Esther – Page 8 – gaias-gift.com

Whenever I’m in Paris

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I heard myself saying that one day and it stopped me cold. Born and raised to a barely middle class family in rural Michigan, I grew up thinking that one trip to Europe in my lifetime would be a lucky event, involving huge expense and sacrifices beyond my grasp. In this lifetime, anyway. The complete story of how I got to the day where I could offer travel advice with authority is too long for this post. But it was culture, not gardens that I wanted to understand in my first visits to France. Visits to public gardens were the means, not the end. That didn’t last long. There are people in the world who value the contributions of long dead gardeners so much that they preserve their work through history. Lots and lots of them at great expense and, no doubt, the occasional sacrifice, maybe even sacrifice beyond my grasp. Who knew?

So, of course, I did learn about the culture, and history became more than dates and times that I had to memorize to pass a test in school, and then those became the means to help me more deeply appreciate the hundreds of public gardens that preserve culture and history in color and transformed light.

When I started this blog in winter, I promised myself that I’d spend the dark days of January and February sharing some of these treasures, both in Europe and in the US, with you.

More soon…

Amaryllis 47 days

I sorta thought I’d be done posting these when they finally bloomed but they are so pretty. “Lemon Star” is joined by the first of the “Apple Blossom”. I’m hoping that one of them will wait until next week so that I can take it into the office.

The “Apple Blossom” takes a little longer for each blossom to get to it’s final trumpet shape. This plant has a tendency for the petals to “cup” until they are fully open. And this one has a little quirk, one of the petals has a small “finger”. I thought it was just a miss-shapen petal but each blossom has the same small distortion. The coloring is beautiful and one of my favorites, as amaryllis go.

Christmas and the rose

The rose, and I did mention they are my passion, keeps coming up in the context of Christmas. Although I’m closer to an agnostic than the typical Christian, believing there is more than one way that our complex relationshp with god is experienced, more than one history that describes it, I thought I would write something about the symbolism of the rose in Christmas stories, in honor of the day. In my research I found three stories of the rose.

The popularism of the Da Vinci Code lead to the opportunity for many authors to write, and sell!, more in-depth books about Mary Magdalene, symbolized by the rose. There’s also the story of a small girl who visited the baby Jesus and had no gift for him. Her tears turned into the the Christmas rose (which scholars say is really not a rose at all). The third is my favorite because of the hauntingly beautiful hymn that describes Jesus’ mother Mary as the rose.

There is no rose of such virtue
As is the rose that bare Jesu
Allelulia

(There are more verses.) The thread that I see consistently running through these stories is the strong correlation of the rose with the mystery of womanhood. The silky petals, the bawdy pinks and reds, and the many layers reaveled in the unfolding of a hybrid tea rose from bud to blossom, borders on the erotic. Passion is earned. But this devine transformation happens with such an innocence of purpose. We think of the child, the mother, the sister, partner and friend.

Allelulia

Amaryllis 40 days

This is the amaryllis “Lemon Star” that we’ve been following. It’s gussied up to take to sister’s house for Christmas so that someone who doesn’t have overgrown kittens can display it. I will visit tonight and tomorrow. I was thinking I might take it into work next week but it’s sooooo top heavy, and started to loosen from the soil with just a little moving around.

Only one thing I would do differently. I read that they don’t need much water but that’s an understatement. These were watered only twice in 40 days and really don’t need water yet. If I’d known that, I would have added fertilizer to the second watering.

Happy Holidays,

Fried apples

I’m sure there’s a more elegant name for this simple dish. I created it after watching a friend make Bananas Foster but someone else has probably done this, too. It all needs to be done very quickly so have everything ready in advance. You might even want to have the ice cream in the bowls before you start the frying.

Peel and slice yummy apples (my favorite is Mutsu, like I purchased at Bolton Spring Orchard), enough to cover the bottom of your favorite frying pan. Melt a generous amount of butter and add the apples, stirring until they just start to soften. Add a generous amount of brown sugar. Stir and cook until the sugar carmelizes and the apples are cooked but still have some crunch. Deglaze the pan with a good splash of Calvados or other brandy and serve over the richest, creamiest vanila ice cream you can buy.

New England Rose Society

Roses are one of my passions and when I moved to New England, I was in awe of many of the famous gardening institutions, including the New England Rose Society. Members had been people that I read about in books! I volunteered when I could at the demo garden in Waltham, MA, and even did a stint on the Board. I was deeply saddened when the organization lost its demo gardens to cost cutbacks at the hosting organization and dropped out of sight. Recently, I was happy to find a web site with signs of life and wish them a long and rejuvenated life.

When I win the lottery, I’ll fund the rose garden at Tower Hill and we can all live happily ever after. A woman has to have her fantasies.

Local farmstands – Bolton Spring Farm

I came from the midwest and before I’d visited Massachusetts, knowing the stats on population density, I’d envisioned that the east coast looked a lot like the I-94 corridor around Chicago. I was very wrong. Trees and brush are allowed to grow right up against the historic, meandering roads and public lands like water reservoirs and state forests create natural, untouched green spaces in the most densely populated suburbs of Boston.

