Spring Surprises!

  • Post published:05/10/2011
  • Post comments:5 Comments

My orchid cactus lives in our main living space so it does not get the proper conditions to put on a real bloomin' show, but every once it a while it gives us a glamorous surprise. I was out in the garden enjoying the sun, and the breezes which meant no pesky bugs. While I was weeding the Herb Garden I saw that the chervil which self seeds several times over the summer is already up. And then…

Spring Showers

  • Post published:04/29/2011
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It is so warm and showery out today that I couldn't resist putting some of the houseplants on the piazza for a little trimming and showering. See how green the grass is?

A Surprise

  • Post published:04/27/2011
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I picked these Van Sion daffodils myself, and son Chris and Michelle brought these beautiful tulips to put on the Easter dining table, but the surprise came when I went to water the houseplants and saw that the little geranium plant I salvaged last fall had suddenly sent up a lovely blossom that was all but lost in the dead foliage of the jasmine.  A surprise is always welcome when it is so pretty and pink. Can you…

Bloom Day March 2011

  • Post published:03/15/2011
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You must all know that the abutilon is blooming this Bloom Day, as it always is.  The only other blooms I have are  Narcissus bulbocodium conspicuus, and Baby Moon miniature daffodils from Brent and Becky's bulbs. I brought the more floriferous pot to church on Sunday and left them there in the hopes that there would still be a good amount of bloom for next Sunday. It is wonderful to have such a sign of spring to share…

I Am Fascinated

  • Post published:02/18/2011
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After Bloom Day, wanting to preserve the tulip blossoms as much as possible in order to use them Sunday at church, I moved the pot of Pieter de Leur into the sitting room which is very cool. This is where my few houseplants live all winter. The jasmine dries up slowly over the season, but when I cut it back it always revives with the arrival of warm weather. I have been fascinated watching these forced bulbs as…

Blooming on February 15

On this Bloom Day I have slightly more to show than usual.  The large tulip blossom in the photo is just about ready to fall apart, but you can see three more blossoms will carry on. These grape hyacinths are sharing a pot with the little hoop daffodil. The revelation for me is how much foliage comes along with the grape hyacinths.  I have another tiny pot of muscari on the windowsill by my bed. All the bulbs…

Carry on Cyclamen

  • Post published:01/11/2011
  • Post comments:3 Comments

As you can see from the photo I am not skilled at carrying over a cyclamen. I buy one or two in November or early December, and they look great right through and past Valentine's Day. But once they lose all their blossoms and start to wilt all over I never know quite what to do.  Today I got my e-leaflet from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and saw the clearest directions for handling cyclamen after bloom that I…

Bloom Day – December 2010

It isn't quite Christmas so it is no surprise that the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) is mostly fat pink buds. As usual my angelwing begonia has a very few pink blossoms. Along with my dependable and ever blooming abutilon these plants are now in our bedroom in the beneath the west window, but very near the south window. This room is very bright during the day, and very cool at night. We had to move plants from the…

Fragrance on the Windowsill

  • Post published:12/11/2010
  • Post comments:1 Comment

Fragrance in the garden is very important to me. This is easy to arrange in the outdoor  garden where I can grow lilacs, dianthus, mock orange, Oriental lilies, night scented stocks and honeysuckle as well as my hardy roses. Fragrance in the indoor garden is a little harder to come by, but scented pelargoniums, commonly called geraniums, provide many fragrances.  It is not the flowers that are fragrant; indeed most scented geraniums have modest flowers. It is the…

A Little Bit of Bloom Day

This Abutilon or parlor maple, or flowering maple, whichever you prefer, has probably appeared on Bloom Day more often than any other plant. It is almost always in bloom. I put it outdoors on the shady piazza for the summer, but it spends most of the year in my upstairs bedroom by a west window, but the room is bright with two big south windows. The temperature may occasionally get close to 70 degrees on a winter day,…