Indoor gardens Jan 2014 Mid Atlantic

Catmint, That is just gorgeous.

1--Weber grills gets their own spot---
2--Mostly Brinkman Grills here..good, no nonsense Grills
3--Some of the more fancy grills
4--More Grills--and the wall of Houseplant fertilizers, chemicals, and soils

Grills are assembled (free of charge) every week.
You can pick one out--roll it to the cashier, pay for it, and take it home...

In the first 5 years i worked at the HD--this FGh was FULL of plants--
from one end to the other--and I had to take care of them all.
The plants sat on old, rotting wood tables--and there were 2 heavy
roll-down hoses on the ceiling to water them all with.
Conditions in there were pretty terrible--lots of bugs and mice--because
they also had the Bird Seed in there...

It was hard, exhausting work--but I had the BEST GH in the area...
many customers still remember me and the neat things we had...

Speedie--
Because the garden ASM was an immature jerk--I slowly assumed many
of his duties and used to do my own ordering of things and plants.
as well as cutting orders if I did not want them. I understand how neat that can feel...
This was back in 1998-2003.

OK! Thank you for looking...we ARE fortunate to have this at our HD.
this place is still under my "job description"....;o)
Gita

I got 6 'Mysty' bulbs last year and planted them in 2 pots. The first 3 bloomed beautifully. Yes, the stalks were very tall, 21" - 23".

The second pot of 3 were watered with alcohol -- based on the information from this thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1343762/. I started watering them with alcohol when 2 of the bulbs had stalks of about a few inches tall, and the 3rd bulb was barely showing the tip of a stalk, and continued until they were done with blooming. The 2 stalks grew to about 16" - 18" when they bloomed. So alcohol did make them shorter. However in comparison with the first pot of 3 bulbs, the flowers were smaller, the color was less bright, and the flowers didn't last as long. The stalk from the last bulb simply didn't come out at all. It grew to about half an inch and turned brown and died.

Although the online information said alcohol should not affect the flowers, my experience was it did. I don't think I will use alcohol with Amrillis again. If their stalks get too tall, I will just put the pot behind other plants.

I may experiment with paperwhites though :o).

Gita's photos got me all excited. Ready for a trip to the HD to experience some spring :o)




This message was edited Mar 6, 2014 6:52 PM

Beautiful Robin, and in time to get you over the last hump of cold (I hope!)

Gita, I really enjoyed your photos, thank you. I hope you don't mind, being in the business and all, I sorta got an idea of a display area we could build! =)
(you've also reminded me that DH and I need a Home Despot date - we need a new grill!)

thanks all for your warm wishes for my Double Dream! It's nice to share the joy with you all, especially when it feels like it took *so long*!! Donner, that's interesting about the alcohol stunting the growth of the plants. Misty sounds like quite a character with long stalks and tiny blossoms. :-D

Gita, your HD looks so much nicer and much better kept than the one near my house!! It must be your loving touch! :-)

Gita, the Lowes down the street from me has their summer bulbs outside under the covered area. Outside! in single digit temps! I shook my head. All those elephant ear tubers will be mush in a few weeks.

Geez! Karen--did you mention this to anyone??? Please do!
Some idiot has winter bulbs and summer bulbs lumped all as one...

Cat--my "loving touch" has nothing to do with it...our managers are always after
a clean, and neat environment. I do "front" the shelves often, though, even on the run..
The plant section is all in Bell's hands. It's their job...It is cozy in there...
Oh, I straighten and water now and then--but not usually.
Which HD is the one near you? The store # is at the top of all your receipts...
So is the Manager's name. Does your HD have a GH?

Speedie--I wanted YOU, especially, to see these pictures...Glad you got some ideas...
Mission accomplished....
G.

Bless your fuzzy heart Gita, job very well done! ♥

I also "front" the shelves at work when I'm not super busy, or if I'm just passing by and it doesn't look as nice and tidy as I think it should. It just becomes sort of a habit, huh? See a display from which the first 3 bottles have been purchased, scootch the rest of 'em up to the front, all nice and neat and pretty. :)

Libraries also 'front' books- or supposed to.

Speedie--

I have an old, wood cane. I think it was from my DH first knee surgery.
Who knows what year that was...70's sometime...

This old cane is my special "tool" at HD for pulling forward items on a shelf
that my long arms cannot reach. People always push and push the new merchandise
until the back of the line falls off in the abyss of the floor below.
When the night crew "fronts" everything--they just pull forward ONE bottle or jar.
Shame on them!
My cane is SO practical! It is sturdy--and you can use it with one hand.
Otherwise--people get a hoe and use that...NOT as easy!
Because canes also have a fat rubber tip at the bottom--it is as good for
pushing things in place way back there.....
It has my name all over it--and woe be to the person who uses it and does not
put it back in it's secret place..

Here is how compulsive i am about fronting---I also do it in grocery stores--after I have
removed the couple front items...

