucinich 2004 tee shirt on the line ... right next to the Guiness boxer shorts! LOL)

More Shadowy 'Blue River' Hibiscus

"Pay no attention to the man inside the box."

That line from The Prestige, (which we watched the other night), could well sum up the focus of these shots Fernymoss did last week. Though in the context of the film it clearly refers to the illusionist's techniques to distract the audience from what is really going on (which is of course more interesting than the false focus), here it's meant more to guide the viewer of these photos to the true subject of these shots: the shadows.

Fernymoss was out to capture more of the effects of late afternoon sun on the 'Blue River' hibiscus than to get tightly focused Inner Bits shots ... and to that end, I think he succeeded quite well. These aren't the most perfect of Hibiscus blooms, au contraire, they're a bit chewed up (likely by grasshoppers who have been real pests of late, and have eaten all of my prized Convolvulus seedlings!) We also thought that the textures displayed here were interesting in and of themselves, as well as the strategically placed "eyes" the marauding insect left on the bloom ... and in particular, the inner bits reminded us of those 'blow out' noise makers so popular with birthdays and New Year's Eve celebrations. Whether you see a Mardi Gras mask or just a rather molested Hibiscus bloom, it doesn't matter ... what I like best about these shots are the golden hue of the late afternoon sun, combined with the shadows it makes during the transition to evening ... after which, of course, another bloom will come along to replace it in the cycle this 'Blue River' hibiscus goes through every year. Though the flowers may seem the same, it's shots like these that prove to us that each one is unique in its own way, and there's always something new to be seen on close examination out in the garden....

As a quick aside ... The Prestige is a film well worth viewing for its multi-layered temporally distinct narratives as well as its intrigue created by the rivalry between two late 19th century illusionists played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. It's a film that will engage your intellect immediately and sustain it throughout its many plot convolutions and trips through time to tell its story. Directed by Christopher Nolan of Batman Begins and Memento fame, it's a film that generally got overlooked last year (hmm, was it because it was too intelligent for most audiences?) but merits more attention from a wider audience. We highly recommend it, and look forward to comparing it to that "other" magician film from last year, The Illusionist. The latter is going to have to go the extra mile to achieve the astounding effect The Prestige did for us, but we'll approach it with an open mind and see what it has to offer. I'm just curious though, about why two different films focusing on the minutiae of magic acts happened to be released at roughly the same time last year ... after all, it's not a subject that readily springs to mind as a potential film vehicle, but as far as The Prestige is concerned, I'm glad it got made and actually saw the light of day!

Guest Photo by Fernymoss: Steppin' Out

Photo Courtesy of Fernymoss

Taken 16 August 2007.

While we're at it with the Praying Mantis pictures, I thought I'd just do a quick post of another shot Fernymoss got after we brought the new guy (still unnamed) home. In the comments several of you likened him to a belle in a poofy dress preparing for a night out, which I have to admit hadn't really entered our minds, but hey, what you see in a photo is what you see! But now that you mention it ... that spent Bee Balm bloom does suggest it ... so, with all preparations and ablutions completed, here we see him heading out to find a good lookout spot for prey.

We're hoping that the spot in the back corner bed will provide well for him and encourage him to stick around, especially now that I did a spot of research on them here at Wikipedia. I hadn't known previously that there are some 2000 species of Mantids in the world, of which 20 are native to North America. Basically about all I knew was that they were a generally beneficial insect to have in the garden and that they will eat just about anything they can catch, including members of their own species. And when you get a close look at that mouth, you can definitely see you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of its attentions ... check out the Wikipedia link for a lot of fascinating facts about them, as well as photos of some really spectacular species (the Costa Rican 'Tropical Shield Mantis' was a real wowie for me). If you're a fan of 50's sci-fi (hello, FM?), for giggles and thrills you might want to investigate the 'classic' Universal Pictures cheeseball The Deadly Mantis, which I recall seeing as a kid and being singularly unimpressed. I used to be all over all of those radioactive or reanimated mutants, but I still have to admit that though some of the U.S. films were great fun, Godzilla and especially Mothra were and are still my favorites!

