Why I Oughta...

About three weeks ago, we planted a pair of large amaryllis bulbs in some terra cotta containers (that we had on hand for this very purpose) and had dreams of Christmas blooms.   The first one (without moss) is a Flamed Amadeus Amaryllis that had good roots, but was showing no growth.  Not even foliage tips.  Now, three weeks (or so) later along with a little bit of water, a lot of light and even some warm conditions (these are on a stone table that sits on top of a heat vent in a full southern-exposure window in our dining room), we're seeing the first bud tips emerge from the bulb.  Below is a look at the Flamed Amadeus Amaryllis just starting to show the first bud tip. Shine Dream Amaryllis is the name of the other bulb we planted.  This one has moss around the top of the soil, but was treated the same (water, light, heat).   This one (below) is showing two flower bud tips coming out of the top of the bulb and is a little big further along....

November is the time when the outdoor garden gets put to bed for the year, but it is also the time when I turn to some indoor (seasonal) gardening.  That usually starts with Amaryllis bulbs - or as we call them around here:  Christmas flowers.   Last month, I posted some photos and details of the $10 Amaryllis bulbs that my local Orange Big Box store was carrying and talked about how their smaller (than what we normally buy) size would work well for a 'multiple' bulb container. My mom has this faux birch cache pot that seemed like a perfect vessel for three smaller Christmas flowers.   I figured I'd fill it up and we can deliver it back to her for the season. At the story, I picked-up and handled dozens of bulbs until I could find three that 'felt good' to me.  That meant that they were firm, green, had *some* roots and the foliage wasn't all strap-y and exposed already.  I've had bad luck with Big Box Amaryllis bulbs before (I've also had duds f...

At the Wannemaker's Annual Christmas Open House, we met the Big Guy (of course), ate some grilled foods from Casey's and...came away with two big amaryllis bulbs.  As is the tradition.  Each of my two youngest kids picked out a bulb that there plant as we try (*fingers crossed*) to get some Christmas flowers.  I previously posted some details of amaryllis bulbs at Home Depot this season .  Last year, I planted two bulbs from Wannemakers:  A Double Dream .  And an Exotic Star .   The Exotic Star bloomed right around the New Year .  But, the Double Dream was a total dud.  It sent up a bud tip in March (yes...March!), but then it withered and died.   In 2023, we planted three .  One of them was a dud - Samba. But, the La Paz went off quickly. With a Rilona Amaryllis coming in right in-between.  Blooming in January .   This year, we are trying two new (to us) bulbs.  Here are the two tags of the bulbs they...

Get the pole out of the crawlspace, everybody.  It is time to celebrate Festivus, of course.  Here is the Festivus post from 2023 that reveals my great hope for my kids - as they grow up.   As soon as the middle child woke up, I planted her down on the couch and turned on Netflix and we both watched "The Strike" together.  Then...when it was over...the next episode up was the one where David Putty was a Saab car salesman - who was 'screwing' Jerry because of breaking up with Elaine. Why is that interesting?  Because...the middle child was able to place Putty's voice:  Soarin'.   Here's to pinning your own son tonight.  

The annual tradition of the Christmas Train is back ahead of Christmas this December.  The KotBT was fumpferhing around with his Lionel O-Gauge train and his new (thanks to his Papa) ZW transformer.  This year might be the year of sorting - what we want to keep (and what works) and what we can get rid-of and likely re-sell via Facebook Marketplace and/or Craigslist.  As expected, he's not that drawn to boxcars, but is mostly interested in the operating cars and rolling stock.

Yesterday, I posted the details of the first of our two Christmas Amaryllis bulbs - the Double Dream Amaryllis .  Today, are a few photos and some details of the second one named Exotic Star Amaryllis.  This one is also one of the 'larger', individual bulbs from Wannemaker's vs the ones you find in the 'kits' at big box stores.  History tells me that these *usually* do better than the kit bulbs.   NOTE:  Last year, I had a dud - a Samba Amaryllis never grew a flower stalk .   The Double Dream is named appropriately - as it is a 'double amaryllis' - with two layers of petals in the bloom. The Exotic Star is a 'single amaryllis' with one layer of petals.  This one stuck out - when looking at the boxes on the shelves.  (There are also something called 'Spider Amaryllis'.  I grew a variety named La Paz Amaryllis last season .  They're different, but quite striking.) Longfield Gardens describes the Exotic Star:   "The flo...

