Spring Projects

Yay! These opened on the 17th -- a lovely St. Patrick's Day gift!

Well, spring is officially here now, even though it has been so warm for the past month that it has felt like spring for some time now. I've been spending some time outside working in the gardens getting a few jobs done, like cutting back last year's foliage and raking out leaves. These jobs always feel like such progress and are satisfying to get done.

Last weekend I also got a start on one of my several spring projects that I have planned for this year. I got three pickup truck loads of leaf compost from the local landfill and put most of it on my new North Border front section -- the one I will plant with flowers mostly transplanted from the old North Border back section (which will be planted with evergreen trees and shrubs for winter interest).

Then I started moving a few plants from the old part to the new. I started with the 24 Allium 'Globemaster' bulbs that I planted in 2014. I know it's better to move them in fall, but the foliage was up and I need them to be out of the back section by mid-April, when we need to spray the numerous perennial weeds there like Creeping Charlie (ground ivy) and then plant the trees and shrubs before it gets hot.

(While I was working outside last Saturday, it actually started to snow, first tiny sleet and then big, floppy flakes. It became quite cold and unpleasant, and I was really wet and muddy and chilled by the time I was done moving all 24 alliums. But the snow was gone by noon the next day. I guess in March we take what we get, weatherwise, and don't complain.)

The new North Border: I put a layer of compost on the new front curvy bed that I removed the grass from last year and had my husband till up, and it was good to go. I started transplanting perennials and bulbs from the back section. Still many to go.

I also got started on moving some of the other perennials that are growing in the back section: achillea, phlox, peonies, mums, Shasta daisies and others. And I also moved about 50 Asiatic and Orienpet lily bulbs, marked with sticks where I planted them (again, I know this is better done in fall, but needs must).

There are so many plants in this large border that it will probably take weeks to move them all -- which is why it's good to get started as early as possible. I had trouble identifying everything, since I apparently didn't make a map of what was growing there, and it can be hard to identify plants when their leaves are tiny and only an inch out of the ground. We'll see how things turn out as the summer approaches...

There are a few other projects I'm hoping to do this year. Here's a short overview:

The Peony Border: I'm planning to slightly enlarge this border that is right next to the North Border. I made it smaller last year by grassing over the back part that can be seen tilled up and seeded in this photo from last May. I plan to remove some grass in a curved area at the bottom of this photo, and plant it with irises that I will divide from other beds, as well as alliums, poppies and other mid-spring perennials and bulbs that I will add this spring and fall. I want this to be a May-blooming border, perhaps with a few lilies for summer time. I'm inspired by photos of the Schreiner's Iris Gardens, with their crescendo of irises and other May-blooming companion plants.

The Rainbow Border: I'm thinking about shortening the length and changing the focus of this border, pictured a couple years ago from an upstairs window to capture the entire length of it. The Rainbow Border has been challenging for me, both because it is planted in a progression through the colors of the rainbow (white, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and back to white at the far end), and also because of the sheer size of it. I am considering removing both ends of it and mixing up the colors.
I would remove the white sections from both ends (transplanting the plants to other borders), and perhaps remove parts of the pink and purple sections too, leaving it roughly the length between where the two protruding points are. I know it looks better to make a border the length of the backdrop (in this case, our East Windbreak), but it's just too big to maintain, and I hope it might look OK if I match the length to the edges of our driveway instead. What do you think?

The north side of our house: I'm trying to figure out what to do to make the back side of our house less unattractive. I'll post more about this problem in my next post.

A new West Terrace Bed: I've been thinking of planting something under this silver maple tree for years, but I've been intimidated because of the roots. I once tried to plant a few bulbs under it when the ground was dry and I think I would have needed a pickax to penetrate the ground. However, I think small bulbs could be planted on both the south front side and the north shady side, if a shallow layer of compost was spread on the area, and the whole area was well-watered before attempting to plant. I'm thinking of making a half-circle shaped bed around the tree to the retaining wall. Planting would be mostly early small bulbs -- sunny bulbs on the south side and shady bulbs and plants (like snowdrops) on the shady north side. Perhaps followed by perennials and annuals from seed that don't mind dry conditions, both dry sun and dry shade.

Anyway, these are the projects I'm thinking about these days as we enjoy warmer days. The last few days have been chilly and rainy, and last night we had a heavy frost, down to the low 20s -- the daffodils in the first photo are looking a bit droopy, but I hope they will recover and that our other tiny flowers will be OK too. The next several days are predicted to be warmer, so maybe I will get a bit more time in the gardens working on these projects.

I trust you are full of ideas for changes in your own gardens -- we gardeners aren't happy unless we're always planning for an even more beautiful future (which is why gardeners are happier than average folk, and why I love gardening, which is full of hope). Thanks for reading! -Beth

Early Spring!

