MinxterBLOOM

I admit that this is hard.  However, the range of online seed vendor options means that I can browse without the environmental burden of yet another dead tree count.

I plan to grow sweet peas this spring.  In 1996, I grew them to fair success.  Henry Mitchell writes lovingly and practically about growing these cool-preferring darlings.  I am tempted to buy two plants from Annie's Annuals and set them out in my bunny-poo prep spot.. Read about this dream here. Poetic bit there, too, should you need tempting.  Too bad the internet does not yet include a scratch- and-sniff option.

Chiltern Seeds online includes a detailed entry on the classic progenitor of the range of sweet pea strains:  Lathryus odoratus "Cupani." Behnke's, local family-owned nursery in Beltsville, MD, used to carry Chiltern packets in a range of varieties.  This year, not so.  I may order from this energetic little company, J.Hudsons, seedman, in Northern California.  Look here for "wild Italian" strain of annual sweet peas.

Ed Bisese is a DC artist and landscape architect.  His comic works are droll, bizarre, and highly graphic.  This installation is quite fun -- and ominous.

Read more here, at the Wave Hill site.  I do not think the portal to Fractured Fairyland is still there. I will let you know. Do you know of other improbable garden art installations?  Let me know. We can post them.

Search on flower terms.  For example, peony revealed this set of colors:

 Daffodil was associated with this:

(Another Library of Congress find. Mea culpa, if you prefer another sort of winter gardening post.  The year to date is wet with chilly rain, in the Metro DC area. I do not want to go outside and find something blog-worthy.)

I found a reference to this seed company at the University of Delaware special collections on seed companies. Rochester, home of a lilac festival rivaled by none, was a hotbed of horticultural publishing activity in the late 1800s.

Lewis Chase founded the seed company in Maine, moving to Rochester, NY, by 1868.  Fast forward to the 50s: According to John Sheret the Chase Brothers garden store -- what remained of the seed concern -- ceased operations in 1956 when Bilt-Rite Wood Products bought one of the storefronts owned by the Chase family. 

Later in the mid 1970s, Wegmans Food Markets opened its first Home Repair Center next to its supermarket on Lyell Avenue in Rochester; Wegman's expanded this store into a small chain, naming the stores Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden. For more detail on the rise, middle-years, and decline of this seed company, see the full article at Crooked Lake Review.

In 2005, Wegmans announced that Chase-Pitkin centers would be closed, due to the inability of the home-styled chain to compete with the big box retailers.  

RIP, Chase. 

Read more on great seedsman (two women, too) at the Smithsonian Library horticultural-biography resource here.

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TITLE:  Chase Bro's and Woodward. Flower & vegetable seeds

CALL NUMBER:  PGA - Clay, Cosack & Co.--Chase Bro's... (D size) [P&P]

REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-DIG-pga-00507 (digital file from original print)
LC-USZ62-86209 (b&w film copy neg.)

RIGHTS INFORMATION:  No known restrictions on publication.

MEDIUM:  1 print.

CREATED/PUBLISHED:  [no date recorded on shelflist card]

NOTES: This record contains unverified data from PGA shelflist card. Associated name on shelflist card: Clay, Cosack & Co.

REPOSITORY:  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA 

DIGITAL ID:  (digital file from original print) pga 00507 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.00507 
(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3b32718 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b32718 

CONTROL #:  2003674673

Enjoy this charming print from the Library of Congress digital collections.

Last winter, in the doldrums of gardening withdrawal, I stumbled upon this print mislabeled as a wisteria bloom.  I alerted a collections librarian who was gracious and happy.  The revision took about a year.  What might you find in this rich online collection?

TITLE: Ajisai ni shokin
TITLE TRANSLATION: Small bird and hydrangea.
CALL NUMBER: FP 2 - JPD, no. 432 (A size) [P&P]

Restricted access; material extremely fragile; please use online digital image.
REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-jpd-00455 (digital file from original print)
RIGHTS INFORMATION: No known restrictions on publication.
SUMMARY: Print shows a small bird perched on a branch of hydrangea.
MEDIUM: 1 print : woodcut, color ; 19.3 × 9.2 cm.
CREATED/PUBLISHED: [between 1860 and 1910]
NOTES: Title and other descriptive information compiled by Nichibunken-sponsored Edo print specialists in 2005-06.

Format: Kogata Nishikie. Forms part of: Japanese prints and drawings (Library of Congress).

SUBJECTS: Flowers--Japan--1860-1910. Birds ÏzJapan Ïy1860-1910. Ï2lctgm

FORMAT: Woodcuts Japanese Color 1860-1910.

REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID: (digital file from original print) jpd 00455 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/jpd.00455
CONTROL #: jpd2005000432