Princess Bush - Tibouchina urvilleana

This is one of my goals. To grow these like I did back at Antonelli Brothers Begonia Gardens, by the hundreds. I finally have enough stock plants from cuttings I've done over the years, but this one is not so easy. The leaves are thick and furry and the stems are thick and fleshy. In other words, they tend to rot before they can root. I am determined though, as I do love these! This one here has been blooming most of the winter, even when it was damaged by the freezing temps we had a few weeks ago that even put snow on the hills nearby! You can see the freeze burn damage on the leaves next to those stunning flowers.

Delta's Groom 2011

Delta's Groom is not far from Foxgrove Wood and as you can see, he is getting ready to bust out all over!

Foxgrove Wood 2011

Foxgrove Wood is already covered in these little bluish and pink blossoms! This is one of those I keep in the front yard right along the pathway, as it is almost always in bloom.

Columbine is always an early bloomer!

This is not the native columbine, it is a european variety. But it comes up every year and produces lots of seed. It always makes me happy to see it blooming.

A white version also blooms here, but it doesn't come up as soon and is so white, it is hard to photograph. I'll try again this year though!

Spring is busting out all over here!

We had spell of freezing weather that put snow on the hills behind me and had me runnning up and down the hillside of the nursery, scrambling to gather plant material from each and every stock plant. All 219 varieties of fuchsias, as well as a few other plants. So at least some of each would be safe from freezing if it got that bad.

The good news is, all of it got turned into cuttings and now, over a week later, they all appear to be doing very well!

The other good news is, cherries LOVE freezing temps in the winter! I have two varieties, one is a Bing. I forget the name of the second one, but it is the necessary cross polinator. Most years, it doesn't start to bloom at the same time as the Bing. So many of the Bing blossoms go unpollinated.

This year, they are both in perfect step and are both busting out all over! If all goes well, I will be begging people to take gallon bags of cherries. This year, I'd like to get a cherry pitter and try drying some of them. And make some cherry jam! I've been working on a Celiac Recipe book up in SkyDrive. It is public and free to anyone with a Windows Live ID. Not much there now. It is definately a work in progress. The first entry was a Lemon pudding pie with a crust I concocted from dried fruits and nuts.

A second pie, yet to be added, had a dried cherry and dark chocolate crust with a fresh coconut pudding for the filling. So, you see, I am going to be needing dried cherries LOL!

"Pedricks" - The new store at Etsy.com

For those of you who don't know it, the long term goal is to be able to afford the time to paint. I was reserving opening at store at Etsy.com for that day. But then I decided to try and start selling the lavender and lemon verbena wands there as well.

Since it is the purpose of Etsy.com to showcase all kinds of art and handmade items. In fact, you are not allowed to sell items made by someone else!

And now that it is truly winter and I have a few spare moments, I have begun to make little hand painted gift boxes. Finished the first one yesterday, but I need to tweak the process of making a sturdy lining to the box. The paintings are cut out and then layered onto the surface which makes the folding box.

I hope everyone will take a peek at my new store!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pedricks?ref=pr_profile

Here is the link above.

Gypsy Queen

It's been a while, 'eh!? Computer crashed...... Plus, since it is fall, there has been a great deal of work to do to get ready for winter and get the spring inventory put to bed.

So here is a peak at 'Gypsy Queen' who just bloomed for the first time last week! I have 'Gypsy Prince' and 'Gypsy Baron', now 'Gypsy Queen', and all I need is 'Gypsy Princess'!!

'Gypsy Queen' was hybridized by Bull all the way back in 1865! A few weeks ago, there was a post in the Fuchsia Forum of DavesGarden.com, of an upright fuchsia bush down in southern California which has been documented all of it's life and was planted 111 years ago.

Now that is what I've been talking about! Fuchsias can live for many, many years. Most uprights are not the tender shade plants most people think of when you say "fuchsias." And they are certainly not annuals to be thrown out in the fall like they do in many places :-(