Image of the day - 2012

[Hoy]

Always nice to see the sun! My it looks mild there- like summer here almost 

Mild, yes; but summer, NO!!
It's mild and wet. 8-10C and rain.

[cohan]

10C sounds almost like summer to me 

[Hoy]

10C sounds almost like summer to me 

Well, maybe the temperature is more like summer (in fact it isn't much colder than in summer) but the torrental rains make me feel like it is the Great Deluge! I wouldn't be surprised to see Noah's Ark any day now. What save us is the steep landscape that effectively drains the water.

[cohan]

I'm sure- with your rainfall we'd have standing water all over the place! I am teasing about the temps of course- there are things other than high temperatures to make it feel like summer vs fall/winter- daylength etc; Even on our warmer days in winter, those warm temps are only for a very short time..

Here is a shot taken from the car, just up the road, some days ago...

[Hoy]

We did see the sun for a couple of minutes today! But more rain tomorrow . . .  Better rain than snow though at this time of the year although a snowcovered world is calming (when it doesn't storm) 

[cohan]

This snow has stayed early for us, but other than that, it's been okay here- not much new snow lately, highways are completely dry, sideroads are cleared (but still packed snow covering, normal winter driving), very little wind etc..
Another shot from Nov 10, in Sylvan Lake, one of the towns where we usually shop (26miles/42km)   that was just after the last fresh snow..

[McDonough]

Arisaema sikokianum "fruit cone" has taken forever to ripen, but it's ready now, giving away this impressive harvest to a friend this week, so that she can re-establish the plant in her garden.  The 2nd head behind still needs more ripening.

 

[cohan]

That is a pretty cool bunch of seeds

[RickR]

Yes, as impressive as I imagined they would be when you first showed them, Mark.

Once the stem creases naturally, I wonder how much or even if there is any advantage to leaving the berries connected to the ground anymore.  If the stem cells are senescing what kind of conduction through the crease could there still be in an herbaceous stem?  I wonder, would the same ripening occur if the stem was detached at the crease (given other conditions being the same)?

Does anyone have any insight on this?  I'm just thinking out loud, should there ever be a need for after ripening inside, for instance, or in case of marauding animals (including the two legged type).

[McDonough]

Rick, you're correct, after a couple weeks nightly freezing, the stems are mush at this point, I'm sure of no real conduction of fluids inside the stem to the fruit, yet while a mushy stem, it is also tough and stringy, and will not fall off with being cut.  A couple years back I finally had seed set on A. heterophyllum after not setting seed for almost 10 years. The seed ripened so late; I went out mid-winter and shoveled snow and chopped the red seed head out of the ice, cleaned seed inside and sowed it, put flat on a windowsill and they came up. 

I have worried about leaving the seed out there in direct view of the street and passersby, one never knows.

[Glover]

Mark,

I have harvested the seed clusters from Arisaema sikokianum and A. consanguineum when they were still green due to predictions of a hard freeze followed by a winter storm.  I just laid them on my workbench in the garage and within a few weeks the 'berries' were bright red.  I cleaned the seed and sowed them with a very high percentage of germination. I have a cluster of A. consanguineum 'Perfect Wave' ripening that way right now.

Ed Glover
Mount Horeb, WI

[Todd Boland]

We got our first killing fost two nights ago when it dropped to -4 C...not bad considering it's past the middle of November!  Suppose to be sunny for the next 6 days...VERY unusual for us considering November is one of our wettest months.

Just got back from 10 days in Brazil...no frost there I can say!  Hot and steamy was the norm.

[Todd Boland]

Here is a pic of Iris sari...a dream iris I could never grow in my area.  This was photographed at the International Alpine Conference in Nottingham 2011.

[McDonough]

Mark,

I have harvested the seed clusters from Arisaema sikokianum and A. consanguineum when they were still green due to predictions of a hard freeze followed by a winter storm.  I just laid them on my workbench in the garage and within a few weeks the 'berries' were bright red.  I cleaned the seed and sowed them with a very high percentage of germination. I have a cluster of A. consanguineum 'Perfect Wave' ripening that way right now.

Ed Glover
Mount Horeb, WI

Thanks Ed, that's good to know about cutting the seed structures off in the green. I suspected they might ripen on their own regardless, as the stems go mushy after frost, but the fruits still ripen regardless.  I have always had lots of self-sown Arisaema seedlings from just letting the fruits develop and drop on their own, but now looking to harvest some of the more choice species to bulk up my supply.  I'll keep this in mind.  I'm envious of your germination on A. consanguineum 'Perfect Wave'; thus far I've not had any form of this species last more than 2 years.

Todd, love Iris sari, had it bloom for a couple years in the garden, from a piece John Lonsdale shared with me some years ago.  Then after a few more years of dwindling and no flowers, it died out.

[cohan]

Beautiful Iris, Todd! Is this one of the hot/dry summer types?

Brasil! Was there botanising involved?