Planning for the Future

Planning for the future of your garden can be a conscious process, but just as often is taking place subconsciously for months or even years before it becomes a conscious desire.

Every day that you spend in your garden you are making decisions, rather you recognize it or not. Sometimes you just look and perhaps enjoy the vista before you, but other days you might be energized to improve things and you suddenly rip out a plant that you’ve never liked or has lost its one time allure.  That’s OK.  You are the master designer!

Planning for the future of my garden has been gradually filling up my thoughts and recently its starting to take up more space so its time to explore what’s going on.

When we’re young, we think we’ll always be young and able to do whatever we dream of, but surprise, I no longer dream of having 5 acres of wild, exuberant garden.

Not only has my taste changed, so has my purse, and my energy level.  So actually, subconsciously, I have been planning for the future of my garden for a few years now.

What I picture now is a garden that is easy to take care of and looks good even if I don’t spend hours every day working in it! 

I still love looking at the pictures of gorgeous gardens in magazines, but it is unpractical for me to think my gardens could or would look like those.  This is true for a number of reasons, but mainly because my husband and I have very different ideas of what is beautiful. 

We live in a typical subdivision and my husband is a “Turf Guy” (which means he likes his unimpeded green grass).  He would never think that a whole yard of vegetation and garden would be pretty.  I get it, and even though I’m always eager to expand or completely create a new garden, I do know my limits, and I just can’t do everything my dreams suggest would be beautiful.

The fact is gardens take a lot of work-not just to create but to maintain.  My husband also

seems to think that every time I have a bright idea he has more work to do…a statement that has a lot of truth in it (unfortunately!)

So planning for the future of your garden sometimes includes compromise…and not just with a partner.  Sometimes we also need to compromise for the welfare of pets, or children and grandchildren and without even realizing it we are constantly adjusting the face and future of our garden to compromise with the other loves of our lives.

For the last few years I have been researching flowering shrubs and last year I actually bought a little lime hydrangea, a Rose of Sharon bush, a new hardy rose bush and a nine bark bush.

I am also fascinated with anything miniature, and I’ve got a small fairy garden and a small rock garden.  Now that I’m consciously planning for the future I want more miniature and small scale conifers to add to both the fairy garden and the rock garden.

I looked all summer for miniature and dwarf evergreens without a lot of luck either, but just last week I was thrilled to find several miniature conifers at an outside winter farmer’s market!                                    
It was serendipity! 

                     

It’s not the best time of year right now for planting anything in the garden. (The soil is frozen solid right now,) but I still found myself buying four miniature evergreens that are now competing for space with all my other plants that are overwintering in my house.

 I can already picture these beauties taking center stage in the rock garden and in my fairy garden in the spring.  It’s so exciting!

I’m also planning to reduce instead of enlarge the size of some of my gardens, and I want to do it with shrubs that are both hardy and add multi-seasonal interest to my gardens.  I’m presently using my wintertime to research flowering shrubs, shrubs that produce edible fruit for wildlife, and shrubs that grow slowly and have interesting shapes and colors.

It only makes sense that as we age, we don’t bend as well and it takes longer to recover from a hard day of work.  (Contrary to the ads on TV I really don’t have the energy I had years ago), and both my husband and I are and always have been active people. So to continue to try to maintain my massive, wild garden would just be an exercise in disappointment. 

I love blooming flowers and I love watching the spring flowers die back and the summer bloomers take their place, which again change when the fall beauties take center stage.  It took me years to create a garden that was in full bloom all throughout the summer.  I’m not planning on changing all that in one season.

Planning for the future of your garden can be a gradual change from one style to another.  My plan is to slowly replace from the corners in with more layers of blooming shrubs to replace older not as vibrant perennials.  My plan isn’t cast in stone, but I know that as the small shrubs that I bought this year grow they will take up more space and less space will naturally be left for other higher intensive plants. 

My Little Lime Hydrangea-It's so cute! I just love it!

The things that I will gradually be replacing are any tender perennials that have to be dug up every fall, stored and replanted every spring.  So I already know that part of my planning for the future means no more gladiolas, dahlias, or giant cannas. 

I want more native plants, more shrubs that have interesting shapes and colors to attract the eye through several seasons, and less everyday intensive work deadheading and weeding.

So step two of planning for the future will removing aggressive plants that need dividing every couple of years to keep them healthy (and in check).  Plants like peonies and rosebushes need much less dividing than some of my day lilies.  So even though I currently love my day lilies I can already see a day when they no longer grace my garden. 

