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It has been very distracting and busy since New Year’s day. This is the first entry this year and it is already half past February.

I am back at school at FIT and I am teaching at the Art Lab here on Staten Island. There have been orders in the studio that have enormous volume with next to no time in which to execute it. I think I see a break and it vanishes almost immediately when an order for 52 sheets of paper comes in that has to be painted in less than a week on top of orders that are almost finished. The whole process seems so sluggish. Materials and items arrive quickly but getting them out again is very difficult. Long term projects for the future need a little work and requires meetings with new people, it’s difficult to arrange that when there’s so much to do in the studio. I feel like I’m being held hostage by my hand work.

This is one of the events I have recently attended. A lot of photos, I will not add too many captions. Enjoy the photos, I enjoyed  a break taking the day at the show.

 

Some bright campanulas at the cash register.

 

Judges

Looking toward the sales area from the displays.

Judges

Judges

 

Judging as visitors begin to arrive.

Amy shopping at Ecuagenera.  Michael Riley on the right.

Colman with noted author and grower, Ray Rodgers.

The Staten Island Orchid Society display.

Our friend Tibor  arrived with Leah,  he took the photos of Colman and me.

Colman with Jimmy Chu.

More Judges

I think this aerangis is my favorite in the whole show.

The sales area.

I like these bright little cats.

And back to the orchid displays.

Back at home with the one blooming plant we bought. Colman got a few orchids and I added two new anthuriums with long leaves to my collection.

 

 

 

 

Friday we went to what is becoming an annual event, The Shore Orchid Festival, in Neptune,  New Jersey.  there’s an album of about 50 photos taken at the festival on my facebook page. Here’s the link.    The Shore Orchid Festival 2011

A broad view of one of the vendor’s displays. There were a lot of unusual  plants to see and buy.  We took Amy Troutwein went with us, she’s  also a member of the Staten Island Orchid Society.

At Home

Colman’s stanhopea  embreei has bloomed. The plant is growing 3 flower spikes. The first one has finished blooming but I took photos of its progress. This particular orchid’s flowers don’t last as long as other orchid flowers, they deflate in a few days. The buds seem to take forever to grow and open. When they do open, the fragrance is overpowering, we can smell it outside of the greenhouse. I really like the sculptural quality of these buds.

It took about a week for the buds to spread and open.

Finally open.

Lc. canhamiana ‘Azure Skies’  is also blooming. These flowers last a lot longer.

Henry keeps company  outside the greenhouse.

Our rodgersia has put on a real show this year. In the past there’s never been more than  a couple flowers. Their leaves get filled up with the petals from the enormous tulip tree’s branches overhead.

 

I know it’s late and I have a backlog of photos to put into the blog. There are a couple of drafts that are approaching a first year’s birthday waiting to be posted. I will try for the next few days to get some of these online so that I can retire the photos to a disk somewhere outside my hard drive.

Our Ken Janek rhododendron was spectacular. All the plants this year seem to be blooming with numbers of flowers above and beyond all expectations. There’s only a close up of the KenJanek.

I cut one of the May Apples to have inside. The white flower developed these translucent windows in the water in the vase.  Don’t know if this is a usual development as the flower ages.

These are two of my seedling azaleas.  Geisha was one of the parents,  these are planted where we buried Max, he used to sleep under these plants on summer nights.

Bill and Mary started to  replace their fence last year.  The Montana rubens clematis was undisturbed and bloomed very well. It has climbed to the top of one of Bills  conifers next door and the tree is also covered with the vanilla scented flowers.

My primulas put on a nice show too.

Joker (azalea) and an azalea  whose name we have forgotten blooming with Gordon Jones.

The Azalea Joker.

This is  Rhododendron Gordon Jones. It has been languishing in the back garden for years, it is finally putting on a show of its large and marked flowers.

The rhododendron Grumpy has finally bloomed in the correct season.  In the past we have had mild Novembers and Grumpy would bloom just before Thanksgiving thinking (?) it was Spring. Even in the Fall it never bloomed this well.

This peony, Cytheria is an unusual and luminous color. I cut two stems to have inside and protect the blossoms from some predicted heavy rains.

Toward the end of May our Nathan Hale  Kalmia started to bloom. You’ll see more of this when it’s fully opened.

Inside, I have been concerned with wire work for wine cup stems.

 

 

I know I’m a little late posting this collection of photos of this year’s Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Show. It’s just been a busy time and a number of daily events have gotten in the way.  These photos have been on the ‘back burner’ along with a LOT of others. I’ll try to get them out and posted soon.