They always remind me of little fried eggs....

What a happy time of year! Spring is literally springing forth: the weather was lovely this past week -- warm, sunny and in the 60s, and not even too windy for a few days. I imprudently worked outside two days in a row and my joints ached -- but I was still tempted to do more, it was that nice outside.

And the first flowers are blooming! Crocus, winter aconite and tiny irises are in flower, and the grass is slowly greening up. These little early flowers always make me so happy -- I'm making a mental note that I will plant more of them this fall, and I have a new planned area I think I will devote to them and other minor bulbs.

Here are a few flowers from outside and inside:

More crocus. I love their Easter Egg colors.

These tiny irises are blooming and tulips are pushing up out of the ground among them.

Winter aconite are also in flower. They're pretty small, and require an
extreme close-up.

I couldn't resist buying a six-pack of these cute pansies that are already for sale at Lowe's (most stores around here will likely not have any flowers for sale for several weeks yet). I potted them up and left them inside, not because they wouldn't be OK outside, but because I know I will see and enjoy them more inside at this time of year. I'll plant them outside in window boxes before long.

I was able to force these forsythia branches to bloom early by cutting them and bringing them inside this year. I tried it last spring, but without any luck and I thought I had done something wrong, but it turned out that the shrub itself only had about three flowers on it last year for some reason,. Now that I have been successful, I feel better about the whole forcing branches idea. (The daffodils are from the supermarket, which always has a special on them every spring, and which I greatly look forward to as one of signs of the desperately waited-for end of winter. Happy days!)

Spring is definitely arriving early this year. I think this is the earliest we've had this many flowers blooming for a number of years. The weather has turned rainy for the next few days, but that will make the grass green up, and then it will really seem like spring!

I hope your spring is arriving as well, and that warm, sunny days are heading your way. Thanks for reading! -Beth

The End of Winter?

Daffodils emerging along the east side of my house, along with some amazingly evergreen foliage.

Last weekend we enjoyed some pretty nice weather here in Iowa: upper 50s, sunny and actually not windy! (At least, not on Saturday -- Friday was warm, sunny and buffeted by gale-force winds. Literally, gale-force at 40-50 mph.... But the warm wind just helps dry out the melting snow and warm up the soil, so it's OK, unless you have to be out in it.) This is certainly not typical weather for February, even late February.

I spent some time outside enjoying the sunny warmth. And, although it felt crazy, I actually even did a bit of light gardening: I cut back last year's foliage and lightly raked two of my flower beds next to the house where I have my earliest bulbs planted.

Doesn't look like much yet, but a few bulbs can be seen popping up in this south-facing, well-drained border. Soon.... (And painting our house is definitely on the list of expenses for this year.)

I would normally resist doing anything before mid-March, as it can be imprudent to uncover too much too early, but this winter has been so mild compared to most. Plus, the forecast for the next ten days shows no cold snaps or snow, taking us into March. The ground is hardly frozen, except for on the north side of buildings. I think we're going to have an early spring this year.

Green foliage! Sweet Williams and dianthus, plus a few snapdragons that are still green at the base. Very unusual for Iowa.

I even wintersowed a few sweet peas next to the house. I still want to start some sweet peas inside too, to see which ones bloom first, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Sweet pea seeds under cover. I saved the seeds from last year, so we'll see how they do.

But the majority of my gardening is still being done inside. An impressively large amaryllis bulb that I received from my mother-in-law for Christmas is starting to flower (unlike the cheaper, smaller bulb I bought at Walmart back in November, that still has only foliage....).

The amaryllis just starting to bloom, together with a leftover poinsettia that hasn't succumbed yet, an azalea I got for myself for Valentine's day, the last few paperwhite narcissus I have been starting at intervals since October, together with various house plants, including Artimisia coralberry, Arabica coffee plant, Calathea and Kalanchoe.

I'm starting to think about what I want to do in my gardens this year, and I'm still planning the enclosing of our front porch to make a sunroom so I can enjoy more plants indoors next winter. And I've been working again on my Iowa garden history book a lot this month, after ignoring that project since fall. I have plenty to keep me occupied until spring garden work claims my attention.

March is only a few days away and spring will be here before we know it. This has been a strangely easy winter -- I don't know if that's entirely due to the milder weather and still having a few encouraging green spots outside, or whether growing more plants indoors has been the major help. At any rate, it won't be long now until we're enjoying blue skies, warm sun, green grass and flowers bursting into bloom everywhere!

Hope you're enjoying a warm, early transition to spring where you live too. Thanks for reading! -Beth

Terraria Mania

I suppose its not really a mania if it's only two terrariums (and wouldn't it be a manium in the singular anyway)? But the title sounded fun so I'm going to leave it.

