Indoor gardens fall winter 2013, #2

I'll take your advice again, Gita.

Since I caught on to this--I have started mixing some of the 'tid-bits" in the
soil when I pot plants. Mix it up a bit and then plant your plant.
Sprinkle some extra on top too--so the mature Gnats won't be going into the soil.
I think the Gnats really crave moisture...

Funny......I have little tiny containers right in front of the CC's pots with some
CC sections in there rooting in water.
Guess what? All of them had drowned Fungus Gnats in there. LOTS of them....

G.

Another saved from the GH. Ric brought this blooming Queen’s-Tears inside from the GH today. And a few more pics of the blooming Clivia.

The amaryllis are blooming. Well almost all of them, 4 out of 5. I think I have a dud. Considering that all of the bloomers are half way through the blooming cycle and they are all planted at the same time, in the same soil, growing in the same conditions I am beginning to worry.

My favorite is the double. It has 4 stems coming out from the base. The others have two. #3 has a stem that is near 4 foot tall.

Those are just beautiful! Looks like a very happy Asparagus Fern in the background.

Just received a planted amaryllis bulb as a gift. I've never grown these. Is this the correct time of year for the bulb to start growing? Paul's blooms reminded that these plants are beautiful.

Roses, I think this is a great time to grow amaryllis! :-)

Terp, they are gorgeous.

OK, Cat. Mine came in a beautiful planter with a Cardinal motif. I have many different cardinal articles all over the house and this planter fits right in. I'm sure the bloom will be more beautiful than any man made article. Can't wait!! (How long will it take to bloom??)

All of mine came from the group buy and I planted them maybe 3 weeks after, I don't remember when the buy was. If I had to guess I would say 6-8 weeks. Obviously that will vary as I am still waiting on one to sprout.

Just realized that the pot from Harry and David does not have drain holes in it!!

A good 6 weeks sounds about right to me, too!

Maybe it'll be my Valentine gift as well as my Christmas gift!!

Paul, maybe the one that is lagging way behind is 'Misty'. Mine just started to sprout recently, and I think some of the others commented on its slowness too.

Yeah I think that may be the case. I have two Mistys and the other one is blooming already. The variables were basically the same for each. I have been juggling around "unplanting" it and checking out the bulb. I'll give it a few more weeks before I do that though.

Double dream is stunnnnnning.

Oh yes it is, Paul. I need to stop looking because I have no more room for indoor plants!!

I have about given up on my Misty and Double Dream! My Misty has no roots to speak of after a couple of months in soil. The Double Dream started to push some stalks out then stopped. Not sure what the story is. :-(

Any way to jump start an amaryllis bulb that seems to have given up the ghost?

My Flamenco just keeps blooming and blooming.

WOW, that Double Dream is gorgeous!

I have given away all but one of my amaryllis bulbs, and the only one I kept (which I think is a Flamenco) is just starting to get some green growth.

My Meyer lemon is blooming, though. What a wonderful scent!

Paul--

Just got home from work--and was going to tell you what a knockout
that double is!!
Then--everybody beat me to it... Can't believe all that is one bloom!!!

My Amaryllis are still in the Shop--in the dark and cool.
I suppose i could bru=ing them upstairs--give them a good soaking
and they may wake up. Usually--I have waited till the bud shows up
and then brought them upstairs.
My Amaryllis are OLD! The group of 6 in the big pot are about 1o-11 years old.
YES! The same bulbs....
Somewhere I read that when the Amaryllis has been dormant for about 6 weeks,
I can re-pot the bulbs in fresh soil so it will bloom.
I gate to mess with all the roots! But--I could........:o/ Can anyone chime in?

Roses--
Do not worry for now about your Amaryllis being in a pot with no drainage.
You do not need to water it or fertilize it at this point. EVERYTHING the plant
needs to bloom beautifully is already in the bulb.
That is why ALL the Amaryllis in those Gift Boxes at HD started growing and blooming.
None of them had a shred of soil around them. It all comes from the perfectly nurtured bulb.
Just keep your medium moist--NOT watered a lot.

Now--after the bloom is done, you must cut off the bloom stem off as low as possible,
as it will wither down anyway using up energy till this happens.
Did you see the Article yesterday? or was it Tuesday?

