African Violet Collection
The Basics of Color Mixing Magic
When learning color mixing, there are three (3) sets of opposite colors to remember:
Color Set #1-CHRISTMAS colors: Red & Green
Color Set #2-EASTER colors: Yellow & Purple
Color Set #3-SUNSET colors: Orange & Blue
In discussing the definition of a color, let’s work with the Color set #1, the Christmas Colors, red and green. “Red” is defined as any color that has ANY KIND of red in the paint mixture…rust, rose, pink, coral, burgundy, orange-red, red-orange, wine, grape, purple, etc. The definition of a color such as “Green”, Red’s opposite on the color wheel, is the same. So, this set of opposite colors gives us MANY forms of reds and greens to work with. Think of color set #2 and #3 in this same way and you will have hundreds of colors to paint with. However, it is very difficult to ever mix the exact same color again because if you combine white, black, and yellow you will be able to mix 739 readable colors. The lesson here is to mix enough color in the FIRST mixture that you will need to use for your painting. I always like to mix extra, more than I think I will need.
Many times in painting we need subdued colors and these are made by toning down a color with its opposite on the color wheel, i.e., tone down “any” red with “any” green using the above definition. Technically it is called neutralizing a color or being able to tone down a color to soften it or take the intensity out of it…when taken to the extreme half and half of the red mix and the green mix we create a taupe or gray which equals a “neutral”. A taupe color of the half and half mix will have more of the warm color creating it and the gray color of the half and half mix will have a bit more of the cool color in it.
It you wish to breathe live into your painting, try putting opposite colors next to each other on your paper or canvas. Always try to paint with full spectrum color and your painting will become magical!
Adding Watercolor
Dale Sherman is one of my students in the Wednesday afternoon class. She paints with a great group of ladies that really enjoy working with each other. She has worked diligently through all the drawing projects and is now painting beautifully. This painting is of some water lilies she photographed in a pond. We are all watching and learning from her as she brings it to completion. This painting is a really pretty one. One of the things we adjusted was adding much additional image information that is not on the photograph. This makes it her original artwork.
Dale Sherman is one of my students in the Wednesday afternoon class. …
DANCINGINTHEGARDEN.COM
It is a White Christmas
It is s White Christmas!
It is Christmas time again and we have our first 8”snow I can ever remember. I can never remember one in the Atlanta GA area this early in the year or as many inches. There has been only one other snow that I remember about 10 years ago that was a dusting, an inch, that was just the week before Christmas. So this is a magnificent occasion. We southerners are not used to White Christmases but we love it when it might happen and this really did happen! I got out in it took pictures and this evening put on my show boots from the northeastern states where I do flower shows and went out again getting the long pruning pole and beat the snow off the camellias (they are in bloom) and shrubs (still blooming) and small trees so they wouldn’t break apart under the heavy wet snow. My husband thought I was truly out of my mind.
We have had a good year in many ways as Bob has a great job now. He is selling residential and commercial mortgages and is in love with his work. Things have changed from having him home with me to just seeing him on the weekends…During the week it is mostly Hi & Bye. I have been working closer to home now just doing a few local shows, teaching classes 3 days a week, and painting and gardening. I have needed to de-stress to help my health so I had to give up some of the shows that are so far away from home. I do miss seeing all of you at the shows! So many of you I have really looked forward to seeing if only twice a year. To help the problem of cutting back on the shows I have created a way for you to be able to order something that you have wanted, actually easily, on a Facebook Shopify website…www.maryboothcabot.com. It has been a great deal of data entry but I have had a great teacher and now it is basically finished and being used. It was opened or posted for use Nov 22. I like it and I hope you will too. Please do let me know of any typos or discrepancies you might find…I welcome your comments good and bad. You are always welcome to contact me and chat and catch up with each other…or ask questions about something or workshops and classes. I also have a new blog on gardening, plants, painting and art…www.dancinginthegarden. You might enjoy reading it. Oh, yes, I almost forgot, I am taking the University’s course in Master Gardening January-March 2018. It will be great to learn more new things about my ‘love of plants’ hobby.
Bob’s children are all well and happy. His daughter, Ali, is teaching yoga in Costa Rica and living in thatched roof open sided dwellings and loving it. His son, Drew, is taking care of work and his dog while his girlfriend is studying for 4 months in Japan, and his daughter, Sara, has moved to the mountains of West Virginia and enjoying country life. His brother, Dick, is in love and recently married to a wonderful woman named Jackie. His sisters Allene and Sally are both better than ever. My nephew, David Booth, has helped me by working on painting the house interior and helping with other things around the house and garden after we had a tree go down hitting the house this past May.
Bob and I want to take a moment and tell you all how much we have enjoyed having you be part of our extended family. Each one of you have blessed and enriched our life in some very special way. Because of you our life is full of enjoyment, love, and rich memories. Please do stay in touch.
We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year ahead.
