Manito Park and Botanical Garden

Last month after dinner, my two friends and I decided to spend our monthly girls night out walking and visiting at the Manito Park and Botanical Garden in Spokane, Washington. Manito means 'spirit of nature' in native American language. The 90 acre park is more than one hundred years old and still managed to live up to its name. I come here often to see what's blooming and what I imagine will look good in Lola's Garden.

The Rose Hill above is an All American Selection test garden and the home of 1500 rose bushes representing 165 varieties of hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora and miniature roses. But no close ups or macros until I acquired the nerve to upgrade my point and shoot camera.

The Joel E. Ferris Perennial Garden is the flower lover's favorite place to stroll from early spring to fall. During our visit the Moonshine Yarrow, the white Shasta Daisy, the purple Garden Monkshood (above) and the Globe thistles (below) were in full bloom.

The thistles were 6-7 foot tall, and were swarming with bees. It looked really cool but probably not a very practical plant for a home garden unless the area is big enough to accommodate the prickly and aggressive plant.

The Duck Pond used to have more than a hundred ducks and geese but most of them were adopted and relocated during the 2008 duck round up. It was once a tradition for people to bring their stale bread when they visit the park. Feeding the ducks is pure entertainment. They will jump, dive and do all kinds of acrobatic move to get the stale bread as if they had nothing to eat all week. We think we are doing them a favor and we feel good feeding them. Unaware that we were doing them more harm than good. And people continued to give them junk food until there were too many wild birds staying in the pond year round just waiting for the hand out. Too many birds and too many stale bread equals too many bird poops. And the pond's ecosystem suffered. This is the reason for the duck round up and relocation. And feeding the ducks is no longer allowed.

I am not sure what this aquatic turtle is trying to tell me. My guess is that his world, the water is still too murky. "Help!"

Please go to Friends of Manito for more information about the park and gardens

My Favorite Annual Flower # 2 is a Zinnia

My favorite annual flower # 2 post is a Zinnia. Zinnias are one of Lola's Garden's favorite annual because they are heat tolerant, low maintenance and are very reliable bloomer all summer long. They also come in so many different colors, shapes and sizes. The Benary Giant series are the largest and most vigorous with fully double dahlia-like bloom that are 4-6 inches in diameter. They have excellent vase life and the bees love them.


An Orange Benary Giant next to a Nicotiana.


Three Zinnia varieties showing its range of colors, shapes and sizes.


Top left is a white carefree Zinnia from the Profusion series for ground cover and containers. It's an All-America Selection (AAS) Gold Medal and FleuroSelect winners. The bicolor one is Zowie Yellow Flame, another AAS winner. It's taller than the Profusion and a foot or two shorter than the Golden Yellow Benary Giant. These are the varieties available at Lola's Garden at the TIEG Garden Expo in Spokane, Washington.

Today's Flower is a Sunflower

My first "Today's Flower" post is a sunflower. This is one of the volunteers from the many varieties I planted last year and so far the most interesting. For more information about sunflowers, please read my June 29 post.

Go to Today's Flowers to see flowers from around the world.

My Radio Flyer Wagon

The Radio Flyer above is my favorite garden toy but I couldn't bribe Ham and Fancy, Lola's garden stroller and dirt digger to sit in the wagon for a photo op. A picture of a little old lady taking her schnauzer and pug for a ride in a bright red Radio Flyer wagon might just look hilarious enough for Digg. Maybe my humorless dogs have more sense still I don't think Antonio Pasin, the Italian immigrant and cabinet maker who created the first wooden wagon in 1917 would have mind. According to the company's web site, he created the Radio Flyer for children and named the first steel wagon after "his fascination with the invention of the radio by a fellow Italian Guliermo Marconi and flyer which reflected his wonderment of flight".

Apparently, he was also a master in keeping his inner child alive. Wonderment in my opinion is the perfect antidote for boredom. Childlike curiosity is fun and exiting. And intellectual curiosity about something really amazing is more than a power walk outside the proverbial box. Because curiosity when fully active, simultaneously creates another time and energy consuming creature called imagination which as we all know begets creativity. So instead of being bored and calling a pro to pave my driveway and patio, I decided to pave it with cement pavers.


