Laughing Ravens

  I lost a family friend last night. Frank Camps was a part of my life since I was a very young child. He was something between a godparent and an uncle. He came to nearly every birthday party I had in Miami. He and his son Frankie, and his wife Carmen came to every Thanksgiving and Christmas of my childhood. Frank was a chef. He cooked in more places than I could count. One of the places he cooked was a cafeteria for a pantyhose factory in Little Havana. He was a traditional Cuban cook, with a repertoire that ranged from plantains to Eye Round roast pork stuffed with carrots and ham. His black beans and rice changed my life. He taught me to love bread pudding and rice pudding. And without arroz con pollo, I probably would never have made it through college.  When I was probably five or six, he invited us over for Nocha Buena (a Christmas eve holiday, celebrated by Cubans with family and lots of food). Frank's feast involved a huge pig, roasted in the ground, lots of people...

it's easy to miss    Sometimes, I find myself asking, "What did I miss?"  I look over my shoulder to see where I have been, then I look in front of me and wonder how I got there. I feel like I have missed something. Some part of the journey. Not quite like I have been asleep, but maybe asleep at the wheel.  When I was married to my ex-wife, my music collection stopped growing. She had the smallest collection of music of anyone I have ever known. She had fewer than a dozen tapes. No CDs. She didnt even listen to the radio. It was either her version of folk music or nothing. When I say her version, she was adamant that the only musician on that list were people like Bill Staines, Fred Small, Peter Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger... a very limited set of folk musicians. I figured if she liked that, she was sure to like traditional Irish and Scottish tunes. Nope. I tried again with more modern American folk musicians. Strike two. Our marriage fell apart while I was in grad sc...

Winter sowing jugs in the bright mid-Feb sunshine of 2024   Over the last three years, we've seen progressively warmer winters. Fewer weeks of snow cover. Sure, we've had the dips into really cold weather, but nothing surprising. Climate change in action. Last winter we saw more sun during the winter than we did during the summer. It was strange because it also came with very little snow cover. That can be really hard on plants which rely on that snow for insulation.   Our holding bed for shrubs and perennials that were either divided or propagated from cuttings, heeled into a deep bed of mulch last winter In our propagation holding bed, I often build up a thick layer of mulch to try to help insulate the plants that are being overwintered in pots. More than anything else it helps moderate the temperatures so that the wild swings from a sunny day to a bone-cold night are less damaging to the small rooted cuttings.   Two years ago, we had a decent amount of snow cover in Fe...

'Mardi Gras Mambo' ( Joseph Musacchia , R. 2013) Seedling 08-10-01. LA, 36 (91 cm), Early to midseason bloom. Dark purple self; orange-gold spear signal; slight recurve. 'Red Velvet Elvis' X 'Hush Money' . Purple in the garden isnt hard to come by. Sometimes it leans towards red, other times more towards blue. Purple, when rich and pure, can become almost black in its purple-ness. In the garden setting, against green sword-like leaves, the purple of the Louisiana iris 'Mardi Gras Mambo' can almost appear like ink, until the bright yellow signal in the throat pops right out. That contrast in color   Perennial lupine  When set against the wine pink flowers of the weigela behind it, the perennial lupine's purple comes through as a soft purple. The bi-color of the pea flowers keeps it interesting! I have spent so many late afternoons in the early summer, trying to capture macro photographs of lupine flowers. The many shades of purple is simply enchan...

red peony  Everyone has an idea what red looks like. Most men see far fewer shades of red than the average woman. But at the end of the day, most people (who aren't color blind) can distinguish red from orange and red from purple. Somewhere in the middle is true red.   red poppy Red poppies are glorious when they open up in early summer. I used to go to great lengths to plant seeds early, expecting that my transplants would bloom successfully. I learned pretty quickly that annual poppies like being sown into the snow in late winter. It seems frivolous to plant them so callously onto melting snow... but if the last few years have taught me much, it's to watch what the plant does on its own. Poppy seedpods shatter but there are always a few stuck in the pod. That pod doesn't really soak up enough water until it has frozen and thawed a few times. Then those seeds germinate beautifully. In my experience, the most successful poppies have happened about two feet (or the height of...

  Seeds of various irises, from SIGNA, from friends on Facebook, and from fellow hybridizers I have been waiting for the SIGNA seed exchange to open since 2023. They cancelled the seed exchange last year due to low participation numbers. Not enough folks were excited enough to send seeds. This year, I kept checking the SIGNA website with baited breath.  For other seed loving, iris growing enthusiasts, here is the link: http://www.signa.org/index.pl?Membership So why am I so excited? I guess it helps to understand what SIGNA is. "Species Iris Group of North America is devoted to studying the Iris family in the wild as well as enjoying them in the garden. We're equally interested in species and hybrids. We promote them through our seed exchange while supporting their conservation in the wild. We disseminate scientific and cultural information about them through our members-only publications and to the public at large via this website." - from the SIGNA website. What this re...