Super Dwarf, Lemon

This little dwarf Meyer lemon tree is a little super producer! It has made 17 lemons just in time for Christmas night lemon drop cocktails. I can't believe it fruits this much being in a smallish pot on the porch. One day it will get moved to some dirt but until then, it's going well enough!

Oh and that green stuff in the pot are some freesia bulbs I got a few years ago. I'm sure that doesn't help but I didn't have anywhere else to put them.

Winter Solstice Blooms

December 21st. Winter solstice and my plants are seriously confused. Here is a list of blooms happening on my porch right now:

Heliotrope
Potato Bush
Jalapeño
Bird of Paradise
Oxalis
Geranium
Pink-flowered vine thing I can't remember the name of
Aloe

So here's the question. Do you think they are using up all their blooming energy they should be storing up for spring? Maybe I should fertilize them more than normal. Hmm...

December Jalapenos

Oh wacky California weather. With some mild winter weather and only one bout of freezing temps, my jalapeño plants have decided to just keep producing peppers. This is my crop picked on December 15th! And more amazing, there are little blooms like it's trying for a third round.

Cover Your Plants!

With a forecast of hard freeze temps in the next few days my plant-packed porch now looks like purple ghosts! I pushed everything up against my stucco wall, ran a string of Christmas lights through them and covered it all up with sheets. I think it should be enough to keep them from freezing. Also, the plants are well watered which helps keep the heat in the soil.

Good luck everyone, hope everything survives the freeze!

Fall: Hate it & Love it

It's been weirdly warm in Northern California lately so even though it is almost Thanksgiving, it feels like fall has just started. I enter fall with my usual mixed feelings.

I Hate Fall
The damn time change has stolen my evening walks and motivation. I can't sit on my porch and enjoy the last little bit of warm sun and my plants with a glass of wine. And it seems like the scale bugs get friskier and harder to keep under control.

My indoor plants are getting listless with less sun coming in the windows which means I need to actually fertilize something. I know I need to prepare my plants for winter and spring but like I said...my motivation has left with the sun.

I Love Fall
The cooler weather means that my porch plants aren't frying in the hot afternoon sun. I don't have to carry two buckets of water to the porch every morning and some of my plants start to thrive again. I have a second crop of jalapenos and my Meyer lemon tree is covered in fruit just in time for Christmas lemon drop cocktails.

It's also time to put all my orchids outside for the chilly nights in hopes of more blooms in the spring. And you get to see stunning trees like this one I walked by in Land Park.

All in all, I can't fight the seasons changing so I might as well focus on the gorgeous colors and get my ass off the couch and start taking care of the plants I have. Come next spring, we can judge how well I did.

HAPPY FALL!

Good Job Little Moss!

I love moss. It's one of the coolest little plants and I think I love it more since I live in the hot Sacramento Valley and can't grow it myself. When I go hiking, I touch all the moss and tend to talk to it a bit. "You are such cute moss, yes you are!" I'm a dork, I freely admit that but moss is just so awesome.

So on a recent trip to Reykjavik, Iceland I found a whole wall of moss surround a building in downtown. I didn't get a lot of nature on this trip (we were there for a music festival), so I got my fill by hanging out with this moss wall for a little while.

It's happy moss.

I'm Plant Poor

Oh my goodness, what does it mean when my money plant dies?! I got this little guy at Ikea for almost free and it lived for a couple of years in my office. I kept it moist but not soggy and it just started slowly dropping leaves for the last few months until they were all gone.

The only thing I can think is that it didn't have enough sun. Any other ideas? Maybe it's because it lived at a non-profit...

Air plant: Bulbosa

The last of the air plants that I impulse bought at the Orchid Show in the spring. The Bulbosa. It's adorable with it's curly tentacles and it's bulbous base.

Air Plant Flower

The Jenny, Guest Blogger

Soon after I got my new little air plant, it flowered! A cool purple spike that reminded me a bit of a fuschia flower with its color. Flower spike stuck around for a couple of weeks. I hope the air plant will like me enough that it will flower again someday.

