82-LancMtar Farming, Saturday, January 25, 1997 On Being a Farm Wife (and other ' hazards) Joyce Bupp In July, we overlook them in all their abundance. But in January, highlighted by the glisten of ice just beyond the windows, a colorful blossom on a plant offers cheery promise of far away springtime. Prized far more because of their scarcity, each bloom poking jauntily above green foliage is welcomed like a special friend. Reigning above the other plants scattered about the windowsills is a stately amaryllis, its lily-white blooms, five-plus-inches across, poking out the top of a bare, green stalk. The amaryllis’ bare bulb WHITEWASHING with ADVANTAGE FARM WHITE • DRIES WHITE •NO WET FLOORS • IS COMPATIBLE WITH DISINFECTANT AND FLY SPRAYS • DOES NOT RUB OFF EASILY • WASHES OFF WINDOWS & PIPELINES EASILY A BARN CLEANING i SERVICE AVAILABLE WITH COMPRESSED AIR To have yoir bam cleaned with air it will , clean off dust, cob webs & lots of the old , lime. This will keen vrair ham Inn Lino r cleaner & whiter longer. -atN [ CALL US ABOUT ON THE FARM FLY CONTROL Serving Southeastern Pa. And More BBITZBL’S SPRAYING Witmer, PA 17585 717-392-7227 or Toll Free 1-800-727-7228 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM CERTIFIED COMMERCIAL APPLICATORS 32 Years Experience INSURED 5 Trucks For Air Cleaning And Whitewashing RADIO DISPATCHED TRUCKS Barn Spraying 1$ Our Business, not a sideline. Spraying Since 1961 I Cooking Oils, Funnel Cake Mix, Pancake & Waffle Mix & GOOD FOOD INC. L&S SWEETENERS W. Main St. Box 160 fWf 388 E. Main St. Honey Brook, PA 19344 Leola Pa 17540 610-273-3776 717-656-3486 1-800-327-4406 1-800-633-2676 WMAL Accepted • We Ship UPS Daily was a holiday gift from our daughter, arriving all packaged in its own pre-planted pot. Just add water and stir ... as the instant food-mix instructions would say. While watering on one of the coldest (hopefully THE coldest) morning of the winter, I discov ered slivers of ice in the drip saucer under the amaryllis’ plastic pot. Just the thing that a semi tropical bulb needs on a sub-zero degree morning. Luckily, I had just minutes before brought from the bam office several sheets of styrofoam wrapping. Moving plants to tuck the styrofoam insu- r See Our Original Line Of Golden Barrel Product Plus All Kinds Of Beans, Candies, Dried Fruit, Snack Mix, Etc. At Reduced Prices If your local store does not have it... SEND FOR FREE BROCHURE lation beneath, I admired one that is die very essence of early spring. A clump of clear pink and white blooms rises up from the prim rose’s neat rosette of foliage, each with a starlike center of yellow. Some years, primroses of assorted colors have brightened the kitchen windowsills, each brought up from the greenhouse in turn as they began blooming. But the only primroses on the place this winter were the ones bunk oed down under the ice layer at the comer of the house. When the neighborhood supermarket ran a sale on them recently, I added one to my cart My mistake. I should have gotten a couple. On the sill behind the kitchen sink blooms ail assortment of African violets, some raised from other years, a few purchased at another bargain sale. African vio lets are persnickety plants and my luck with them over the years woe poor. Then, I read a few years ago never to summer them at an open window. It works for me. A pink blossomed-one with purple polka dots remains my favorite, but a blue-violet and white picoteed one is running a close near-freezing on zero mornings to 70 degrees a few hours later on a sunshiny day. Also oblivious to the temperature changes are the pots of paperwhite narcissus bulbs, which open the most wonderfully-fragrant blooms at the top of the tail, thin stalks. Heartiest of anything in the greenhouse is unfortunately a rat, or family of them, that has claimed winter housing rights, excavating homes under the stone wall. Mounds of dirt and gravel testify to some intense burrow building and have made a real mess of the graveled floor. Through this cold, dark, mid winter weather, the foliage and blooms of the windowsills and the greenhouse offer a sure boost for the spirit and morale. And I have no intention of sharing that with a rat. ronment which may swing from Here kitty, kitty, kitty... second. Wintering on a west window blessed with afternoon sunshine is a collection of juvenile impatiens plants, some of them sporting blooms of red, pink or fuschia. They were fall cuttings, rooted during September’s warmth, and sheltered in the greenhouse until recent weeks. The move to the house was designed to hasten their growth, developing larger plants from which more cuttings can be started by early spring. It may prove to be the only impatiens left of a couple dozen originally moved in for the winter. With only minimal heat in the greenhouse, the bitter cold snap took its toll on the warmth loving impatiens. Faring better are several hale and hearty geraniums, durable survivors in the under-glass envi- got mi k?
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