I am not buying a poinsettia this year. I am not buying a poinsettia this year. Been there, done that. I'm more into the Christmas Rose as a potted plant for the holidays. I am not buying a poinsettia this year. As soon as I bring them home, they start to drop their leaves. I think they put those foil pot wrappers on the pots of poinsettias to hide the bare stems which show after all the leaves start to drop. I am not buying a poinsettia this year. All those spray … [Read more...] about I am not buying a poinsettia this year
houseplants
Lily of the Valley for Christmas
On the surface, the story appears to be that I happened to see some pre-cooled Lily of the Valley pips for sale and decided to order them and give them a try. But actually the story of how I came to this point of planting Lily of the Valley pips a few weeks before Christmas so they will bloom for the holidays starts way back many decades ago when I was a little girl. Every Sunday when I was growing up, we drove from our house in the suburbs to my grandma's house on the near East side of … [Read more...] about Lily of the Valley for Christmas
Tips to Avoid Thanksgiving Day Clashes
Just a little coleus I'm attempting to turn into a houseplant. Welcome to May Dreams Gardens, home of the clashing Thanksgiving Cacti. Here in my sunroom, the big story, just in time for Thanksgiving, is about my two clashing Thanksgiving cacti. Technically, they are both Schlumbergera truncata, and though they share the same name, I must keep them separated in the sunroom to avoid the clash they cause when both are in bloom. One is hot pink. Some people like pink. The other one is bright … [Read more...] about Tips to Avoid Thanksgiving Day Clashes
Amaryllis: From Pinterest to Potted
I was browsing images on Pinterest and came across a picture of some Amaryllis planted in a large container with ivy, pinned by Mary Ann of Gardens of the Wild, Wild West. I decided right then and there that I would pot up some Amaryllis and ivy for myself, just like in the picture, sort of. The picture on Pinterest showed white Amaryllis in a white container. I decided on pink Amaryllis in a brown clay container because mine are probably going to bloom a few weeks after Christmas. … [Read more...] about Amaryllis: From Pinterest to Potted
I never cared about Camellias until…
This is NOT a camellia, it is a rose. I never cared about Camellias until I started reading Eudora Welty's gardening letters (Tell About Night Flowers: Eudora Welty's Gardening Letters, 1940-1949, edited by Julia Eichelberger). I thought I knew all I needed to know about them. My daily iced green tea is made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis and those grown for the flowers, generally Camellia japonica, are not hardy here. Not hardy here. Camillias are generally hardy in Zones 7 … [Read more...] about I never cared about Camellias until…
Random pictures of the garden
Dormant garden bed There are some who think I should post more pictures of my gardens on my blog, so I went out this morning and took some random pictures to share. The vegetable garden is dormant now. It is considered dormant because our growing season has passed for this year and the ground is cleared and bare. If I showed you this picture in June, and it was still bare ground, I would call it fallow ground because that's what bare ground that isn't planted during the growing … [Read more...] about Random pictures of the garden
