Iris seedling

I love how my iris seedling is starting to look like an iris. It seems 'big' in this picture but it is incredibly tiny in the pot. Quick to miss when looking around. hehe.

As it is right now, I've spotted three iris seedlings in this "Black Mom/Purple Dad" pot. The "Purple Mom/Black Dad" pot has nothing so far.

Dragon Arum now?

Wow... I was surprised to see these two poking out of the ground. Dragon Arums. Already?

What also surprises me is that these two used to be by the mailbox before I relocated them to the amaryllis bed. After I relocated them, they 'vanished' and I assumed they just rotted away.

The dragon arum in the other bed (the one I take pictures of with the big flowers) haven't come up yet. Those two suffered a mishap last year where they bloomed and immediately both plants just died down to the ground. I wonder if those bulbs are still around or not. Time will tell. I have a love/hate relationship with the dragon arum but always pleasantly surprised to see them make an appearance (even if it's always way so early in the year while frosts are still coming).

Amaryllis bulbs - Green Dragon and Candy Floss

My order finally came in!

I bought Green Dragon Amaryllis in honor of 2012 being 'Year of the Dragon'. Candy Floss was tossed in because two bulbs are always better than one, right? And I definitely want more color added to the collection so that cross-pollinating becomes many more times the fun.

Gotta dig up two pots and get them planted... Now I need to look up information on how to store the pollen so that I can use it on the reds when they bloom this spring.

Follow the sun...

I'm not one of those lucky people that have a big south-facing window with shelves to help plants gets sun during the winter months so I keep relocating the amaryllis to a chair and slowly push it across the kitchen floor to follow the sun. Someone else appreciates it as well.

Amaryllis and Gypsy

Of course, have to keep a close eye on them both to make sure she isn't nibbling on the plant or ready to stretch out and send the pot tumbling over. Amazingly she hasn't thus far. Once the temperature starts reaching to a point where it doesn't feel like I need a jacket, I set the pot outside on the back porch for full sun. Then it comes inside to go on a high shelf before the sun goes down.

Looks like after tonight, there'll be a handful of days where the lows will be in the twenties. That's something at least!

Cleaning up backyard - Iris Seedling

It appears the cutting company is done removing the pine trees from the woods that butt up against the backyard. For us, the focus is now on the side of the backyard and the mess that was caused by Hurricane Irene when she toppled the pine trees back in August.

With the weather cooling down and while the wisteria vines have lost their leaves, the clean-up of the backyard has finally started. For a couple days now, it's been a lot of cutting and tugging at the vines. As for the pine trees that were laying on the fence, a couple of them were removed with the chainsaw until the chain broke.

 Slowly getting it loaded up. Once the chainsaw is fixed, the rest of the fallen pine trees will be cut off the fence. I don't know about the mess on the other side of the fence seeing as that isn't our property but some of those pine trees are leaning over into the backyard. I don't know how long they'll have before they give up from the weight of the wisteria on top.

Right now the top priority is to just clear everything off the fence and straighten it back up for the dogs. It'll be nice to see the edges of the yard again.


So much for winter-sowing. Looks like at least one Iris seedling has germinated and started coming up...

Iris Seedling

Both Iris pots will be moved into the greenhouse to protect them from the freezing temperatures that are coming (assuming winter gets here) in case more seeds have germinated.

Cherub's Smile Bearded Iris

The weather has been really nice for a while. It's 71 degrees right now as I write this. It's shorts-wearing weather. Little gnats slipping in through the screens of opened windows. And of course plants reacting to the warm weather and getting ready to burst with new life. And we're just a week into January.

I found out that my two Cherub's Smile Bearded Iris bulbs started growing. It looks like they got stung by the cold weather we had a few days back. On one hand, I'm still annoyed that we haven't had prolonged "winter"-iness but on the other hand, I am quite tickled to find out that the two dried up bulbs are still alive and kicking! This pot will have to be moved into the greenhouse when temperatures drop below freezing.