These are some shots of the show as we saw it on April 10th. Colman and I drove up to the show with Tibor. I didn’t photograph any of the vendors this year even though we went to that part of the show to see friends and search for unusual plants. I bought a couple of echeverias and a sedum home with thoughts that they would be grown outside in the ground this summer.

Here are a few of what I thought were the highlights of the exhibition. I’ll keep my comments to a minimum.

This is a very nice rhipsalis in bloom, it would be dramatic even without its tassel flowers.

The buds on this gymnocalysium are especially nice. It wouldn’t have to bloom for me if it just made more more of those scale covered buds.

My lithops keep getting higher and higher out of their soil, this is how they should look.

I’ve never seen a crested sedum before this.

This crassula has been very difficult to grow let alone  get it to bloom.

The next two photos are of a seed grown tylecodon, the likes of which are entirely new to me.  If this one is as difficult to grow as some of its cousins, this plant with its blooming stalk is a horticultural feat worth more than a blue ribbon.

Echeverias, along with lithops are my favorite succulents.

This tacitus is  very well grown and it will be spectacular when all the bright pink stat flowers are open.

I end this entry with a shot of this charming gibbaeum about to bloom.

These tulips were blooming in the park in front of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Manhattan side, last week as I went into the city to make some deliveries uptown. The flowers are blooming in our yard too.

It was the beginning of a weekend of beautiful weather ( it’s rainy and cold again today).  There were a number of events on our island but I’ll show photos of that later, this entry is about our tree peony seedlings. Colman planted seeds that formed on the plants we bought;  the seeds take two years to visibly (they don’t show leaves the first year)  germinate and another 4-5 years before they bloom. This first photo is from our Green Dragon in a Pink Pool, it may have been one of the parents of our seedlings. I cut the flower because it had been beaten down by a shower and I wanted to trim the plant back a little too. This particular Chinese hybrid is always the first to bloom.

This next plant was the first of the seedlings to bloom. It has bloomed  three years now and the flowers have gotten better  and more plentiful each year.

The flowers have subtle flares in the center.

The next plant bloomed the first time this year.  It has a strange center and lots of petals.

A very pale pink, almost white flower is blooming its second time in the back yard.  It has a beautiful shape and subtle color.

Our primulas are in full bloom too, These are just outside the back door.

The white primulas are my favorite for their cut edge petals and textured leaves.

I was in the city Friday to go to class at FIT. I bought more copper at Metalliferous and then went back downtown to see Ellen before class. I got out of the subway at 23rd street and walked up Fifth Avenue on the west side of the street through one of the new paved parks that have shown up all over the city on what used to be part of the street. There’s a big one along Madison Square extending the park-like atmosphere beyond the park itself. There, the planters were exuberantly planted with tulips, daffodils and smaller flowering spring bulbs. It made me feel like warmer weather is finally arriving.

Looking across Fifth towards  Madison Square Park.

On the Broadway side of this triangular space a film crew was breaking down after filming.

On Fifth Avenue, one of the fill lights was still turned on.

This is my new hair cut for the summer.

In late January I began to paint again. There are a few canvases  in the studio that have gone through many changes in my mind, it was time to put pigment to the thought. This one finished itself before I was ready.  There’s another large canvas in the studio that seems to be finished too, but I don’t feel done with it. It will probably sit around another year before I show it. This one is fine as it is.

 

I’m not sure this is finished yet. I’ve been sketching this in color on my iPad which has given me the luxury of trying a number of compositions before I got to the easel. But the paint doesn’t always do what you want it to do.

Colman and I went out to Gennady’s studio during the school break to visit and get my spout welded. Here’s Gennady just after the job was done.

The welded spout, cooling down.

Now it’s cleaned up, ready to be annealed and filled with pitch.

At home I was working on a number of projects. We were waiting for cups and saucers to be electro formed in Rhode Island and I was working on another cup and some jewelry. These are pieces of a chain, I was working on two at the time. Both of them were finished today. The recent rise in silver prices has made finishing these chains a proposition to consider, the selling price is going to be much higher than it was last year.  Each of the chains weigh in at 4 ounces.

My whole work bench with several projects on it.  The large vase in the center is  an attempt to completely shape and chase without pitch.  It has progressed since then but will probably need another 15 hours or so.

The finished chains. Ovals and Bubbles. . .

We had a nice day about 10 days ago and Colman took this shot of me with a new begonia that has bloomed. 

