Second Day of Spring and Resurrection

OK, those tulip bulbs not only died, they rotted.  I'm too embarassed to even take a picture of them to show you!  They stank as I threw out the soil and everything with it.  Too bad we've got so much snow or it would have made a great addition to my compost heap! 

But, I do have some good news!  The Angel-wing Begonia is making buds!!!  Soooo...there is hope in the resurrection of plants that appeared dead!

Good time of year for it, with Holy Week coming up next week.  I know, I know, they say I should leave God out of things, but I just can't.  Not with 5 weeks of fasting behind us and only one more week to go.  I was thinking the other day, as my stomach was grumbling and I was trying not to, that Lent, to me, has some similarities to pregnancy.  Like, for instance, when I was 7 months pregnant and it was reeealllyy getting hard to lug myself around, haul laundry, pick up the kids' clothes, tie their shoes (or mine!), etc., etc. I would think, "I wish God had made pregnancy only 7 months.  I would be good with 7 months.  Why the 9?"

I know God has an affinity for 40, and so that makes 40 special.  He knows best.  But about the 4th week of Lent, I start feeling like .......... ohhhhhhhhh ............... I'm getting so TIRED of this!  Are we there yet?

So, there's only a couple more days of this week, then next week is Holy Week, when we'll REALLY turn up the gas, so to speak, and then we'll be at the glorious Resurrection.  Can't wait! 

This is my daughter-in-law's Angel Wing Begonia that I told you about.  Now THAT woman is an inside as well as an outside gardener!  (I should take instructions)

Confessions of a Truly Awful Gardener

OK, look.  I've got to 'fess up.  Not that I have what anyone would actually call a "following" on this blog, or even that any one out of the 10 that are nice enough to say they are followers even know when I add a new post, but all the same, I feel like I have to come clean, so to speak.

I have a black thumb.

I have to admit it. 

Look at these pictures!  They prove it!

I am an herbalist with a black thumb.  Maybe I should re-name my blog "The Black Thumbed Herbalist" because that's about the extent of it!  I'm really talking about inside gardening here, because outside, when the weather is good, I'm OK -- the Calendula, Comfrey, etc. are gorgeous and make my heart downright sing to look at them.

But, again, to be totally honest?  Herbs are easy to grow.  Many herbs truly thrive in crappy soil and dry conditions!

Just look at this picture!  I should be ashamed to show you, but, as I said, I've decided to 'fess up.

 These two pictures are Confession Pictures and I hope my lovely daughter-in-law who gave me the cutting for this once-lovely plant (on the evening before their wedding!), doesn't look at what I've done to it!  It's supposed to be BIG and ... well ... GREEN!!!  (As you can see, I allowed myself a little color for the sake of my daughter-in-law's lovely plant; I picture it in my mind and it's soooo nice.  She's a GREAT inside gardener!).

OK, sometimes I forget to water my plants, but who doesn't?  I remember most of the time.  And I certainly don't forget enough to deserve ^^^ that.  Do I?

So I transplanted it today in new potting soil and I gave it room to drain underneath (I used those all-natural "popcorn" things that you get in packages; that was my 82-year-old FANTASTIC INSIDE GARDENER mother's idea, not mine).  We'll see what happens. 



 <<< There it is, getting re-potted.  One thing I am gifted with is the virtue of Hope.  Maybe there's a chance it'll revive with a little more attention. 

Next, remember those tulips that I was forcing in the glass containers with the nifty marbles to keep them upright?  They put up shoots and then began to die!!  What the heck!  They're in a stupid window, they get all the sunlight they need, they have water, what else could they need???  So this afternoon I took them out of the water and planted them in potting soil and am putting them in a different window.  See how awful they look?  I wonder if there's something in my water they don't like...I'm going to water them with water from my daughter's house from now on.  I wonder if our water is too hard.

I'm forcing myself to use a black font because I'm so mad at myself for having a black thumb.  I'm punishing myself. Unfortunately it comes out looking kind've grey on the site.  I wish it was darker, but I don't know how to make that happen.

At first glance you might think this Poinsettia is fine.  But if you look carefully at it, you can see that it is half dead.  Really, it is!

If you care enough to enlarge the picture (and I don't know why you would), you can see that I've managed to kill off more than 2/3 of the plant.  (And this one I've kept watered!) (It happens to be right next to the bathroom.  Where there's a sink and easy-access to being watered...).  WHY the heck would only some of the plant die and some thrive?? 

And this one.  Remember that nice Gerber Daisy that was blooming?  Well, I truly did absolutely forget to water it.  How embarrassing.  It's a gone-er for sure.  But I watered it anyway. 

 After all the snow, we need some green and flowers!

To the left <<<

A happy Ivy plant

To the >>>

an African Violet.  Nice Winter Gardening!

Below is Berkshire Meadows Herbal Health Tea, brimming with a plethora of herbs that hold vitamins & minerals which are released as the tea steeps in your pot or cup to keep you healthy and happy during the cold winter months.

A Gerber Daisy that I potted in the fall from my garden just bloomed.  Whoops!  Just noticed the brown on a couple of the leaves...must remove that today.

                                To the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>my daughter's Lemon Tree is budding all over.  How exciting!

 This Poinsettia is still blooming and making my windowsill cheerful.

 The Jade Plant is happy in the window.

To the left, I'm forcing tulips in water.  (The tulip that you see is a silk tulip -- I just put it there to encourage the real ones!  ; ) 

                                                                                       HAPPY SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY COMING UP!! >>

 

I hope this cheered up your day -- Fiori

It's 15 degrees with a gusty wind, 'way too cold to go X-Country skiing today; we'll have to sit by the fire and peruse the Seed Catalogs.
 

 The garden is completely buried...

Where did my Tulip & Hyacinth bulbs go...




Is everybody staying warm out there? 

Winter Garden

Hopefully all of you living in the Northeast are able to keep warm and cozy in this true blizzard that we are in the midst of~~

Thinking of how impossible it is for gardens to look nice in the winter I thought I'd take a few photos of my new garden plot as it looks now and then hopefully in the spring, when my bulbs burst forth first with green leaves then with their beautiful and fragrant flowers (hopefully...), we can compare then to now and smile, knowing that winter never lasts forever.  Notice the bulb in the bottom picture!  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

These pics were taken this morning before the blizzard hit but as I write this I am looking out my window above my monitor and it's blowing and snowing like crazy.  I'm so glad we have a nice blazing fire going in the wood stove and that the porch is full of wood.  Makes me want to eat popcorn while somebody reads a story...!