Last Minute

The nights have been dipping into the 20s lately. I finally brought my Cymbidiums in the other night. Today I finally had the time to go get mulch, only to find out it was slim pickings! :( I got a bag of cedar mulch instead. On my way out, I noticed they had cow manure! Never seen it sold before and it was cheap enough! So I picked up a bag of that too to dump over my garlic bed. I just put it right on top of my clippings in hopes that it will decompose faster this way! The mulch I put over my buried carnivorous plants. Still need to put more down, but I was running out of sunlight to see so it will have to be done tomorrow instead!

I also picked up another Amaryllis. I just couldn't help it! :D

Blasted!

Ugh, you won't believe it....my pendulous Cymbidum's spike has mostly blasted. Probably all thanks to the in and out activity over the holidays. The new spike was stuck and I went to help it out only to snap the damn thing! I'll be lucky if I get to see a handful of flowers....it should've been about 15 on one and 10 on the other. :(

On another note...I don't know if it's b/c it has been cold or what, but the squirrels haven't figured out my zip tied suet basket yet. YAY! They did eat all the seed out of the lower level of my bird feeder, but the top is full and they can't get to that easily so I will just leave it as is! Been tough keeping the water from freezing out there. Just snowed again last night and ran out of salt. I have re-stocked with two 50 lb. bags!

Garlic is Planted!

Yesterday winter arrived. It dropped down to 23˚F! Moved my Cymbidiums back inside and I almost missed my peppers. Yes, PEPPERS! They were still growing! One was starting to ripen up too, but alas, I had to cut them off. The cold was affecting the leaves and I knew it would not survive the night temperatures in the low 20s. Today, just as I had expected, autumn was over, which only means one thing...time to plant garlic!

The soil had a frozen crust on top, which is exactly perfect for planting garlic! I planted 20-some cloves of Music and the mystery garlic John had sent me. I somehow got them mixed up so I can't tell which is which! I also planted one called German Red, but I'm not sure how well that one is going to grow since it looked a bit shrunken already. Apparently it doesn't keep well! I still have plenty of room to grow tomatoes next year in the same plot (I know I'm not supposed to! But I didn't get the blight this year so it must be working???) as well as maybe a few herbs too! I think I am going to try to grow more herbs so I can dry my own next year! (Thanks Jen!)

Anyhoo....time to study and after that....play with my indoor plants for a few months till spring arrives! Stay warm!

Cymbidium Honey Bunny 'Sweet Bell'

Went to the November orchid society meeting today and George Hatfield was our speaker of Hatfield Orchids from California. He specializes in Cymbidiums and brought pendulous ones for sale. I couldn't help it, but to get one too since I had no luck with the traditional upright Cymbidiums. So this is the one I picked out, Cymbidium Honey Bunny 'Sweet Bell'. You can see a picture of it in bloom at Hatfield Orchids. It is my largest orchid to date I believe! I didn't mean to get one as big as this, but it's hard to get both flowers and plant size sometimes! I didn't want another pink one as I already have a pink one so I picked this yellow one. It has two spikes ready to bloom this winter already! I'm excited :D Below is a pic of how big this plant's leaf span is compared to my fake fireplace and my dog, Samba!