Our New Garden Denizen

Photo courtesy of Fernymoss

Taken 16 August, 2007

Today when Fernymoss came to pick me up from work, he asked "Do you mind if we give my little buddy a ride home?" And with that, he reached into the back seat and pulled out a small wooden box with a screened top ... containing none other than this magnificent Praying Mantis! He had told me last night that a really big mantis had been hanging out all day on one of the plate glass windows at work, disconcerting some of the customers who rummage around in the big containers of clearance merchandise in front of the store. Since he had to close, he looked again when he left and the mantis was gone, otherwise he would have come with him last night. Well, today he was back and he was ready for him ... so he carefully captured the mantis put him in his temporary digs until he got off work.

Once we got home he took him back to that overgrown mess that we usually call the back garden (it's savage garden central this year, alas) and introduced him to his new home. Of course I immediately asked "Why don't you go get some pics of him in case he decides not to stick around?" (though we hope he will as there's probably plenty of food back where he put him). So here he is in his new home amongst the False Indigo and spent Bee Balm blooms in the back corner. We're really hoping he adopts the garden as his new territory and thrives there, as it would really make us happy to know that we have mantises around ... though should he manage to find a mate that would surely be the end of him. So for now, we're just going to keep an eye out for him and hopefully we'll be able to get more shots of him lurking around waiting for dinner. We haven't seen the little one I shot earlier this summer lately, so as long as s/he stays away from the big one we might get lucky enough to have a couple around! We'll keep you posted ... any ideas for naming this one? I have some ideas, but have never had the occasion to name a mantis before!

Guest Photo by Fernymoss: Shadow of the ...?

Tonight's treat is an experiment Fernymoss tried during the late afternoon-early evening hours when the western sun was at its brightest ... he went looking for some interesting shadows and I think he succeeded fabulously with this shot that he calls Faerie Passing. I think there are a lot of things you can conjure up in this shot, so I'd be really interested to hear what you folks see in it.

It's a detail of Hibiscus moscheutos 'Blue River,' of course ... which is carrying on admirably its non-stop bloom fest as usual. Still waiting for 'Kopper King' to end its break and start up again so we can see some more of those, but they'll be along soon! Oh, and that green castor is taller than Fernymoss now ... it's just loving this heat and high humidity, even if the dogs and humans aren't! We'll do an update shot of that soon, as well... but for now, enjoy Faerie Passing!

Guest Photo by Fernymoss: Red Celosia Sport

Following up on last night's post about Celosia garden sports, here's a really odd, yet attractive one that Fernymoss was attracted to because of its "joined hands" near the bottom of the bloom. It's obviously a cross between one of the common red plumosa varieties available (often referred to as 'Castle Red or Yellow') and a relatively recent cultivar called 'New Look,' which features brilliant red plumes carried on compact (6-8 inch) plants with reddish foliage and stems. You can see the parentage in the leaves where the reddish hue and veining is somewhat pronounced in this specimen. Unfortunately this detail doesn't show the top of the bloom, which is a bit more like a smaller cristata (cockscomb) variety. (Though Fernymoss did take some shots of the top, none of them turned out well enough to use here, so you'll have to wait a bit to get a peek at that, but my first impression was that it looked like a lobster waving, while the "hands" are "joined" lower down.)
Ok, so why plant Celosia? Whether you choose the Cristata varieties, with its large "brainy" headed flowers often 5-6 inches across, or the smaller varieties, it's guaranteed fire in the garden during the hottest months of summer! They positively thrive in conditions when everything else is looking a bit "burned out" and grow well in full sun whether you have average, poor, to even clay soil in the garden. They're not picky and once you've got them established (you should give them regular waterings while they're settling in) they're incredibly drought and heat tolerant. Once they start blooming they're incredibly long lasting flowers, which if you just leave them alone, will eventually fade and drop their seed after frost, virtually guaranteeing you'll see more of them the following spring. I should note that as long as the seed stays in the ground over the winter, it will generally germinate, however don't look for them until later in the spring, because they tend to come up only when the ground has warmed sufficiently and all danger of frost is past.

