Orchid and Tillandsia Display Hack

Next time you need a way to display your orchids (especially if the leaves dip lower than the pot)...

 ...check out the candle section of a thrift store. The stands make inexpensive, beautiful displays for orchids.

 The dangly hangers work well for tillandsias too!

Winter Houseplants

 

Well it's Christmas, but I don't think my plants know the difference. This cactus is still sporting it's odd "tentacles", unchanged for months. I still don't know what they're about.

 

 

 

The air plants are doing pretty well...

 

...a couple brown tips, but still alive....

 

...the best looking one is in here, blooming three times since I got it.

 

This plant is doing very well since its' rough beginning with just one puny root on the start I was given. I hope it gets big like the plant it came from, it's such an attractive foliage specimen. I don't know exactly what it's called, I'll research it and update when I can.

 

The christmas cacti have been growing well, but blooming is another story. This white has a fading bloom and more buds...

 

 ...and the red has buds too. The third plant had no flower buds at all....

 

...and the buds just dried up and fell off of the red with no blooms opening. I'm not sure if the problem was over or under watering on my part or what, but I need to figure it out so I can enjoy the blooms next year. Flowers this time of year are real mood-improvers for me.

                                 At least the plants are growing well, blooms or no blooms.

This little hunk of ZZ plant is still green too, I'm hoping to pot it up by itself after I see some growth.

 

 My group of carnivorous plants are mostly happy, although two of the nepenthes are kind of sad-looking. Time for a change....

 

...so I put them in this little greenhouse to try and maintain more humidity. I hope it helps!

 

Lid on for now, I'll set it a tad sideways later so gnats can come in and feed them.

 

Lots of wandering from my passionflower vine but no blooms. The plant may not be mature enough to bloom yet (just as likely the season is off, too). The greenery is good to see, anyhow.

Houseplants sure make the winter brighter while I daydream of summer flowers and tasty veggies.
Just a couple more months and the seed catalogs will start arriving...not soon enough for me!

Carnivorous Air Plants (Carn-nado!)

Okay, this post is about carnivorous and air plants. Just couldn't help but sensationalize a little.

It's all the rage these days.

Lately my carnivorous plants are raging as well-another blooming sundew!

 

 

                                                                So delicate and pretty!

 

The big nepenthes has really taken off this summer...

...with some fairly large pitchers despite being indoors all season. They were definately bigger when the plant summered in the screen house in years past, but I'm very pleased that it doesn't find these growing conditions to be miserable or anything.

                                                           Looks plenty content to me.

 

This whole carnivorous group is really thriving in the vintage dental tray. So much that I bought another tray for more plants, just in case (it was a good buy and at this collection rate I want to be prepared :)

 

The air plants are still alive, but not all look super happy....

                                                            ...this one is doing the best so far...

 

...with this a close second. They are the trail-blazers that get to suffer my inexperience, so alive works for me at this point.

Perhaps not a horticultural sensation, but there's greenery in my life and that's thrilling to me.
                                                      Yes I do need to get out more.

Gardening Lull

A cold, late spring + frequent travel + working 30 days in a row = gardening meh. Here's my outdoor progress thus far...

 

...not just weeds in my hanging baskets from last year though, there's a couple volunteer flowering tobacco that came up. Doubt they'll have time to flower, though.

 

This bag of peat moss was supposed to go into some trough planters and planted with various annual and veggie seeds....ah well. Maybe next year.

Indoors things are looking much better! My phal 'Happy Girl' is blooming very happily....

...the last indoor tomato is ripening, very late considering its neighbors ripened mid-May. Weird.

 

The plant looks kinda sad, I may give it a pruning and "summer camp" outdoors (after I eat the tomato, of course :)

 

My new mystery cutting that was a gift from a friend is growing pretty well. I'm glad since it had all of an inch of flimsy root with it.

 

This air plant is very happy-blooming almost constantly....

 

 ...and this one has sprouted a "pup"! There are some brown tips on the leaves (I think that I was over-watering at first), but overall it seems fine so I'm optimistic.

 

Tha cacti look decent overall, just a tad spindly from filtered light. They prefer direct sun, but you can't always get what you want.

Back to life then. Meh. I need to visit a botanical garden or something to try and get my garden mojo rejuvenated (or win the lottery and garden full time...either way  :)

 

Breaking News!

My tomato pollination worked! I have fruit!















There are more blooms opening, too...

...so I get to use the cosmetic brush I bought for "official" pollinating. Now we'll see if the fruit will mature in sheet-filtered southern exposure.


My air plant is doing exciting things as well-it has blooms!

Very cute! They kinda remind me of crocuses.

Even the african violet is beginning to bloom...

 

Spring has sprung! (In my apartment, anyhow :)

Gettin' Some Air

I was email chatting with my friend in Texas about starting up a terrarium, and she was kind enough to send me some air plants, a.k.a. Tillandsia. She sent me several varieties, including Ionantha 'Peanut' (the tiny one), Ionantha "Mexican' (not visible here), and Ionantha 'Mexican'-the clumping one in the foreground (the names may be mixed up, I'm new to the air plant game).

 

 

This beauty that just bloomed is Ionantha 'Druid', I sure hope I can keep it happy enough to bloom again! I stuck her in this pot with my carnivorous plant that died back, if it returns later I can set the air plant elsewhere. They absorb water through their leaves and not a root system, so containers for air plants can be just about anything.

Like this orchid planter that didn't work out so well...poor thing.

There! Much better (and greener.)
 

Now I can explore the world of terrarium gardening, and the "air" around here is improving already!