(I’ll get my day lily fix by visiting public gardens and doing garden tours during the growing season.)

I have never been able to resist new plants and new varieties.  I don’t even know the number of different plants I have in my garden, but I know that I’ve got to rein it in a little.  To be honest, I don’t know how to deal with this tendency to fall in love with every plant I see.  I truly believe I can always find one more place for a plant that I just have to bring home.

That philosophy worked for me for years, but I noticed this summer that I actually have used up all the available space in my garden.  So sometimes I deal with my urge to buy something new by staying away from the garden centers.  (This tactic would work better if I wasn’t also trying to write a gardening blog for you!!!)

So planning for the future of my garden also involves limiting the variety of plants that I buy.  My designing background tells me that I should have more of fewer plants, and I’m actively trying to get my emotions around that. But being practical hasn’t always been my strong suit!  So I might be taking baby steps for awhile!  (Did you notice how strong I was about buying new varieties when I saw the miniature conifers last week?) Yeah, me too!

My mom would occasionally say to me “Do as I say, and not as I do!”  Good advice, gardeners.  I know what I’m talking about…I just don’t always do it!

So planning for the future of your garden might mean thinking about your own garden weaknesses and working to overcome them. 

Have you started planning for next year’s garden yet?  What changes do you want to make? What are you researching?  These cold winter nights are perfect for curling up with a plant catalog and a few daydreams for the future.

Thanks as always for reading Julie's Garden Journal.

Embracing Change

Embracing change is not always an easy thing to do, but if you don’t, you will be among other things, a frustrated gardener.

Gardens are not stagnant.  They are constantly growing, and evolving. There are some great lessons to be learned from a garden.  Being a gardener teaches us to be flexible.  Every season will have its successes and failures, and some of these will be totally out of your control.

Embracing the changes in your garden is part of the charm.  Maybe you didn’t plant that mullein in the middle of your perennial bed, but isn’t its tall, slightly fuzzy appearance a stroke of genius?  It’s appreciating the serendipity of Mother Nature that makes your garden one of a kind.

I am just one person with one very humble garden on less than a half acre of land in a suburban neighborhood- nothing special.  Certainly not anything like the gorgeous gardens pictured in every gardening publication out there.

I admit sometimes the pictures tend to discourage me more than they inspire me because I know I don’t have the resources, or the time, or maybe even the vision to create such a paradise in my own yard.

But, if we truly want to embrace change, we have to start from where we are and humbly admit that there is always better and should be. That is what resolutions are all about.

Seed catalogs are hope, hope and dreams that this year’s garden will be the best ever.   So as my mailbox gradually fills with glorious seed and flower catalogs, I am greedily devouring each and every one of them as they come.

Now, these once glossy magazines are all dog-eared, underlined, and circled, and if I bought everything I’ve circled I’d probably have to declare bankruptcy!  So obviously, now comes the harder task of eliminating three fourths of these wish lists, and trying to choose the plants that will truly thrive and enrich my garden.

Buying new plants for your garden is embracing change.  Is this the year you tackle the rocky side yard, or the boggy back corner, the wind that whips around the north corner of your house, or the general lack of privacy?

I couldn’t begin to name all the challenges that your garden might be facing, but it doesn’t all have to be tackled at the same time.  Chose one small area to concentrate on and focus your attention to improve that spot.

Maybe you won’t be able to recreate the dream garden you saw in a magazine, but you might be able to improve and create a one tiny oasis of beauty in your yard. A little space that you can take pleasure in; one little spot that might enable you to embrace change again somewhere else. 

So as I tackle the job of eliminating most of my circled choices, I am still hoping to turn my visions into reality.  What one of a kind beauty is waiting to flourish in my garden?  What eclectic element will make a transformational difference in my yard?

 I am embracing changes that are still undreamed of in my garden, and waiting patiently to encounter them.  I hope you are, too!

Creating a Terrarium ( Another I need to garden in January idea!)

Every year about this time, I long for summer. Last year I went out and bought four flowering plants to brighten up the window-sill, a cyclamen, a shamrock, a kalanchoe and one other which I don't remember because it died.

This year I tried something different: I thought lets have fun with terrariums! My mother had one when I was a child and I remember being fascinated by it. This year, my best friend made one for me, and it piqued the interest of the kids. Both of them wanted to build their own, (…and anything that holds interest on these long, long winter days is a plus!)

