What's blooming in your yard?

[Shwa Girl]

I have had great sucess using this easy tool http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews...enplanner.html
You can use it for free for 30 days! Then its about 25 or so per year for a subscription. VERY well worth that price.
It even has a tool to let you plan a square foot garden if you want instead of the usual rows. (you get more food from square foot gardening.)
It also lets you plan for landscaping type stuff too. They have sample plans you can check out for ideas and then other members plans are also shared too!
It does so much for so little in price!

CRop rotation, when to plant, when to harvest.... I could go on and on but I will let all you gardeners discover all its great things on your own.

And then also from watching this video about square foot gardening.

SFG Teaching Video - YouTube
The planner helped me decide what types of plants to plant and the video showed me how super easy it was! I mean way easy than the regular row planting!
Happy planning! I know that is what I am starting to do now.

Thanks. I like the YouTube video.

[tobiwobi]

My last year's red amaryllis, bought at no frills for $2 clearance, is blooming again this year. Turned out easy to lift, cold store, and get to rebloom again. I picked up a few more on clearance after this Xmas (lowes $2 walmart $3.50), bulbs weren't in great shape cos of late planting, but they are recovering and will be blooming soon too.

[marstec]

So beautiful, tobiwobi...red is my favourite amaryllis colour.

[Shwa Girl]

hostas were peeking up through the ground
way too early for them
hope they don't freeze and die

[Shwa Girl]

third bloom of one of the Christmas cactuses. Only 2 flowers
Kalanchole is blooming
Indoor green plants are getting more frequent watering -- they are growing -- does this mean that spring is early?

[tobiwobi]

Took some time, but Xmas clearance amaryllises are now in bloom one of them even has two flower stalks. I've been obsessing over them ever since I got the bulbs. When they're over, gonna switch my attention to my rescue orchids (also clearance ikea and walmart, $2 and $5) which are barely hanging on right now, dropping leaves like crazy and looking sad.

[GoJays]

my cattleya finally bloomed.. it's just a little guy


and the rest.. don't ask me to name them

[Natalka]

Oh, how beautiful!

[marstec]

Your orchids are beautiful, Go Jays...thanks for posting the pics. So nice on a dreary winter day.

[Ciel]

I will wait to see if the purple crocuses appear before or on St. Patrick's Day. And those little purple flowers that like to cover parts of the lawn. Three more weeks (this is more fun than Groundhog Day-Feb. 2).

[tobiwobi]

Wow GoJays what do you do with them? Any tips????? I have only Failing-opsises, struggling to keep the roots alive.. in ones that still have the roots..., leaves dry, I've tried sphag and bag, just putting plastic bag over, repot in bark, even 'water culture' but all i get is rot and fungus hairs.

my cattleya finally bloomed.. it's just a little guy


and the rest.. don't ask me to name them

[GoJays]

this kind?



i have no advice for you.. i kill these ones... not intentionally, of course, but they don't seem to do well in my house.. dunno why..

as for the other ones, i don't do anything special for them at all.. i try to remember to water them occasionally.. no fertilizer, nothing.. just lucky i guess

[electric_viking]

You're too modest Jays. You're a very good gardener.
You're blessed with two green thumbs (or is that blue thumbs?)

[sweet sparrow]

I agree with GoJays. The phalaenopsis orchids (like the kind she posted in #508) from grocery stores and common nurseries seem bred to die. I do have a miniature one with a strong fragrance that's been hanging in there for years, but it's had two leaves forever.

Cymbidiums seem easier to grow somehow for me. I'd post a picture, but the two stems it produced this year aren't as impressive as the nine stems last year. It's posted on SC somewhere....

GoJays, did you get yours from an orchid show or a specialty shop? I've been really wanting to get the one that smells like chocolate. Your orchids are beautiful!

[GoJays]

I get all of my orchids from Terra. I search out the ones that are marked down to nothing only because they've finished blooming. People are so silly - they won't buy the plant just because it doesn't have any flowers on it. Orchids are not disposable, they will re-bloom again. I hate the idea of paying $30-$50 for one plant when I can be patient and pay $5-$10 for that same plant once it's done with its pretty little flower. I don't always get the plant that I want but at least I'm not paying an arm and a leg for one, right?