Orchid window

There have been a lot of posts about orchids lately, so I thought I would just show you the orchid windowsill. The only place they are happy. It faces west and gets quite a bit of afternoon. I move them to the side that gets less light throughout the year so they don't fry.

Since they are right up against the window, it gets nice and cold at night in the winter which seems to be the secret to getting them to bloom. There's not a lot of room left there, but I wend to the orchid show with my Mom and ended up with three of the tiniest orchids ever! I am not addicted, I can stop any time.

I'll share the new orchids with you soon.

Thin plant

I have no idea what this plant is. I bought it at the Davis Ace Hardware over 10 years ago because it was so unique looking. (BTW, Davis Ace is one of the best places to buy plants. Pretty affordable and they have a fabulous selection of stuff you don't see at your regular big box nursery. Plus a bonsai section which rocks!).

Back to the plant. So, it must be a bulb plant cause it dies off for a little while in the late fall, early winter then starts growing greenery about a month or two later. It's so damn hearty and I've never repotted it. It just trucks along happy.

The flowers are pretty cute too, clusters of 3 pointed blue flowers that seem to last a good long while. Only down fall is that the cats think it's cat grass and can't resist sometimes.

If anyone knows what it is, please let me know!

Lemon Tree

Meyer lemons are pretty much the perfect fruit ever! They are so much more flavorful than regular Eurekas and seem to ripen nice an quick plus they are delicious in cocktails. I have been wanting a tree for a long time, but with a condo porch, what are you going to do?

Answer: Buy one anyway and try to "sneak" it in the from the garage, up the stairs, across the living room and onto the porch without Ben noticing. He caught me when I was halfway out the porch door. It's been about a year and a half and it has tripled in size!

Last year it had quite a few blooms but nothing was pollinated. I thought it might be because there were no bees around where we are, so I was resigned to not having any lemons this year either. But, the tree was covered in blooms... hundreds on this little porch tree and the bees came!

I have little tiny green balls the size of peas on a bunch of the branches. I am hoping they hang on and turn into lemons.

Bring on the lemon drops!

Grasses, perfect roommates

I love these little grasses. I got them a couple of years ago at the Zoo's plant fest (you thought I was kidding when I said I couldn't control myself at that stupid event). Anyhoo, I know you can get these at Home Depot and other more affordable places.

One is a Black Mondo Grass the other is a stripey Ogan. Since they are the only two grasses I have, I crammed them into a pot together. It's an azalea pot, so kind of short and broad. Pretty sure this isn't the perfect pot, but they are doing very well and the green one started blooming little light yellow spikes, which are adorable!

It takes very little care and adds some nice color to the porch all year round. Grasses = good. Get some!