A December Peek at Tomatoes and Hyacinths and Things

We've moved into typical Gulf Coast December weather, where there's fog at night and mist in the daytime. He-Who wonders about these things could not decide why we had no tomatoes in the fall.

Sure enough, as soon as night-time temperatures fell, we commenced to see small tomatoes.  Pollen fails in heat. There are tomatoes that set fruit in hot weather but few are indeterminate types, which are necessary for continued growth and fruit set over months, even years.

Tomatoes are sharing space with Thanksgiving Cacti in bloom.

Holiday Cacti are sharing space with Hyacinths. My hyacinth trials using last years' bulbs that were allowed to grow on in their little pots were a success considering that many of them did set buds and bloom again after chill; a failure as far as size.

 They have as great a fragrance as ever despite the small size and sparse blossoms. The bulbs will go into the garden after blooms fade.

Arrowhead vine and Foxtail fern keep company with Chlorophytum and a bromeliad decorated with a begonia flower.

Areca palm culm that I pulled out of the big pot by accident has made another plant. Rooted Persian  Shield with Purple Heart and Purple Jew are crowded in with Begonias and Dark Alternanthera that grows in pots and in the floor at will.

Still outside awaiting a freeze to encourage dormancy are potted Agapanthus.

Inside, I'm waiting for the sun to shine. Maybe I'll make a fruitcake today.

Birds in a Nest for Foliage Follow Up

New foliage is sprouting out everywhere, inside and out.

Birds Nest Fern with new Birds. This one loves a little shade.

Bromeliad with a friend.

A closer look at froggie.

What? Oh, yes. Foliage.

Stobilanthes and Purple Heart cuttings are about ready to go in the ground. 

Bloom Day in the Greenhouse

Just a peek at a few blossoms.

Begonias are usually a sure thing for blooms.

Stunning in red, they are pretty in pink, too.

Mistletoe Cactus Rhipsalis has fat buds about to open.

There are white Begonia blooms at lower left, just so you

know I have white, too.  Amaryllis bulbs are slow so this

is as close to a bloom as I have, a fat Benfica bud.

Behind are Kalanchoes just coming into bloom and you 

can see tomatoes in the back ground. I picked 3, ripe.

Tomatoes are still blooming too.

Spider plant entered into the spirit of things with little

white blooms on long, long stems.

Chlorophytum comosum blooms, little spiders on the ends.

First of Pentas cuttings to bloom. Ready for Spring.

 Usually there are blue conehead blooms on Persian Shield in late winter. Only Purple Heart has blooms so far. They are in separate pots but jammed in together willy nilly under a bench for a little shade.

Hyacinths are blooming outside while these just kind of 

took their time. At least the buds were not killed when I 

put them in a refrigerator to chill where there was fruit. 

I dressed the pots with moss as the Swedish do.

Winter is not over. These will be wonderful in bloom.

Join the fun at May Dreams Gardens on Sunday to see what's blooming in gardens everywhere. 

If you haven't a bloom to show, rush out and buy an orchid plant. They are not nearly as difficult as you've been led to believe. The one I bought before Christmas has just shed its last bloom and my older plants have new bloom stalks emerging, one with fat buds the size of grapes. I keep mine in the house in an east-facing window.

Greenhouse Update, a Sort of Peek

I rearranged the Burro Tails:

Bromeliad Tree below with a drape of Spanish Moss. I gathered more Spanish Moss yesterday that was in easy reach while I waited for the end of the chain-sawing/moving trees that He-Who-Mows and Saws was completing. I have not found a good place to hang it that doesn't look awkward. Maybe I'll just put it outside for birds to line their nests without flying nearly a mile to find some.

Schlumbergera pots below with varying stages of buds in all colors. Larger pots are on the floor in front of Bromeliad tree above.

... and bits and pieces of rooted cuttings and seedlings that almost got left outside when I was moving things around.

Looking through a mess of stems above of leggy Graptopetalum and Firecracker Fern stems into a jungle of Tomato stems and fruit. If I can remember to keep oceans of water to the Russellia it will bloom little red firecrackers all winter, below.

When cuttings like this 'take' I want to rush out ahead of the coming freeze and take more cuttings to stick. Persian Shield is tricky to root; Purple Heart will almost root without a medium.

I gave away a good pot of rooted Alternanthera 'Chartreuse' on Monday and immediately pinched two more pots full to root, and some Red. I gathered Pentas seeds yesterday. I didn't think Pentas were easy from seeds until they started coming up in the greenhouse floor.

