Vicarious winter gardening - or Show me da blooms!

The pressure's on.....my NE Gardener friends want to see some Florida snowbird blooms to warm their wintry days........I'll do my best, but I'd like to hear some good catalogue ordering chatter and general news from the north here too!

news from the North----- Brrrrr

Good enough, 3G! I get your message!! Here's a shot of one of our 2 new Yellow Elder native plants......it has had loads of pretty blooms already, and it is supposed to attract the Baltimore Orioles......It's in a little "nursery" protected by brick edgings for now so the mower guys won't hurt it.

Oh, I love that one, I planted some seeds of that just last week, hopefully it will enjoy it indoors and brighten up my winter a bit.

What a good idea! I never thought of growing these indoors! The tree is supposed to get 20' x 20' tall and wide, but that's down here in its native element. I think it will take it quite awhile even here to get that big!! I'll keep an eye out for the seeds.

Stay warm!

verbena......

Yeah, with an wool sweater and the heat on and a down comforter. we couldn't afford to buy wood this year, which is penny wise and pound foolish, I know. Also, the thermostat is pretty near the fireplace, so when the fire is going the thermostat 'thinks' that the whole house is really warm, and turns off the heat. When the fire dies down, it seems to take the heat a while to catch up with the actual temperature of the rest of the house. Brrrrrrr indeed. Almost all the leaves have fallen or blown off the leaves. x, Carrie

Not good, Carrie. The price of home heating oil will make a lot of people have to use wool and comforters this winter. We will visit our son up there for Christmas, and I expect to be pretty chilly!

Not much going on here but we miss you (even though it's good to have you in Floida supplying us with blooms LOL). I took a pic of two geraniums that I cut back and brought inside for the winter. They are doing quite well under my grow lights. It is getting cold here as the others said but glad you are cozy and warm!! Eleanor

Louise - forgot to tell you I loved the blooms. Very summery looking! Eleanor

Looks good, Louise!

Thanks, Victor!

Eleanor - those blooms are as pretty as any here!! Amazingly, I can't find geraniums here yet. I usually plant a number of them, but haven't found any yet.

It feels good to be missed! I'm right here......looking forward to touching base every day to see what you are all doing up there. Feeling any stronger, Eleanor? Don't LIFT!!

Got our Christmas tree and put it up today! Tomorrow my DH plans to wrap white lights around the trunk of the palm tree in our front yard, and then wrap green lights around the base of the fronds at the top. I'll send a shot if it works out ok. LOL

Bye for now! Louise

Attagirl, Louise. Just what we need! The elder is beautiful!

Eleanor, I love the colors of your geraniums. I didn't bring anything in. dumb, huh? I have so many houseplants. wait...I lied. my BESV was just about dead, but I needed to bring in the fairy trellis it was growing on, so I just grabbed the whole pot. It completed rejuvenated itself and is growing like mad. If I get it in a good sunny window it should start blooming again shortly.

One of my orchids bloomed for Thanksgiving

Here are some Christmas Cacti who got confused over daylight savings and started blooming before Thanksgiving. About the only blooms we have until the Amaryllis kicks in.

Jan - that orchid is such a pretty red!! My Mom registered a cross of a new red orchid in the late 60s and it was one of the first of the reds. This one is stunning!
I only have one orchid because snowbirding doesn't allow me to do those. My son gave me the one I have and it goes back and forth with us.

Don - your cactus are pretty cheery, huh? I also transport a Thanksgiving cactus that has great sentimental value to me, as it was a gift from my niece when she visited us for Thanksgiving way back in 1989. Those two plants are my "must takes" when we travel.

Tee Hee!
I have a very good friend that 'blessed' me with a Thanksgiving cactus and a Christmas cactus. So far, both look really healthy, but no blooms. I just know that I am sunning it wrong.

Nah.......it takes awhile for them to settle in. I would forget some of mine for weeks and I'd think they would have to be dead from drought, but no......they'd be blooming! If anything, sparse watering is best! Mine do best with indirect light on the north side of the house. I'm no expert on them, but I do love them. Glad yours are looking healthy, Candyce!

My foxglove is still blooming here!! I should take a picture of it.

Yes, Deb......please do! My foxglove didn't come back up this past year in NH.

Pirl - this shot is for you in memory of your frozen lettuce......it's my little mesculin green pot....they're coming along!

