Miniature Disaster

Most years I buy Amaryllis bulbs in the fall. I love to have their brightly colored flowers around in mid-winter, when the garden and the sky are grey.

Most years I have problems with the plants tipping over their pots.

So I bought clay pots specifically for Amaryllis bulbs, and I jerry-rigged a support for the flowers.

But this year I bought bigger bulbs and...

TIMBER!

Fortunately when I put the buds into a vase they opened up anyway.

Ahhhh. Bright color in the dark of winter.

When is spring?

#First World (Plant) Problems

I've been spoiled. I have access to water on every floor in my house. 

Well, I HAD access to water on every floor in  my house. Then came the leak. A pipe that ran under the floor of my second floor bathroom began to leak. When we opened up the ceiling to find the problem we discovered that whoever put in the second floor bathroom originally also cut completely through a couple of joists. If we had a bathtub up there it would have ended up on the first floor.

In order to fix said leak and joists the floor and tiled walls of the second floor bathroom needed to be opened up. I HAD wanted to remodel it in a couple of years... Just not THIS year.

So we've got construction guys traipsing through the house and (temporarily) no bathroom on the second floor.

What does this have to do with plants? It means I have to make multiple trips up the stairs, hauling water, to water my second floor plants.

Like this 3 foot Ficus.

And this very large Clivia.

And Lemon-Lime, here.

Plus I have to bring hanging baskets downstairs to water them (I always set them in a sink or bathtub to let the water run through).

So my second floor plants aren't getting watered on quite the correct schedule AND, despite the efforts of the construction guys, they're getting COVERED with construction dust. They're practically begging me to haul ALL of them into the shower.

As soon as we have a second floor shower, that is.

Life is soooo hard for a houseplant in the First World.

Dissapointment

I'm really, really good with plants, indoors and out.  When I was younger I used to pick up "dead" plants from dumpsters and bring them back to full and luscious beauty.  Sure some didn't make it but I never got upset over failures - a failed plant is just an open space to try something new!

Now I buy nice looking plants from the get go and expect high performance - growth, bloom, both.  And when something doesn't work I still usually shrug it off - I'm always finding news stuff I want to try and a plant that isn't looking good provides me with an open slot for something new.

Sometimes, though...

A few weeks ago I was in a garden center and spotted this gorgeous beauty!

Big, lush, bicolor foliage with a background of my favorite chartreuse green, accented by a darker green.  Yum!

I bought it (even though it was kind of on the big size and I didn't really have a good spot for it), brought it home, and watched it begin to loose leaf after leaf after leaf.

Damn.

So I went looking for answers - Google here I come. 

First off, it was labeled an Aglaonema but the more looking I did the more I became convinced it's a Dieffenbachia.  Aglaonema are nearly indestructible, Dieffenbachia can be problematic (some strains seem to be easy, others difficult).

I tried moving it to a different spot, away from the radiator, with different light conditions, and tried different watering conditions.  Still loosing leaves.  So I took a good hard look under those leaves and found - BUGS!

[as a biologist I know that they aren't in the True Bug Family but you know what I mean]

Double Damn.

So now it's decision time.  Do I try to salvage a plant that's already lost half of it's leaves (in less than a month!), that I don't have a good location for and is infected or do I chuck it in the compost bin?  Most times the answer is easy - compost bin - but this is one of the most gorgeous plants I've ever seen and when I've tried to get a firm ID (to buy a new healthy one, maybe?) my Google-Fu has failed.

Where's my Logee's catalog - surely they have a good replacement plant so I don't feel so...  so...  disappointed.

Polar Vortex

I've been know to "push zones" here at The Edge.  The climate in changing and our zone went from a 5 to a 6 with the last plant hardiness zone update so it's a reasonable gamble.

One of my favorite pushed plants is Mexican Feather Grass.  This is a plant that can spread aggressively in warmer zones but is sold as an annual up here (when you can find it for sale).  I planted it in 2009 and it's still going strong.

I'm not sure it's going to survive THIS winter, though.

I suspect spring will bring a lot of unhappy surprises for gardeners all across the country due to this "polar vortex" bringing extremely cold temperatures.  Or, as I like to put it, lots of opportunities to try new plants.

Still.  I may have to replace my Mexican Feather Grass.  Anyone willing to ship me some?

[I wish I could take credit for the funky picture of my Mexican Feather Grass but it's due to a camera malfunction, not artistic talent on my part]

New Year

I'm not one who normally gets all resolutiony at the New Year. It's an arbitrary day that doesn't even line up with a logical astronomical event (as explained in excruciating detail by the Bad Astronomer). Me? I'd put the New Year starting the day after the shortest day of the year.  That's what makes sense to my mind. Or the day the first spring plant catalog arrives in my mailbox. That's when I start thinking ahead.