Jill also has written good articles on Amaryllis care. Click on her name and you can
see all the Articles she has written.
Gita

Thanks, Gita. I do like the pot and am happy that it will do well.

Nice blooms all.
Because ofthe cold, cold wind chill temps, I'm moving my indoor plants back from their
windows for a few days.

Just read in the DG newsletter that someone successfully grows amaryllis in clear glass containers with just rocks on bottom and water. They look very attractive this way!!

Yes I have done that before they grow very well. I have one upstairs that I just let sit in that vase all year long and just started watering it again and it is putting out leaves not too sure about blooms yet.

This message was edited Jan 6, 2014 10:46 AM

Yes coleup- I brought orchids in from the laundry room because I worried about it going below 50 there. Other than these deep freezes, it is a good cool bright place.

A few of my orchids in the GH are looking worse rather than better, only time will tell. My Dracaena marginata dropped all its leaves, so I'm going to cut it way back. They will usually bud from the stems. I've even seen them started from a piece of stem. My Ficus elastica (rubber tree) is looking worse also and my need the same treatment. If they come back they will just be fuller and a good bit shorter, which come next winter will not be a bad thing. After all, the glass is half full.I think I will take advantage of the beautiful day and go work in the GH a while.

Ric--

You get A+ for looking at the positive side of things on this disaster you had!
The old saying: "If life gives you a lemon--make lemonade!" holds true here.
Cheers!

I have never had a huge, multi-disaster with any of my plants--but if I did--
I would pout for about half an hour and then say: "You know? It's ONLY a plant!"...

Happy--You always buy so many plants--like, you want everything!
And then, when something like this freeze hits, you are stuck not having planted
so many of them.

Please do not hate me for saying this--but when there are these Group Buys--
or when Coleup has found something awesome and you want 3 of this and 2 of that--
or 50 more bulbs of some sort--
I cannot but wonder WHERE on Earth--or WHEN-- you will plant them all????

And I fuss when someone wants to give me ONE new shrub or plant!
Not gonna take it! No place to plant it!
G.

Re Misty: My two seem to be a bust.

Gita: I like buying plants in bulk because I have a big yard I am trying to fill. If I buy the plants when prices are low enough that I can afford them, then I can organize them and they are there when I am ready to plant. So that works well for me. I lose some plants, but not that many. Plus I like the way it looks to put a bunch of plants of the same type in a group planting next to each other. If I had a smaller yard, this approach wouldn't make any sense. For example, I have a huge area of daffodils in the front of my house, under a big bed of pachysandra. Over the past 10 years I have planted many thousands of bulbs there. I have found that I can plant daffodils as late as February and they still do fine. The first year they emerge late, but after that they settle in.

I almost never plant annuals, and I try to plant exclusively long-lived perennials. I look at this as an investment. And I hope that at some point, my yard will be all planted so that I won't need to make any more huge purchases. For example, my awful front hill (which you renamed the "rock and roll hill" -- I love it!), is pretty much done. (We lived here 20 years before tackling that!) Based on the plan for that area that I drew up, almost every single variety of plant I put there needs to fill up at least three square yards -- some as much as five square yards. Otherwise it would look too patch-work-y. For example, I took cuttings of your Ajana Pacificum so it fills at least 3 square feet (and with the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure those swaths were large enough). And then I try to repeat those plantings several times to give a little cohesion to the look. It takes a lot of individual plants to fill in 15 square yards!

The other factor for me is that my garden beds are all on steep hills. So it is not easy to go in and add plants after the fact -- another reason I try to order a lot, organize, and then plant all at once.

I expect there will be some casualties this winter and so I'll have to fill in spots on the front hill. There were some plants that didn't seem to thrive last year -- they'll either fill in over the winter, or die off. It remains to be seen. For example, I put in a lot of Muhlenbergia capillaris, and while it didn't exactly die last year it didn't thrive either. And there are a few marginally hardy plants, like Saliva Black and Blue, that may not make it through this extra-cold winter. Another likely failure was Festuca Boulder Blue. While deer don't like to eat it, it turns out they like to pull it out and drop it elsewhere. Those are small plants -- I bought 16 just to fill in one square yard (couldn't afford my 3-yard minimum). And they are not doing well. So I expect I'll need to replace them.

