I made my annual trip to the shopping mall today. Christmas is everywhere – decorations, music, home décor. I am amused by the retro trend. Aluminum trees have made a come-back. I was too young to remember, but family stories tell me that our family’s last “live” tree was a pine cut from my Granddaddy Brown’s farm. It stood in the corner of my parents’ living room, so that it could be seen from outside through both the corner windows. I’m sure that it was fragrant and beautiful, especially in contrast to the presents underneath. On one particular year, my mother wrapped all the gifts in shiny white paper. Gifts for men sported green bows; gifts for the ladies wore red bows. A few days after the tree went up, black dots started appearing on the white paper. What everyone assumed to be specks of pine resin turned out to be baby TICKS. As in blood-sucking arachnids. The warmth of the house brought them out of the pine bark, where they had been dormant for the winter. The tree made a rapid exit from the house and was replaced by the “tin foil” version, complete with the rotating color wheel. I loved it from the first day.
Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving Day marks the kickoff of the busy Christmas holidays. It is easy to get caught up in the shopping/wrapping/party frenzy. I'm pausing today to be thankful for the many things I often take for granted: a comfortable home, plentiful food, good health and remarkable friends.
Forsyth Pot for Small-Scale Propagation
If you want to propagate a few of your favorite perennials or shrubs, please consider using a Forsyth Rooting Pot. This is propagation on a small scale. Follow the link below to view a YouTube video on how it's done. If you would prefer to have this information in written form, use my Contact page to send me an email request. I'll send you a return email with the instructions in PDF format. Happy Gardening! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsBv12O17MY
"Look-At-Me" Weeds
I’ll never forget the first time I understood what was meant by a specimen plant. I had always associated “specimen” with my annual health physical. I learned that it meant a “look-at-me” plant, shrub or tree. Japanese maples are commonly referred to as specimen trees because of their distinctive forms and beautiful colors. My favorite specimen in the New Hope Farm garden is a butterfly weed. Aslcepias physocarpa (recently reclassified as Gomphocarpus physocarpa) has the unflattering common name “Hairy Balls.” The blooms are tiny, white, and easily overlooked. The eye-catching fruits are a little larger than a half-dollar coin and look like, well, hairy balls. Mine have nourished a wide variety of caterpillars this year. The narrow plants reach four feet tall in full sun, and have not needed irrigation. Indeed, Look At Me.
My Personal Fitness Program
There is no better home fitness program than owning an Australian Cattle Dog. Blue enjoys both AKC Rally and Obedience events. We are at the very lowest level of both, but we're having fun together.
The Royal Story
The Royal typewriter pictured on my home page belonged to my mother in law. She used it in the office of Startex Mills in Spartanburg, SC, where she was employed for over 40 years. The carriage is oversized to allow insertion of large forms used in recording data on cotton (weight, quality, source, etc.). My mother in law was a remarkable woman. In the twelve years I knew her before her death, I never heard her say a bad word about anyone. At worst, when confronted with an unpleasant person or poor behavior, she would sigh, compress her lips and shake her head as she said, "My, my."