Sally, I've already... um... medicated myself -- with a calamondin lemon tree!
Indoor gardens fall winter 2013, #2
Hahaha...i am waiting in the car....
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat... ;-)
I may have a tiny lemon fruit where the first of my lemon flowrrs has fallen. Fun.
I got something from the HGHA meeting yesterday that won't smell so sweet.....
Voodoo Plant
Voodoo plant--LOL! You know, when I first saw the thumbnail, my immediate thought was ooh, a chocolate cookie with a hershey's kiss on top! Of course, on closer look, I could see it doesn't look like that at all. Well, you can see where my mind is! ;-)
Hard to tell in the pic but it is a big bulb. That pot is 12 inches across, the bulb is a good 6 inches across.
wow, that is a big bulb! Very cool. You'll have to show us pics when it blooms!
Before I enlarged it---I thought it was a dog turd......:o)
Yes! i too have a warped mind....G.
LOL to both of you
Aww, thanks for being a good sport, Holly. Where did you get the voodoo bulb?
At the Hobby GH Assoc meeting. Members donate plants to the Raffle table, at the end of the meeting we have the raffle. Tickets are cheap 4 tickets for a $1. I bought $2 worth and was lucky enough to get this guy. I have gotten some really beautiful plants from those raffles. One of the members is an Orchid grower and quite a few of my Orchids came from that table.
Very cool. The voodoo plant is new to me!
That will be interesting. I hope if it blooms it does so while it's outside!!!
So do I. LOL I will post pics as it grows I am thinking it should take a couple of months till bloom.
Is this the one that smells??
Yes, it is.
:-) Cool experience to grow one!
should be unforgettable ...
Unforgettable, a movie with Ray Liotta, or a tv show with Poppy Montgomery. I'll take Poppy Montgomery, and I'm sure she'd smell better than Holly's results.LOL
Gotta' unpleasant rush the other morning, I checked the GH temp and it said 39*F. only to find everything was OK. The batteries in the sending unit of the thermometer in the GH had gone dead. Whew, had me going for a bit, so I changed the batteries and all was fine.
I would have taken Ray Liotta some years ago…but boy he's been looking very rough for a while there.
I hope that is the last kink to be worked out in the winter greenhouse management!
Sally,
A million years ago (or halfway up the page anyway) you were talking about your coleus cuttings looking weird. I have a cutting of that same super-dark coleus from Gita (it's called Proven Winners Colorblaze Dark Star, btw) and it's doing the same thing: the leaves look sort of twisted. Maybe they'll perk up when they're put out this Spring? So far all of my coleus are doing well. I also love the Velvet Mocha coleus.
Also, the acalypha that I brought in, treated with the same regard (or disregard) as my coleus finally succumbed to the spider mites that hitched a ride inside. I probably should have done a better job of keeping it watered. It turned out to be too thirsty. I've not completely given up on it and water the roots occasionally anyway, just in case it is dormant.
Karen--
The GH I bought the Acalyphas from will, surely, sell those again.
Don't fret if you lost yours-- For $3 or so you can get another one.
I have 3 of them that are surviving and doing OK. But--they are the brownish ones.
No matter how hard I tried--the red ones petered out. I liked those the best...
My Coleus are all way too tall--and I have not gotten to pinching the tops off
and starting to root those. Some of mine have died--maybe too much light? watering?
Certain ones are marching on--no matter what.
My big dark one is OK--as is the one cutting I have. Yes! The leaves are cupped.
Must be just what they do. I don;t think it is a disease or bugs. I don't have any.
And--the Mocha sure is a good grower. Really tall--and has never wilted.
UGH! I have not even touched my seeds.....G.
I need a kick to do some winter sowing....
That reminds me I have some PawPaw seeds that need to be outside and in some dirt.
Happy, What are you planning to winter sow? I am afraid I missed my window on the Violas. Is that so? I have heard this is the time for poppy seeds. Yes? No?
Gita, sorry to report that I have no fishnet stockings either. That one never even made it inside, got damping off before it really had a chance. I'm not worried about the acalypha, it was an experiment. I probably will get at least one this spring and try to propagate it.
On the winter sowing, I've been wondering whether we couldn't trade some milk jugs or two liter bottles (what have you) already sown at the Seed Swap along with seeds to be sown! So if I sow one for me I could sow another one or two for trade and just continue their progress at a different location.
There is some list for what to winter sow when for our zone...anyone have the link?
I am not a reliable winter sower -- my promises go unfulfilled.
I've done horribly with my WS milk jugs.
I can bring empty jugs if anyone wants.
So can I--I have been saving empty gallon jugs---Anyone?
NOT from milk--but from Apple Cider. Same bottles....
I tried WS'ing in milk jugs one year and found them to be very awkward to deal with.
This year--i have some stuff, hopefully, germinated in qt. sized plastic bottles,
as well as in the containers 3lbs. of grapes are sold in.
Will see....will see---if anything grew.
Karen--I saw your Ageratum seeds already germinated before winter hit.
Hope they have survived this cold...
G.
If I wintersow- it will be in mostly native soil, in pots sunk into the ground. When I've done jugs, or little pots, my potting mix settles way down and they are just itty bitty potlets that dry too fat.
I watched orchid care videos. One guy waters his by immersing the pot in water for a few minutes, then draining. So I did it. My ailing Dendrobium immediately lost another leaf. I guess I am now going 'benign neglect" until spring. Or I might pull the trigger. Probably- wait for time to play, take it out of pot, see what's going on with the roots.
Dr Seuss is looking very shriveled. I watered a bit and put it near a south window. Maybe it will start to grow.
One year I collected gazillion gallon plastic milk jugs to winter sow, but didn't use most of them, so I hesitate to do that again. If I get around to winter sowing, which I hope I do, I'll probably use half-gallows since that is the size milk we buy. Or maybe we'll temporarily switch to gallons but I hate how unwieldy they are in the fridge.
The 'Flamenco' finally bloomed, but didn't last long enough for me to go home and see it. Here is the bulb report from hubby
1. Yesterday :-)
2. This morning :-(
Sally--
That is why I stake mine. Those heads of blooms can get top-heavy.
Sorry this happened to it. Gita
Gita, I watered it with an alcohol solution (about 6% - 7%) when the stalks were about 7" tall, but it was probably too late. They still grew very tall. I started watering the 'Misty' with the alcohol solution last weekend when the stalks were only starting to emerge. We will see if that will keep the stalks short.
Tragic, Donner! Can you cut them and put them in water?
Typ, yes, they are in water and looking beautiful :o). I will start feeding them with alcohol early next time. Hopefully that will slow down the growth of the stalks.
I alcohol in water with bulbs all it is racked up to be???
I am leery of using it....can it do some damage to the plant or bulb?
G.
I never heard of using alcohol on bulbs until I read the posts earlier on this thread. Thought I would give it a try. It doesn't seem to have worked for me. I watered the 'Misty' with alcohol last weekend when the tallest stalk was about 5" tall. It is now about 15" only 5 days later :o(. Maybe I started too late. There are 3 bulbs in that pot. We will see if the other stalks will stay short.
Cornell University actually did a study on using alcohol to prevent paperwhites from getting too tall and floppy. Here are the results from their study: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2006/03/tipsy-flowers-dont-tip-over-cornell-research-shows
This person made a time lapse video of amaryllis bulbs that were watered with an alcohol solution compared with regular water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1xGwOczy4Y