At any rate, I've been reading about making terrariums lately and I finally made two of them this past week. I had found an aquarium at Goodwill for $8 right before Christmas, and had entertained thoughts of trying to fashion it into a sort of Wardian Case, but trying to make an inexpensive glass roof for the tank was not as easy as I had hoped (I learned something about how to cut glass in the process, but not how to do it very well, let's just say).

So I decided to make a simplified version and just added a bit of embellishment to the aquarium (I glued ornamental metal ribbon around the top and base of it to dress it up a bit). Then after having read several very clever and amusing books on making terrariums (Tiny World Terrariums and Terrariums: Gardens Under Glass were two of the most inspiring and helpful titles), I thought about what would be fun versions of terrariums, and came up with a few ideas. I bought about ten tiny starter plants from a local nursery, and also, because I have been reading about moss gardening, during a thaw last weekend I gathered some moss that was growing in one of our windbreaks and included that in the larger terrarium.

I also looked around at my son's collections of rocks, fossils, toy dinosaurs and other small toys (the Smurfs were left over from my brother's and my own childhood collections, so they have a special -- and fairly silly -- place in my childhood memories). After picking up some large bags of gravel and some horticultural charcoal (which aerates and cleans the soil), I got to the fun part: playing with dirt, plants and toys.

For those of you who haven't made a terrarium before, it's pretty simple:

1. Find a container, either one that is open at the top or with a lid (although it's best if the lid does not completely seal, because some air flow prevents mold from growing).
2. Put a 1-2" layer of gravel at the bottom of the container for drainage.
3. Place a piece of paper on top of the gravel to prevent soil from washing down into the gravel.
4. Add a little horticultural charcoal on top of the paper.
5. Top with a couple inches of soil.
6. Plant a selection of tiny plants into the soil, adding more soil as needed.
7. Add non-biodegradable decorative items for amusement.
8. Mist the soil around the plants as needed with a spray bottle, and remove the lid if the glass becomes fogged up. 

It's a bit hard to see inside because of the multiple glass reflections, but here's the large terrarium I made: A forest scene populated by Smurfs going about their various leisure activities.

Here's an aerial view that's not affected by the reflections.

And a closer view... The plants, from left to right are (back row): Butterfly Syngonium, Begonia, Autumn Fern Dryopteris, (center): Baby tears Soleirolia and Polka Dot Plant Hypostes. The groundcover is one or more kinds of moss I found growing in my windbreak.

I thought this little guy was the funniest of all, intent on chopping down the Begonia. 

And Smurfette is hiding among the plants on the other side of the terrarium, which include a Pteris fern, Club Moss Selaginella, Heart Fern Hemionitis, and a miniature Phalaenopsis orchid (the tiny orchid is planted, pot and all, below the soil line). 

An overview of the terrarium with the partial lid on. I placed a humidity sensor inside for a while to see how humid it was in there, even with only the partial lid.

Since I had a few plants left over and I also had a lidded glass jar that I wasn't using for anything, I decided to make a second terrarium, with a dinosaur theme:

 Two toy dinosaurs and a fossil accompany the ancient ferns and other plants in this 
smaller terrarium. Again, it's hard to get a good photo through the glass.

A clearer photo from above. The plants in here include what I think is probably a miniature Alocasia, a Lemon Button Fern Nephrolepis and another Club Moss Selaginella.

This project was a lot of fun and just the sort of thing to occupy a northern gardener during the winter months. The process of making it and figuring out where to put the plants and toys was the best part, but I'm also looking forward to seeing how the plants grow (or fail to thrive and then die, as also happens sometimes) in the terrariums.

Before this winter, I knew almost nothing about indoor plants, but I've slowly been learning a bit over the past few months. Making and caring for a terrarium is yet another part of indoor gardening that I've enjoyed learning about.

I highly recommend making a terrarium -- it's fun to do and the plants require less care than other house plants, because they don't need to be watered as often due to the higher humidity, which also results in healthier plants than the dry, centrally-heated air in our homes does. And if you have children or grandchildren, they often find terrariums as fascinating as we do.

Thanks for reading! -Beth

My new white, plant-filled bathroom

I've named my friend on the left "Owl-fro" because that's what his crazy hair looks like.... (It's Selaginella kraussiana or Frosty Fern that I got at Aldi before Christmas).

I know this is a garden blog, but I mentioned in my last post that I had discovered the wonderful world of houseplants, but that I was limited by finding enough spots with good light in which to grow them in my house. I decided that since many plants prefer greater humidity than the average forced-air-heated house has in winter, I would like to put more plants in my upstairs bathroom -- however, that north-facing room was pretty dark and there was no place to put plants directly in front of the double window in there.