End of an era...er, violet

Do plants have a natural lifespan in captivity? I am going to go ahead and say they do to make myself feel better. This sad, dead plant was once a very amazing rescued African Violet that has been doing great for about 8 years and blooming consistently for the last 4 1/2 years. I didn't change anything. It's just started to die.

RIP rescued violet. You outlived all expectations.

Gorgeous Bird of Paradise

My bird of paradise plant that I've had in a pot for about 7 years surprised me today with a perfect bloom! I get about one a year, and this one is gorgeous.

Bob's Nicotania

The Jenny, Guest Blogger

The pride of Bob's Summer is his backyard Nicotania. He waters it faithfully and it gives me great hope that there is a gardener in him somewhere. The crop of Nicotania comes back stronger every year. It's one of the few volunteer plants we've allowed to remain in our revamped/replanted/non-lawn backyard. The resident carpenter bee loves this stuff. The color is so very intense! A glowing, electric magenta. The flowers are wide open in the morning, which is the best time for viewing. It's a lovely addition to our Summer landscape.

Orchid fail

I killed it. I'm sorry. It used to look like this. Now it looks worse. I figure it just too damn small for me. I can't keep it watered enough. Heavy sigh.

Leopardy Orchid Rebloom

The Jenny, Guest Blogger

This completes my own Orchid Challenge! My trusty Brassia orchid is one of the highlights of my fledgling collection. Even the flower buds are spotted. When they open up, they bust out into a leopardy, spiky, shock of awesomeness. They fade a little faster then some of my other orchids, but their death is interesting too, the spots all morph into a solid plum color.

Ficus Tree, Triming Time

Time to trim the giant ficus. I rescued this pitiful tree years ago and now it's about 8 feet tall and doing very well.

It starts to get a little rangy every 6 months or so. This time it turned pear shaped and looked way better after trimming off a generous amount.

Before

After

Green Orchid

The Jenny, Guest Blogger

This bloom puts me very close to completing my own Orchid Challenge! A green Dendrobuim orchid. I love this one because it is so very long lasting and has fabulous yellow-green flowers (my favorite) with pale purple beards. It think we got it from Trader Joe's about three years back and this is its third re-bloom. Woot!

Jalapenos Plants

Ben loves to grow jalapenos. Really he loves it when I grow them and he gets to use them or can them for use later. So this year I had a couple of extra pots and picked up two at the nursery. The warmth on the porch really helped these little guys grow. We ended up with about 10 on each plant and some were very spicy. If we watered them within 5 days they were much less spicy.

What we didn't use fresh, we cut up and poured boiling half water/half vinegar over them and sealed them in a jar. If kept refrigerated, you can use them for the next year.

My Condo Porch

The mild Sacramento summer has been very good to my stucco encased condo porch. Usually at this time, my plants are starting to get a little crispy. But I've put up the large umbrella to cut down on the direct light and the cool nights are keeping everything green, flowering and happy.

In the middle of August I can still sit on the porch and enjoy the late afternoon. I love it. Even the geraniums are hanging in there.

The indoor cats are only allowed on the porch when I'm out there so they are liking the mild summer too.

Ant plant blooms, a lot!

This is my little Ant plant I got last spring. I was afraid it wasn't going to thrive on being watered once a week (need water like an air plant, so just kind of throw some water on it). It also lives in the kitchen window and I thought it might get too much sun.

Well, all my orchids were kind of getting too much sun, so I put up an umbrella on my porch, right out side the window, so now the whole area get very bright indirect light. Tada! That's what it wanted.

Holy crap, that's a lot of little pink blooms. It started out with one. Now it had a crap load. Nicely done little Ant plant, nicely done.

Aqua Forest San Francisco

I was recently in San Francisco and my friend insisted that we visit this aquarium place near Japantown. I humored him, but I don't love fish tanks enough to mess with trying to keep one healthy.

