Major Mike’s Musings

Robellini Palm

Rats! For the fourth time we will have to cover our plants this winter. This is double the number of times per winter since we’ve moved to Florida in February 2004. In addition, the total number of freeze nights so far (including tonight) are 13. We usually have two. Whatever happened to global warming?

Of course it’s my fault. If we hadn’t bought two Robellini palms and had kept the hibiscus potted and indoors, I wouldn’t have to cover anything. Despite plant covers, the poinsettias are trash. Too late to cover them now.

I know all you folks who live north of the frost line are saying, “Whine, whine, whine.” But, hey, we moved south to get away from all that.

Blooming Orchids

Just in time for our cruise. Two of my orchids are in bloom. Fortunately, dendrobiums bloom for many weeks so we’ll be able to enjoy them for a while after we get back.

I haven’t decided yet how many books, if any, I’ll take off my yet to read list and put on my currently reading list. I’ll probably read at least eight books while we’re on the cruise. Mrs. Major has already informed me that I’ll be playing cards with her every day. But with two travel days and seven days at sea (one of which will be transiting the Panama Canal), I’m sure I can find some quality reading time.

It’s only two days and a wake-up until we head out, I may not post until we get back at zero dark thirty on Christmas Eve.

Just in case I don’t post again, Merry Christmas to all of you.

Chloe

Poor Chloe. It’s not doing too well. Chloe only bloomed for three days this year and reached a height of only 12 inches. Chloe should be 36 inches tall and bloom for about 45 days. At least it did in Indiana.You can see why this used to be one of my favorites. Imagine the pictured bloom on scapes 36 – 40 inches tall, with 10 to 12 blossoms 8 inches across blooming for a month and a half.Sadly, I think I’m going to have to replace Chloe.

Oh goody. My new daylilies came the day before yesterday and I planted them yesterday. I got them from Paradise Garden. The were shipped from one of their suppliers, Oakes Daylilies. Both are located in Corryton, TN. I suspect they are owned by the same folks. The P.O. boxes are only one apart.I am completely satisfied. Each daylily had a minimum of 5 fans. One even had 10 if you count the new growth. They came with plenty of tubers and were in excellent shape. The were shipped within a week of placing my order. My credit card wasn’t charged until the order shipped. They even sent me a bonus daylily.The first (l to r, top to bottom) daylily is Mico. It’s a gold spider variant with 10 inch blooms1 and a height of 44 inches.2The second is White Temptation. This will be my first white daylily ever. It has 5 inch blooms on 32 inch tall scapes. The third is Rosie Meyer. Red is my favorite daylily color. Rosie will join Baja, Red Volunteer, and Sultan’s Warrior, all reds. Rosie has 5 inch blooms on 32 inch tall scapes. They also sent a bonus daylily. I was completely surprised. Chamonix is a rose pink daylily with 6 inch blooms on 30 inch scapes. I’m as happy as a clam.

1. I can hardly wait [↩]
2. This will replace Chloe, a tall lavendar daylily that never got above 10 inches here in Flordia [↩]

amaryllis

This is the product of a single Amyryllis bulb given to me by my good friends Bill and Pam Bache for Christmas 2003. It was their custom to give me an amyrillis bulb for my birthday in October. I would then force it to bloom for Christmas.Unfortunately, my myriad of amyrillis bulbs didn’t make it throught the winter of 2003 in Indianapolis. I won’t go through all the details, but since this particular amyrillis was a Christmas present, it was still in a pot, blooming when we moved in February.After it finished blooming, I planted it where it is now. I think it’s time to separate all the new bulbs that have grown.By the way, this is just the first round of blooms. There are 5 more bloom stalks ready to go.

Baja

Red Volunteer

Here are two red daylilies. Both I brought with me to Florida from Indiana.The Red Volunteer is doing very well. It was one of the very first daylilies I owned. It’s still one of my favorites. It grows to a height of about 24 inches and blooms for well over a month. It has reached it’s predicted height and is prolific.Baja, on the other hand, while fairly prolific, seems to be stunted in its growth. It should have reached the same height as Red Volunteer, but it’s only 12 inches tall. Also, it should bloom for a couple of months, but last year only made it to 20 days. It was one of my favorite performers in Indiana. Alas, I may have to replace it with something more native to Florida.

Chartwell

This is one of the daylilies that I acquired since moving to Florida. It’s done brilliantly here. Perhaps I’ll replace my non performing varieties with more southernly hospitable varieties.

I now have eight daylilies blooming, making our front yard very colorful.

Monster

This is one of the daylilies I brought from Indiana. It hasn’t performed well here in Florida. This variety is very prolific in Indy, but it barely hangs on in this heat. (By the way, it’s now 7:21 pm and 86° outside. The bloom is the only thing that hasn’t changed from the North to the South. This blossom is roughly 10 inches across, but it sits on a stem that is only 12 inches tall. In Indy these used to be 25 inches tall. They also used to produce three or more fans each year from the primary ones, here I started with two fans three years ago and there are only four now.

I have a couple of other varieties that are doing poorly in this climate. I suspect these varieties, which go dormant in the winter, expect a longer cold spell than the few days we get here in central Flordia.