Wordless Wednesday

Tweet

#GiveThanks

I am thankful for flowers in winter, tomatoes in winter, grow lights, windows and even critters that sometimes munch on my outdoor garden!

Tweet

Winter Flowers

I didn't think I'd get a White Picotee amaryllis this year. Everything had bloomed, I thought, and the white and Papillon bulbs seemed spent. All three plants are making babies, so their energies probably are going into the new bulbs. After all the other amaryllises in my collection were finished, the white picotee sent up a tiny bud. I thought I'd get only one flower. This plant has seen its peak.


When the bud finally opened, I was surprised to see not only two full-size blossoms, but a tiny third as well! I thought the third one wouldn't grow to full size, but it's trying.


One of the Papillon bulbs has split! I didn't know that could happen. This transpired after the new baby bulb appeared. I learned you can divide a large bulb, but I've yet to find anything about the bulbs dividing themselves.


Five of the seeds I propagated from the bargain bin red and White Picotee amaryllises the second year are still growing strong, and I think this is their third or fourth year. More seedlings may have survived, but I didn't know the new bulbs shed their leaves each year and then start over. I thought four or five of my mixed-up bulbs had died, and I recycled the soil into the raised-bed gardens outside. Amaryllises cannot survive Colorado's winters. So, essentially, I killed them if they weren't already dead.

I actually thought I'd lost all of my seedlings. I put other seeds... lavender, larkspur or daisy... into their soil, and the amaryllis babies put up new leaves a while later! I don't intentionally plant other seeds in those little pots now!

I'm much more patient with the remaining seedlings, now that I know they will regrow new leaves in a couple of weeks after they go bald.








The White Picotee amaryllis began producing its first bulblet, an offset, the second year. I divided the two bulbs the following year and put the baby in a pot of its own. I wonder if it might bloom for the first time next year.


I thought the White Picotee would be the final amaryllis of the year. But one more is sneaking in for the win. I'd forgotten about my pink Candy Crush amaryllis. I think that's what I'm going to get next.


This year I learned amaryllis like to be root-bound. I'd put several in huge pots, mostly because the little pots tipped over while I was at work when the stalks became too large. I was going to re-pot several of the bulbs in small pots into bigger, heavier pots after this bloom season. Now I don't have to. This year, I clipped the new bargain bin pink amaryllis after it dipped over and nearly touched the floor (it's in a huge, heavy pot), and I also clipped the bargain bin red amaryllis when it started leaning more than I liked. Having the flowers in a vase allows me to bring out a favorite vase, and it also affords easier photography than hauling the big, heavy pots around to better light and backgrounds!






After Valentine's Day, I spied a bargain bundle of blue delphiniums at the grocery store. Lizard wasn't able to drive this year for my birthday or for Valentine's Day due to total knee replacement in December, so I bought the delphiniums, put them in the vase with the amaryllis blossoms, and hugged and thanked Lizard for such a beautiful and romantic Valentine gift. He thought that was pretty cool because he hates shopping!


I still haven't had a single larkspur this winter, but I have had many African daisies, mostly one at a time, but sometimes in doubles.






I let the blossoms hang out way too long. The red ones dripped "blood" all over the kitchen counter. Took us a while to figure out where the "blood" came from! And the pink one almost looked prettier, or at least more artistic, dead than alive, in my opinion.


The hoyas have been very happy plants this winter. I don't know if it's the grow lights, or they are just really enjoying their new pots. They have been blooming non-stop for a month now, with new flowers forming every week. What a beautiful winter we are having!

Tweet

Gardening in Winter

It may be cold, but it takes more than single-digit temperatures and blankets of white to keep my garden from thriving.


My six pepper plants, including one dual-armed ghost pepper stalk, may not be producing chile for my cuisine right now, but boy, they are a bloomin'! I was pinching the scores of new blossoms every day, but they still fall off after a couple of days of being gorgeous. I was told to try Q-tipping the blossoms instead of pinching and to pull them away from the living room window, which might be a tad too cold for peppers to form. I moved the peppers three feet from the window at Christmas and began using a cotton swab instead of my fingers to help pollinate. Nothing yet, but I keep trying.


Two of the three hoya plants pulled a fast one, too!


The big surprises of this winter, so far, have been the bowl of hyacinths I didn't get a chance to put in the ground before our first big snow (18 inches at our house back in November!), the rosemary plant closest to the living room window, and one of two strawberry plants I rescued from the porch before our first overnight freeze. I didn't expect any of these to produce winter blossoms.


Both strawberry plants bloomed in November, and although I've now surrendered one plant due to indominable spider mites, the second one is busy brewing me another bite-sized breakfast.


The amaryllises are late, but who cares when the blossoms could last well into March???


African daisies have been outshining the traditional larkspur in my living room this year. I've had indoor larkspur almost every year since we bought our house ten years ago. This winter, I can't keep the larkspur alive. The Cape Marigold African daisies have been rubbing my nose in it -- in a good way, of course.


I've tried my hand and failed with clove seedlings. I wish I could keep one clove tree alive. The aroma when lightly touching a leaf is out of this world.


I'm still working on a pineapple direct from Hawaii. My boss who brought the original pineapple to me as a souvenir five years ago keeps asking if I've noticed a blue flower yet. The day I do, there's going to be a huge photographic spread here at Snowcatcher!!!


In 2020, I've added lemon seeds to the collection. I can't believe I'm growing little lemon trees in a plastic cup inside a plastic at work! The first plastic cup has holes poked in the bottom so the soil can drain, and the second cup holds the drainage until the soil gets thirsty again. I will soon transplant them into their own individual terracotta pots. I'm going to try growing one at home, now, too, because watching these little babies sprout has been springtime in my winter!


My first batch of 2020 seeds has arrived, and I'm going to start the corn indoors this year. A late start and a short growing season in 2019 resulted in six Barbie doll-sized ears of corn by first snow.


I've also convinced Lizard to try sprouts and microgreens this winter. I'm going to try to get the hyacinth bulbs into the ground this weekend before our next snow, and then the hyacinth bowl is going to be converted to its original purpose... an indoor salad bowl garden!

Tweet