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Easter Flowers [message #14718] Sun, 12 April 2009 18:25 Go to next message
b_twin_1  is currently offline b_twin_1
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Easter flowers


I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14721 is a reply to message #14718 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 18:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
b_twin_1  is currently offline b_twin_1
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Oooooo! Nice flowers! Smile

they were all out of Green & Black’s mint chocolate. Catastrophe.
Get them to always keep some aside for you..... Wink I bought some from the supermarket the other day as they were on special (the Maya Gold). Opened it yesterday and the whole block was most dreadfully heat damaged. Sad I'm taking it back tomorrow.

I still want a lace-cap.
Oh, we have one at the old house. It's a white one. The "ordinary" hydrangeas can't decide if they are pick or blue. Which is odd because the soil is so acid here. But they are next to the concrete wall so perhaps that is influencing the soil.

[Updated on: Mon, 13 April 2009 04:14]


I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14726 is a reply to message #14721 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 18:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Robin  is currently offline Robin
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Interesting about your hydrangeas. This one will ALWAYS live in a pot so I can feed it Colour Therapy. :)
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14728 is a reply to message #14718 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 19:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
jmeadows  is currently offline jmeadows
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Pretty flowers! That first bunch is particularly stunning. Very sorry to hear about the lack of chocolate, though. That should be illegal!

(I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Tuesday: half-off Easter chocolate!)


Smooshes!
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14730 is a reply to message #14718 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 20:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
holmes44  is currently offline holmes44
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very pretty flowers.i always buy next years easter chocolate[the big cartoon characters]the week after easter when the are on sale for a quarter of the price.the keep well in the freezer and when you have nine to buy ,you jump on the sales.


Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14731 is a reply to message #14718 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 20:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Melissa Mead  is currently offline Melissa Mead
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You get Monday off? I'm jealous. I hope they bring back your chocolate.


Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14732 is a reply to message #14718 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 21:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Julia  is currently offline Julia
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Oh! How beautiful!

... And hello again to everyone!!! It is finally Easter. Which means that Lent is over. And so I am able, at last, to return to the forum! It feels like it has been an awfully long time!

Anyway. Hooray for hydrangeas. And other flowers. Ten ringers today, too! Marvelous.
Hope those shops catch on soon about the importance of having chocolate THERE, ready to be bought. In the meantime, I'll share [virtually] some of the pie and chocolate cake (flourless, for my dad, because it is Passover. It was so chocolatey, it just stuck to the side of the knife when he held it over the plate. Quite good- but I only had a small slice), and brownies and key lime pie (thought I didn't eat any of that) and some of my Easter chocolates from today.

[I dunno-- that list of delicious food just might have made things worse, not better! Oh well!]

To All: Happy Easter/Passover/just plain Happy Day [well night, now, but "happy day" sounds better, or less odd, than "happy night". Hm. Happy Today? Happy Tomorrow? Be Happy. So this is what happens when I actually get sleep and food.... I sound crazier than ever! Oh well. Whatever you might be celebrating [or not]- simply consider this a general exuding of happiness and such.]

Smile
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14734 is a reply to message #14718 ] Sun, 12 April 2009 22:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
librarykat  is currently offline librarykat
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Yes, now that it is evening, it means we're back in "normal time" at church. No more midweek services for which I'll have to play the organ (although we do have choir practice). No more extra sermons for Hubby to write. At least for a while.

We have a specialty chocolate shop in town, near my younger son's school. The owner is a Ukrainian (a Chernobyl survivor), and she gets chocolates imported from Europe and the UK. So I have access to Green & Blacks, as well as the higher end Cadbury chocolates, and chocolates from the Ukraine, from Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, France, Belgium, Spain ... oh my. Hubby and I have gotten into the habit of buying each other special chocolates for presents now. And yes, I bought Easter chocolates from her shop.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14735 is a reply to message #14721 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 00:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
katinseattle  is currently offline katinseattle
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b_twin_1 wrote on Sun, 12 April 2009 15:31

The "ordinary" hydrangeas can decide if they are pick or blue.


I sneaked into a local park at dawn and "helped" prune a hydrangea I'd long admired for its deep blue flowers. Mine has pale, uninteresting flowers. Turns out hydrangeas are really easy to root from cuttings. One of them even bloomed the next summer.

Pink.

Looks like potting soil isn't acid enough to get blue hydrangeas.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14736 is a reply to message #14718 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 01:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Cecelia  is currently offline Cecelia
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I have a hydrangea story...