I am simply impressed and fascinated by the simplicity and the durability of my Radio Flyer wagon. I bought it because the wheelbarrow is difficult for me to balance and push when it's loaded and heavy. The wagon doesn't put too much stress on my back and is much easier to pull with just one hand. I've used it to haul hundreds of cement pavers, retainers and bricks. It has been three years and still no problem whatsoever. No loose or lost screws. No flat tire. Not even a squeak. And it is light and portable enough to take to the TIEG Garden Expo and the Friends of Manito Botanical Garden plant sale in Spokane Washington; or anywhere a cart is not available. Having a Radio Flyer wagon is like having a friend who is much stronger than me. It is always ready and willing to help with the heavy work around the garden. It's almost a dream come true.


This is the Radio Flyer that inspired me to buy one. It is one of the many outdoor sculptures scattered throughout Spokane, Washington's Riverfront Park. It is made of steel reinforced concrete and was created in 1990 by Ken Spiering for the Centennial Celebration of Children. Funded by the Junior League of Spokane, the sculpture is 12 feet high, 12 feet wide and 27 feet long. It's big enough to carry 300 people. And the handle? You guess it. It's a slide.

Greenbluff Strawberries

Greenbluff is a small farming community of rolling hills just a few miles northwest of Spokane, Washington. How small? Imagine 30 farms in approximately 12 square miles. According to their web site the Greenbluff Growers Association was established in 1902 to protect local strawberry growers from outside competition. While it is still the place to go for the reddest, sweetest, best tasting strawberries, the growers association now includes a winery and a restaurant, a harvest house, a Christmas tree farm, an alpaca ranch, orchards, berries and vegetables farms.



The U-pick strawberry farms are the first to open this time of the year. My son and I picked about 40 pounds to freeze and eat fresh in less than 2 hours Saturday morning. Then we stopped at the Harvest House for lunch and ice cream while the band above played some old songs. "What a Wonderful World" and "Tiny Bubbles" remind me of the little things I sometimes take for granted. Yes, little things are the best and the best are often free but the consumer in me sometimes forget.


Greenbluff strawberries are small in size but they are intensely sweet and flavorful, and so luscious they practically melt in my mouth. The red, white and blue shortcake above is perfect for a Fourth of July dessert but I made it for breakfast Sunday. It's simple. The ingredients are real and the pleasure is pure. I got the strawberry shortcake recipe from a very old Better Homes and Garden Cookbook.

Sunflowers

Helianthus - two Greek words, helios for sun and anthus for flower is the scientific name for sunflower. Under normal conditions sunflowers range in height from 2 to 8 feet. The "Moulin Rouge" (above) from Lola's 2008 garden was 8 feet and 7 inches tall, but the tallest according to the National Sunflower Association is 25 feet and 5.4 inches. The largest head is 32 inches and Melvin Hemker in Michigan grew a branching variety with 837 sunflower heads. The country that grew the tallest is Netherlands and British Columbia is the record holder for the biggest sunflower head. Their source is the 2004 Guinness Book of World records. I have seen pictures of sunflowers that are taller than a two story house but I just can't imagine a sunflower plant with 837 heads. I thought it was a typo but to my amazement, these are indeed the current records. However, there is a contest every year to try to beat it.

Sunflowers that are grown commercially for food and oil are single-stem. The blooms are traditional golden-yellow. Blooms with yellow rays and dark center is known as the classic or the original color of sunflower. Those that are breed especially for the cut flower industry are also single-stem or non-branching varieties in classic yellow to orange colors. Usually these varieties have low pollen or pollen-free which makes them desirable as cut flowers for indoor decorations. But for home gardeners, the ornamental sunflowers' range of size, shape, and color is enormous.

Lola's Garden had a little fund raiser for a local crises nursery during the 2008 TIEG Garden Expo. Besides being a Leo I choose sunflower because of its universal appeal and popularity with children. It's a fast growing ornamental plant with magnificent blooms that produce the delicious seeds for birds and humans. It was the right plant for the job.

