Interesting Houseplants

I took these photos at the local greenhouse when we went for our annual poinsettia purchase.  Every time I look at these photos I want to go back and buy this trio, I think they would look great together in a basket but so far I have not made it back there to get them...........one of these days :)

All I Wanna Do is Lay in the Sun

This is Jon Pickles enjoying some sunshine today, he is a large cat but he manages to get in behind plants to soak up the rays. The leaves in the picture belong to a large Clivia plant that I have had for almost 20 years, it blooms every spring, last year it bloomed twice, in the spring and later in the summer. I transplanted it to a larger pot after it bloomed, they do not like to be transplanted but the roots were beginning to show on top of the soil. I hope it blooms this spring.

Sunday Snowy Sunday

On this snowy day in Iowa, I want to share some pictures of things that are in bloom in my little world. The Christmas Cactus is a bit of a late bloomer. The first photo is of a Star Hoya that blooms almost the entire year. I have several other Hoyas that bloom in late winter to spring, their blooms are all wonderfully fragrant but the Star Hoya's blooms have no fragrance.

Sunday Snowy Sunday

As I am sitting here composing this post I am watching the snow fall! A rare occurrence here in Iowa for the last several years. We are under a winter storm watch, I am glad to see some snow, I like the white cleanness of it and am really really tired of cleaning mud off of the dogs paws each time they go outside and come back in. The ground is not frozen yet and it is January! Maybe if I get lucky it will continue to snow and I may get a day off of work, that would be wonderful, doubtful that it will happen but I can dream.

Last night I was doing more catalog browsing, I have jotted down a few shrubs I would like to try as well as a few perennials. One is Dream Catcher beauty bush, Kolkwitzia amabilis it is hardy to zone 4, early pink flowers, golden-yellow foliage in the fall, Black Lace elderberry Sambucus nigra , it is described as having purple-black filigreed foliage that resembles thread leaf Japanese maples, Japanese maples are not quite hardy in this zone so this elderberry interests me. Phlox 'Sherbet Cocktail' also caught my interest, it is a new color described as yellow edges with pink centers. I love Phlox, the scent always takes me back to my Grandmother's garden.

Yesterday I shared some pictures of my begonias that are in bloom, today I would like to share some other pics of plants in bloom in my little world. The above photo is of some paperwhites, they smell wonderful to me, some folks tell me they stink.

Another Angel Wing

Help Me Make it Through the Winter

One might wonder why someone in Iowa would start a garden blog in mid January, I wonder myself, I guess because I have the time now. I placed my first seed order today. It was with Select Seeds, one of my favorite seed catalogs. The seed catalogs seem to arrive earlier and earlier each year, I start getting some in November now. My annual tradition is to pile the catalogs up until after the holidays. I love browsing through all the beautiful pictures, I often wonder why my flower garden does not look like the ones in the catalog. Some of the catalogs are truly works of art, I always think I should do something crafty with them after I am done looking at all the beautiful flowers, but that has yet to happen. Time is always at a premium around here.

My houseplants help me get through the winter, I purchased several new Angel Wing Begonias last summer, they are all in bloom right now, plus a lipstick plant that I acquired last summer. Anyone remember the 60s and 70s plant craze, lipstick plants were everywhere. I never got out of the craze, I have many houseplants. Anyone buy plants from Logees? Another of my favorite catalogs. It is a bit too cold to mail order house plants right now, but I always make it a point to browse the plant sections at Lowes, Home Depot and Menards. Lowes has a nice selection. I even made a terrarium with one small episcia last weekend. Terrariums were all the rage in the 70s along with macrame, if you are as old as me no doubt you will remember both. I still have my stack of macrame pattern books, I remember standing for hours making plant hangers.