Poppy Seed Buns

This past week, I made some poppy seed rolls from poppies grown in our flower bed. We clearly had eaten much of this roll before I got around to taking a picture of it. It just was that good. I decided to make this recipe because it used the most poppy seeds of the recipes I had found. We still have a few more cups of seeds in the freezer, thanks to resident-lawnmower-man's fastidious poppy-seed-picking in the last few years. P. somniferum makes a generous amount of seeds, and collection is quite easy. I find it interesting that different color flowers make different colors of seeds, all in shades of grey to black. Most of all, the taste of the seeds was fantastic! The other flowers may have the looks, but these ones pack the flavour too!

Latest Flowers - Still Time to Bloom!

The season may be creeping ever so close to the first snow fall, but the flowers are still making an appearance in the perennial garden. Few leaves are left on the trees, and the bare red stems of the Siberian dogwoods are looking fantastic.
Morning sun on the yard:

The fall aster (A. dumosus "Alert") produces many flowers, though I give no thought to this plant in the rest of the year, neglecting it while the spring and summer flowers are putting on a show. Now, I wish I had a whole garden of bright fall asters.
Aster dumosus "Alert":

"Pink beauty" Potentilla still has some fresh blooms too:


I got this tiny primula from a friend, who grew them from seed she obtained in a Rock Garden Society seed exchange. I believe this is Primula scotica, though if you have a better idea, let me know. I know that it is winter hardy here (which rules out many varieties), as this is its second year and it has self-seeded to make several new plants for me. It usually produces flowers in clusters on stems held above the plant, but I can forgive it for hugging close to the ground in this cold.
Pretty little primula with farinose buds and stems:

I cut down my Martha Washington geranium (Pelargonium domesticum) and made this whole tray of cuttings for next year's plants. The original plant is in the pot on the left. I think I'll grow a bunch of these next year. Of course, that will depend on the success of my cuttings! My grandfather moved into a seniors' complex this past year and had to leave behind all his geraniums and and winters spent coddling geranium cuttings under lights. Hopefully I'll have a deck full of these beauties next year and Grandpa can check my blog posts for the pictures! The pot on the right contains cuttings from a pink "tulip geranium", a variety whose flowers look like clusters of tulip buds, as they never open. I dip the cuttings in Wilson's Root Stimulating gel before putting them in the sterile seed-starting mix mixed with additional perlite.
Geranium propagation:

Finally, these delphiniums appear to be a bit out of sync with the season, but possibly will produce a second set of flowers for me before they are dumped on with snow!

Buried the Bulbs

"Burial mound" daffodil planting:

My bulbs came in the mail from Botanus earlier this week. I had picked the tried-and-true varieties, neglecting the fancy and expensive novelty bulbs that are likely to bring disappointment. While most of the bulbs did not appear nor flower this spring (due to terrible cold last winter), I still hold out some hope. I think I see some daffodil and muscari foliage in a few places and hope that they will flower again next year after taking a year's sabbatical. I poured half a bag of steer manure over each of the plantings, hoping it will insulate the underground investments.
Perennials among the colorful fall shrubs:

The shrub on the background left is a compact highbush cranberry (Virburnum trilobum). It took about 4 years to start making some berries. The major purpose of these berries is to look nice in winter, and maybe feed some birds. They certainly aren't very tasty.
Thick fog this morning - dock on Lac La Ronge:

The weather has been fairly warm in the last few days. This may be the reason why the blackflies are making a resurgence. During the two days of bulb planting, I've had several bites on the face, inhaled one, and swallowed several. Even the DEET-rich Muskol didn't help me, but left me with that special eau-de-northern Canada.