Blooming Yellow Hybrid Jungle Cactus, Epicactus Epiphyllum “Fruhlingsgold”
This one just bloomed today! This is a day-booming Epicactus Epiphyllum “Fruhlingsgold” native to Central America. This is an extraordinary tropical succulent cactus or flowering Jungle Cacti, common name “Orchid Cactus”. It is part of a collection of fifteen epicactus of mine and I always tend these semi ugly plants just for the very spectacular, huge, fragrant blooms. Epiphyllums bloom in the spring on 2-3 year old potted plants and off and on during the 
year. This one has been blooming all summer and this bloom opened November 5th. However, the major blooming season for day blooming plants starts in late April, peaks in May and ends in June. During the other months of the year we are rewarded by the occasions “off season” bloom, especially from the 4″ top 2″ varieties.The blooms range from 2″ to 8″in size and the one you see here is 6″ in diameter. Related plants are rattail cacti, rhipsalis, hoyas, Thanksiving-Christmas Cactus, Easter Cactus, and Night Blooming Cereus. They are easy to grow in hanging pots. They need night time temperatures of 45-50 degrees during the winter, where they do not receive artificial light after sundown. This is necessary for bud formation to take place. Their favorite temperatures are 45-70 degrees. In my area they are put outside in part shade and temps in the high 80’s in the summer and in the downstairs up against sliding glass doors with temp 50-70 degrees and seem to do just fine. Repot each spring.
Variegated Fatsia – In Bloom Nov 1st to Dec 15th! Fatsia Japonica’ Variegata’
I am excited! Many of you may never have seen a Fatsia plant in bloom. I want to share it with you. This one is a show stopper in my yard and a tropical look for a broadleaf evergreen. I think everyone should find one and plant it to enjoy. It blooms when almost everything else has finished blooming. I think I have a few dahlias and a very few roses left in bloom. It also looks nothing like any other plant I have.
This is the variegated type of Fatsia. There is a dark plain green leaf type also which is the more common one. This variegated one is a beauty… 6′ tall, large 15″ palmate light cream and super dark variegated lobed, glossy leaves, needs some protection from the winds where we live, cold hardy, evergreen, and is a shade loving plant. The bees love it and there is little else blooming for them to enjoy. It is also fairly drought tolerant in zone 7A.
Here is a close up of the bloom. It is a 2.5″ sphere of small blooms. Some have opened and some have not. It ends up when open looking almost like a different version of dandy lion. On the single bloom photograph you can see the open blooms toward the bottom. There is a tiny flesh colored ball in the center with white back petals and long white stamen.
It has a few other names too like Japanese Aralia, False Castor-oil Plant, Fatsia Aralia, Aralia Japonica…plant names usually indicate their origins. Monrovia has one out called ‘Camoflage’.
If you are a plant nut like I am, this is a great plant pick. It is definitely uniquely interesting.
Reloading the Greenhouse Each Fall
When October 15th comes each year the major task is to reload the greenhouse with some 200+ plants!
Many of the orchids are in full spectacular bloom. Since they do have to come inside, they get to be the “show-off” specimens in the house for a while. Usually I try to leave them outside when they are in full bloom so they are not disturbed and drop their blooms.
Orchids bloom usually once a year; some bloom twice a year. There are over 7000 species and thousands of hybrids. When they bloom depends on what part of the world they came from and what their habitat was… and then we do our best to try to duplicate their original habitat to keep them happy so we can see their blooms where we live.
I am in Georgia and that means the orchids and tropicals have to go into a greenhouse or well-lit indoor circumstance for the colder months. Many growers in the Atlanta Orchid Club are set up with shelving and lighting to be able to grow in a room or in their basement. October 15th seems to be the date that they have to be indoors. Sometimes we get our first frost by Halloween. Most orchids prefer to be inside when the night temperatures drop below 50 degrees. Phalanopsis orchids don’t like it below 60 degrees and Dendrobium orchids can tolerate 40 degrees if they are dry. Tropical plants generally prefer 55 degrees as their low temperature. Before bringing them indoors spraying them with a systemic insecticide is important. In the winter months the fertilizer is used less frequently as some are more dormant.
My greenhouse is filled with plants and so is my home….there are plant friends just everywhere for my winter’s entertainment.
Three nests – Bird Lore
This is some bird lore… We all try to see the spring bird nests but they are elusive. We had the house hardy-boarded last month and when the workers took the gutters off of the house for the hardy-boarding to begin they found this nest in the gutter off the front living room window. I have no idea which bird made this nest but the interesting thing about it is that it is a very tight weave all around the top opening. The wren’s nest that is posted next is a very loose weave at the top rim. Maybe I will find out which little bird made this nest. The gutter was covered so it had to be a very little bird to be able to get into the gutter.
This is a wren’s nest from earlier this year that I saved. I may do a watercolor painting of it. I love the three little speckled eggs. I did wonder why she left them. This nest is really a pretty one. Each year there seems to be a game-on with the wrens to see who can get the nesting spots on the breezeway from the kitchen to the garage. It is an area where we do all the potting and repotting so there are shelves with many vases, jars, chemicals, pots, orchid supplies, hangers over a 12′ area. We usually house three to four families several times a year. I have a metal chicken on the banister of the breezeway backed up to a post and there is a nest in the backside/bottom area under the tail feathers the artist left open….now there is a wren’s nest in there.
This nest is an old one I have saved for 3 years and there is one tiny egg that was left in it. It is also a Carolina Wren’s nest. In this nest she tucked in quite a bit of moss for the soft spot. You can see some on the outside hanging out at upper right. There are many stairs that lead down the property to the lake that display mosses of various complicated names that she can choose from to make her nest appealing and “just right”.
There are so many wrens in my yard that I named my In-Home Gallery, Working Studio, Teaching Facility & Office, “Wren Hill Gallery”. It is the whole downstairs that looks out at the water. We live on a 33 acre lake down a steep hill nestled in by the trees at lakeside….you are invited…..come visit.