Why I Oughta...

Tired of those Mums that you bought for your front porch keep splaying wide open and flopping over, revealing an empty crown?  That's what happens when the tips of the flower stems get weighted down with the blooms, as they open up and grow.  That is...if you keep them alive until then.  Mums are hard to make work, but when they do, they're beautiful.   So, you likely know all the tips by now:  soak the root ball in water.  Water from the bottom-up.  Don't buy them too early in the season. Here's the best tip I can give you in terms of something you can do to keep them looking good: Wire them up.   Wrap a wire or string around the stems to corral them together.  And, keep the crown of the mums together and the stems upright. Here, below are a couple of photos of the Mums we brought home for our front porch this weekend.  I used padded garden wire around the stems: I also placed the nursery pot into a garden trug that is full of...

I've grown Dinnerplate dahlias on purpose .  And, this season I grew Dinnerplate Dahlias NOT on purpose.  The one in question is Mero Star.  NOT, Metro Star.  I have two of them in the front yard - one in the Island Bed and one under the Triumph Elm tree by our front porch. I posted the first photo of one of these blooms at the end of July when they were just starting .  And, the petals were dark red, almost purple.  As the season has gone on, the white tips/outline have emerged.  These are really lovely when they are on the plant: Mero Star Dahlia in Bloom They, however, have very short stems.  Both of the plants are healthy and didn't really have any problems.  No virus.  No pests (no Spider Mites!!!).  I'm planning on digging up and saving these tubers, but I'm not sure that I'll grow them again.  Or, if I do, I won't be growing them for cut flowers.  That means they will need to be in spot where the blooms can show-off...

In previous growing seasons, some of the Japanese Aralia Sun Kings have flowered.   They send up a shoot of a tight cluster of yellow-ish tight flowers on single stalks.  Here is a post from early September of 2025 when I caught what I thought were (just) flowers that emerged (for me) for the first time .   In that post , I included this description: Sun King’ is a golden-leaved cultivar that features a large rounded clump of golden yellow compound leaves which is topped in summer by 2’ tall spikes of tiny white flowers. Deep reddish-purple to purplish-black inedible berries ripen in fall . Birds love the berries. (emphasis, mine) Well...guess what?  For the first time, these purplish-black berries arrived.  Pretty neat.  Here's a look at one of the most-mature Sun Kings that had its flowers turn into berries.  A lot like what happens with Viburnum: Nice little mid-October highlight in an otherwise "beginning to go to sleep" garden that is ti...

If you follow any part of the pizza making (both home-baking and professional) internet on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram or even PizzaMaking Forums, you can't go far without people talking about a few cheeses that people are passionate about:  Grande mozzarella.  And Locatelli Romano.   So, when I saw some Locatelli nestled-in the cooler next to some more familiar brands, I grabbed it.  I've bought a lot of Pecorino Romano over the years.  From Angelo Caputos.  From Jewel.  From Pete's.  From various Italian markets.  But, none of them (until now) have been Locatelli brand. For any other pizza makers in the Chicago suburbs:  Is this new to our market?  I think it is?  I certainly haven't seen it at grocery stores until the past month.   For now...Let's call it new (to me):  Locatelli Pecorino Romano Cheese .  I have found this stuff in two places (so far):  Jewel and Standard Market.   J...

There's a ball dahlia that is growing in the front yard Island Bed that is a variety that I didn't plant.  At least...I didn't THINK that I planted it.  Of the 42 dahlia tubers that I stuck in the garden (all over the front and back yards), I didn't plant any orange ones.  But, I'm growing something that is certainly orange.  And yellow.  According to the dahlia-planting map, I stuck a Burlesca dahlia tuber into the front yard island bed.  And, this, below, is what is blooming off that tuber: That's NOT Burlesca .  My Burlesca dahlias are pink .  Not orange.   I'm pretty sure it is Mirella - a ball dahlia variety.  Here's what Longfield Gardens  shows as Mirella.  They don't describe it, but the photos seem to line up.   I bought the Burlesca tubers from Longfield.  Looking through the rest of their 'orange' varieties, the Mirella is the only one that looks *close* to what I'm growing .  Thus....Dahlia ...

Just about every morning...if I wanted to...I could go out and cut an armful of dahlia blooms and bring them into put in a jar on the counter.  Here, below, is a look at what I sniped off the dahlia plants around the garden on a recent morning.  Includes (of course) Saint Martin waterlily dahlias, a Tsuki Yori No Shisha (Semi-Cactus) Dahlia white blooms (which...I'll have you know are "fimbriated" dahlias ), Ivanetti balls, Milena Fleur (formal) decorative, a few (what I think are) Mirella ball dahlias , Blue Wish dahlias, Great Silence (decorative) and the standout:  a single Peaches-n-cream dahlia bloom.  Here are a few photos of the flowers as cut off the stems: And, here, below, are those same flowers tucked into a recycled pickle jar on the counter.    I'm now close to 25 arrangements that I posted about this growing season .   Dahlia arrangement with Peaches-n-cream, Ivanetti, Saint Martin, Blue Wish, Milena Fleur, Mirella and more.... While...