My commute, while too long, takes me through miles and miles of farm land, some of it very near to historic places like Walden Pond. Most of it is on a two lane highway, Route 117. In this blog, I’ll feature some of the places that I visit to augment produce from my very small garden.

One of the few seasonal farms that’s still open is Bolton Spring Farm, although probably not much longer this year. They open late in the summer and feature their own orchard products. I had the only realy ripe Mutsu (also called Crispin) this year in a bag that I purchased a couple of weeks ago.

Although they stock a broad variety of vegetables, gift products and home made baked goods, I think what makes them special is the many varieties of local apples that they grow and stock. They clearly mark what’s locally grown. This time of year, they sell Christmas trees and greens, too.

Amaryllis 27 days

I have to move the Amaryllis out of the furnace room because I can’t lift the lights any higher. This location is set up to grow seedlings and only gives about a foot of head room. We made the ritual photo-taking into a small party. Even Mickey (Michel, Misha) joined the party. He was adopted from the Pat Brody Shelter in Lunenberg just about exactly six years ago now. Cannoli is his best bud.

Mickey and Cannolli — Mickey and Cannoli

Notice how the top blossom has a slight bend. One of the florescent bulbs was older than the other. It’s really important to turn the pots regularly.

Other winter gardens

I drive by Bolton Spring Farms every day (more about that in a future post) and a stand of beautiful red shrubs. I stopped to take pictures on my way to work yesterday. The common name is winterberry. It’s a deciduous holly and the absence of leaves makes the abundant berries the dominant feature. Against the cold bright light and the monochrome winter landscape they pop. These are growing in full sun and I don’t have much of that. But I read that it likes acidic, wet soil so I’m starting to think about where I can fit one into my winter garden.

Amaryllis, 20 days – New Growth

Happy dance, happy dance! The first identifiable new growth peeked up from the old stems about the middle of this week. I think the shoot on the front of this picture will be a blossom later on.

Life Lesson: Sometimes, at work, I feel like I’m not making any difference, like I’m just going through the motions. This reminds me that in complex systems, all that a person can do is work to create the right conditions. Often, there are things going on that are invisible, underground. When change happens, sometimes it seems abrupt; but that’s only because we just see the results, not all of the underlying processes that are at work.

Amaryllis Bulbs 13 days, with friends

So the center is still lifting. No sign of this year’s new growth. I’ve nervously looked for web sites that show pictures of early stages and found none. Is there something wrong? Oh dear, oh dear! (OK, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration.) But I decided that this use of blog space, so that you can speculate with me is a good thing. Beginners need to see something besides the end product. (Cannoli and Spumoni are 7 months old; they were adopted from Metrowest Animal Awareness Society.)

Cannoli checks the tag for more information

Spumoni and Cannolli check out Amaryllis Lemon Star

Planting plus 6 days

Amaryllis “Lemon Star”. Still looks pretty dead but the center of the old shoots is lifting. And I see green. These are in a spare bedroom, in front of the windows that get morning light. I turn the temps down to 60 at night so it’s not as warm as they are supposed to be. I may move a couple into the furnace roon, warmer but hardly any light, to see if I can bring them along.

Lemon Star about a week after planting — Lemon Star, planting plus six days

Hydrangea grows how? Another question

Sister was gifted with a small, potted hydrangea. Thinking she had nothing to lose, she stuck it in a bed in front of her house and has been trying to figure out whether she should keep it, ever since. Unknown variety but it looks like it blooms only on old wood, which is iffy in MA. But it has had some good years. This year the plant was bigger and beautiful but didn’t bloom. Providing it with a winter cover of remay has been discussed, if there’s any hope that it might bloom next year. And as we were looking for signs, we wondered what the side buds were for? Inquiring minds.

Amaryllis Bulbs

Potted up three Apple Blossoms and a Lemon Star, some of these will probably be Christmas gifts. The bulbs were so big that I had to get new, deeper pots. One of the web sites that I checked for directions said protect the roots. These came with big clumps of roots, which had been packed into paper bags and shipping boxes so I wasn’t sure that they meant all of these roots. But being a novice, I got pots deep enough to protect the roots.

The winter garden

So first I JUST found a recipe that I like for swiss chard, the night before our first hard freeze, and NOW something is eating them. I suspect deer, although my beds are awfully close to the house for a deer to come that close. But I’m pretty sure they worked on the beans in the outer bed this summer. Or rabbits. Whatever. As you can see, I can still pick some to put in my salad but not enough for a batch of Mollie Katzen’s Pasta recipie.

On the other hand, the Piracicaba blossoms on. I could probably still be picking it if I’d kept up with it.

Learning Curve and dahlias

I love the dahlia gardens that I’ve visited in France but I haven’t mastered the art of growing them well. This was my second summer trying and I have some questions for more experienced people. People who actually grow them year after year. Question 1. Is this bad genes or something that I did wrong?

I also had a lot of these (nice!)

I’m trying to save the tubers, just to get the experience; will I want to use them?

Author: Esther