The downfall of large department store shopping along Chicago's State Street is well documented.  Marshall Field's becoming Macy's occurred during my lifetime - in 2006 .  That's long enough to kind of forget what Marshall Field's was like, but recent enough to still feel the outrage.   But that outrage really only returns during the Christmas season.  And...that is likely *why* all the changes have been made.  Not enough shoppers have been visiting department stores and not enough are shopping on State Street. Before I talk about what is going on right now, during Christmas 2024, I suppose I should say that we all *should* be grateful that Macy's on State Street still exists at all.  I've covered Marshall Field's (and now Macy's) on State Street in Chicago over the years.    Here's a whole collection of posts .    More on that below the photos.   Macy's calls their State Street Christmas setup 'Santaland ' and it includes...

My annual Christmastime Disney pin - this year's version is below - featured Santa Mickey Mouse steering a sled chock'd full of presents and lead by just one flying reindeer.  The phrase "Holiday Magic" is at the top and it has a pair of studs in the back due to it being a 'longer' pin (longer than it is tall).  This is an exclusive Disney Pin to the 2023 Very Merry Christmas Party and includes that note on the big green gift tag in in the sleigh.  2023 Disney Very Merry Pin - Holiday Magic I wore it on Christmas Eve and it will now go up with its fellow Christmas Disney pins .

We're about half-way between when we planted our annual Christmas Amaryllis bulbs and the big day - December 25th - when I would (ideally) want blooms.  This is a (partial) progress report showing the three newly acquired bulbs .  Why just these three new ones (and not the bulbs that I kept from last year)?  Because these are the ones that are showing action on the stalk growth and the three that are furthest along.   All three of these bulbs were bought from Wannemakers in early/mid November and were planted up right around Nov 17th.  That puts these three weeks from their first watering.  And just over two weeks until Christmas Day.  Will any of them bloom in time?   First up is the Flamenco Queen Amaryllis .  This is what I think is the most unique of the three - with green centers and white-speckled red petals.  The leaves and first flower stalk are up out of the neck of the bulb, but not too much height so far.  Phot...

We typically have a few plants and flower projects around Christmas and this year is no different.  Most years, we do at least two kinds:  amaryllis and a store-bought poinsettia for the kitchen.  This year, we added a third thing:  Paperwhite bulbs .   We've had the typical poinsetta in most years.  Usually red, sometimes white or more interesting coloring.  But this year, we were at the orange big box store doing one of those kids projects when we wandered out into the nursery.  That's where we saw a rack of something that looked *kinda* like a traditional poinsettia.  But, was a little different.   The 'petals' (which...are really just different colored leaves) were curled under.  And were clustered on the top of the plant.  What is this?  Turns out, it is called a Winter Rose.  It is a poinsettia.  Just tweaked.  Here's a few photos of the red Winter Rose: I pulled out the tag of the plant and...

We were over at Nat's folks house and (like they do EVERY YEAR), they had some Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale on hand ahead of the Christmas holidays.  I've posted photos and details of this ' Special Ale ' over the years here on the blog where the beer is less interesting to me, but the drawings of the trees are what I'm drawn to when it comes to this annual Christmas beer.  This year's beer is inspired by an Italian liqueur and features a drawing of a famous tree in San Francisco: a Blue Gum Eucalptus tree.  From this post on NewSchoolBeer comes this description of the tree on the label : This year’s hand-drawn label features a Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree, a nod to Mary Ellen Pleasant – a 19th-century San Francisco entrepreneur, financier, abolitionist, and civil rights activist. Pleasant, who is recognized as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California” for her impact during gold-rush San Francisco, planted Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees outside her Pacific Heights mans...

This past weekend, we went over to the local garden center to meet the Big Guy and his reindeer.  We've done this same deal a number of years and it is a nice way to start the holiday season.  In addition to having the kids visit with Santa for a few minutes, we also buy our annual allotment of Christmas flowers - Amaryllis bulbs.  These bulbs are big and nicely cared for and (this year) cost $21 each.  I'm pretty sure that when we started doing this, these bulbs were $15.  This year, we're growing three new bulbs as well as attempting to force four from last year.  I picked out one and two of the kids picked out their own, too.   Below are the tags of the three we came home with:  Flamenco Queen, Magic Touch and Sunshine Nymph.   These bulbs come nicely packed with a little padding for protection.  They're also MUCH larger than the bulbs you'd find in the typical packaged 'set' that includes a container, potting material and t...