So we headed to the garden store and bought several tiny plants including ferns, ivy, baby's tears, cyclamens and even a miniature Norfolk pine. We were going to have fun with terrariums!

It was an easy trip and I let the kids pick out whatever they liked best. I think terrariums must be gaining popularity because our garden store had a whole selection of miniature plants and glass containers to choose from. 

 

Burdened down with our purchases we went home to find suitable jars, and we came up with five really cool ones.

We made two terrariums in glass containers, one in an old fish bowl and another in a storage cylinder with a pretty lid. We had enough plants left over to fill up an old planter from last year's pansies. 

There is nothing like bright green plants and the smell of moist dirt to lighten the mood.  I was a mom hero!  I recommend that you try to have fun with terrariums, too!   (It occupied us for a good two hours and the results were beautiful!

There does need to be a little advance planning, though.  Since the average temperature has hovered below freezing for weeks we had to pull in a bag of potting soil from the garage, and wait a day for it to thaw out before we could set to work.

My husband keeps tropical fish and needs activated charcoal for some reason, so I snagged some of that and used that in the bottom of all our containers, although pebbles would work just as well.

For the bottom layer of soil, I mixed in a bit more activated charcoal, topped that with more potting soil and let the kids put the plants they chose in place. I think they ended up with about four tiny plants in each one. 

I couldn't find the moss I wanted to cover the exposed soil between the plants, mostly because I didn't look that hard, so I let the kids drop in rocks from their collections to their terrariums. Water and voila! A mostly care-free mini ecosystem! 

You could stop here, but if you really want to have fun with terrariums there is one more step, but it is a bit advanced: Prehistoric Tableau Terrariums!

You may already have dinosaur figurines scattered about your house, just waiting to be set into the lush ferns of your terrarium. I was just so lucky. I believe some sharks, guinea pigs and a small herd of cattle also made it into the three-year-old's terrarium. Perhaps yours is more a resting place for fairies. I won't judge, I promise.

So tomorrow or the next day when it is still too cold to play outside in the dirt, stay inside and have fun with terrariums instead.

These are left over plants that became more of a dish garden and the one below is one I made in an old fish tank that leaks and I've turned into more of a fairy garden.  The "tree" is actually a piece of a very weathered dead tree stump that has been hanging around in the yard forever.

(This post is compliments of my daughter and 2 of my grandchildren.)   Thanks one and all and thank you, too, for reading my blog.  

More about Monarchs

Last month I wrote a couple of articles about Monarchs and I saw this article yesterday and it includes great pictures of native milkweed.  I thought you might be interested in reading the article.  It reiterates my own thoughts.

http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/invertebrates/gardening-to-help-monarch-butterflies-plant-natives.html

We were actually very successful last summer raising monarch caterpillars and releasing them back into our garden, and now both of my sons and some of my neighbors are raising and setting free monarch butterflies in their gardens.

Look closely at these leaves. The tiny round white spots are monarch eggs.  In the second picture the eggs have hatched.  The caterpillars grow quickly.  The one below is about a week old.

When they are about 2 inches long (in about two weeks) they will form a chrysalis.

Then two weeks later it is releasing day.  The 4 below all hatched with 24 hours of each other.  

Good luck butterflies!  You brighten our lives!

 

 
Below is another link to a federal article to help Monarchs:

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/10/nows-your-chance-help-save-monarch-butterfly?cmpid=tpanimals-eml-2015-02-14-cove

Forced Bulbs Blooming

 

     Well this certainly brightens a subzero morning.  My daffodils are blooming and my hyacinth has a large purple bud on it.  I can't wait until it blooms and fills my kitchen with its lovely scent ( a little touch of spring in dead winter!)  For directions on making your own little bit of spring read post on forcing bulbs from earlier in the month.
      P.S.  Many florists and grocery store floral departments have already done it for you and you might just need to buy a little piece of sunshine!

Easy Houseplants

      Easy houseplants are ones that grow well, adapt easily to your home and can live and flourish for long periods of time.  There are many, many houseplants that fall into this category.

        Some of my favorites are foliage plants from the following families: fern, palm, dieffenbachia, dracaena, fiscus, and peperomia.  Of course the minute I wrote this sentence, I thought of about ten other families I could also name, but the point is there are countless varieties of plants that are easy to grow for indoor gardeners.

         Now, when Christmas is over and the days are still very short and the ability to get outside is still months away is when I find myself hungering for the site of green.  

          In fact I came home from the grocery store today with a small, variegated peperomia that I just couldn’t resist.  It had been part of a Christmas plant display and was deeply discounted so it would sell quickly.  (It did!)

