Old Fashioned Poinsettias

I was reading a post that mentioned Poinsettias on Growing with Plants and the author said that a lot of plants sold today are treated with growth retardants and how it is hard to find tall, old-fashioned Poinsettias. Reminded me of the Poinsettias my family grew. We had a wholesale florist and did treat some plants, but the Poinsettias were not treated*. We grew huge Poinsettias, the parent plants were started in August and cuttings were taken off the parents to plant in various sizes of pots and plant configurations. There were single stemmed, multi-stemmed, and Poinsettia Trees. At a certain point we had to cover the plants at night so that they would be in color for Christmas.

Here are some tree Poinsettias in the background and 2 other sizes. We used drip irrigation after the plants reached a certain size and were spaced out. That was something I did a lot of at the farm, space out plants and set up drip irrigation. For some reason we always moved plants after they were watered. Heavy, wet and muddy, thanks Gramps.

 

This is a photo of greenhouse number 6, not very creative, but that's how we referenced them. It was the largest greenhouse and this is the view of the fan half. Just before Christmas the whole greenhouse would be filled with poinsettias on every bench and on plant stands on the benches.

 

This is a view of the other half of number 6. At this point in time we had motorized cloth pulling systems, the drums for the cables are visible in the top left quadrant of the photo. Prior to that, 2 people had to pull cloth over each and every bench at night and in the morning pull it back. When you were in a rush the cloth would usually get caught on something and tear and there would be cursing. I learned a lot working at the Farm, besides how to curse. I built some of the benches shown, every other bench was a rolling bench which increased the area available for growing plants by removing half of the aisles.

 

And here are the Poinsettias in bloom.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one pot. We had a customer that supplied Macys and other large department stores in NYC and we grew some special large Poinsettias for them.

 

Photos were taken in 1986 and 1987 by my father. The Farm was sold in 1992 to the City of New York and it is still in use, minus some of the greenhouses and outbuildings. The city grows native plants for use in parks and other natural areas.

* - Well most were not.

Pastis

I started a batch of Pastis about 2 weeks ago and I finished it up today. It ain't bad so here it with a recipe. Slight amber green color.

 

Straight shot.

 

Simple Syrup added.

 

A splash of water. Not as cloudy as the real thing. Smells and tastes like Pastis though.

 

Ingredients:

750ml straight grain alcohol (190 or 151 proof) I think I purchased 190.

2 tablespoon anise seed

1 tablespoon fennel seed

1 cinnamon stick

10 clove buds

6 whole star anise

2 teaspoon cardamon pods

2 teaspoon coriander seed

1. Dump all the above in a large glass jar that closes tightly. Be careful around sparks and open flames.
2. Let sit in a cool dark place for at least 2 weeks.
3. Strain out all the debris.
4. Dilute the concoction with lower proof vodka till it is at an acceptable mouth burning alcohol level. In France, it is traditionally drunk diluted with water, so don't worry if it is a bit on the strong side. Public Safety Announcement: Don't drink the Grain Alcohol straight. Bad things WILL happen and it will be posted on youtube!
5. Add cooled simple syrup to taste. Simple syrup = 1 part sugar added to 1 part boiling water.
6. Sit back and enjoy.