So how's the weather where you live?

What happened to winter?

Saw this video on Weather.com and just had to share it!

Asiatic Lily Seedlings already? - Torn down Woods

So I go out back while muttering about Old Man Winter's tardiness, see? What do my eyes see?

No. Yes. What? Wait...

Is this some weed taking over my box? No. The other three pots with different winter-sowed seeds are empty. I snap a picture, hop on Google, and to my horror, I discover that these indeed are asiatic lily seedlings. What are they doing popping up already? This is the curse of a winter that won't stay cold. I dragged the pot into the greenhouse because with the seedlings trying to grow before winter has even fully settled in yet is making me nervous. Now I wonder if the other winter-sowed seedlings are setting out roots and haven't popped up yet. Stress. Stress. Stress.

Speaking of stress...

The picture above was taken on December 3rd when I noticed the pink string on the tree.

This picture was taken today. The owner of the land decided to hire a company to take down all the pine trees so that he could sell them to a sawmill. It was sad to see the pine trees come down and be carted away. I don't even know if they're done yet because their machines are still sitting in the woods. Now when night comes, we can see lights from other buildings on the other side of the woods. It's an odd sight to see when coming out onto the back porch at night.

I lived in this house since 1995 and for a lot of things to change so abruptly this year alone was really difficult for me to handle. Our beloved Bear that we adopted in 1995 passed away this year. The fence we built for him around the backyard in 1995 had been destroyed during Hurricane Irene. Now the beautiful woods have been destroyed. I think 2011 will personally be the year that will be remembered as the year that everything 'home sweet home' came to an end.

Smith & Hawken: Amaryllis Bulb Kit

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! For Christmas, I received an Amaryllis Bulb kit from Smith and Hawken. It contained a Minerva Amaryllis bulb.

The bulb was pretty good sized and there were leaves trying to start.

What I found baffling was that after I poured three cups of water into the pot and came back after an hour, I saw that the 'growing medium' didn't even come up halfway. I used a butter knife to stir it and the growing medium was mostly soggy and only came up halfway in the pot.

So I re-read the directions in case I missed anything. I didn't know if I had to add something beforehand.

Even the illustration shows that the pod was supposed to fill up the pot.

Lucky for me, I remembered some pellets from a mini-greenhouse that never got used and tossed in about eleven of them to fill the rest of the pot.

Voila! A potted Amaryllis.

Besides the lack of growing medium, what makes me nervous is how the pot has no holes. It has three little "rubber-stops" on the bottom to prevent the bottom of the pot from scratching the surface.

I guess as long as I just keep it moist and not wet, it should be fine until I get it into the ground come next spring.

Still hoping to get my hands on a white amaryllis but it seems they're not easily found for some reason.

Schlumbergera Flowers amongst some others

I guess Winter doesn't exist anymore... Or he's just dragging his butt this year. It's sort of hard to believe that we're in December and my plants are still alive. The heater was used once thus far when it hit 30 overnight. I left out the two boxes of spider plants and while they got singed, they pretty much continued on.

Anyhow, my schlumbergera (Thanksgiving Cactus) are blooming. Got the red, pink, and Dark Maria going. Normally cold temperatures come and I stick them in the greenhouse with the heater. The plants lose their buds before they have a chance to open. With how warm it's staying, the flowers are coming out to play.

The yellow schlumbergera is always the last to open so this one is still working on opening their flowers.

And of course, randomness like a decaying angel.

And the shadow of a lizard. They're all running rampant still...

Also! Before I forget, as a personal note to myself, I received two new bearded iris bulbs about a week ago and I know come next spring, I'm going to forget and say, "I know it said 'cherub' something!" Instructions said to get them out before first frost so I stuck them in a pot. They looked pretty shriveled up as is so I don't know if they're even alive. Guess I'll find out come next spring.

Bearded Iris Cherub's Smile

Hope everyone else is doing well!