Until now! Aqua Forest in SF is amazing! It's more like garden than a fish tank. They are so very beautiful with dirt and ground cover, trees and plants with perfect little fresh water fish helpers. It's more about the plants than the fish but the fish are still pretty damn cool.

The ecosystems they create are just gorgeous, like underwater forests. It seems like it would cost you about $300-$400 to set up a small table top aquarium, but then it would be like a self sustaining garden. It's definitely on my list of play things to find money for. Just awesome!

Office Fail

This is what happens when you are out of the office for three weeks. I had a coworker water them all, but this little lavender plant just couldn't make it. And it was so happy before I left. I felt bad for the little guy, he tried so hard. He was in a window and when the temps went up, he should have been moved away. Instead he fried a crispy, hot death.

A final note. Over watering it after it has died doesn't actually help.

I Have Worms!

Since our condo doesn't have a yard, composting is sort of tough. Enter worms. Vermiculture can be done indoors, is pretty easy and doesn't take up much space.

When I had the opportunity to pick up a stacked tray vermiculture kit and a pound of worms for only $70, I jumped on the chance. I haven't been able to find something like it for less than $110 (not including the worms).

I thought I would put it near the garage or in a closet but really, I need it in the kitchen so I don't forget it. It now lives next to our trash cans.

I keep a old covered pyrex dish on the counter and collect veggie scraps. I still make more than they can eat, but they go through a large handful every other day. They like the scraps kind of old, gross and chopped up small. I'm surprised at how easy they are to care for, and the bin never smells as long as I don't over feed them.

So far, so good. I love these little worms and apparently they love each other because I am starting to find lots of worm eggs!

This the the damp coconut coir that ends up looking like dirt. Just something for them to live in.

That's a pound of squirmy worms.
Damp, shredded newspaper serves as a cover, flying insect inhibitor and food for the worms.

I have an extra tray of worms in this picture since I was worm sitting for about a week. Really, it's just the moisture collection tray with the spigot, and the tray of worms with the lid on.

Orchid Challenge: I win!

Back in November of last year I set a lofty Orchid Challenge goal of getting half of my orchids to bloom this season. I am happy to announce that I win!

This is the fourth of 8 orchids that bloomed. This one seems to bloom late so it's late summer and it's just doing its thing now. I have to say that this was my ringer. It has bloomed every year so I was pretty confident. It's an Epi. Green Hornet (read more on last years post). It seems to only bloom on new stalks and this year there are two new stalks. Crossing my fingers for two spikes of flowers next year.

Here is the recap of the reblooms:
Orchid Bloom: 1 of 4 -- Neolauchea Pulchella Orchid
Orchid Bloom: 2 of 4 -- Den Aussie Chip Orchid
Orchid Bloom: 3 of 4 -- The rescue orchid

And some guest bloggers reblooms:
The Jenny's Lady Slipper
Marisa's Cymbidium
The Jenny's Leopard Orchid (rebloom part 2)

Nicely done ladies. Who says orchids are hard?! (can you hear them all dying in my kitchen as we speak...)

Air plant: Ionantha Peanut Clump

I call it Peanut. It was the largest one out of the bunch that I was digging in at the Orchid Show with a lot of new little clumps starting to form. It's still only a few inches at it's longest point.

It was this very pretty soft to bright pink but now that I've had it for a few months it has kind of dulled down a bit. I am wondering if it would like more light. It only gets indirect in the little square vase it lives in. Since it is blazing hot in Sacramento right now, I may not try that just yet.

The little Peanut seems to be growing a few new leaves, but very slowly. I have no idea how to make it bloom again so I will stick with watering it enough to keep it alive. That's the plan. Come on little Peanut!

Black Mondo Grass

Black Mondo Grass also known as Ophiopogon planiscapus 'nigrescens' is actually part of the lily family and not a grass. This is most obvious when it blooms...





Here's some cool info on propagating it from seed... useful if your are patient, since a small container of black mondo grass is about $12, and can get really pricey if you want to use it as a ground cover...
http://www.cooltropicalplants.com/Black-mondo-grass.html