I think, I'm not sure and would love to be corrected but I think that Christmas and Thanksgiving cactuses need to be cold to set buds. IE leave em out in the fall way too late before you bring em in. Of course, I don't have one any more. What's up with that? I also think there's one in the article pipeline about them! xx, Carrie

I know lots of people have them down here, so I'm not sure if they need cold or not. My next door neighbor just lost some she has had for 15 years because of some fungus that made them all mushy. It gets somewhat cool in November here (we had 40 degrees a couple of mornings), so that may be cool enough to bring on the blooms if that is the case. In New England mine were always inside the house and they bloomed like crazy just before Thanksgiving.

Hmmm that blows my theory. x, C

I remember reading somewhere that to make em bloom you should put them somewhere dark and ignore them for 3 or 4 weeks, then bring em out and start watering again.

Well, maybe not.......my house was usually pretty cool (menopausal, you know......) LOL

I know you do that with amaryllis's, but I never had to do it with my Thanksgiving cactus. It just did its thing despite anything I failed to provide.

My grandmother used to leave them out until just before the first frost. I followed that thinking. We have one in work and it sits in a north window all year and is blooming like crazy. I have one in the living room that is not doing too much.

I know that my X-MIL always kept her Christmas in the laundry room on top of the dryer. It was a moist environment and in a southerly facing window. The darned thing always had blooms! I was always so jealous of that plant.

We should read the article..I'll sneak a peek, because mine doesn't even have buds. Last year it bloomed for Thanksgiving. Of course, the orchid bloomed for Christmas year. Maybe they're taking turns with the holidays LOL

edit to add...there's one in the works, but not in the editor yet...darn

This message was edited Nov 27, 2007 9:50 AM

This message was edited Nov 27, 2007 9:52 AM

ok, found this

Christmas cactus will bloom if given long uninterrupted dark periods, about 12 hours each night. Begin the dark treatments in about mid-October to have plants in full bloom by the holidays. You can place the plants in a dark closet from about 8 P.M. - 8 A.M. each night for 6-8 weeks or until you see buds forming. Christmas cacti will also bloom if they are subjected to cool temperatures of about 50 to 55 degrees F, eliminating the need for the dark treatments. Plants should be blooming for the holidays if cool treatments are started by early November.

the problem is, there are also Thanksgiving cactus and other types with different blooming habits. you need to be sure yours is a true Christmas cactus.

Where'd you find that, Jan? In the articles queue? xx, Carrie

I guess different strokes for different cactus folks!! LOL

By the way, mine isn't blooming now - probably because it got dropped on its head when it fell out of the car on the way down here. sniff. It's doing fine other than that.

I snapped a couple of blooms to share....

This is a zone 7 camellia we planted here in zone 10 (zone pushing!!). It is such a pretty little plant, but I'm trying not to get too attached!

This petunia basket is beginning to fill out nicely........

This little sedum (a gift awaiting me when we arrived) is filled with little yellow flowers and several seedlings coming up nicely.....I can't recall what they are (shameful confession!)

Louise - they are beautiful!! Reminds me of............SUMMER!!!! Don - love the Christmas cactus. My mother had a huge one and after she died my father got sick of it and threw it out. :-( I had a cutting from it and mine is getting pretty big also. My daughter #1 is plant sitting the cactus as I had no room for it after my spare bedroom was made into a nursery. I will bring it home someday if she doesn't kill it. Jan - the orchid is beautiful. Thanks for the comments on my outdoor-indoor geraniums!! Eleanor

Thanks, Eleanor! I posted this verbena earlier but it has some more blooms and is quite a "hot" color.

Love the color!! Eleanor

Donnie--Is your Verbena in Florida? I have been drooling over pictures of Homestead Verbena for the last two years, but have held off because of warnings that it was not reliably hardy in Zone 6a. Have you tried it in the north? Can it be raised as an annual?

Gram--We never bother to take our Christmas (or Thanksgiving) cacti outside, just leave 'em in a west facing oriel window and so far they have bloomed every year for at least 6 years.

I like Verbena too. V. bonariensis is nice.

My "Christmas" cactus thrives on neglect. Every spring I throw it outside on the south side of the house, water it about once a month, and bring it in either before or right after the first frost. It usually buds around October. It's never in the dark - inside it's kept in a south window.

I have heard similar tales of tossing out the Christmas Cactus to fend for itself from spring through fall. That's the one thing I have never tried with any of my Christmas Cactus, so I will try that one, too! I'll do almost anything to see those gorgeous blooms.