With the holidays (officially) winding down in our house and the decorations being tucked back into their tubs and boxes, I wanted to include in my Web diary a photo of our front yard Christmas tree and our blow mold Santa and three reindeer .  I've done this in the past including a similar photo last year featuring the tree and Santa/reindeers .  The front yard tree *is* a thing in Downers Grove, but that's not why we do it.  We do it because of our time on Indiana Street in Elmhurst .  We really loved that tradition, so we've kept it despite moving to Downers.  This is the 11th year of documenting our front yard Christmas tree tradition - and 12th year of a front-yard photo.  2019 post was only of the blowmolds , so I'm not counting that in the 11 years.  Here's our 2021 front yard tree featuring a fresh snow covering our tree and Santa/reindeer. Here's our 2020 front yard Christmas tree with Santa and his reindeer .  Here's a photo of our Santa...

The boy had a proper Christmas train setup this year with the basement being done.  (or mostly done)  You can see his setup (a large oval) with a steam O-gauge locomotive running with some rolling stock behind it.  The tubs in the corner contain a few more pieces of track and cars that we didn't get to this year, but it still is a Christmas tradition.  My Dad set up a Christmas train with me.  And I'm setting up a Christmas train with the KotBTs.   Here's last year's post - 2020 Christmas train .   In our new house, this marks four years - 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 (now).   There's a very short period of time these days for a boy to be interested in these model trains.  With our train being O Gauge (larger than the most popular - these days at least - HO), I think that also limits the potential in these trains.  HO (smaller) can pack A LOT more into a layout with the same footprint and the hobby is more well-formed for adu...

It was just a few days ago that I posted a photo of some of the buds that had emerged on our Christmas Cactus and today that very cactus has the first bud that has opened and is VERY tropical-looking.  The flower is white/(very) pale pink flower petals with a bright pink stalk that has emerged.  (Is that the stamen?  The pistil?).  I'll be watching to see how these die back and if they need to be removed. In the photo below, you can see a few of the other buds that are growing up and out.  The one on the far left is about to open while the others continue to get larger.  I watered this thing in early this morning, but have to get read up on how much water it wants now that it is flowering.  

Back in the middle of November, we moved ahead with our annual tradition of planting Amaryllis bulbs in an attempt to have some "Christmas Flowers".  Here's the post showing all five of the bulbs (2 large ones, three smaller ones) planted in their containers from earlier this month.   And, here's a post showing the tags of all three varieties of bulbs that we're going with this Winter .  About 10-or-so days after planting and watering them in, we have some good news:  all five of the bulbs have sprung to life.  Some more than others.  But, life in all five never-the-less.   First up, the trio of Red Lion bulbs from Home Depot.  These are the smaller ones.  All three have taken off and are showing not just some foliage, but all three of them appear to be sending up their first flower bud out of the bulb.  Those Red Lions are below: Next up, the Lemon Star.  This is one of the larger ones from Wannemaker's and was the one I...

Earlier this week, I posted photos of the three tags of the Amaryllis bulbs that we selected for Christmas 2021 .  We went with a few smaller, more common Red Lions and two larger (more expensive) flowers - one red/white (Sunshine Nymph) and the other one greenish (Lemon Star).  That means that this year we have five total bulbs planted up.  Below, is a look at all of them after a couple of days in the soil. The trio of Red Lions (on the right) are in a low, wide pot.  We topped that one with a little moss and a couple of rocks.  The Lemon Star is in the slightly smaller pot on the back left.  That, one too, has moss.  The largest bulb (Sunshine Nymph) is in the larger pot with no moss. Below is a look at the Lemon Star.  This is the one that The Bird picked out and is the only one of the five that hasn't gotten started just yet.  Still dormant.   Below is a closer look at the trio of Red Lions.  All three of these have small g...

One of the first 'moments' that kicks off the holiday season each year for me is the annual purchase and planting of Amaryllis bulbs (or what my kids call: "Christmas Flowers").  Normally, I buy a couple of varieties - some from big box stores and some from Wannamaker's.  This past weekend, I was at Home Depot and found what you normally find at big box stores:  Amaryllis kits.  That's a bulb, a little pot and a disc of 'soil' that expands when you add water.  I don't love those - especially since it seemed that when I opened the boxes for the kits, I noticed that the stalks had already emerged from the bulb, but due to being in the dark they were white(ish).  But, right next to the kits was a bin of bare bulbs - both Paper-whites and Amaryllis.  The Amaryllis bulbs were $7.99 - about half of what I normally pay for a high quality bulb.  I grabbed three of them.  And a low, wide clay container to plant all three.  Those three are all th...