The varieties I started from seeds were Ring of Fire, Moulin Rouge Hybrid, Cherry Rose Hybrid, Soraya, Pro Cut Orange, Sundance Kid, Ruby Moon Hybrid Mix and Citrus Twist Hybrid. I ordered the seeds from Jung, and Johnny's.

The seedlings were transplanted in 4" peat pots and were about 6-10 inches tall when sold at the expo. My hope was to sell most of the 200 plus plants but only a hundred sold. Each plant was worth one dollar to the nursery. I suppose raising enough for a few boxes of diapers is better
than nothing but the result was less than satisfactory.

I ended up planting a lot of sunflowers even after begging families and friends to please take some. My son-in-law planted more than a dozen for the birds but the squirrels made salad out of the plants including those that were heavily seasoned with garlic and hot peppers.

Lucky me I had so many sunflowers the squirrels in my neighborhood had more than enough and left a lot of them for me and the birds to enjoy. And like good stewards the birds left some to reseed.

The second and third pictures are volunteers from last year. There were a lot of them around the greenhouse and in the garden. I thinned those that were growing too thick but the solitary ones look too healthy to kill. So once again without trying, Lola's garden is full of sunflowers. The second picture looks like one of the "Ruby Moon" mix. The third is definitely a "Ring of Fire". I am still hoping to see some variation in blooms. Maybe some hybrids and parents of the hybrids. I will update the post if I get lucky.

Rhubarb: the Beautiful, Edible Plant

Nothing says "spring is here" more deliciously than the giant ornamental rhubarb leaves in Lola's vegetable garden. The leaves are beautiful but poisonous. The red celery-like stalks are the edible part. Botanically, rhubarb is a vegetable, but the stalks are too tart to eat without the addition of sugar, honey or artificial sweetener such as Splenda. Rhubarb taste fruity when made into pies, muffins, or jams. It is exceptionally delicious with strawberries, so I always add a few cups to my recipe for extra flavor and nutrition.

The rhubarb plant above is three years old. My former neighbor gave it to me because her backyard is too rocky and shady, and the poor thing was not producing enough stalks for her favorite rhubarb and strawberry jam. I have been mulching the plant with compost and refrained from harvesting the few stalks last year. This year, the plant is established enough to share the harvest with the previous owner. And I decided to make my own version of the jam that she really like.

Her recipe for the jam had only three ingredients:

5 cups of chopped rhubarb
3 cups of sugar
3 oz strawberry flavored Jello gelatin.

I thought it had too much sugar, so I up the "fruit" to sugar ratio to 3:1. And as I mentioned earlier, I like strawberries with my rhubarb. Real strawberries. So I tried to tweak it some more to accommodate my own taste. My sweet tooth is not very sweet. I usually just drink plain water, or if I like some fizz, 3 parts carbonated water and 1 part pure juice. Juices, sodas and fruit flavored bottled water are just too sweet for my taste.

The jam is really easy to make. It also looks beautiful and it is delicious on toast, scones, yogurt, cheesecakes etc. It's a great way to enjoy rhubarb and strawberries off season, and it does not (I hope) send my blood sugar to the dreaded "Pre-D" zone.

LoLa's Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam

6 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
3 cups sugar (+1/2 -1 cup more if your strawberries are not very sweet)
3 cups chopped fresh strawberries
3 oz strawberry flavored gelatin

In a large heavy saucepan, combine rhubarb and sugar. Let it set for 5 to 8 hours or overnight at room temperature. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Add the strawberries. Stir and continue to boil hard for 6 minutes. Stir a few times but be careful and watch out for (hot) splatters. Stir in the gelatin. Turn off heat. Ladle the hot jam into sterilized jars leaving a 3/4 inch space on top. Let it cool at room temperature, then refrigerate or freeze. Do not store at room temperature. Only jams that are processed in boiling water bath can be safely stored at room temperature. Makes 3 1/2 pints.