I ordered some seeds from a new company this year, along with the companies I typically use.  HPS (Horticultural Products and Services Division) sent me an impressive catalog.  I took it to the cabin and picked out a  few things.  They are geared toward the commercial market (nurseries, etc.), but they have a few items in lesser quantities.  Here is what I ordered, and they landed at home today:

Begonia “Funky Pink”

If I’m lucky enough to get some of these seeds started, I plan to grow the plants on the back patio.  I read directions on the Begonia Society site and plan to do my best to sterilize and use sterile medium and grow the plants close together.

Parfait Raspberry Hybrid Dianthus

This dianthus cultivar has really large, showy flowers and will look great in patio pots and in the garden.

Bambino Marigold

For patio pots and interplanting with veggies in and around the raised beds.

Mimulus Magic Blotch Mix

I’m crazy for monkey flowers, but I’ve had limited success raising them from seeds.  Since these are pelleted, I’m hopeful I’ll be a bit more successful.   The goal is to place some in pots on the back patio and maybe some next to the pond, as well.

 

I discovered a great gardening community called Epic Gardening.  Kevin Espiritu is the owner and he’s got a great energy and insatiable curiosity.  He explores new topics with each podcast and video and welcomes guests, too, who are often easily relatable new gardeners.  The topics range from hydroponics, sustainable gardening and houseplants, pests, diseases and other ideas.  It is a fun indulgence on these non-gardening winter days.

The other thing I recently discovered is an app called PlantSnap, which is designed to identify plants just from pictures that you have on your device or take using the app itself.  I tested the app on my phone and it did a good job of identifying most things–probably 90%, including passion flower, hardy fuchsia, lewisia, and pineapple sage.  For plants that the app can’t identify satisfactorily, you can send the photo in and the team at PlantSnap will identify it and send you the result.  The app still needs a lot of work, of course, as it is very new and there are millions of plant species/cultivars.  There is a shrub in a planting here in North Seattle that I haven’t figured out and the app didn’t identify it, either, and the experts identified it, but I’m not satisfied with their answer.  I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about an app that can do this work, as one of my favorite things to do is identify plants for people, and now they won’t need me!

 

Last Sunday, brother Tim and I walked around West Seattle.  Here are some things we saw:

Above a rock wall very close to Tim’s apartment we found a cute garden with this white Lewisia still blooming.  It was fun to see a white one, as most of the recent hybrids are much less subtle.

Also not far from Tim’s place, there were a few of these Rudbeckias in a parking strip.  I think this is Rudbeckia lacinata.

Brother Tim in front of some holiday decor.

This Passion vine still had quite a few flowers.  It is a hybrid and the flowers were pretty showy though the vine was massive.

We found a tree topper at the West Seattle Antique Mall and I brought it home for Leon’s topper art.  He put it all together today and it looks wonderful.

 

 

 

 

For a few years, I thought about getting a “camera trap” for the cabin to see what kind of wildlife is around there.  I finally bought one about a month ago, but couldn’t get it to work on our last trip to the cabin.  I’m kind of glad because I got it to work last week here at home and I can’t believe all of the birds that it has captured!

Here is a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee:

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Hummingbird:

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Hummer bathing:

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Chickadees fussing:

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Nervous Chickadee:

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Attack from above:

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Ugh!  Not a bird:

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Female Junco:

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Male Junco ready for his close-up:

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Junco pair and Golden-Crowned Kinglet:

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Kinglet having a vigorous bath:

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Male Junco:

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Red-Breasted Nuthatch taking a dip:

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More Nuthatch silliness:

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So far, I’ve caught hummingbirds, black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, red-breasted nuthatch, golden-crowned kinglets and dark-eyed juncos!  That’s pretty amazing, considering the camera was only set up on two different days so far!

The rat film shows how the camera works at night, too.  I was trying to capture raccoons but got the rat, instead.  We set traps accordingly and have killed three so far.

Stay tuned for more surprises in the coming days.

 

 

We’ve had some dry weather and sun, but cool weather.  Still, a few plants are blooming outside, and a few in the greenhouse, too.  I like to inventory the flowers around the yard on Christmas Day, but I bet I won’t have time this year, so I took photos a bit early.

A dianthus blooming in a pot near the driveway.  This single, brave bloom looked chilly and wet but added some color to a gray day.

Rose hips on the crazy wild rose at the end of the driveway.  These are festive, and I probably should make tea with them, but I never remember before they disappear.

This Verbascum has gotten huge and fallen leaves are wedging in between its woolly leaves.

Lamium looks fresh this time of year.

Close-up of the Lamium leaves.

Algerian ivy from brother Tim trying to escape from the Doug fir bed.  The leaves are real stand-outs this time of year.

Ivy close-up.

Aucuba looking shiny fresh.

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A single white borage blooming in the veggie bed.

Very hardy geranium blooming in a pot near the veggie beds.

A few streptocarpus are blooming in the greenhouse still.  There are so many plants in there, I can’t get close to these to get a better photo!

I was a little surprised to see these nasturtiums blooming at the back of the greenhouse.  It doesn’t look like it has gotten cold in there at all.

Seedling pelargonium blooming at the sunny end of the greenhouse.

Plectranthus humbly flowering in the greenhouse.

Another streptocarpus that doesn’t seem to know it is December.

When I opened the greenhouse door, a sweet smell overwhelmed me.  It was the angel’s trumpet, with two perfect blooms.

The second bloom and there is another bud coming!