Why I Oughta...

In what is probably the final week of my dahlia blooms, I have one plant that is (finally) producing its initial blooms:  Sweet Nathalie.   Last year, I saw my first Sweet Nathalie bloom in early September and talked about how it is a 'slow to bloom' .  This year, the blooms came in mid-October.  Five or six weeks later than 2025.   But, what do they look like?  They're pretty great: Sweet Nathalie Decorative Dahlia Bloom - Blush Pink Sweet Nathalie is billed as a dahlia that compares with one of the dahlias that everyone loves:  Cafe au Lait.  Here's what Longfield says about Sweet Nathalie : If you love the colors of Cafe au Lait, this dahlia is a must-have. Sweet Nathalie walks a similar line between buff and blush pink, but its flowers are about half the size of Cafe au Lait and the shape and color are more consistent. What's interesting about that (for me) is that Sweet Nathalie is my second slowest-to-bloom dahlia.  The one th...

I was recently up in Racine Wisconsin where I spent some time at a (pretty nice) youth sports field complex.  They have a beer garden - which feels *very Wisconsin*.  And, the fields were nice.  Grass was cut short and nicely groomed.  But, over by the bathrooms was a collection of conifers that were worth documenting.  Someone planted a number of things in a little cluster and over the years they've matured into a really nice-looking conifer collection.   One of the standouts is this large, columnar Weeping White Spruce.  It is an almost-perfect specimen.  Shooting straight up in the air.  Narrow.  And really quite nice: Planted in the beds around the Weeping White Spruce, they had two pairs of other weeping confirs.  Two of them are (I'm pretty sure) Weeping Norway Spruces that they haven't really trained upwards.  The reach about five or six feet tall, then begin to cascade down and all around.  Interesting to see ...

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...

The wood-burning fireplace season is rapidly approaching.  Don't tell the dahlias that, but it is a reality that I'm actively preparing for around here.  And, that starts and ends with our annual firewood delivery.  This year, we once again had three face cords of kiln-dried firewood delivered:  One each of Birch, Cherry and Oak hardwoods. Since 2021 , I've been buying our firewood from The Grove in Sugar Grove.  Their prices are fair and their wood has been clean, dry and nicely split.   They dumped the load on our driveway and we got busy moving it back to the racks.  Filling the racks on the screened porch (one of each wood), the sideyard racks and the little side stoop that is under cover on the side of our house.   Here are a few photos of the delivery and the full racks (for consumption check-in purposes, of course).  The racks on the side of the house are full.  Left is Oak.  Right is Cherry.  I need to get the...

I'm a postcard guy.  Sending postcards to people is something that I find joy in doing when we are traveling.  I send them to my Mom, Nat's Grampy, my friend Matt and others.  They're harder and harder to come by these days as people just don't send postcards like they used to - from travel destinations or ordinary places.   I've been thinking about creating my OWN postcards to send.  I try to send hand-written notes to people from time-to-time, but those are on my own personalized correspondence cards.  A post card, from a place, is different.  I've long wanted to send postcards from Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.  But, alas, they don't exist.  I've also thought about Downers Grove ones.  And, University of Illinois ones.   That lead me to Ebay.  Where, you can find vintage postcards from all of those places:  Twin Lakes, Downers Grove and the University of Illinois.   Fumbling around on Ebay recently, I came ...

The dahlias are going wild.  Warmer days and cooler nights right now.  Before...the inevitable frost that is on the horizon.  (Hopefully not too soon, though).   This week, I documented my 20-something arrangement of the season .  This post shows another one.   Including: Great Silence, Milena Fleur, Ivanetti, Blue Wish, Saint Martin, Crichton Honey, Wizard of Oz dahlias.  And, a single spray of Silver Dollar Eucalyptus peeking out the top.  Here it is on a couple of sides of the jar on our counter: Here, below, is how they looked as I cut them.  The lighting in the mornings makes the colors pop. Wizard of Oz (the pale pink one on the bottom right) changes a bit as the season goes on in terms of petal-holding.  Earlier in the Summer, every Wizard of Oz that I'd cut would drop petals almost immediately.  Now? They stay on much longer.  Wonder what is driving that behavior?  I really like Wizard of Oz, but if it is...

If you head to Menards these days, you'll see some Halloween stuff up (inflatables, their Spooky Village buildings and the other Halloween house decor), but you'll also see a big section of the Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas set-up out and ready to be shopped. Before I get into the post, let me credential-ize myself.   I've covered Menards Christmas setup (Enchanted Forest) and when it shows up over the years.  Via, what people call "Christmas Creep" - when a store sets up Christmas early.  Here is my post from 2025 when it was up in September . Here is early October 2015 , when the Menards Christmas Enchanted Forest (and blowmolds) were up. Here is September 2016 , when the Menards Christmas Enchanted Forest was up. Here is September 2017 , when the Menards Christmas Enchanted Forest was up. Here is October 1, 2019 , when the Menards Christmas Enchanted Forest was up. I've also p osted about the various Christmas Village buildings that Menards sells, incl...