Neat and Tidy!!

This morning my hubby and I loaded up the car with trays of the plants and drove to my daughter's work place - it was -15deg. C. and chilly but nice and sunny. Peggy met us there and with the help of two friends, we lugged them upstairs into a beautiful conference room - new decorated - lovely shade of sage on the walls - huge windows - wide trim painted white - nice new furniture! There were five big windows and it didn't take us long to situate the plants and they look much better there than in the greenhouse. I'm sure they will be happy there and the girls were certainly pleased with them.
After a busy a.m. of shopping for household items and groceries, we went home - I had a nap - then started tidying the greenhouse - it looks so neat now, I can't believe it is mine. I repotted some plants and hung them where the spiders were. My friend and her mum in law are coming to visit tomorrow so I wanted everything to look great. I have a huge aloe that is falling out of the pot and it has had a lot of babies as well. I like the look of the babies with the mom hovering over them, but I will have to prop it with something. I moved a lot of plants around - some were getting too much sun - the bugs seem to be under control now - my trusty spray bottle is helping.
Now that I have room, I can start some geranium cuttings!!
Enjoyment: Being neat and tidy once in a while!
HINT: The best plant markers are recycled vinyl window blinds - cut in 6" pieces - they are easy to write on with a waterproof marker. They are great for your garden markers also, and the price is the best. People love to give them to you at garage sales.

Creating some greenhouse space!

Hooray! Tomorrow I will have more space in my greenhouse as 2 spider plants, 3 asparagus ferns, a teddy bear plant, and an aloe are going to our daughter's office. These big plants will not be missed and I hope the folks at her work enjoy them. I watered them, cleaned all the crunchy leaves off them and wrapped and boxed them. Now - I will have to reorganize lots of plants - it was very warm out there today - 26degrees C. or 78degrees F.
Easy to take when it is -2degrees C. outdoors - the plants are loving the sun today.
Speaking of the teddy bear plant - I am unsure if that is the real name. It is an ivy type with green leaves with burgundy undertones - now it is blooming with tiny pink and white flowerettes. I must check it out - it kind of reminds of a purple heart plant.
I am still battling whitefly - on my sweet potato vine plants - today, I misted them in the bathtub with warm shower water. I hate whitefly!
Enjoyment: Making space in my greenhouse - even though temporarily!!

This is me in my greenhouse before Christmas 2003-you can see my spider plant tree in front of me-my husband created it for my birthday one year and some day I will post a photo of it as I think it is spectacular and different. I will also explain how he made it and where the idea came from.
Greenhousegal

Another sunny Sunday!

Today is - 10 celcius in Amherstview but beautifully sunny. In checking my plants today, I noticed I have been a little invaded with some bugs... they come alive in February, it seems. Out came the spray bottle again-I will have to be more diligent and observant. I am very happy to report that the shamrocks are finally growing nicely-not all of them, but at least three are sprouting leaves. My friend, Mr. Finn, who has grown shamrocks forever, told me to sock it to them with fertilizer and they will be huge for March 17th. Advice from an Irishman who grows shamrocks must definitely be heeded. So, must find the jar of Miracle Grow again. The Church poinsettias are very pathetic and really testing my patience, so I might have to put them where I can't see them and forget about them for now.
This winter I have kept four African violets in the greenhouse - usually, I keep them in the house as the leaves get all spotty from the water drippings in there, but these are sitting at the back of a shelf and they are doing amazingly well...one is starting to form buds now.
Enjoyment! Knowing February is nearly ended!

Crazy weather week!

This week has the craziest weather here - on Monday, Valentine's Day, we had freezing rain, then late in the day, just rain, and freezing rain late in the evening. A good day to stay inside! Tuesday was lovely and sunny and today, we had snow and milder weather. Only in Canada, you say!
Not much excitement in my greenhouse this week - I took two large ferns to the church on Sunday. I take them back and forth from the greenhouse to the altar as they seem to struggle with life in the church. Anyhow, I really need the room for other plants so hope they do well. During Lent, there are more activities going on at church and it is a little warmer there than usual which will be good for them. I was always a little afraid of ferns but these plants are amazing. In the greenhouse, they get very few brown leaves and they just grow into these large giant leafy plants. They shoot out babies through the holes in the bottoms of the pots and I start new plants from these tiny fronds. These ferns were at the Eucharistic Congress in Hamilton a number of years ago and I have started them over a few times, but they are real survivors.
The geraniums are blossoming constantly - I love them. My yellow kalanchoe has big clusters of flowers now.
The shamrocks are doing nothing-but gardening does teach patience so I will wait and see. There hasn't been a lot of sun this week so I am not watering as much.
Our horti meeting was cancelled this week due to the weather on Monday. Our speaker who was coming from Cornwall started for Kingston, and turned around as it was so slippery on the 401. She was going to speak on Bonsai, which I do not have a clue about. To me, a Bonsai is a reverse plant. Instead of making it grow, you stunt it's growth, but they do look cute in those little dishes with stones in them and you never know, some day, I might try one. I don't have an orchid either, but someday, I will splurge and buy one. They are so fascinating also. When we were thinking about getting our greenhouse, we used to drive by a greenhouse in Kingston, that was full of orchids. It was amazing to see.
Enjoyment: Seeing seeds and garden stuff in the stores!