          It’s new home is right next to my kitchen sink, so that I can enjoy it frequently.  It will also benefit from the window that is near by and the higher humidity due to the faucet being turned on often.

      All of the plant families listed above have countless varieties and since I don’t aim to be a comprehensive encyclopedia, I thought I would name one or two specific common varieties that are easy to find in any major nursery center, and would be fairly easy for beginning gardeners to be successful raising.

 Boston Fern

       I have had a Boston fern for several years now that moves back and forth between my front porch and my house.  It likes medium light in the house and a shady porch outside.

       Like all ferns it wants to be kept slightly on the moist side, and it benefits from being misted frequently when kept in a dry house.  During our hot, humid summers this is not an issue.

       Keep your fern neat by pruning out old pale, and broken fronds occasionally.  Repot when fern becomes pot bound.  Throw away the old woody clumps and select several of the youngest actively growing clumps to replant in fresh soil.  Divide into two pots if necessary.

       Another way to propagate a new plant is to pin the little plantlets that form from runners to the soil.  When the plantlet develops 3-4 new leaves you can cut it away from the runner and repot it in its own home.

        Boston Ferns prefer warm temperatures with cooler nights and should be fertilized about once a month during the spring and summer with a water soluble fertilizer used at half strength.  I often use my fertilizers at half strength because I have a limited amount of space and I don’t want my plants to grow so fast that they become unwieldy in my house.

 Pigmy Date Palm

         This palm is a very common houseplant because it grows gracefully on a tabletop or as a floor specimen.  It is a very slow grower and usually trouble free. It will grace your home with its presence for decades.

         It sends lacy fronds out from a central crown, and it can survive low light, and both warm and cold temperatures, which like many other palms makes it a good candidate for a houseplant.

          Pygmy palms do not like direct sunlight, but they do like a bright location.  They prefer to be kept on the moist side, but not wet.  Good drainage is a must and they don’t like being overcrowded in their pot.

Dumb Cane

        Dumb cane is a common variety of dieffenbachia that is often used as a houseplant.  People easily recognize the large cream leaves that are blotched or edged with dark green.

        Many varieties are on the large side and grow well on sheltered patios in the summer.  Dumb canes prefer medium light and warm temperatures. Water when the soil is dry to the touch and fertilize with a water-soluble fertilizer about every three months or so.

 Corn Plant

          Corn plant is an old-fashioned houseplant.  It is a member of the agave family known by horticulturists as Dracaena fragrens massangeana.   It can be used as an accent plant with others in planters, as a small specimen on a table, or a large one in a tub.  Their attractive green and yellow leaves make it a popular decorating accent.

          Corn plants are relatively slow growing and prefer a warm moist environment.  It can be cut back if it grows too tall and it will sprout new shoots from the bottom.

Java Fig

     Java figs, commonly called  fiscus tree, are very popular in homes and offices. They are usually grown as floor specimens and like semi-shaded locations outside in the summer.

     Inside, they like warm temperatures and medium light.  Fiscus trees should be kept on the moist side.  Leaves will turn yellow and drop off if soil is allowed to dry out.  They will also drop leaves if the transition between inside and outside is too abrupt.  Usually they will recover and regrow new leaves, but it is better to gradually acclimate them to new growing conditions to prevent stress to your plant-and clean up in your house!

Peperomia

        I told you I bought one today.  Well you’ll know why in a minute.  For one thing, unlike a lot of other houseplants, it prefers to be a little on the dry side.  Already he’s a survivor!

        It grows well on a windowsill, on a table, in a dish garden with other plants or alone as a specimen plant.  Horticulturists are constantly coming up with new varieties because it has a wide array of rippled, ruffled, green and variegated leaves.  It also produces flowers in several colors ranging from white to red.
        Peperomias prefer medium, indirect light in the winter.  They like warm temperatures and drier soil. Water when soil is dry to the touch.  It is also easy to pinch out stems to encourage bushiness and compact growing.

         Each plant that I described above has several close relatives.  The growing conditions that I described will work for the close relatives, too.

        Don’t be frightened to try something a little different, either.  These houseplants are remarkably adaptable and will try their best to adjust to whatever environment you put them in. It is easy to judge if they’re happy.  If they’re not, consider your watering habits or the amount of light your plant is receiving.  These are the two most likely reasons that your plant isn’t thriving and both situations can be rectified easily before your plant dies.  Once it’s in a situation it likes, your new houseplant will quickly recover and reward you with healthy green leaves and a pleasure to look at.