I went to a wedding two summers ago in the Pacific Northwest (of the USA), and the flowers were all very deep blue hydrangeas. And there were masses of them. This was an outdoor wedding on a pretty lawn, and they had an arbor completely covered, the aisles were lined with hydrangea chains, and each table had a huge vase and the chair backs had bunches as well. I don't normally think of hydrangeas as 'wedding flowers,' so I asked how they'd gotten so many, if it had been hideously expensive, etc. And I was told that they were all FREE, delivered by VOLUNTEERS who didn't even know the bride/groom. The bride had put up an advertisement on Craigslist.com, and said she needed X amount of deep blue hydrangeas on X day (late July), and complete strangers came and outfitted her wedding! It was gorgeous and humanity-affirming (said volunteers were invited to have some cake) and possibly indicative of the generosity of gardeners in the Northwest. Or just of how quickly hydrangea bushes grow and need pruning, but still. There are pictures of this somewhere...
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14741 is a reply to message #14718 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 03:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Diane in MN  is currently offline Diane in MN
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. . . and we briefly had ten ringers this morning

Lovely! Good job! We don't have bell ringers--our church has only one bell--but at the Easter Vigil service Saturday night we did have handbell ringers accompanying the choir, white-gloved hands and all.

Your lovely pink hydrangea looks like the same type that they sell here for Easter flowers--not really hardy enough to live outside in this climate, at least not after summer. I love hydrangeas and have a mass of them as a front border planting, good old-fashioned basic H. "Annabelle". In fact, now that it's being 50+ degrees during the day, I need to go out and cut them back. The gardening almanacs say that one should do that in March. HAH!

I think the yellow begonia I bought is very like yours, and I was mistaken in thinking it a tuberous. I'm not good at houseplants, but so far it's doing very nicely. Flowering up a storm, too, very welcome at this time of year.

Hope the ME backs off and you can stop feeling (or being) horizontal soon.



"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14743 is a reply to message #14732 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 07:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Black Bear  is currently offline Black Bear
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Welcome back Julia! The cake sounds fabulous; my attempts to stay kosher for Pesach usually go by the wayside before the end of the week, but cake like that would provide serious inspiration... Smile

Re: blue hydrangeas--yeah, to get the deep blue you really need to amend the soil with something, depending where you are. It's certainly true here in central Indiana, our soil is naturally very alkaline. I've seen coffee grounds recommended, but they might not be enough depending where your pH is to start. Most folks I know use aluminum sulfate in the soil, but I don't know the environmental ramifications of that.


"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14744 is a reply to message #14743 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 08:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
b_twin_1  is currently offline b_twin_1
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Black Bear wrote on Mon, 13 April 2009 07:45

Re: blue hydrangeas--yeah, to get the deep blue you really need to amend the soil with something, depending where you are. It's certainly true here in central Indiana, our soil is naturally very alkaline. I've seen coffee grounds recommended, but they might not be enough depending where your pH is to start. Most folks I know use aluminum sulfate in the soil, but I don't know the environmental ramifications of that.


Oh ..... aluminum.... acid soils free up the availability of it. And we are acid (=pink hydrangeas) but also have high subsoil aluminum (=blue hydrangeas?) No wonder ours are confused.... !


I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14745 is a reply to message #14744 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 08:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Krystolla  is currently offline Krystolla
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All my hydrangeas are white, sidestepping the color question. I love my oakleaf hydrangea even though it attracts japanese beetles as badly as a rose -- the fall color is fabulous and it's so hardy.

I've heard that if you ask at your local coffee shop (Starbucks?) they are willing to give out used coffee grounds for free. I haven't tried it, but as I'm always short of compost I probably should. I'm not the only one whose birthday wish list starts with compost, right?


If you're going through hell, keep going. -- Winston Churchill
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14746 is a reply to message #14744 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 09:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
AJLR  is currently offline AJLR
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b_twin_1 wrote on Mon, 13 April 2009 13:08

Oh ..... aluminum.... acid soils free up the availability of it. And we are acid (=pink hydrangeas) but also have high subsoil aluminum (=blue hydrangeas?) No wonder ours are confused.... !

I thought it was alkaline that made hydrangeas pink? Certainly they're almost all pink around here, where there's a lot of chalk underlying, except for a few acid pockets. I love blue hydrangeas, too. I've tried feeding our mophead one in the front garden with a supplement for acid-loving plants but the most it can manage is a sort of mauve.