Guess the dish

Saturday there was some serious cooking going on at mi casa, not by me mind you, I was just sous-chef. Let's see if you can figure out the main course. The Pan. Don't jump to conclusions. Just a few ingredients. The chorizo is just showing at the bottom left hand corner of the photo and the rice is not yet measured out. There are clams under the mussels at the back of the photo and a few other items out of frame. Sorry, no hints yet. Brown some chicken. Stir some sofrito. (anyone alliteration averse?) Drop in some seafood. I know, this is a hard dish to figure out. and in minutes it's. Paella for 2. Actually it would serve more than 2, but we couldn't wait to christen the dish and we were also hoping my favorite daughter who will be attending UMASS at Amherst next semester would show up. It took about 2 hours total to prepare, but it was excellent and well worth it. On my own this weekend, I started some bacon, started a batch of pastis(French anise liqueur), baked an Irish Tea Brick* and sautéd some sauerkraut for my lunches this week. Irish Tea Brick - Soak 1 cup raisins, 1 cup cranberries, 1 cup dark brown sugar in 1/2 cup of hot tea overnight. (Lapsang souchong or holiday tea) For this batch I used Republic of Tea's "Comfort and Joy Tea". The next day Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking power and 1 teaspoon pumpkin spices or any spice mix you might want. Then add 3 beaten eggs into the fruit mix and slowly add the flour mix, dump into a loaf pan. Bake for 90 minutes at 325 degrees F or until a tooth pick comes out super clean. The sauerkraut has been cooked with dark beer, maple syrup, caraway seeds, butter and olive oil in a proprietary manner. On a non-food related topic, I dug some of the potted alpines into the ground for the winter to keep them warm. Also cut and edged the grass for the last time this year, I hope and raked some leaves. Oh and I think I might have done some laundry. * - Real name Irish Tea Brack. I like my Brack dry and dense hence Brick. All arm modeling by my best friend.

October 2010 Flowers

Don't quite have as many blooms as I might like in the yard, but it just means I have to buy more plants.

 

Fall Blooming Crocus

 

Something Cool Rose

 

Coral Bell foliage, this one has very pale pink almost white flowers, but the foliage is more interesting.

 

Latest Coral Bell addition, it is supposed to have dark red flowers.

 

Latest trough planted up, just waiting for the soil to settle before adding gravel mulch. Probably will use small black aquarium gravel. The next trough I have planned will be more square, not exactly square, but less natural than this one.

 

Saxifrage, Paniculata minutifolia "red backed spider'

 

Another Saxifrage, this one is also in the same trough. It is either cotyledon 'Pyramidalis' or paniculata 'cockscomb'. I dropped the tags and can't tell the difference now. The other is the third Saxifrage in the trough. Neither looks like the tag anymore. Cyclamen leaves are all up now and I expect the flowers soon.

EZ Stone Troughs

1. Buy Stone 2. Cut top off of stone 3. Drill big holes around perimeter 4. Chistle out what's left First Attempt The Tools of the trade. The stone (pumice) is lightweight and easy to work with, but is very sharp.

Wavehill Gardens

Wavehill, www.wavehill.org, a New York Public Garden. Just a bit north of the Cloisters, exit 21 off the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Switched to an iMac and have not yet found a blog tool I like yet, so here are photos without my blathering.

Wavehill is not as large as NY Botanical Garden or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but is more of a local park. There was yoga going on and family events, so if you live nearby, it would be ideal.

The alpine house was small and the trough garden area was smaller than I had expected it to be. The troughs don't look much different than my troughs, just bigger.

 

 



Last August Weekend

Last Saturday I was cooking in the backyard and saw a beautiful spider web on the Clematis trellis. My photo does not do it justice, but at least I captured it and it just wasn’t a passing moment gone forever. The web was perfectly symmetrical and was reflecting the colors of the rainbow. I was tempted to mist it to give it the early morning effect, but did not want to prevent the spider the chance of a meal.It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, the smell of dead cow wafting on the breeze. I had just seared both sides of the steaks, moved them from directly above the hot coals and was finishing them off when I had noticed the web. It was my favourite youngest daughter’s last meal. The next day was back for the start of College 2.0. Hard to believe it is the end of the Summer, didn’t get much done around the house and garden and didn’t get out and do much of anything. Spent a lot of time working which is better than not having a job, but the work/fun balance was not optimal. New Phlox planted this year. 5 came in the set, in the end only 2 are blooming, one never took off and is MIA with another of it’s brethren. These were listed as Tall Phlox, so I planted them next to our other tall Phlox, which as it turns out must be extremely super tall Amazon Phlox. The buds in the second photo remind me of strawberry soft-serve ice cream cones.

Four O'clocksGreen leaved Hosta Butterfly bush (Buddleia) – from a fellow Gardener. It should look better next year when it gets more established.