       So are you motivated to go out and buy a new houseplant?  I hope so.  Thanks for reading Julie’s garden journal.

Forcing Bulbs

        Forcing bulbs is a great way to bring a little bit of spring into your house now.  It’s easy to do, kids love it because you can almost see stuff growing, and it’s just plain fun!

        Some of the most common bulbs used for forcing are paper whites and amaryllis, but there are many others you could try: any tulip, hyacinth or daffodil could be forced to bloom earlier and you only need a shallow dish, potting medium, some pebbles, and a little water.

        At this time of year you probably can find paper whites or amaryllis in any big discount store or nursery.  They are often sold over the holidays and make great gifts for the elderly, someone who has only a small space to garden, and anyone wishing for a touch of spring.  (Teachers love them too.  So buy something for your child’s class!)

        Now that the holidays are often you can often find them steeply discounted and the cool thing is they usually come with a decorative bowl and instructions on how to do it. 

         I have to tell you though, that the first time I bought an amaryllis bulb, I bought one that was already starting to sprout and the box it was in was all torn up.  I got it dirt cheap, but when I got it home I realized immediately that I didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with it.  (The directions were missing from the box!)  But it wasn’t hard. 

        There was a bag of soil medium that I put in a clay pot- about an inch bigger than the bulb.  I added water to the medium, probably something like peat moss, until it overflowed the pot and then I let it sit for a while to absorb the water.  When the peat moss was thoroughly damp, I drained the rest of the water off and hollowed out a sizable space in the center of the pot. 

         I put the bulb in the hollow with the green shoots pointing up and covered it somewhat-about one third of the bulb was still visible- with the remaining peat moss.  I set it next to my sink and watched what would happen.  Within days it was growing taller.  It grew so fast that I put a ruler in the pot next to it to see how many inches a day it would grow.  It was fascinating. 

         It grew to almost two and a half feet tall, but not all varieties get that big.   If you’re doing this with children bigger is better!

         When it bloomed it was the most remarkable thing.  It was a conversation piece all of January and half of February! 

         If you are doing any growing experiments with children, forcing bulbs is a must!

         Paper whites are a form of Narcissi.  What is awesome about forcing bulbs that are usual “Easter plants” is that the smells produced by these bulbs, especially hyacinth, are sooooo…. wonderful that I would just drink their aroma if I could.

         Paper whites are especially nice for forcing because they need no cool storage.  Other fall bulbs do, though so be sure to buy ones that have been in cool storage, especially for forcing.

         If you buy bulbs dry from the nursery and they are not prepackaged for forcing, it is still easy to force bulbs to bloom.

         To begin with you need a shallow bowl that will accommodate 4-6 bulbs.  Layer the bottom of the bowl with pebbles or marbles and add water.  Add just enough water so that you can easily see it but not enough to completely submerge your stones.

         Now gently press the bulbs, fatter, flatter end, into your pebbles.  The bulbs should be able to access the water but not be actually sitting in it.  Put your dish in a bright location and then watch the magic, as they will start sending out shoots within days.

          Bulbs can also be forced using peat moss. Fill your container with 1 ½ -2 inches of moist plant medium.  Place your bulbs gently on top of the medium and sprinkle more medium around your bulbs but don’t bury them completely.

          Put them in a bright window as before and they will start to grow.  Keep the soil damp, but not wet.  You don’t need to fertilize your bulbs because generally there is enough food for the plant stored in the bulb itself.

These are amaryllis bulbs on the day they were planted and a week later.  See how fast they grow!

Spring may be a couple of months away yet, but you can enjoy a little bit of spring now by forcing bulbs to flower early.

As always, thanks for reading Julie’s Garden blog.

Ideas for Cold Winter Days

What do you do when the temperature is below -10 degrees and the windchill is about -20 degrees... besides pout I mean?

1.  Take a nap.  

2.  Snuggle up and have a cuppa whatever floats your boat.

3.  Call your Mom.  No really.  She's bored, too,  and not as able to get out and ignore the weather.   (You know you could if you were motivated to do so).

4.  Design a new garden, even if it's imaginary.  In fact even better if it is.  The sky is the limit now.

5.  Make soup, or stew, or chili.  Get out your cookbooks and really get into it.

6.  Take some of the gallons of soup you just made to a soup kitchen and then volunteer to serve it.

7.  Count your blessings- including warm clothes and heat as you stare at your frozen garden.

8.  Start dog earring your new plant catalogs that are clogging your mail box.

9.  Go to the library. Check out beautiful garden coffee table books with titles like Paradise in Tuscany or something similar!