All good! All good! G.

Heeheeheee, we are anal-retentive Sisters Gita!! < =D

My BIG ceramic bowl of Amaryllis is about to pop...It has 7 bulbs in it...
Started with just 5. Besides--these bulbs are 10+ years old...
Right now--there are 6 fat bloom buds up on stems.

Maybe I did something right last summer while they were outside.
They did have a long dormancy in my shop too.

******************************************
A little heads up----shopping wise....Good deals!
Our local Dollar Tree just got all their garden stuff in. Lots of goodies...
They have 16qt, bags of Potting Mix. Reg.--$3; With moisture crystals--$4.
Also Potting soil. Nice not to have to buy these huge bags when you need just a litle bit.
I will go get more soon.

I bought a bag of the regular Mix--it is quite good. Half of the soil seems to be
Fine Pines and when I potted up my rooted Spiders today, it felt like this Mix
would have excellent drainage. Feels rough...

Gita, Really looking forward to seeing a pic of those amaryllis,

Double Dream update: It now has 4 open blossoms and two more buds! Here's a pic from this morning.

WOW, I will have to remember that one next year.

I loved Double Dream. In my mind it blew the others away.

I agree Terp-- me too!

Man - I'm not into pink flowers, but WOW that one is really a show-stopper Cat!! You're such a good plant Mommy!! < =D

aww thanks Speedie you're such a sweetie! wish i could take credit but I think it's the bulb and the windowsill! All i did was provide soil and water! :-)

And the Lovin', don't forget that! =)

awww what a sweetie you are! Of course Terp gets kudos for having all 3 types of amaryllis bulbs bloom soon after he planted them!!

Oh yeah... did he share pics??

I've potted up loads of Amaryllis bulbs, but it's always been at work, so I don't ever get to see them bloom. :(

I seem to recall Terp sharing some photos of his amaryllis blooms a few months ago!

Speedie, we need to get you some amaryllis bulbs!!

I had posted some pictures. I don't recall what thread they were on though, haha.

I'll buy amaryllis every year they were wonderful and the price was amazing.

Yes, I'm already looking forward to trying new amaryllis bulbs next year!! :-)

I may try ONE... if we bring them in to work this coming fall/winter. I think ONE might be able to fit perfectly right in the middle of the dining room table. =)

Well when the time comes we'll need to select our amaryllis group buy bulbs carefully with your input! :-) I definitely recommend Double Dream again!

I didn't buy in this last group buy and just picked up a few bulbs on the cheap at local stores. They were pretty pitiful in comparison from the Co-op bulbs. One of them didn't even bloom and the ones that did were undersized.

Oh Holly you should definitely join in for the next amaryllis group buy! The flowers are so huge! Well except for Misty LOL!

I had been in the one before and knew how great the bulbs were but at the time I just had other things going on and didn't bother. Next year I will try to be more on top of things.

Does anyone grow a meyer lemon? They are usually sold as a ~2' tall container plant. I saw them in a nursery this morning for about $45.00. Next to them was one that the nursery owner had been growing for years that is now about 8-10' tall and was covered in lemons. It was gorgeous. I want to get one, but for that kind of $s, I need to read up on how to take care of them first.

aspenhill, I think ssg has one.
I have a seedling from a meyer so I can't say for sure I have a meyer. I have a citrus for sure. I would not call it an easy plant, if mine is a good example. I have battled mites and scale.

Aspenhill, I got a pretty good harvest from my Meyer lemon last year. I probably got about 15 lemons even though my tree's still pretty small.

I've been terribly neglectful of it, too. It's gone without water for over a week in stifling summer heat, I forgot to fertilize it for weeks, it's been left out overnight in a hard freeze, etc.

That's probably why it doesn't look all that pretty right now, but it's been blooming nonstop for months. And the blooms smell heavenly. :)

No diseases except for scales for a few weeks this winter, although I no longer have any sticky yellow leaves, so I don't know where those scales went.

It's planted in Al's gritty mix, but it's getting repotted into his 5-1-1 mix this spring. I'll be using the gritty mix just for succulents. In the gritty mix, the citrus should probably be watered twice a week even in the winter (which I'm just too lazy to do), but 5-1-1 is fine with weekly watering.

I'm impressed, ssg!

So am I. I hear people talk about getting them and then never seeing another bloom or maybe just one or two.

The first pic is Meyer lemon and the second one is an orange which is just about to bloom.

And I'm afraid I can't take credit for them doing well since I've been pretty lazy about caring for them!

SSG, that is great. Gives me hope that it is something that I might do ok with. I need to go back to that nursery sometime this week for the heat mats to put under my seed trays - they were out but are expecting a shipment tomorrow. Maybe I'll go ahead and get one of those lemon trees.

WooHooo Ssg, they do look great, and like it or not, all the credit goes to you anyway. :)

THey look great, SSG!