It's a grey day outside. Maybe we'll have a little rain. There's a cold wind blowing "right out of the North" as Daddy Mack used to say, as if 'right out of the North' was somehow more disagreeable (Mama's term) than 'from' the North. How did your folks describe cold weather?

Thanksgiving Cactus?

Potting Up Foliage Cuttings

When I went to look after He-Who Mowed went around the edges of flower beds, he'd gone a bit close here. Chartreuse Alternanthera was clipped off and covered with grass clippings. Most of Melampodium was gone, not a great loss since it volunteers where it will and gets left to bloom undisturbed until the mower comes by.

After the Mower.

If I'd gone out and edged the beds the way they needed, everything would still be neat and pretty. Heat and humidity made me a lazy gardener. 

Chartreuse properly edged and mulched.

I picked up the best of what would make cuttings and stuck some Chartreuse pieces in a pot of soil; the longer pieces went into a mug of water. 

Last September's cuttings. I am a week ahead.

Fairly long pieces of Setcreasea went into a vase of water. I want another long container of Purple Heart cuttings to grow over and hang down like a waterfall but I was not ready to prepare that just yet.

Last Spring's box of Purple Heart and Persian Shield.

I want Purple Heart to hang down like a waterfall.

Maybe I could just dig up the above where I planted it out.

I still have to edge those beds.

Outside for Summer, Line Up for Haircuts

Burro Tails and Mistletoe Cactus. I saw these displayed together on Martha Stewart's blog. Of course her burros have 4 foot tails and the Rhipsalis matches that length and there was a Selloum Philodendron.

My mistletoes would be happier in bigger pots and I will oblidge.

 Last year this was a single Tillandsia cyanea, now three. The stem from the bloom of the original plant is just visible in the center. I gave it a tug; it is firmly attached. I like these Viet Nam pots. I put the Cycad seedling in one that matches this one. It is already outside with the Christmas Cactuses.

I brought over one of the pots of Chlorophytum comosum, Asparagus densiflora 'Myersii' and a white Begonia from the Front Garden. I've had this pot for more than 30 years. The patina is real.

 Purple Heart and Persian Shield have almost outgrown their planter. A haircut will do the Setcreasea good, getting those bare stems off. There are more of these in the greenhouse. Sometimes I get carried away with cuttings.

Another candidate for a haircut: Firecracker Fern. This Rusellia also has split ends. Its graptopetalum companion has some leggy stems, too. If there wasn't a water source very near, I would never have brought all these out so far from the house to seek shade. 

I've far too many plants in pots and lots of them are asking for division or haircuts and rooting the trimmings. I am afraid to pick up any pots of Christmas Cactus -- I know they have roots sticking out of their drainage holes. I bumped up a half dozen that were in really tiny pots.

My immediate goal is to get everything out of the greenhouse before the temperatures get really unbearable.   

Bloom Day, Inside and Out

Orchids from last year have come back into bloom, well, one is blooming.

The other has a bloom stalk with tiny buds if you look closely.

These, another orchid in a glass cyclinder, a Spathiphyllum and a Pothos are

my only house plants. The Peace Lily signals to water Orchids when it wilts.

Outside the greenhouse, I am trying to make a White Garden.

Candytuft is as white as it gets. I've had Iberis for 40 years, 

started as cuttings from a late friend's Garden.

I planted out white Hyacinths forced in pots of soil this year.

Miss Winnie gave me white Iris last year. We don't know where the

Purple came from, probably a seedling among the white.

Inside the greenhouse, this box of Purple Heart and Persian Shield are

cuttings that I intended to plant out. I think I'll keep them in a container.

Strobilanthese blooms in the greenhouse. Once in a while I get blooms

during the summer. They are a novelty.

Mistletoe Cactus Rhipsalis put on buds.

Rhipsalis bloom and buds.

Easter Cactus in bud. At left is a bloom of Firecracker Fern.

Rhipsalidopsis buds. Maybe they'll bloom by Easter.

Appleblossom Amaryllis are not only lovely, they have a sweet

fragrance, rare in hippeastrums. Benfica has another bud about to open.

The tall Appleblossom is in its third year of bloom. Three of the others

are new this year and I forget whether the one in bud is Appleblossom

or maybe another color, from a previous year.

Angel Wing Begonias. Several cuttings in a pot make a big show.

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