This is a small silver leafed begonia  (in a 2 inch  pot ) that Tibor gave me,  it has taken off and is blooming too.  He says that his plant is bigger and fuller but hasn’t bloomed, it’s probably the extra light in our greenhouse that is giving our plants a longer stretch of daylight.

Last week I finished a lot of Portfolios for Talas.

In the back yard crocus are blooming. Spring is not far away.

This  year has been exceptional for the number of blooming plants in my collection.  The dracena cuttings have bloomed. This plant has three flowers at once. Two are open in the photo and a third  with its ‘back’ toward us. 

Colman’s Vanda orchid “coerulea “, a species orchid, has opened.  It’s a very good ‘blue’.

At the last shows I was asked to make longer necklaces, necklaces that would go over sweaters and around turtle neck tops. I made these new  sterling findings to carry multiple strands of beads, the frog type hooks can carry 6 to nine strings. this shot was taken before thry were tumble polished.

These are some  of the first pieces. Multi strands of iridescent glass on  my hand made sterling hooks.

These are some shorter necklaces in glass. one comes with matching earrings. 

I was commissioned to make a ring and setting for a special beach stone  about two weeks ago.  It was challenging to set a stone in its natural shape making a kind of basket with a high bezel.  This is a new pendant to go along with earrings of the same design. 

Thursday morning we left Staten Island for the Silva orchid open House. I think we were the second and third people to arrive just before  10 AM. It’s always better to arrive early, you can see all the plants and flowers before any have been carried away. 

A very nice yellow miltonia.

My photo doesn’t do this miltonia justice. In person these flowers are impressive for the richness of the red and the flower’s velvety texture. 

Some of Jim Rose’e dendrobiums. They have an interesting scent.

Joe Silva with a white cattleya.

This is a large plant of Lalia anceps, beautiful, elegant flowers.

A brilliant velvety masdevallia.I really like these green flowered plants. Colman got both of them for our greenhouse. They’re hanging in the kitchen above the sink right now. With all the snow we have had and the threat of more, if we took them to the greenhouse, I might not get out to see them for awhile.  Epc. Siam Jade on the left and  Epc. Landwoods ‘NN’ on the right.

A beautiful white Lycastes.

Goldenzell

Two enormous flowered  Lycastes. Colman got one to try, it may be difficult in our greenhouse.

Jim Rose, owner of Cal Orchids in California brought  plants to sell.

A complex paphiopedilum

There was a time when we were hybridizing lilies that a lot of flowers were turning brown and beige. I never liked it in lilies and these brownish cymbidiums while elegant  in this photo, were less pleasing in person. I can imagine that a decorator will  find  or make a perfect setting for flowers this color. 

A wilsonara?

These buds are very attractive, I’d like beads like this for a piece of jewelry. 

An oncidium hybrid

I always take a photo of this wall, the lighting here is very good for the plants and the photograph.  

Logedesii alba

The backs of these flowers are good compliments to the fronts.

This is a very nice orange cymbidium.

Jim Rose talking with some visitors.

Another exquisite  bloom. 

A fasciated stem of buds.  

Slc hybrids – I love the colors of these next two. 

Paphiopedilum probably  from Golddollar

On the eve of the 26th a grand snow storm arrived. The snow came down as a fog of sand sized flakes carried on fast and blustery wind.

The next morning, no one was moving, it was still very cold outside and the winds continued  even as the sun was bright under blue skies.

Snow was blown into the space between the front door and the storm door.
The front porch was completely covered with about a foot of snow. This has only been happening the past 2 of 23 years. 

It only looks like about 11 inches on the deck table, but drifts were over three feet  in places.

Colman dug a path to the greenhouse, I’m adding that photo to compare with the ‘before’ shot above.

These guys, Dante and Demetrius were working on  our neighbor Bill’s walks and driveway,  I got them to open our sidewalk and then do Fay and Robert’s. 

Around midnight I got an email asking how we were doing and asking for photos.  I braved the wind and cold to make a few night shots to email to our friends in the deep south.

This morning it’s a lot warmer(?), the sun was shining into  the kitchen and our Tama Electra Camellia is blooming profusely.

There is no place to put the snow,  it’s just being piled up where ever we can pile it.

Our neighbor Michael is digging out. 

A look down Tysen Street.

The wind gave our car a nose job, looks like a whale.

Bill’s car in its snow slot.

The snow piled up in front of Bille and Karl’s home.

Karl out enjoying the warmer, windless day.

The snow drifted so high behind the sycamores that we couldn’t get the walk  entirely cleared.

Adi is cleaning off the cars. 
Henry has been helping me by watching while I type.