greenfreak

This pretty lady is a female Cardinal. She and her mate visited my backyard feeder a few weeks ago. Cardinals have been some of my favorites for years but I was never able to get a picture of a female. Did you know that in spring, male Cardinals will mouth-feed females to gain favor with them? I’ve seem them do it - it’s adorable.    I have many more backyard visitors than I ever had at our old place.  I’ve updated the Birding photo gallery with about 20 new pictures.  I hope to provide more as I spot more birds!  Spring is just around the corner also and I hope to get a lot closer to them.  I’ve read that Chickadees in particular are more apt to get close to people.  I’ve even seen some eating out of people’s hands!

If that ever happens, I’ll be sure to post a picture of it!

If you’re interested in feeding your backyard birds, some good information can be found here at the Cornell website.

I had to see the man that had me laughing and learning about gardening for 30 minutes at a time, every week.  When I spotted him outside the building before the seminar, he was his usual enthusiastic self, throwing his arm around me for the picture you see here.  I was thrilled to see that he is the same goofy and friendly man I see on tv every week.  Thrilled enough to be proud of this terrible picture of me.

Gardeners like me have been enjoying Paul’s show for years.  However, as of late I’ve noticed a dwindling of garden related shows on HGTV.  And I mean REAL garden related shows.  Not the ones that demolish a backyard and put it back together with the dreaded “low maintenance” plants, a whole lot of hardscape, and the ever-present water feature.

We are in the process of buying our first home and I have been having daydreams of the things I can do with my own landscape.  I turned to my garden magazines and to the tv also, to see what I had been missing on HGTV while we had been house-hunting all summer.  But where were all those great gardening shows I anticipated?  When I couldn’t find them, I went to their website to get more information.

What I’m missing is a whole heck of a lot.  Out of all 78 of their current shows, do you know how many of those are garden related?  FOUR.  Four!  I thought I was wrong, so I counted and recounted.  This is the entire list:

1. Gardening by the Yard
2. Ground Breakers
3. Landscape Smart
4. Landscapers Challenge

Three of those shows are the previously mentioned yard makeover shows disguising as garden shows but which really only feature plants as functional objects instead of living things to cultivate.

Out of curiosity, I went to the “Shows not airing” section.  And found twenty shows that fit into the gardening criteria that have been cancelled.

One last try to get my HGTV gardening fix had me searching for a DVD of all the Gardening by the Yard shows.  And I found out that they don’t exist.  They forward you instead to the HGTV on Demand page.  Which has zero gardening shows.

Now, I’m not stupid or naive, I know HGTV will air the shows that resonate most with their viewers.  Is there really that little interest in gardening anymore?  Because there tens of thousands of gardeners on websites like GardenWeb. Not to mention the magazines I read like Fine Gardening and Horticulture would be out of business!

Case in point, a 76 reply thread on GardenWeb that spans a whole year, asking the same questions I am. So many of these gardeners contacted HGTV also, to no avail.

So what the heck happened?  Why is there so little “G” in HGTV?  Is it because our society is becoming less patient for hobbies that take time to cultivate?  Is instant gratification killing the art of gardening?

I sent a message to HGTV using their online form.  Surprise, surprise, no reply.  One voice doesn’t make a bit of difference.  But if you’re reading this and you agree with me, do us both a favor and tell them you want your G back. If you do, come on back here and tell me so.  Better yet, copy your comments right here.  I’d love to hear them and know that I’m not alone in this!

Thanks!

Trish

But it will be mended shortly

I’m growing a lot of Bulbophyllums these days that are mounted to bark, cork, etc.  So I mist them every morning and every night with my spray bottle.

I opened one of the glass doors to fill up the spray bottle when the phone rang.  So I slid it closed, a little too hard apparently, because it shattered in my hand.

Thank God for safety glass.  Otherwise, I may not have been able to get away with just a small cut on my finger.  Safety glass is great for preventing injury but what a BIG pain in the ass to clean up.  It took hours.  I’m amazed at how far the glass traveled.

For anyone who has an orchidarium or is thinking of getting one, heed my advice.  If you have non-potted orchids mounted on the walls, and you spray them with water, that water is going to travel into the steel base (not the reservoirs) and eventually travel into the door tracks.  It’s going to leave all kinds of schmutz there and corrode the little wheel casters attached to the bottom of the doors.  And the doors aren’t going to slide as easily so you’re going to need more and more force to get them closed.

And if you don’t clean those tracks, you’re going to slam that door closed too hard one day and you’ll have a similar story to tell.  Yes, it’s a pain in the ass to take all the orchids out, take the top off, the doors, the shelves, etc and clean the whole thing.  But doing it once a year will save you from this.

The good part is that I got to talk to Robert Jacobs from Orchidarium.com again.  He’s such a nice man.  My replacement door will be here soon, and I’m getting a couple of sponges for the bottom water reservoirs too since the mess that I found in them was pretty gross.  The sponges will keep them cleaner.  Plus, he’s sending me new casters for the doors that he says are better for them.  I’ll update this post when everything arrives.

Till then, thanks for reading.  :)

Tricia

Click the more link below for updates

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2007 NY International Orchid Show April 18th 2007 through April 22nd 2007 Rockefeller Center NY

last edited March 11th,2007:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the orchid show:

I don’t have orchids, why should I go?

You don’t have to be an orchid grower to appreciate a show like this.  The amount of time and effort that is put into the exhibits really makes for a beautiful showing.  Of remarkable beauty are the Ikebana arrangements.

Ok, I want to go.  Where is the show?

It is situated right on top of the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink.  Don’t worry, the ice is melted before the show and a big tent is put up so it’s sheltered from the elements.  This year, the show will be held right in front of 30 Rockefeller Center, where the Christmas tree is during the holiday season.  It will be inside greenhouses and an orangery (garden room) provided by Marston and Langiner.

How do I get to the show?

For directions by car, train or bus, visit the Rockefeller Center website and click on the Directions section at the bottom of the window.  Once you get to the show, you can go to the main tent entrance go down to the vendor area on the Concourse level where you can purchase an admissions ticket.  You can take the elevator down to the Rock Center Cafe and that will give you access to the vendor area which is free.  There will also be combo tickets this year for the orchid show and Top of the Rock.  You can enter the tent from the vendor area also, and it’s typically faster to get in that way than the main entrance.

Click the more link below for additional information about the 2007 show.

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