The larger 'Cockscomb' variety is a great plant to dry for arrangements and will last a couple of years if dried properly. You merely need to cut the whole plant down (or just pull it up) late in the fall (or while it's at its maximum depth of colour), hang it upside down in a dry place (preferably a dry basement or somewhere out of direct light) and wait for it to dry out completely. It's also best to remove all leaves and just retain the stalk with the bloom intact. Of course, should you choose to do so just keep in mind that once fully dried it will drop its seeds (and they're tiny ones!), so you might want to place something underneath it to catch them. As long as the plant has matured sufficiently over the season, you should be able to store these seeds and plant them the following spring ... or better yet, just broadcast them (in the fall after the first hard frost) in an area of the garden where you'd like to see them the next year. Though they might not all come up, they have a very high germination rate, so you'll probably be forced to thin the seedlings out at some point to ensure the biggest specimens possible.

We've found that while the large Cristata argentea variety tends to come back 'true' to the parent plant, all bets are off when it concerns the smaller varieties, such as those seen in these past few posts. But that's one of the really fun things about Celosia ... if you're not expecting exactly what you planted the previous year, you may be rewarded with the odd sports and mutants, thanks to the many bees, butterflies and other insects who tend to congregate on these flowers.

Guest Photos by Fernymoss: Yellow Celosia Sports

Last summer I wrote several posts on these Celosia sports in their 2006 incarnations, both yellow and red ones, those odd mutants who have crossed over the years and just keep coming back slightly modified each successive year. So here's some of this year's crop ... they're not as numerous as they have been in the past, but the weeds have gotten away from us for a while and have choked out some, I think. And earlier this summer it seemed that there just weren't as many as in previous years, so I think next year will probably entail planting a bunch of new 'pure' ones and let the process start all over again, along with those who come from this year's plants as well.

Long time readers may recognize the first shot as similar to a sport I posted about this time last year, and these particular ones are pretty much in the same spot the original 'pineapple' top we had growing last year. (Make sure you look at the large version to see the bonus bugs!)

The second shot is a relatively new one this year, probably metamorphosed between and plumosa variety and the more traditional cristata, or 'Cockscomb' variety, though anyone's guess is as good as mine. I can only really try to classify them by the shape and colour, both of which are way off from what you'll find in the garden centers. Let's just call this one "Bottle Brush," and consider it named!

Photos courtesy of Fernymoss. Taken 13 August, 2007 out in the front boulder bed.

Kopper King Trifecta

Here's good ole Hibiscus moscheutos again, but this time it's my favorite hybrid 'Kopper King!' As I've often stated, I'm not usually one to adopt most hybrids, but 'Kopper King' is just too outstanding an exception that I think every serious gardener should have at least one in the perennial border.

For one, its bronzy, reddish purple foliage reminiscent of maple leaves is the most striking of any of the H. moscheutos cultivars of which I'm aware. Even when it's not blooming (which from July to September isn't often) it's a very attractive plant, growing to about 4 feet by 3 feet in a season. It's a relatively low maintenance plant and aside from pruning it back in the spring and keeping it fairly well watered in hot periods, it doesn't really demand much in order to wow you with its fabulous flowers. It's also quite cold hardy, happy to dwell within Zones 4-9. The only real drawback I can see is that, as it's a hybrid, it produces no viable seed, and the only way to propagate it is from stem cuttings rooted in late spring or summer.

But once established and when it gets to blooming in late July, it rarely ceases to amaze passersby with its truly dinner plate sized flowers, intricate veining on the petals and just plain eye popping blasts of red, pink and white. We're starting to see a few more of these around local gardens, but it doesn't seem to have caught on as much as the 'Lord Baltimore' and 'Disco Belle' cultivars you more commonly see growing in local gardens.

No matter, we like having one of the more rare Hibiscus moscheutos in our garden (in fact we have two!). I named this one 'Olivia' last year (I don't go naming too many plants but this one just begged for it) due to her deep admiration of pinks. So here are two very different angles on it. The first shot was intended to capture the absolute competition between flowers to be the first to show off ... these three were so closely situated that none of them managed to truly open to the full potential, but as an ensemble I think they make a nice cluster of contrasts between colours and textures. The second shot is a full on close up aimed at getting the whole inner-bitian enchilada for Olivia. (I may have posted this before, but it's a worthy rerun for this flower!)

At present it's taking a bit of a break due so the recent dry weather, but with the regular rains of last week, it should be gearing up to launch another round of blooms soon, so keep dropping by and I should have more sometime soon, because you can never have too many Hibiscus blooming, no matter what variety you grow!