Orchid “Carolee”, still alive after 11 weeks, a new record! Happy Saturday to each and every one of you gentle readers! As you can see, winter came back overnight with one of those lovely snows that frosts each and every surface and makes the landscape clean and beautiful again. I’m starting with today’s photo of Orchid “Carolee” because I’ve had some inquiries about her. Yes, she’s still alive and not only that, seems to actually be thriving because she’s put on several more buds and has 4 new open flowers. I think she likes her new location in front of the kitchen window. I’d always thought ..read more

Red and Orange Ranunculus in the raised beds. It’s time to start the ranunculus here in Zone 5b/6a. This will be my third year growing these flowers, and I can say it has been a learning curve. First of all, those of you who follow a lot of Instagram, YouTube, etc. will notice that these blooms are not the huge, million-petaled flowers that others show off. I love ranunculus because it is one of the essential “May Gap” fillers here in central Indiana, especially if one doesn’t have peonies (and I don’t.) Keep in mind that I grow flowers to give away. I’m not growing for profit anymore. Those s ..read more

The potager is lovely….if you like clutter and shades of brown and beige! The above photo of the potager was taken on one of the very few (only 6!) sunny days in the entire dismal, gloomy month of January. It was a fairly quiet month, with fewer meetings than usual. Mother only had one appointment so there was less travel required, which was good because several mornings it was so foggy the schools were closed or on a delay. We did attend a lovely retirement party for one of David’s friends (on a minus 2 degree day with bone-chilling winds) and met some other friends for lunch to celebrate our ..read more

The amaryllis parade has continued non-stop, and since most of them were posted during last year’s parade, I haven’t bothered to include them here. However, this is one I was really looking forward to “lifting the gloom” just after the holidays. I thought I’d timed starting it right so it would bloom just after Christmas Day, because it was appropriately named “White Christmas”! Not only did it bloom a month later than anticipated, but it doesn’t resemble anything close to white! It was certainly labeled “White Christmas,” and listed on the invoice as such, but for some reason, I’m skeptical ..read more

The view out my window this morn Happy Saturday! I hope you are able to stay indoors where it’s warm! It was 1 degree F this morning at 8am. Thankfully, I have no where to go and can stay in and enjoy the unusual sunshine. As I watered plants on the windowsill and viewed the snow, I could hear my grandfather’s gruff voice saying, “It’s too darn cold to swallow and too windy to spit!” as he would stomp the snow off his boots by the back door. I don’t know why that memory was triggered.  When I looked at all the tracks in the snow, I thought, “Well, looks like there were lots of reindeer games b ..read more

Buckets of lissies heading to the basement to condition. The lisianthus seeds are already sown, sprouted and growing down in the basement under lights. They are always the very first seeds planted for the upcoming year because they are such slow growers. Since I wrote so much about these wonderful flowers as my #2 Top Performer, I won’t go over growing details here. For more information on their culture, click this Lisianthus post. I will add a couple of notes and updates from 2023. The Gavotte Yellow were lovely, perfect with Isabellini zinnias, but as a group 3-4 they did bloom a bit late an ..read more

Amaryllis “Picotee” As for many of you, the exuberant flowers of amaryllis really lift my spirits during these dreary, gloomy days. I’ve amassed quite a collection over the years, and since they keep producing baby bulbs the number keeps increasing. Just as the first blooms of “Luna” were fading, “Picotee” began to open. ”Picotee” is a new one for me. The flowers are slightly smaller than many others I grow but she’s a pretty one to view up close. At a distance those pencil-thin red edges don’t really show.  Orchid “Carolee”!! At Christmas, our friends who own New Vision Orchids brought this n ..read more

One of my favorite tulips in 2023 will be coming again! Since I did such a poor job record-keeping on the tulip production last spring, and failed to take many photos of the bouquets containing tulips, I’m taking a scatter gun approach to the tulips for 2024. I’ve ordered many more varieties, but fewer numbers of each for the most part so I can see which I like best, how they hold up, when they bloom, and how their colors blend with the other flowers available from the gardens at the time. Let’s start in the order I suspect/hope/want them to bloom! “Exotic Emperor”…one of my favorites! The abs ..read more

Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t be planting any additional daffodils, because 4,000 ought to be enough! However, it is REALLY hard to resist temptation so just a few new ones will be appearing in the gardens come Spring. Daffodils (Narcissi, Jonquils) are the nearly perfect flower. A hardy perennial that is resistant to nearly all critters, diseases, and insect problems, grows in almost any location (except soggy sites) without any effort beyond initial planting, and returns to flower for decades. Breeders have done magical things to offer us a huge variety of sizes, shapes, forms, colors, and c ..read more

The first amaryllis for 2024…’Luna’ HAPPY NEW YEAR! Suffice it to say that 2023 flew by in a blur, as evidenced by the fact that only 16 posts were written in the ENTIRE year with the last one appearing March 9th. I went back to read them, just to get a feel for what I’d already written and possible things I’d left unanswered. Oh, I had such high expectations! That happens during winter, sitting with a cup of tea and a pile of seed catalogs making “wish lists.” In winter, with all that rest my mind is in the “all feels possible” stage. Obviously already by mid-March my body reminded me that re ..read more