Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to tell you about the transformation, as well as some other things. You may remember me from such posts as “House Of A Different Color”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
You can see that the hoses have been rearranged. A freeze was predicted a few nights ago; it didn’t happen, but the guy I live with decided it was time to roll up one of the hoses and just leave one. We have two long hoses, one on the north path and one on the south, all summer, but it was time to put one of the hoses in storage.
It’s been very dry here and so some watering has been necessary, especially with the (few) newly-planted plants.
The path off the patio looks pretty good, now that the guy I live with removed all the weeds growing in it. This path was made by Slipper, a purebred border collie who lived here before me. He didn’t like rigidly-defined boundaries.
Some colchicums still in flower, too.
I heard that Slipper was fairly unusual, but the guy I live with said that purebred border collies can be very unusual indeed.
He went so far as to say that after the events of the last couple of months, with the antibiotic and so forth, I’ve been transformed into a total weirdo.
I had a fairly good time at the kennel yesterday, then got to go to the store, as I said, and then got scared by a huge bullsnake, but my biggest issue right now is flying things.
I don’t like eating if there’s a fly buzzing around.
The guy I live with said that Flurry, the first purebred border collie who lived here, was also a total weirdo and obsessed with flies. He wouldn’t even go to bed unless he was shown the dead “big buzzy fly”.
So I’m in good company.
The guy I live with said to talk more about gardening so I guess I will.
You can see the redbud, which came up in a pot containing a conifer, is turning color.
The guy I live with likes the redbud so it’s going to stay. The maples are turning color in the “way back”, as you can see, too.
There are still a bunch of penstemon seedlings on the shelf. They might get planted out, or maybe returned to the frame. There’s a little rain predicted for next week, so maybe he’ll plant them out to distract himself from jury duty, which is also next week.
The main thing here is the cyclamen; right now anyway. Some people think that cyclamen can’t possibly do well here, but that’s not true at all.
This is Cyclamen cilicium, with C. mirabile ‘Tilebarn Nicholas’ in the upper left.
This is also Cyclamen cilicium, self-sown, with scalloped leaves (lower right) and some leaves of C. pseudibericum (the jagged leaves near the ivy).
This is Cyclamen hederifolium, with various leaf patterns. The guy I live with says people grow cyclamen for the leaves. It’s strange that they produce leaves of all different kinds of patterns. And more ivy.
The ones that produce the most widely-different patterns are C. graecum and C. maritimum, but those aren’t hardy here.
This is Cyclamen hederifolium again. The oval leaves are C. cilicium, I think.
Because it’s been so hot here lately, and dry, the leaves aren’t emerging as fast as they might.
The guy I live with collects pine needles to sprinkle over the cyclamen for the winter. If the soil freezes, which it’s been doing the last several winters, that’s not good for the cyclamen because the tubers can’t pull water from the soil to keep the leaves healthy.
This tub was made for a sort of portable pond, with water going down that chute to another tub, but the guy I live with has never used it for that.
Someone gave him the tubs, and at one point he tried to give them away, but he’s glad he didn’t.
The last tubs of pine needles were left out for most of the summer, and all the rain sort of rotted them, but he used the needles to cover weeds on the path next to the cyclamen, so if necessary the needles can be raked over the cyclamen leaves.
And that’s what I have for today. I’ll leave you with a picture of me, being a “total weirdo” watching for bees and other flying things next to the path.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Mani can you please ask your master if needles from the ground cover juniper can also be put over the cyclamen corms?
We don’t really know. The guy I live with said Christmas tree branches would work well, though then there’s the issue of disposing of the branches and trunk, later.
He used to take his neighbors’ old trees and use them that way.
Our lovely border collie liked to catch flying insects in his mouth – occasionally he would have a very swollen lip from a sting, but nothing seemed to dissuade him from the fun of catching buzzers.
Hope the jury duty does not prove onerous.
Ceci
Thanks. The guy I live with won’t know until the night before, which is kind of annoying.
I’ve been eating bees and yellowjackets for a few years now. They’re pretty good.
There was only one purebred border collie who lived here who had a reaction.
Dear Mani Total Weirdo, my captive human says that I have also become a total weirdo since my antibiotics this summer. Even worse, that I am behaving like you, a dog, but, as I am a cat, I know this can not possibly be true. I must watch the human more closely. Perhaps they have become the total weirdo. They do seem to be spending much more time staring at plants, digging them up, replanting and then frowning and doing it again. At first I was overjoyed when I saw the nice soft holes but human is not sharing them.
They do have a nice spreading colony of cyclamen coum living under their native giant tree (I think they named it Douglas) under a deep layer of needles/forest duff that gets remarkably little water. (Z8a)
They were confused, as their C. coum looks like your ‘Tilebarn Nicolas’. My human would like to know if the name changed?
I don’t know what it was about the antibitoic, but it certainly did a number on my appetite. I’m still having some issues with breakfast, but not with dinner.
The guy I live with says if embiggen the picture with ‘Tilebarn Nicholas’ you might be able to see the sort of toothed leaves. You can’t see the erose margins on the top of the flowers (fringed, sort of), though. Those are the basic differences.
There are some Cyclamen coum leaves in the upper right of that picture, too.
You Cyclamen hederifolium is pretty. I have not grown it yet, but should. I used to like the common florist Cyclamen persicum when I was a kid, but that was only because I grew it as a perennial. I did not know any better back then. Nowadays, I loathe how it is both very expensive, and very temporary. Most get discarded after its short season! If we add any to the landscapes as ‘bedding plants’ I put them out into unrefined but irrigated landscapes after their season. Some survive as I remember them doing when I was a kid. Anyway, of the other ‘non florist’ cyclamen, I find the Cyclamen hederifolium to be most appealing. I believe that it grows from seed in a neighbor’s garden, although I am not certain what species it is. I want to get a few of them from there.
The guy I live with says that Cyclamen hederifolium has auricles at the base of the flowers. You can see them clearly on the picture of the dark pink one. But so does C. graecum. The former is more of a woodland plant; the latter a plant for sun, and not hardy here.
Our C. hederifolium is winding down for the season. A few flowers left. Sometimes I get lost in contemplating and comparing the leaf patterns. Very nice staging for you to include the leaves of Hedera helix as a comparison in your photos.
The guy I live with says people do grow cyclamen, especially hederifolium, for the leaves.
The ivy is kind of everywhere.
You two Mani???? You are NOT a Weerdo! Or else wee all ARE Weerdo’ss!!! Mee HATESS Fliess an other buzzy Creeturess!! BellaSita has to bee THE Buggie Killer fore mee ’cause mee not goin neer ANY of them 😉
Hopefullee there are less Buggiess out as it is mid-Octoburr…..
Guy yore teess an plantss look furry good! Cyclamenss are so purrty.
Have a grate weekend there an mee try to send youss’ rain!
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an 🙂 BellaSita Mum
Thanks; same to you.
The guy I live with says I am a weirdo, but since I’m also a purebred border collie, this doesn’t surprise him.