Winter came back!

Winter came back and I wish it would go as away as quickly as this past week did-I didn't get to spend a lot of time in my greenhouse this week -I was busy with my volunteer work and actually did some housework and grocery shopping. I repotted my swedish ivy - I hope it survives. I kept a lot of cuttings but the leaves are yellow-green - not healthy looking at all. I didn't take the plants to my daughter's office either as it was just too cold. Hopefully, next week they will take a trip into the city. They are doing extremely well and I gave them some fertilizer today so they should be okay while adjusting to their new home. My shamrocks are still dormant - my Harry begonias are doing okay - I am too anxious for them to grow. The geraniums are the best. My red geranium that I first bought at White Rose in 1993, thinks it is a rose - the flowers are so gorgeous - they do look like tiny clusters of roses. Maybe it knows that Valentine's day is just around the corner and it is my gift from the greenhouse. The church poinsettias are losing leaves and petals like crazy but I know there are beautiful green leaves to come out on the bare stems.
Enjoyment - the sun shone all day today and a little bit of yesterday's snow melted and I took a long walk this morning in the beautiful fresh air. Days are getting longer!

Rain & Fog or Fog & Rain

It has been rainy and foggy here today - the snow is almost all gone - there are huge crows squawking in the tops of the trees and it is very mild - is this winter in Ontario? Things are dull in the greenhouse today - my friend Carol, picked up a pot of poinsettias today - two of the church pots put together in one pot - it was beautiful and she said it was nicer than the one she bought before Christmas. I see a tiny bit of green in one of the shamrock pots. Tomorrow, I plan to cut back a sick looking swedish ivy. The geraniums are doing great now. I will be taking cuttings this week also.
Enjoyment: The weather is supposed to be mild for the next week or so!

Sunday in sunny Amherstview!

Today is a perfect get-you-thinkin'-about-Spring-day. The temperature is +5 C and I spent most of the afternoon in my greenhouse. My husband and I brought all the church Christmas poinsettias home - I checked them all over and kept 7 - I am hoping to use them at Easter for greenery at the church. I will trim the red leaves off them and force new green leaves. It took a while to cut up the rest for the composter-keep the dirt in a plastic bag for the garden-and wash the pots. I also repotted a plant called PLECTRANTHUS-a friend gave me this plant 2 years ago and she told me it was called a potato plant - I didn't think it looked like a potato - it reminded me of a swedish ivy with burgundy and green leaves. I took some cuttings to our Horti Club sale and one of the members advised what it really was named - sounds like a dinosaur to me and I really don't know a lot about it but it grows like a vine and gets pretty little flowers on it in late summer and fall and now I have two plants hanging in the greenhouse. All the plants received a good drink of water today. I noticed some whitefly on my sweet potato vine so I went mad with the sprayer - filled with warm water and a tiny amount of dish soap. This time of year, I usually get some bugs - they like the warmth also - but they soon meet my spray bottles. I also noticed some bite marks on the swedish ivy leaves - that would be a little weevil who also wakes up in February. I usually find him at night with the flashlight and he ends up in a cup of hot, hot water - cruel but quick. I trimmed all the dead blossoms off the jade and I miss them. They were so pretty.
Enjoyment: The ICEFOG was still here this morning and left us at mid morning but the land was a winter wonderland picture.

An Ice Fog Day in Ontario

Yesterday, we had SMOG - imagine having SMOG in February - and, today we have ICEFOG
-we used to call it HOAR FROST when I was a kid - but whatever it is called - it was simply beautiful here this morning - Jack Frost was busy last night painting everything in sight. A virtual winter wonderland, backed in FOG. My daughter came to visit today and she set up my blog for me so hopefully some garden and houseplant bloggers will visit me now. I will try to be a daily blogger.
During the past week, my greenhouse thrived on neglect - it had lots of sunny days and I did manage to water the plants more, due to the heat there - I seemed to be busy every day last week - c'est la vie! My shamrocks are still looking dormant - my begonias look great so they obviously liked being separated from their mother plant. I gave one of the baby Streptocarpella plants to a new Church friend - she was delighted to receive it, and loved the violet flower. This week, Canadian Tire are advertising their seed packets for 39 cents - what a deal!
Tomorrow, my husband and I will remove the Christmas poinsettias from the altar of our Church as Ash Wednesday is Feb. 9th-we have 20 pots there and they are starting to have falling leaves so most of them will be composted - I will keep a couple in the greenhouse and plant them in the flower bed in Spring. I wish I could find homes for them but folks are poinsettia'd out now. We purchased them at Rona for $3.67 ea. at the end of November so they have served there beautiful purpose for this year. I love poinsettias and the red ones are my favorite, although I am enjoying my pink one also.
ENJOYMENT! My husband's cousin visited this p.m. and she exclaimed out loud when she looked out my kitchen window at the plants in the greenhouse - they looked extremely green with the white fog in the background. It was an unusual experience.