Spring Blooms

 Spring is finally here! Even though I'm still in an apartment and not gardening outside, I wanted some bulbs to enjoy. So I picked up this hyacinth at Walmart, and boy does it smell great!

While I was there, I gave in to my green urges and bought this nice large palm. Never had one before, so hopefully it will be happy in my houseplant family.

 

They had this colorful bromeliad too...

 

...and I couldn't resist a new african violet with these pretty picotee blooms.

Sure hope it's as successful as the violet I've had for years, still happily blooming every couple months or so.

 My carvivorous plants are doing well, and the flytrap is putting up another bloom scape!

                    At the same time a new small 'Poi Dog' nepenthes is growing these showy pitchers.

                                                  Phalaenopsis 'Happy Girl' is still happy....

 

...even though one of her leaves is turning brown. There's plenty of healthy new growth, but her roots are becoming quite crowded. I ordered a new type of orchid pot and a specialty soil mix, I'll post the repotting when I do it (after the bloom is done).

 

 

I'm very happy with my staghorn fern, after a crispy start I finally got the watering procedure down and it's looking very promising.

 

The passionflower vine is very rambling, I'm hoping to put it outdoors this summer and get some blooms.

 Both vanilla orchids are still alive, and the solid green is looking to be much more vigorous. It's even starting to put air roots into the tree fern pole as I'd hoped it would. I'll try some orchid fertilizer to encourage the variegated to catch up.

 

 Finally it was time to begin watering the cacti again last month, and they still look pretty good for living indoors only the past 3 years. This summer they need to go out, so I'm gonna try to secure my porch and get a shelf that protects them from the elements but allows the sunshine in. If nobody vandalizes or steals them, it will be a real boost for them to get some direct sun.

If they die or disappear, then it'll be time to go shopping for more plants. Kinda win/win, I say :)

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.

Carnivorous Plants Update

All of my carnivorous plants are doing well on the retro dentist tray "bog"...

 

 

                        ...especially the sundews!

 

Very dewey!

My biggest, oldest tropical pitcher plant didn't respond to being cut back like I'd hoped, and the cut section died.

 

Luckily the smallest new pitcher plant fared much better.

I'm usually hesitant to trim off dying pitchers too, in case they're still "digesting something" and contributing energy to the plant...

...but they look crappy, so these three had to go.

I decided to lob off the big dead section as well...

 

 

....much better!

 

Lots of cute new pitchers being formed in this spring growth spurt...

 

...very cute!

                                                   Different shapes, too...

....all evolving to serve their purpose....

 

...as bug traps to feed mama. I wonder how the water gets in there?

 

 

According to this link they produce their own fluid if growing conditions are right. Guess my humidifier is doing it's job-also indicated by this flytrap happily sending up a bloom spike. Yay!

 

These three newer tropical pitchers had me concerned by just kinda surviving over the winter...

...but now they're beginning to produce some pitchers!

                       Very exciting!

Especially since an earlier effort dried up.

Hopefully they stay happier this time (I mean, it is spring after all :)