Greenhouse Cleanup!

It has been rainy April weather lately - all weekend and most of the week - and if it is nice and you are outside, you are instantly polluted with little black horrible flies - in your eyes, mouth, hair and all over your clothes -YUK!! Hopefully, they will be gone soon! I have been catching up on housework and my greenhouse. There was an epidemic of crunchy leaves going on there - so I did a thorough pick off - washed a bunch of pots collected from the church lilies and the streets during spring cleanup in our neighborhood - put them downstairs in my storage room - threw out some dead or sick plants - and it actually looks quite nice there now. It took me most of the day to do this but I got great exercise going up & down the basement steps - my fingernails are cleaner and longer - due to the washing up - and the plants look wonderful - my geraniums are fabulous now - some of the cuttings are blooming - the shamrocks are getting bigger..I am very happy.
When my Hort club has it's May sale, I will have lots of stuff for them - I plan on donating a lot of the baby houseplants and then my greenhouse will be easier to look after in the summer. I do the plant table at our church bazaar in November, but last year, we had a small crowd and I lugged 3 carloads of plants over and brought 2 carloads back home after the sale - so - this year, I plan on taking 1 carload there and hope all the plants sell. I grow plants all summer for this sale but this year I plan on taking it easy and if we go away, it will
be low maintenance.
How about this -- as you know, my husband and I look after flower decorating at our church and when there is a funeral, we are asked by the priest, to dismantle the flowers, put them in vases or baskets and then they don't look like funeral flowers. At a recent funeral, I salvaged curly willow from a basket, brought it home, stuck it in a vase andthe branches now have small green leaves and great roots. I will pot them up for our Hort sale - a great item!!
Enjoyment: All the blooms in my greenhouse - and no crunchies on the leaves!!

Jungle greenhouse!

My greenhouse is turning into a jungle - the plants are growing like mad - it is wonderful, but I am running out of space these days. We have had lovely spring weather lately, and yesterday, we raked our front lawn - and I trimmed back a small flower bed at the back. My chives are popping, tulips are through, garlic that I planted last spring and died on me (so I thought) is growing, and all sorts of perennials are facing the sun. We sat out on our patio yesterday PM - it felt so good to leave winter behind.
We visited our Goddaughter and family in Oakville last weekend and I have a new plant from them - a Kalanchoe - with peachy and yellow flowers - it is lovely!
My African violets are starting to bloom - they are in the living room as the moisture in the greenhouse spots the leaves and the sun will burn them as well - I have four plants in a basket near front window.
PLEASURE: SPRING!!

Begonia and Aloe

begonia & aloe plant
Here is a photo of my flowering begonia and my crazy aloe plant.

Where Have I Been?

I am asking myself the same question-I have been other places than my greenhouse -and when I have been there, I haven't had time to BLOG after. All is well in the greenhouse-no new seedlings have been started. I was busy at church the week before Easter and the time has flown by since. I didn't get to use the poinsettia plants at the church at Easter - they were all still looking very red - and the one that I trimmed back to green leaves still looked poinsettia-ish. A couple of days ago, I discarded all the saved poinsettias, except for 3 red and my beautiful pink one, which is still gorgeous. I have the large, large ferns from church there also. The shamrocks are doing well, no blooms to date, but lots of leaves on the plants.
I received a gift certificate for Easter for Rona - so I bought Miracle Grow and potting soil. No excuses for NOT growing now.
I counted my geraniums - I now have 24 - all doing well.
I am still fighting bugs with my trusty spray bottle - whitefly - especially on my sweet potato vines. I HATE WHITEFLY!!
I will insert some photos soon.
ENJOYMENT:: Milder weather!!