It Is Goiing to Freeze

No matter how I prepare for the inevitable freeze, I am always out at the end of the day, getting ready. Irrigation buckets were stripped of their standpipes and the covers put into place, I just turned the sprinkler pipes over so the holes were at the bottom and left them near the cabbages and broccoli. Have I mentioned broccoli starting to flower? I drained one hose and put it away, leaving two open-ended and outside. We will have warm days again after Friday.

I picked a last Gerbera daisy blossom, bright in the late sunlight. I cut the last red Pentas and some stems of red Shrimp plant. They're all in water for a greenhouse bouquet of which some may root. I cut stems of Pineapple Sage and put them in a bottle of water. The salvia that I cut two weeks ago has already rooted. More red blooms for the greenhouse, as I can't bear to see all of it freeze so I keep bringing in more pieces of things that may or may not root. I was so tempted by Persian Shield and Purple Heart, both of which are already rooted in the greenhouse.

 

While I was cutting, I cut enough red Josephs' Coat to fill a mug. The little pieces I stripped off the bottom I stuck in a 6-cell tray, more than one piece to a cell. You can't have too many Alternanthera plants, come spring and they keep over very well in soil or water so I do both because I like to see a coffee mug filled with rooting stems.

As I was typing, I remembered two Gerbera Daisy pots, one with a bud, and the cat's Lemon Grass pot left out in the cold, rushed out and thrust them in the greenhouse. It's 40 degrees with a low of 28 predicted. The air is still and it doesn't seem so cold as when the wind was blowing yesterday between rain showers.

I brought in a pot of fern and another pot with both fern and Cardamon Ginger in it just because I can't bear to see them freeze and I never took time to put them in the ground where they could survive a freeze.

 

My palm is too big for the house, so it went to the greenhouse. I brought a blooming red Schlumbergera into the house.  There's a tiny mitten sprout on the stem of one of the orchids.

Indoor joys! 

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