Hummingbirds Nesting

This is best story ever!

About a two months ago, I saw our local hummingbird picking up nesting material. She feeds off my porch plants every few days. She started building a nest outside our front door in the two story open area in the center of the condo doors/walkways.

I don't think anyone even noticed her. I would only look at her from upstairs, I didn't want to get too close. She got used to me checking on her in the morning and would only click at me a little.

1st picture is her sitting on her nest.
2nd picture is just a little while after they hatched. All sorts of pin feathers.
3rd picture, their flight feathers are coming in and getting some iridescent color.
4th picture, they barely fit in the nest anymore
5th picture, the smaller of the two babies spent the night in the tree after mom and the other baby had already flown off.

I got really attached to them and it make me happy that they just kept feeding off the freesia, potato bush, lemon tree and bower plant that I have on the porch.

I can still hear hummingbirds flying around and clicking away during the day. I like to think they are from this little family. I hope they next here again next year.

Freesia Bulbs

Back in January, I posted a blog about surprise bulbs that just started growing again. Even though I stacked them up on top of each other, crammed in the back of my porch.

Nature 1. Me 0.

Well a few weeks ago they started blooming and they were all Freesia! There were a lot of red, some orange and some white. They really are just fantastic to look and they smell good, but not to over powering. Those plump little green aphids just love these, so the insecticidal soap is sitting out on the porch as well. I have tried ladybugs and other things, but since I have such a small porch on such a large expanse of asphalt and stucco, they don't stay.

With the surprise heat that is hitting Sacramento right now, the leaves are already starting to die back. I suppose since stacking them up and forgetting them worked so well for me last year, that's totally what I am going to do again!

Den Aussie Chip orchid

This one is so cute!!!

It's one that I bought off the Orchid Society at the Zoo's plant fest last month. I told them I didn't have room for more and so they brought out this little tiny orchid. The pot is a whole 1 1/2". In the photos it looks like it could be a large orchid, but it's mini.

The cool thing is that it has many, many stems growing and each of them has a spear of flowers coming out of it. Instead of being small, the flowers are bigger than you would expect and there are 5 or so blooms per stalk.

So over all, it's a lot of flower bang-for-your-buck in this little orchid. It also has tiny little reddish speckles on the outside of the flowers with is just freaky adorable.

I have crammed it into my orchid window sill and it's very happy. Damn orchid society, they get me every time.

Prayer Plant

This winter, I got a surprise when a house plant Prayer Plant (Maranta Leuconeura) that I've had forever flowered. I didn't even know that this plant could flower...but after spending the year on a table in from of a south facing window that was always covered with vinyl miniblinds it looks very happy.

Rosemary Plant

Prepare for a very boring post. This is a rosemary plant. It started off as a little 2" potted herb from Home Depot or somewhere like that. I've only transplanted it once in about 4 years, and it loves it's little terra cotta pot - it never gets too wet.

Other than that, there is not much to tell. I cut it back quite a bit in the early winter and it just chugs along without any bugs or much care. It's a great plant to have for cooking and really takes very little care.

And that's all I have to say on that one.

Heliotrope

I am not a huge fan of really sweet smelling flowers, they kind of make me gag a little. But I do like this that smell fresh, warm or like citrus. This is one of the rare plants that I just love the smell of. I first found heliotropes in Arcata, when I was going to Humboldt State. I think I bought mine at the farmers market that happened every week in the plaza.

They seemed to thrive in Arcata, some sun, lots of moisture cooler temps. It did just fine in my little kitchen window there, but needless to say it didn't survive the move to very hot, dry Davis when I moved back to this area.

They are a little odd. They grow as a small shrub, with very dark almost mint like leaves and tight bundles of super small purple flowers that start off as little puff balls.

Since my last one died, I have mourned the fact that this area wants to kill my heliotrope. Well, I was in the Santa Cruz area visiting family when I found this one at the grocery store. Again, it was raised in the cool coastal areas, but I bought it anyway. At the time, my friend Bob said that I was buying it just to kill it.

Since I am stubborn, I have kept that damn heliotrope alive for going on 3 years! Out of spite! I try to move it around so that is gets the shade of some of my larger plants, but it really doesn't like to be dry, so I have to be really diligent about the water. The pay off is that when I sit on the porch and read, I get the lovely warm scent of all the work. It's like a slightly floral vanilla smell that is just great in the warm spring sun.

I highly recommend getting one especially if you don't live in Sacramento.

Yuri orchid

Welcome to another abandoned plant that has found its way onto my condo porch. It's an orchid, but one that wants to be planted outside and left to naturalize. With me, it just got a larger pot, some fertilizer and very close neighbors. I haven't tried to get an outdoor orchid to bloom, but what the hell. It hasn't died yet.

It has very long leaves and looks a little sparse, but I can't tell if that's natural, or my special touch... we will wait and see.

Daffodils

These are part of the random bulbs that I planted last year. They died back and I stacked them up on the back of my tiny porch and forgot about them. Then, this winter, they started sprouting again while I wasn't watching...

They are so cute! So small and mini, but bright and sunny. So, moral of the story is if you have some extra space or pots, buy some cheap bulbs, plant them and wait for them to be adorable.