We've also got a Hydrangea paniculata Grandiflora in the back garden, and that's certainly a very handsome white flower.

[Updated on: Mon, 13 April 2009 13:48]


"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14747 is a reply to message #14746 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 10:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Black Bear  is currently offline Black Bear
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Yep, lower pH (acid) = blue coloration in colored hydrangeas, the lower the pH the deeper the blue. At 7.0 (neutral) and above, they're pink. There's a nice article on it here.


"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14748 is a reply to message #14718 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 10:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mrs Redboots  is currently offline Mrs Redboots
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Robin wrote:

Naturally. But I also bought a yellow begonia.img_1922 (Note also windowsill geranium going for it. And that’s another begonia I bought a few weeks ago. . . .)


You should see my mother's begonias! I meant to take a photo, but forgot. The original plant belonged to my grandmother, who insisted my mother take it when she moved away some 35 years ago now; Mum said she didn't really want it, but couldn't quite say no. For many years it lived very happily on a pedestal in the dining-room, but recently it was moved on to a semi-circular stand in the conservatory, and surrounded by pots of its babies, and it looked truly spectacular, you couldn't see the stand at all.

Meanwhile my Husband has two bars of Green and Black's mint chocolate, one of which I think I gave him last Easter and he forgot about....


Mrs Redboots
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Re: Easter Flowers [message #14749 is a reply to message #14718 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 11:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Linnet  is currently offline Linnet
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I think this blog has done something to me. I've been lying ill in bed all morning but got quite distracted listening to all the bells and wondering what the names of the patterns were and so on.

Those flowers are beautiful.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14750 is a reply to message #14718 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 13:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Erika in Colorado  is currently offline Erika in Colorado
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Julia, I'm glad to see you back. We hadn't heard from you in so long, I almost PM'd you to make sure all was well; glad to hear it was just lent.


Erika in Colorado

"A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!" -Anne Frank
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14753 is a reply to message #14747 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 17:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
b_twin_1  is currently offline b_twin_1
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Black Bear wrote on Mon, 13 April 2009 10:25

Yep, lower pH (acid) = blue coloration in colored hydrangeas, the lower the pH the deeper the blue. At 7.0 (neutral) and above, they're pink. There's a nice article on it here.


Haha ... so I got it around the wrong way? Serves me right for not checking it first. Razz Now I can't explain my confused hydrangeas!! LOL


I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14754 is a reply to message #14718 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 17:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Julia  is currently offline Julia
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--quick derailment for purposes of expressing gratitude--
Thanks Black Bear! Yeah, the cake was good. I love getting both sides of things, from my mom and dad. Only time that this has been at all problematic (well, in a very minor way) was this past Friday: Good Friday, and during Pesach. So no bread in the house, and I couldn't eat meat. I was running out the door to go to the library, and I stopped to make lunch-- and was in a quandry over what I could bring with me to eat! It was a simple solution.... I grabbed a yogurt and jumped in the car. But then when I got there, everyone wanted to feed me and I had to explain that I couldn't have chocolate, or meat, or bread. (well- I could have had bread there. I love matzos, and try not to eat real bread when Dad can't, trying to be considerate, but I don't keep kosher... being Catholic and all.
That was way more information than you probably care to know. Oh well.... I suppose I do need to figure out the spoiler thing, to spare the general forum-person from my lengthy blatherings and meandering thoughts.

Anway.

And thank you too, Erika! That's really sweet and makes me happy that you care. Nothing wrong. Just Lent. February 25--April 12=no Julia on Forum. Doesn't sound like that long, but February 24 definitely feels like a LONG time ago.
:)

--end of temporary derailment for gratitude-expressing purposes. Don't yell at me, dear mods! I've only just returned! *Julia carefully places thread back on topic of hydrangeas and soil acidity/alkalinity*---
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14756 is a reply to message #14754 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 17:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Black Bear  is currently offline Black Bear
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In the grand scheme of derailment, that was nothing, Julia. We're glad you're back! Smile


"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14757 is a reply to message #14756 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 17:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Julia  is currently offline Julia
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I know... But that is how it starts. And then things tend to diverge wildly and run off in all directions and then all is lost! Only utter incomprehensibility can follow... or otherwise very interesting conversations that have nothing whatsoever to do with the intended topic thread at hand... Must dash away, now, though. Off to grab some dinner before my roommate's play at 6:30.

