Rearranging the Greenhouse

This is from 2015, a post that never saw the light of day. Now that the greenhouse is smashed by Hurricane Michael, it's comforting to find these photos and what I had to say three years ago.

Children, do not try this at home. If you have a greenhouse layout that works, arranged over time by trial and error do not decide it can be improved.

I got the notion that turning the shelving on the left at right angles into the center of the room the way I had it in 2013 was a great idea.

2013

I can't remember why I decided to move the shelves against the wall after I moved the potting bench to the back part of the greenhouse.

Today I moved every plant in the northwest corner outside. I put many of them into the bed of the Mule and the rest around on the ground, some in shade.

Here are views of the bromeliad tree after other plants were out. 

There's a tiny volunteer over in the corner that looks like a shrimp plant.

I kept cutting off the top, like cutting off people's heads in photos.

All are Neoregelias except for the Spanish Moss. Some are solid green because they were in shade. The old plant between the two little green broms on the right finally all died and I picked off that last dried leaf today.

The foliage at upper right belongs to an Epiphyllum.

The brom tree takes up 4 square feet of floor space even when it is crowded, a lot of real estate in a 120 sq ft room.

This evening after I got everything leveled, I came in and told He-who-Mows that it was a mistake to let those plants out in the sunshine for an afternoon. "They multiplied and had babies and now there isn't room for everything," I wailed. He laughed. I am still not satisfied with the present arrangement. 

It isn't that there are any more plants, but I was not able to rearrange so there is more room. Yet. One of the inconveniences of old age is the amount of time things take.

There will be more plants. Every time I breathed on the Burro Tails moving them back and forth, little beans fell off. I finally stopped picking them up but several got flung into pots with other little beans forming plants.

2013. Those little orange bits are Violas from seed. 

How I love to look at previous years' seedlings and cuttings.

I have pineapple sage cuttings again this year.

2018 note: I rescued some bromeliad pups when I was last there and put them in pots of soil in a safe place. I hope they take root. Otherwise I'll start over one day next year or the next when there is a place and time to do so.

Another Peek into the Greenhouse

The heaters are unplugged. Tonight's low above 40º leads into a week of temps above 50º -- we do have ups and downs.

 Bloggers have discussed recently about whether their Schlumbergeras are Thanksgiving or Christmas Cactus.

With careful choosing and the least bit of manipulation of light, water and temperature you might produce a Thanksgiving Cactus and others for Advent,
Hanukkuh, Christmas and Boxing Day.

The Schlumbergera behind this pink one have buds of varying sizes, none about to open.

I'll spare you another look at my Tomato Plant that reaches to the roof. Cold has delayed ripening but the fruits look super.

I tugged at a culm of an Areca Palm this summer and it came out of the pot. It's putting on new fronds. You know how I am about every little piece of anything not being tossed aside?

Bromeliad tree. I didn't step back far enough to get the top.

These two little fellows still have a piece of their dead mother attached.

They are in too much shade to have bright color.

A house full of all one kind of Bromeliad is kind of overwhelming. The ones in pots demand a lot of room. I almost let one over behind other plants die for lack of water. Maybe I don't have to save every little pup. I am surprised that Spanish Moss seems content hanging with the Neoregelias.

When it was too cold to play outdoors I did a lot of reading about ways of keeping plants through the winter. A sunny window will carry lots of plants as will a grow light. Gardeners will find a way.

Cat and Skin and Put It All In

Mama used to say when she was sewing and had less material than the pattern called for, if she could arrange the pieces just so and maybe piece a pattern part, "Cat and skin and put it all in," meaning she'd managed to have barely enough fabric.

Yesterday's greenhouse cleaning was going great until a thunderstorm blew in and interrupted. This morning when I went out to clean some more, a keen wind was blowing. As I admired my clean shelf of yellow cache pots and thought about where Bromeliads would go, seeing the Epiphyllum at right reminded me that there were 5 more Epis to bring in, some with buds.

 Buds!

These buds had really grown since I last took a good look.

I managed to squeeze them in to display best bud effect.

As I admired four pots in place, I remembered...

\

There was another small, gangly pot to place!

I squeezed in the last pot.

I climbed on a stool for an aerial view of the Bromeliad

tree and how it fits among the jungle cacti.

As I admired how I'd managed cat and skin -- I realized I'd 

put it all in -- where the cat naps in winter!

I've covered the cat walk where he walked around to go behind the east wall shelves and used to nap where the big blue and black pot sits.

The cat is adapable. When I finally clean Annie's Brass Pitcher and the junk off the potting bench, Kitty will be right at home on that surface.

As I worked, the sun came out and I realized there's still ample time to bring in all the pots that were summering outside. I brought in the Bird's Nest Fern and as I looked for scale and other critters, found a little green frog who promises to keep down the bug population.

Bromeliad Tree in Progress

It's put together. I decided against concrete and Liquid Nails.

The purpose of making a bromeliad tree, besides wanting to make one was to see if I could squeeze more plants into a vertical space. In this pic, there are six Neoregelias. I think I added two more, 4 if you count the pups attached to a dying plant. There is a pot of Epiphyllum oxypetalum on a shelf behind which distracts from the Bromeliad tree. Many distractions are in its future as other plants move in.

I was so excited today when I realized that this old plant had 2 pups instead of the one I'd seen last week. I pulled off all the dead leaves and pressed into a space. I'm hoping the pups can take hold as the old plant dies off.

After all the Bromeliads were in place, I pressed lichen over the bare soil. I'm not sure this will be a permanent feature. It looks artificial.

Left over are 3 full sized Neoregelias,  2 small pups and a tiny pup growing from the root of a dead one.

I don't do well with the steps in the process getting recorded. I'm trying to fiddle with dirt and stones and pieces of brick and the camera just gets in my way. The light was poor, very cloudy.

Here's what I did:

• Jammed the wood piece into a fiberglass pot that I gave a spritz of spray paint and fitted into a space I'd cleared for it in the greenhouse. I decided that if I put concrete and made this thing all in one piece, I would never be able to move it.
• Filled in the spaces in the pot with bits of old bricks and mortar pieces I'd salvaged. Left room at the top for at least one large plant.
• Once I was sure the wood piece was secure, I started placing plants. I learned, too late, to put the top plants in first so soil doesn't fall into the cups and leaves of the plant below. 
• Plants are wedged into spaces where I thought they could best take root. So far they're in place with just damp soil. I'll decide whether they need spahgnum moss around the root mass as time goes by. I decided that chemicals in Liquid Nails might not be good for plants. Twine, raffia and wire are all possibilities.

The greenhouse is in disarray. Everything had to shift to free up this one space. Kitty was upset because his regular pathway to high places was destroyed. Maybe it will all come together before late October.