But I guess January 1 works.  At least it's after all the Christmas hullabaloo, when things are starting to get back to normal (unfortunately it also marks the beginning of the 'you aren't thin enough' season).

This year, for a change, I am making resolutions. Not the typical 'I'll cut back my caffeine intake' (I have to do that in between semesters every year - seems my caffeine intake goes up as the semester progresses), or 'I'll work out more' (that'll come during warm weather when I can get out in to the garden).

Nope. This year I am going to break free of the funk I've been in since my dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.

Dammit.

When my dad got sick I was so busy running back and forth to visit I began to neglect My Life. And after he died I continued to pull in to myself and avoid the Real World. I was starting to come out of all this when The Husband had his really, really bad Gall Bladder Incident last summer (included as a free bonus - two middle of the night trips to the ER, complications from surgery and a week in a hospital nearly an hours drive from home!).

So basically the last two years sucked, I neglected my friends, got out of my work out routine and didn't get to spend as much time in the garden or on this blog as I would have liked.

And now, here it is, IN WRITING.  I'm done with it.  I'm going to grab my bootstraps and pull myself out of my funk, reconnect with my friends and spend more time in the garden this year.

Resolved.

The Flower of Resolve - a reblooming (and very funky) iris

Purchased from Rainbow Iris Farms but I forget which variety

Anthurium Madness

This has been a great year for Anthuriums here on The Edge.  Early in the year I visited a LGC [Local Garden Center] that is a bit further away and so is only visited about once a year.

'Otazu!'  They had this spectacular plant with very dark burgundy flowers.  Sexy!

I brought him home and found out that at least three of his blooms had been fertilized.

Look at those bulges on his spadix!

I harvested one to start myself (which I will post about in the future unless ALL the seeds get fungus [can you guess how it's going so far?]) and I mailed one to Mr. Subjunctive over at PATSP.  He's much better at seeds than I am.  If he has time between routine care for his over 1000 house plants.  [and people say I have too many plants!  Ha!]

Then, during July, The Husband and I went down to Connecticut for a weekend get a way.

No trip to Connecticut is complete without a trip to Logee's.  This is a houseplant fanatic's wet dream.  Well, at least humid dream.  Their greenhouses are packed with plants.  Benches contain plants in pots for sale but planted right in the ground are the show pieces (and probably stock plants).  Huge, gorgeous houseplants fill the space.  You often have to turn sideways to get past them.  

And there, tucked in the back, a PURPLE ANTHURIUM.

This plant has been on my desperately want list since I saw one in a garden in Panama.  I'd gotten to the point I was considering ordering one from Hawaii (or Florida if I could find a mail order place there that actually had them in stock) and pay the outrageous shipping.

I wish this one had come fertilized.  Maybe I can try to fertilize it myself....  

At this point I thought my life was complete.  I had my dream Purple Anthurium.

Then I visited another LGC that isn't so L.  What did they have?

ORANGE!

Wow!

Now what am I going to lust after?

Oh, yeah.

Tacca chantieri image by Pismire via Wikimedia Commons

TAAACCCCCAAAAA.

I think I might need more plant room though.

Fall, when a gardener's fancy turns to...

PLANTING!!!

I learned  how to garden in The South and down there it makes sense to put things in now.  There will be a long fall for them to get established, followed by a mild winter and a nice spring before new plants have to deal with the hardest Southern Season - Summer!  When it's HOT and, often, dry.

Aster x dumosus 'Alert' [is Aster a valid genus still/ again?]

Here in New England most gardeners put up their shovels in June (or July) and don't pick them back up until the following Spring.  

Chasmanthium latifolium var. $5!!!! [Sea Oats, or River Oats if you don't live near the ocean]

Not me.  I know we'll still have a nice, long, cool fall before the Worst Season (winter - brrr!) and because garden centers don't want to care for plants for another year, and no one else buys them, all the plants are ON SALE!!!

Gaura unk but the flowers have both white AND pink.  I hope they continue this way.

Unfortunately at this time of year selection is limited and labels are often missing or wrong.

Agastache hopeitsurvivesthewinter [I lost a few to the wet spring and a few more to my over-zealous neighbor's string trimmer.  Really.  There is a brick border on his side but he overseeds the property line into my perennial beds so he "can't tell" where the line is.  I may have to do something about that.  Next  year.]

Coreopsis found with the perennial Coreopsis varieties but I'm suspicious it's an annual.  Still, it was on sale.  I guess we'll see in the spring.

Still, new plants, dirt under fingernails, and I'm adding to the garden, not taking away.  Which is nice to do at this time of the year.  Just have to hope for a mild winter.

Is an early spring to much to ask for???