But most of what I put in seems to have done well, so I am looking forward to the spring!

This year, my big project is to continue filling up the back area of our yard -- shady and dry -- I am hoping to use mostly shrubs -- and to work on two beds, one on a hill by the side of our garage, and out at the top of a retaining wall on the other side of our house. That's the plan, at least.

Does anyone grow any hoyas? I recently came across a variegated Hindu rope, which I found out later is a hoya, and it looked very interesting.

Chantell gave me a hoya cutting last year which has rooted but has not grown. She said it is wonderfully fragrant.

Here are a few of my AV they are looking pretty good.

Happy--

WOW! You have more planning noggin than anyone....Hope your plants all make it...

I LOVE the variegated Hindu Rope. It is not too commonly available....
So pretty when it has grown to about 2' hanging down!

I just bought a couple of the variegated leaf Hoya at HD. That is pretty too.
It has amazing blooms once it gets older....
They have them among the small Angel Plants. "Tropical Event" sale is still on.
Many plants are discounted....the 3.8" Angel plants are $2.50.

If you are on the Home Depot Garden Club (FREE--just sign up) you get
coupons for discounts and all kinds of projects almost every week as a amber.

This week--if you are a member--it is a coupon for "Buy one Orchid get one free".
That is a $10-$12 savings.
Ask anyone if they have a sign-up card. It is totally FREE and will come to you on your e-mail. HD has nothing to do with it. We all should be on it!

G.

Gita: The other thing I should add is I really try to stick with tried-and-true plants. I don't always manage to do that, but that's why I love swaps so much. Any plant that succeeds in someone else's yard enough that the gardener can divide it and give some away -- well, that must be one tough plant that (hopefully) I can't kill! Though my plants don't get the TLC that your plants clearly receive!

Happy--
Your AV's are lovely!
I counted mine--I have 60 AV's--all small ones I rooted included.
Even the older ones have not bloomed for 3 years.

I know you nay have read this all before--but I re-potted all mine and now
have then sitting ib a card table in the corner of my DR with a light hanging
over it. it is warmed and brighter--and I am taking better care of them.

Before--threy all sat on the little shelves by my LR and DR windows--just inches
away from the cols glass. (old windows). They never bloomed...

I am SOOO hoping all that I have done and provided for them will
bring them to bloom...

Here is my set-up. They seem to be happy and doing well.....G.

What do you do for your AV's so they will bloom?

Do they need a lot of fertilizer? That was my impression.

Also -- I transplanted my only African violet (I received a new one for Christmas from someone who didn't want to take care of hers anymore so I seem to be now up to two AVs -- so I'm talking about the one I have had forever) into Tapla's Mix, and left it outside all summer. The leaves are now HUGE (which isn't that attractive an attribute, sadly) but it hasn't bloomed in a while. I am hoping it will if I just give it a fertilizer booster. It sits under a skylight and next to some windows so it gets fairly bright light.

Does the day length matter? Will the AVs do better as the days get longer?

Mine bloom all year long, they do get pretty good light in my big windows.

I wonder if that entire shipment of Misty were duds. Did anyone get blooms from them? They rotted for my parents.

I'll pick up that variegated Hindu rope next time I see it.

I'll post that question about Misty on the "bulb" thread, ssg.

Happy--

Do you think your AV's have these huge leaves b/c they are over-fertilized?
How much N is in the food you use?

So far--I am mostly using the MG AV food--the 7 drops.....
They all look healthy--growing---just waiting for some bloom.
I NEED to know what color which plant is???/

Same as on my baby CC's. They are doing better..many have bloomed--
even the tiny ones. Tagging them as they bloom...

G.

Gita: I don't know anything about AV's. But I suspect mine got so large because of the superb soil I planted it in. Plus I stuck it outside for the summer. I don't really like the look. I don't overfertilize -- I usually forget to. I use Peter's -- the same 7 drop formula -- when I remember to.

I am ill. Cabin fever! Mark needs to go to Lowe's and I am thinking longingly about what they might have in tropicals….stop me!!!! Palmbob article about palms is tempting…Rhapis variegated lady palm, so pretty. Sigh.

Sally: stop stop stop!! ;-)