Walk down memory lane with Lancers

Remember Lancers wine?

It's still around, but it's maybe just not quite as cool as it was back in the '70s. 

The lightly sparkling wine, produced by a Portuguese winery, was first introduced in the 1940s.

If you go to the Lancers website it has some really cool-looking beatnick cartoon characters enjoying the wine in a variety of settings.

If you were looking closely during last week's episode of Mad Men, Joan had a bottle of Lancers on the table when she was hosting her out-of-town guest to a home-cooked meal. 

Such a sweet rose might not be the biggest influence in the au courant wine palate, but it has been making a comeback lately. It's an especially appropriate time for it to be doing so — those long, hot summer days beg for a lighter form of refreshment than a red wine. 

I remember my art teacher would bring the bottles into class and we would use them for candle art projects. Remember the ones where you light different color candles and drip the wax on the bottle layer after layer? 

Those vintage bottles are still sought-after collectibles.

They're great as vases or just decorative standalone pieces.

The shape of the bottles, the colors, are still so cool.

Some of the bottles are ceramic, some painted glass; they can range from $4 a bottle to $40 or $50 a bottle for some of the really old bottles.

And then there are the accessories.

I ran across what I think is a Lancers cutting board and an old advertisement from a magazine that I had framed to go with the other Lancers stuff.

I found a clay Lancers wine cooler on eBay listed at $28.00.  

Lancers wine brings back a lot of memories

Enjoy yourself this weekend and enjoy some memories of times past as you enjoy a favorite glass of wine this weekend. Lancers pairs well with any walk down memory lane. 

Wine gardening in the sky

A bottle of wine, a gardening activity — wine gardening is wine gardening, even at 30,000 feet.

Flying isn't stressful
when you're prepared.

Thursday is the day that many newspapers include home and garden sections.

My local paper includes a garden calendar that features plant sales at local gardens that include native plants, gardening classes on everything from water-wise landscaping to sculpture gardening and tours of local residential and community gardens — and most of it's free or have nominal costs.

There are also local gardening experts (good because I'm not one) who answer questions, interview local gardeners and profile plants that work well in your area. 

Other papers with national distribution like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are good gardening resources — Thursday is a good day for garden planning activity, especially if you're on a plane or somewhere that you can't be in your garden. 

How do you use flowers to decorate a room? 

The artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris may be providing tips for arranging flowers for different spots throughout your home — day lilies are my favorite.  

While you're seeing your gardening
plans in full color,
you can enjoy a glass of cabernet. 

Options for color from spring through first frost are offered in color pictures — begonias, hostas and coleus, one of my favorites. Coleus will last into the late summer and provide a blast of color when many other plants have given up, and the newer shade-loving varieties are great in containers on a patio.

And there's wine on the plane for when you're planning your gardening.

Airplane selections are generally limited to one or two; the white one or the red one.

The red on a plane I was on recently was Backhouse, a cabernet.

It comes in a small plastic bottle on the plane, but it's actually a nice California wine you can probably find at a local market for under $12 — well worth it.

Remember: One of the great things about wine gardening is that it is a portable activity. 

You can enjoy wine gardening in many ways and in many different places. 

This way, with a newspaper, and this place, on a plane, was just great for a spring time Thursday afternoon. 

I hope you can find a great place and a great way to enjoy some wine gardening this weekend.  

Taking the show on the road

Last week the daytime population of Round Top grew from 90 to thousands. 

Dealers are lined up along Highway 237 that runs from close to Carmine through Round Top and on to Warrenton and traffic is stacked like rush hour in a major metropolitan area starting at about 2 p.m. each afternoon as visitors try to navigate from show to show or head back to the bed and breakfast.  

At every show, you see many of the same dealers who have been coming to the same spot for years.

There are certain dealers I visit each time, like this one.

You can find some interesting garden art that you can use in your garden beds or your containers. 

I picked these glass flowers up for $4 each. If you ever found something like that at your local nursery, it would probably cost 3 or 4 times that much.

I like to use insulators in the garden and on the patio.

I've seen a lot of serious insulator collectors on the Internet and prices can range into the hundreds of dollars. You can pick these up on the dollar tables at flea markets like Round Top. The bigger ones can cost from $3 to $10.

The green and blue tinted glass picks up the sun and they are a nice addition to your garden or patio with some stones or succulents added or even just sitting empty.

And then there's the food and drinks, something to keep you occupied as you walk through the different shows.

The food there is great — not good for you — but great anyway.

Barbeque brisket and pimiento cheese sandwiches at the Legal Tender Saloon are about the best I've ever had.

You can also get good Tex-Mex and just about anything fried you would care to try.

And of course, there's wine.

The wine is good — not great — but good.

There are several places along the way to pick up a glass or two to enjoy as you walk by the dealers' booths. 

My favorite is Zapp Hall; there's always something going on there.

It's almost the weekend again. 

I can see that winter is holding on in much of the country, but I hope you're able to get out and do some winegardening this weekend.

I know I am.

The Wine Gardener goes to the flea market

In my last post I wrote about the plumerias I had been overwintering and how I had picked some of them up at a flea market. 

Plumerias at a flea market. 

 A couple of the plumerias I have now were the size of those in this box (left) when I bought them.

You take them home, fill a container with dirt, stick them in the dirt, give them a little water and sunshine and in no time they're growing.

Very low maintenance — and by mid-summer you will really enjoy them.

Speaking of flea markets, I'm headed to the Round Top Antiques Fair this week in Round Top.

Round Top is one of the largest flea market/antique shows in the country. The show is held every spring and fall, rain or shine, but it looks like the weather is going to be great the rest of this week and into the weekend.

If you have a chance to go some time, it's definitely worth it.

Yard and garden art, plants and containers, antiques and collectibles, so many things you never knew you needed. 

At Round Top Antiques Fair, you can find all kinds of accessories for your garden.

And there are shops and stands in many locations throughout the show that serve up great food, music ... and wine.

In my last blog I mentioned i was trying a new Malbec, Alambrado.

I opened it Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a glass while I was arranging all the plants I brought back from my storage space.

I generally like a red wine that is on the dry side of the taste scale — this one was perfect.

I'll bring some pictures of my flea market finds back next week and let you know if I run across any tasty new wines.

If you've ever been to Round Top I'd like to hear about your experiences there.