Smile
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14763 is a reply to message #14731 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 18:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Robin  is currently offline Robin
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Bank HOliday Monday. You get one every month. This one happened to be Easter Monday.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14764 is a reply to message #14732 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 18:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Robin  is currently offline Robin
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YOu gave up the FORUM for Lent?!?? And here I've been worrying you must be ill.
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14776 is a reply to message #14763 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 20:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Melissa Mead  is currently offline Melissa Mead
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Robin wrote on Mon, 13 April 2009 18:58

Bank HOliday Monday. You get one every month. This one happened to be Easter Monday.


Great timing!


Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14779 is a reply to message #14764 ] Mon, 13 April 2009 23:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Julia  is currently offline Julia
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My absence caused you to worry? (Not like worry worry, but still worry?! (if you know what I mean))
I don't know whether to be flattered or to make excuses, beg forgiveness for causing undue alarm to so many (well, like two. But whatever).
All I can say is that it was really hard. Worse than giving up chocolate, which is what I usually do.
But I had several ridiculous papers (12 and 28 pages, plus ten or twelve shorter ones in between) and midterms and things, so it was a good thing to have given up, I suppose. [and i needed the chocolate to get through the papers. 28 pages in four days-- over 40 hours of writing. Absolute insanity]. And it also worked out well, because my mother has taken to calling me and telling me how I "spend/waste too much time "*surfing the blogosphere*"-- it sounds so utterly bizarre to hear here say those words, particularly the way she says them, semi-disdainful or sarcastic, semi-... I don't quite know what. Anyway, I could always, truthfully, tell her "No. I'm not. I gave it up. No forum since the end of February- Ash Wednesday, the 25th. Really. Promise."

Oh well. I'm back now. Thanks for, you know, caring.
And do you really think that mere illness could keep me away??? Really, now?
Smile

Re: Easter Flowers [message #14780 is a reply to message #14754 ] Tue, 14 April 2009 00:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
librarykat  is currently offline librarykat
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Julia wrote on Mon, 13 April 2009 16:23

--quick derailment for purposes of expressing gratitude--
Thanks Black Bear! Yeah, the cake was good. I love getting both sides of things, from my mom and dad. Only time that this has been at all problematic (well, in a very minor way) was this past Friday: Good Friday, and during Pesach. So no bread in the house, and I couldn't eat meat. I was running out the door to go to the library, and I stopped to make lunch-- and was in a quandry over what I could bring with me to eat! It was a simple solution.... I grabbed a yogurt and jumped in the car. But then when I got there, everyone wanted to feed me and I had to explain that I couldn't have chocolate, or meat, or bread. (well- I could have had bread there. I love matzos, and try not to eat real bread when Dad can't, trying to be considerate, but I don't keep kosher... being Catholic and all.
That was way more information than you probably care to know. Oh well.... I suppose I do need to figure out the spoiler thing, to spare the general forum-person from my lengthy blatherings and meandering thoughts.

Oh my. Good reason to be Lutheran - you don't have to fast, or give up anything for Lent (meat, chocolate, caffeine, blogs, anything), or any of that, unless you WANT to. ^_^ I should know - I'm a Lutheran pastor's wife! Hee! (I figure I suffer enough already, all year round, why should I add to it. Yeah, I'm naughty.)

But I know I missed you, I enjoy your posts.

Anway.

And thank you too, Erika! That's really sweet and makes me happy that you care. Nothing wrong. Just Lent. February 25--April 12=no Julia on Forum. Doesn't sound like that long, but February 24 definitely feels like a LONG time ago.
Smile

--end of temporary derailment for gratitude-expressing purposes. Don't yell at me, dear mods! I've only just returned! *Julia carefully places thread back on topic of hydrangeas and soil acidity/alkalinity*---


Re: Easter Flowers [message #14785 is a reply to message #14779 ] Tue, 14 April 2009 02:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Diane in MN  is currently offline Diane in MN
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Julia wrote on Mon, 13 April 2009 22:56


But I had several ridiculous papers (12 and 28 pages, plus ten or twelve shorter ones in between) and midterms and things, so it was a good thing to have given up, I suppose.



Sacrificial and practical at the same time! I hope the papers and midterms were all successful.



"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
Re: Easter Flowers [message #14791 is a reply to message #14718 ] Tue, 14 April 2009 07:26 Go to previous message
abigailmm  is currently offline abigailmm
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Near my second cousins' homes in the mountains of northern Alabama, the hydrangeas grow wild in the woods and bloom everywhere in June.

Abigail
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/3/10/871458/flowers/sand%20mountain%20hydrangeas.jpg
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