Up Close in the Greenhouse

Last year's red Pelargonium has buds and this cutting has a bloom as big as the tiny plant.

 After the mist was on for a little while, I noticed tiny droplets of water on a little spiderweb. I think it is spider mites. We'll likely do battle all winter.

 He Who Mows and Notices Things discovered a green tomato that had to be pointed out to me despite it being just above a plant I watered yesterday. I hope this is a trend.

 Tomato cuttings that I put in a jar of water already have roots. Plenty of blooms on the second biggest tomato plant growing in soil; it has yet to set a tomato. Maybe I just can't see it, neither can He Who.... When I think of it, I give tomato limbs a shake to encourage them to set fruit.

I wonder what other gardeners do with their plants that grow? Bromeliads have pups that need taking off and potting. I can't stop putting seeds in soil just to see if they germinate. Everything grew bigger over the summer.

2014

It's almost time to pot up Hyacinth bulbs that are chilling. I can sneak little succulent cuttings into the bulb pots so that when I give them away, there's an extra treat with the bulb while they wait for a bloom. One year I put Sedum acre in the pots. I have Burro Tail cuttings to add to some of this year's pots. There might be a Kalanchoe cutting or two to use.

2014

Little Rosettes of Ghost Plant make great bulb companions.

In the Mule Barn, a handful of pine cones I picked up when I raked. I never can have really neat sheds and greenhouse as seen on Pinterest and other blogs because I am driven to save bits and pieces and clippings and cuttings but I am greatly entertained.

Fragrant and Colorful: You Can't Beat Hyacinths

Blooming today:

China Pink and Pink Pearl

 Blue Jacket

City of Haarlem

Carnegie

This bulb has divided 3 times in a few years.

Join the fun at Tootsie's blog for Fertilizer Friday.

Flowers and text are from the garden of Nell Jean blogged on Dotty Plants Journal in hot, humid Southwest Georgia.

They Called Me the Hyacinth Girl

"They called me the Hyacinth Girl" is a line from a poem by

T S Eliot, The Burial of the Dead, from The Waste Land. 1922. 

Hyacinths are finally starting to bloom. Just these few that are open perfume the

greenhouse when the doors are closed overnight.

Some were planted in soil, some are in water and stones.

My early opinion is that soil is the better choice.

another line in T S Eliot's poem,

"we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour."

reminded me that I set up a coffee/hot beverage bar on the end of the kitchen counter under windows where hyacinths are in pinch-waist vases of water. Only one has ventured blossoms so far.

We are drinking an unusual amount of hot beverages these days because we, like

"Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless.... " Despite my cold, I can smell the sweet fragrance. I expect they will all be in bloom for Valentine's Day. 

Flowers and text are from the garden of Nell Jean blogged on Dotty Plants Journal in chilly Southwest Georgia.

Bloom Day in the Greenhouse, January

Red Begonias

Pentas

Alternanthera and Pentas

White Begonia and Hyacinth bulbs

Variegated Alpinia, Gerberas, Begonias

Gerbera Daisy

Forced hyacinths and a pot of tulips at far left. Hyacinths will bloom in time for Valentines Day.

Kalanchoe and Begonias

Begonias, Persian Shield and Epiphyllum cutting.

Begonias, Pentas and Foxtail fern

Purple alternanthera weaves through

everything under the south bench.

Duranta cuttings bloom all winter.

Flowers and text are from the garden of Nell Jean blogged on Dotty Plants Journal in cool Southwest Georgia.

The News Is Out: Bulbs

Ice Follies

We went to the City. Big Box Club had a huge display of bulbs. I tore myself away from bags of tulip bulbs and King Alfred. I could not resist a box of 30 hyacinths, 25 paperwhites in a box and a cute bag endorsed by P. Allen Smith with 10 Ice Follies, 8 Yellow Cheerfulness daffodils; 12 Dutch Iris Blue Ribbon, 8 Delft Blue Hyacinths and a dozen white Muscari botryoides Album. The bag garden has a  handdrawn plan on the back. I'll just stick them here and there.

I'm always amused that the little bags with photos on the front hold about a third of the bulbs necessary to reproduce the pictures, at best.

The paperwhites and hyacinths are for forcing. Mixed hyacinths, but all the bulbs look as if they will produce a blue or purple blossom which is fine with me. I usually divide my mixed hyacinths into groups by bulb color. The whites and yellows are pale bulbs, the reddish bulbs are pink. Blue and purple are obvious.

Amaryllis 2009

I still have to order hippeastrum. Can never make up my mind. Do I want all white this year? Peach shades? Red and darker red? Appleblossom that old standard pink?



Flowers and text are from the garden of Nell Jean blogged on Dotty Plants Journal in hot, humid Southwest Georgia.

Bulbs, Bulbs! It's Time to Plan

Today's Butterfly:
Tiger Swallowtail on Lantana montevidensis

Janie sent me a picture of a tulip called 'China Town' in ruffled pink. We can't just plant tulip bulbs in the ground here and expect stems longer than 2 inches because of the lack of chill. We can make elaborate schemes for chilling bulbs in the fridge in the absence of fruit like apples and then planting them. My last attempt at tulips in pots was eaten by the new puppy just as they put on buds.


Tulips just peeking out of the soil that would have bloomed in the spring of 2009 if Buffy hadn't eaten them.

Last winter I forced Amaryllis instead of Tulips.
Amaryllis are much more expensive, but one bulb makes a big show.



It's time to plan, order and remember where the bulbs are stored until time to plant in the fall.

I review past years' spring bloom pics to see what performed well and where there are spaces without bulbs. Sometimes I lift some existing bulbs and relocate them either in the fall if I know exactly where they are or when they show green in the spring if I'm not sure.

The catalog photos are very tempting, but experience shows that the best bulbs for pretty shows in the spring are generally the tried and proven. They are generally cheaper than new cultivars, another consideration.