The newcomer to my urban (NYC) terrace garden today is a vine which is currently "divided" into nine small planters that are sitting in a Mixed Nuts carton (given to me by the grower) on top of the marble table that I have in my terrace garden, as seen in the photograph posted above today's blog entry.
They are waiting for Juan V to help me plant them into their new home. It is only 7:43:10 in the morning, and already the temperature indicated on my little garden thermometer (a thermometer that I wrote about this past Tuesday) is quickly moving past the 80 degree mark , as seen in the photograph posted below.
The temperatures, in New York City, where I live and have my terrace garden, are predicted to pass the 100 degree mark, with a "real feel " of at least 105 degrees; and so at this point, in the summer of 2011, New York City officially joins the number of states in America, that are being plagued by prolonged periods of heat and humidity.
I realize my blog is not an NYC-Accu-Weather blog, nor am I a meteorologist, and instead I am a photo-artist, writer, as well as an urban gardener, but, the "connect" is this: gardening and weather conditions, as you are undoubtedly aware dear reader, are very much interrelated. If I didn't love the things which I grow in my terrace garden so much, I might spend a hot and humid day, like today, on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore standing under the watering can (such as the one pictured below)
and enjoy being watered; instead of hand watering my sixty plus beloved herbs, plants, flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees. For now, to cool off, instead of going to the beach, I will have to bring the beach to me, and picture myself being under the boardwalk's watering can's cool spray.
In any event, as for today's terrace garden work, Juan V and I plan to put the new arrivals into three eight-inch sized clay pots that previously provided a home for my Honeysuckle Vine, which we had to remove last week, as discussed in a prior post that you may refer to by clicking here.
Two of the three clay pots (the third is off camera) that had especially appreciated my beloved Honeysuckle Vine, as well as the bare trellis which it used to climb upon, are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newcomers, which can be seen in the images posted below.
Today's newcomers are, acording to the grower, "a hummingbird's favorite" and are known as Cardinal Climbers (aka Ipomoea sloteri). They are very similar to the Maiden's Feather, a Cypress Vine (aka Ipomea quamoclit), and they are from the Morning Glory family. It has been a long time since I have put anything from the Morning Glory family in my garden; however, I have referred to them in a post that you may review by clicking here.
Many years ago, my aunt sent me some seeds for the Cardinal Climbers, and the seed's packaging can be seen in the photograph posted below.
The seeds did very well producing delightful, beautifully scalped, green leaves and red flowers which flourished in my garden, trailing up an exhaust pipe (which looks like a pole) in the northwest corner of my garden) where my H.F. Young Clematis has resided for a number of years. (I have written about my H.F. in a number of posts, including ones which you may find by clicking here as well as here and here.)
In any event, regarding the fate of my Cardinal Climbers, I only grew them from seed in that location for one season, because, for one thing, the following season neither my aunt nor I could find seeds for the Cardinal Climbers within our choices of gardening centers and hardware stores in the areas where we each live. This was unusual since my aunt lives in a relatively heavily populated northwest suburb of Chicago, and I live in New York City. Moreover, as for finding the Cardinal Climbers seeds on line, I was not Internet Literate during those years.
Be that as it may, at that time I also decided to plant perennial vines in "the pole location", so, in the years that followed, I did this by planting varieties of Clematis: 'Candia' (Clematis lanuginosa) and H.F. Young Clematis respectively, and so the story of what grows in that location of my terrace garden, as they say, is history. . .
Therefore, I was resigned to having no more Cardinal Climbers grow in my terrace garden until I met a talented man, named Jay P, who found a grower that could offer me the plants. This was in 2005 or 2006, and ultimately this vine, once again, flourished, but in another location (southeast of the pole) in my terrace garden. I still was not photographing my terrace garden at that time; however, I recall the Cardinal Climbers thriving and flourishing, as well as their beauty, in the mental slideshows within my mind. Lovely as they were, because they are an annual, I decided to put a perennial vine in the southeast location, and that is when I planted my Autumn Clematis — the one I've referred to as Donna's Legacy — which I ultimately photographed and blogged about in an entry that you may refer to by clicking here.
I realize the aforementioned is a rather lengthy back-story on how I came to know the Cardinal Climbers and so, tomorrow morning, when Juan V and I are well past the activities of today's terrace work, and If I don't melt away from the oppressive heat, I will post pictures of how the new arrivals look in their new digs.
Meanwhile, dear reader, if you live in parts of the world which are affected by a heat wave, HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE!
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