Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Snowdrop Update and Blog Tinkering
Thought I'd show you how the snowdrops fared after my Bloom Day post.
We got a surprise snowstorm on Thursday - about 4 or 5 inches. Oh well.......it is winter.
Shirl kindly provided a link to a video showing how to plant snowdrops in-the-green, and that got me started snowdrop surfing. I turned up some interesting web pages. Several of these mention Hitch Lyman, who is seemingly the only purveyor of snowdrops in-the-green in the US. If you know of any others, please share.
- Cold Climate Kathy's post about snowdrops and Hitch Lyman prompted me to send for his catalog a couple of years ago.
- Last March the Washington Post's garden editor wrote about snowdrops, Hitch Lyman, and The March Bank at Winterthur.
- The Transatlantic Plantsman has a photo of a very enviable stand of snowdrops - escaped from cultivation. Maybe that's the secret - toss them in a ditch and see what grows.
I've been doing some tinkering around the edges of the blog. My right-column blogroll had gotten very out of sync with my reading habits - I had been using Bloglines but came to prefer Google Reader and so didn't keep the Bloglines list up-to-date. I'm still working on merging the two lists. And I changed the format to try to make it easier to read, but that typeface looks rather small to my aging eyes.
Yesterday while looking for something else, I came across a snippet of Blogger template code to display the name of each commenter on the main page (i.e. you don't have to click the "comment" link to see who has commented). I tried it out, but I'm not sure whether I like it or not. One of the things I don't like is that the commenter's name isn't linked to the comment, but to the commenter's Blogger profile page (or some other web page in the case of non-Blogger commenters). We're getting into the political season here in the US and polls are all the rage everywhere, so how about helping me decide this issue?
11 Comments:
It's kind of interesting to see this on other sites, but I worry about getting too much clutter on my site, so I'll resist it personally. I suppose it's a way of showing new visitors what sort of feedback and discussion we get.
Jodi: I'm sensitive to the clutter issue too, and I don't particularly like Blogger attaching its logo to Blogger user names either. Depending on what other feedback I get, I'll probably leave it as is for now, and then see if I can tweak it more to my liking.
I envy your snowdrops even under 5 inches of snow, Entangled ... and now have Yolanda's green-tips to make me green with jealousy, too.
I've seen sidebars displaying the latest commenters with links on other blogs- not sure what the point is if this version only links to the profile.
I also sometimes wish my template had 3 columns like yours, but I have only one sidebar. Tinkering and tweaking, however, is beyond me... I had to email Dawn in Austin just to figure out how to get the Spring Fling badge on my page, and it was embarrassingly simple.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
It seems that many gardenbloggers are tinkering with their blogs at the mo. ;-)Happy tweaking!
It's a pity your snowdrops disappeared under a thick layer of snow but they will poke their little heads out soon enough, I hope.
It's not so easy to find different varieties of snowdrops here either. I have bought them as bulbs but only from a very reputable bulbgrower (Rita van der Zalm, she has a website). Otherwise I buy them in the green, preferably when they are still in flower to make sure that I get the right variety.
Annie: I've seen the "latest comments in the sidebar" thing too, but I have a feeling that only works with the new Blogger layouts, which I can't use because my blog isn't hosted on blogspot. I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know ;-) Anyhow, I think Kylee just redesigned her blog with a 3-column layout and wrote up the experience.
I used to be a programmer so I'm pretty comfortable fiddling with the code. Just holler if you want any help with technical issues.
Yolanda Elizabet: I think it's the blog-redesign season.
That particular clump of snowdrops is flattened after last week's snow and more expected today. I'll keep looking for the next ones to pop up.
I'm headed off to look up Rita van der Zalm just as soon as I finish typing this ;-)
Thanks, Entangled...think I'll leave any redesign for sometime when I'm bored. I saw Kylee's helpful series yesterday - should bookmark it!
The sidebar comment format that I'd noticed wasn't on blogger - it's on Typepad blogs like Hank the Lake County Clerk and Pam's Tales from the Laboratory in SC. They look good and seem to work well, and it's easier to know whether there have been new comments on a revisit.
In Illinois once the clumps of snowdrops had a couple of years to bulk up it was easy to pull a few out and relocate them right after blooming. Maybe they're still growing in that garden.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I have always thought snow drops were so pretty, never grown any, but I will have to...they must be tough..under five inches of snow..wow~that's my kinda plant! We got snow thursday too..we are down in a valley..we got 8 inches and sleet on top of that...it was snowing earlier today,~just a dusting ! As for the blogger thing, It seems ok ..but I wouldnt add it to mine...afraid of the clutter thing and slowing the site down...
Have a good day!
Cat
You've got to love snowdrops! They are the first to make their appearance and they smell so sweet!
Annie: No wonder I couldn't see how to do the sidebar comment thing on Blogger! I've thought about switching to another blogging platform, but feel somewhat wedded to Blogger at this point.
I may try to tease a few of the snowdrop bulbs out of that clump and move them around, but I really hate to disturb it much when it's so happy.
Catherine: Thanks for the feedback on the comment thing - the general consensus seems to be that it doesn't add very much the way it is now. On the weather service website I noticed most of the snow accumulation was west of Charlottesville - we didn't have anywhere near that much east of Charlottesville, but the snow in northern Virginia was fairly heavy and is still here. We didn't add to it yesterday, thankfully.
Layanee: Come to think of it, I don't believe I've ever cut a snowdrop flower to bring in the house! That's about the only way I'd ever get to sniff one ;-) I've read of people placing mirrors beneath the flowers to better admire them, but that would be an indoor activity for me too. Maybe I'll cut some from the next clump that blooms.
Just be careful when you tweak your site. Broken code can be a nightmare to find...I unfortunately speak from experience. :(
Cool to see some snow. We've had only a dusting all winter.
Ki: I didn't realize NJ had escaped the snow. I think it'll all be melted early next week, but there are still patches here and there. I'd be happy if this is all we're going to see this winter.
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