10. Look at all the magnificent pictures you took of your garden last summer.  Study them. Make a list of future to do's and dreams.

11. Now if you've done all that...you deserve a nap!... but if you are still restless there are always drawers and closets to clean out and organize.  Choose to do one a day until you've done the whole house...that should take you until spring and better weather!  (Ha!)  Bonus: You won't have to do any spring cleaning then and you can devote all your time to the garden!

Flowering Houseplants

Flowering houseplants can sometimes be more difficult to raise than foliage ones, but if you’re determined, the effort is worth it to try.

Often plants such as cyclamen, violets, bromeliads, orchids, and even cactus are sold blooming and they are soo… pretty, but when you bring them home they bloom for awhile and then never bloom again.

That really isn’t that unusual and it shouldn’t discourage you as a gardener.  These plants all need very specialized environments to bloom and rebloom and unless you do these things they won’t bloom again.

There are some plants though that can and do bloom without so much fuss.  Begonias, and geraniums come immediately to mind, and I also have a crown of thorns that blooms continuously for me.  My hibiscus plant flowers for quite awhile in the fall when I bring it in from outside and so does my fuschia plant.

BEGONIAS

Begonias come in three major types: fibrous rooted (central stem and common looking roots); tuberous-rooted (bulbs); and rhizome-rooted (creeping thick roots).

Begonias are often grown now as bedding and container plants for a summer garden, but they can be brought into the house for flowering houseplants, too.

       

To flower in the house, begonias require high but not direct light and moist soil.  I usually cut mine back in the fall when I bring them in and sometimes again during the winter if they get too leggy.   (If they don’t get enough light they will get leggy.) 

       

Begonias don’t appreciate dry soil and they will gradually lose strength or become susceptible to disease if this happens too frequently, but with proper attention they can flower continuously. Use half strength fertilizer about once a month for the best results.

GERANIUMS

Geraniums are also grown for outside gardens, but will adapt to house conditions and can bloom frequently if the light is bright enough.  There are so many varieties of geraniums its impossible to list them all. New strains and varieties are constantly being introduced. Ivy leafed geraniums are grown  to be used in hanging baskets and flower boxes and some of these are among my personal favorites.

When grown in a house, geraniums like warm days and cooler nights.  They need moist, but never wet soil. Like my begonias, I cut them back when I bring them inside for the winter, but in a bright location they will quickly grow back and start to flower again.

Fertilize your geraniums about every two weeks in the summer and once a month during the winter.  Sometimes I cut my geraniums back again in March to make it easier for them to adjust to the outside again come spring.

AFRICAN VIOLETS

African violets are very popular flowering houseplants, but not everyone is successful in keeping them flowering- me being one of those!  My mother and a friend of mine are both very successful and I know many other people are, too.  I’ve tried, but with very limited luck.

I believe that my biggest issue is lack of enough light. I know some people grow their violets under special grow lights, but I don’t choose to do that.  If it can’t grow under normal house conditions then so be it.  I’ll just choose something else that likes my house better.

CYCLAMEN

It is very easy to find blooming cyclamens in nurseries during the winter and they are beautiful, but they have pretty specific low temperature needs.  Most houses are too warm to keep this plant blooming so just enjoy it for awhile and then throw it out when it starts to wither and turn yellow.

BROMELIADS

Bromeliads are members of the pineapple family and they are grown both for their spectacular leaves and their brilliant, unusual flowers. Florists love them as accent plants but they need specialized fertilizing to keep them flowering. 

They require bright light but not direct sun.  Like African violets some people use grow lights to keep them flowering.  They like warm days and cool nights and hate being overwatered.

Some bromeliads actually get their water from the base of their leaves where in nature water can collect if it rains.  Even though the soil may be drier, the base of the leaves should never completely dry out

(This is the bromeliad I recieved this year as a hostess gift!   Wish me luck!)

I’ve never owned an orchid so I won’t even pretend I know how to grow them.  Like the other flowering houseplants I’ve mentioned, I know they have very specific needs.  People who grow them love them and usually being successful with one becomes a hobby and then a passion and soon you are a new orchid grower with several varieties in your home.

If you’d like to share your success and tips for growing flowering houseplants I’d love to hear and will share your successes, too!

Thanks for reading Julie's Garden Journal.