I had been thinking of giving the room a face-lift anyway, as there were some things about the bathroom that could be improved. We had re-done the bathroom back in 2008 when we bought this house, and it was a GREAT improvement over the 1970s-era look that was there when we bought it:

Back in 2008, when we were first looking at this house:
1970s-style barn board paneling and pale blue fixtures,
plus a plastic shower surround that was discolored by years
of rust stains from our well water. (Robbie is 10 now --
he was only two when this photo was taken! My how
time moves on...)

More powder blue and rustic 1970s style....

Back in 2008, we re-did the shower with white subway tiles, replaced the toilet and sink with retro-1920s-style fixtures and replaced the barnboard with white beadboard. I painted the walls a medium brown because I thought it would look nice with the dark brown floor, windows and door. Fast forward to a few weeks ago:

My upstairs bathroom a few weeks ago: brown walls and dark brown floors. The floor had been
 water-damaged near the shower from the old shower door that swung out across the floor,
dripping water on the floor. We re-stained it, but otherwise just tried to ignore the damage. 

No room to put plants right next to the windows in this room, and note the water damage
on the window sill as well. (Plus, I had never been really happy with the corner cabinets,
which were cheap stock cabinets that I had my handyman install when we bought the
house in 2008. Adding faux-beadboard wallpaper to the panel fronts has improved their
 looks, in my opinion -- I was halfway through that project when I took this photo, and
afterward I painted several coats of paint on the cabinets.)

The bathroom was not bad as it was, but it still had the water-damaged floor near the shower, some water damage on the window sills and the brown walls often made the north-facing room seem dark.

It occurred to me that painting the room a lighter color might increase the reflected light in the room, making it bright enough for plants that prefer indirect light. And I started noticing on sites like Houzz and Pinterest that many bathrooms looked great in an all-white color scheme, especially all-white bathrooms with green plants as the only decorations. The plants became dramatic focal points in the all-white rooms, while preventing the rooms from feeling sterile and lifeless.

I deliberated on the idea of painting everything white for several weeks before deciding to take the plunge -- I don't take lightly the idea of painting over 1920s Arts & Crafts woodwork, but the wood was not in great shape, and I believe that if this room had originally been a bathroom when the house was built (it was an upstairs sewing room), the wood trim would originally have been painted white, as that was very common in kitchens and bathrooms during the 1920s and 1930s. And, as the 1990s decorating guru Christopher Lowell used to chant: "Just because it's wood, doesn't mean it's good."

It took me nearly two whole weeks of painting every day: primer + 3-4 coats each on walls, windows, door, beadboard and floor to finish the project. (I still need to re-caulk the shower, but I'm taking a little break this weekend....) Anyway, here is the end result:

Ta-da! White on white on white. Plus green plants and botanical prints. Note my new
metal art "Birds in a Tree" above the shower; I always wondered what to put up there -- it
needed to be something large in scale and damp-proof -- and after eight years of living in
the house, there is finally something to look at on that wall. 

I found the three glass shelves on sale at Aldi (my new favorite store).

The plant display and one of the botanical prints. Top shelf: Pilea 'Moon Valley and a 'Mahogany' fern; middle shelf: 'Fluffy Ruffles' fern and Fittonia; bottom shelf: Selaginella, cyclamen and Prayer Plant (Maranta), with a Phalaenopsis orchid at bottom.

I love my new, cottage-decor, spa-like, plant-filled, all-white bathroom! It's so much brighter and cleaner in there now.

As for every housekeeper's big question: Yes, I have noticed that the white floors do need to be Swiffer-vac-ed every few days (as I anticipated) and there are a disconcerting number of mystery splotches on the floor every day -- but those things were on the floor before, and it makes me feel quite queasy to think of how much filth must have been on my bathroom floor all the time before. I'm one of those people who doesn't clean something unless I notice that it looks dirty (or unless people are coming over to visit), so I feel better knowing that my bathroom will be much cleaner going forward, even if I have to do the cleaning more often.

No more water-damaged floor in front of the shower any more (I filled the damaged spots
with caulk before priming and painting several coats of paint over them). And I love my
big, healthy-looking new ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas Zamifolia) on the floor. It really adds
shiny green life to the room. I might buy a new, white-colored space heater if I run across one.

I'm very happy with the results, and I'm also happy that I was able to transform this room for very little money: Altogether I spent just under $220:

• $30 on floor paint
• $30 on trim paint
• $20 on the faux-beadboard wallpaper at Lowes
• $30 on the three glass shelves that I found just when I needed them at Aldi (I love Aldi!)
• $18 on white pots (mostly at thrift stores, closeouts at Lowes and the cute owl pot half off at Hobby Lobby)
• $40 on the large white planter and ZZ Plant from Lowes
• $36 for a new white bath rug and garbage can at Target
• $12 for the large "birds in a tree" metal art above the shower (half off at Hobby Lobby)
• $3 on color copies of botanical prints found online

I already had the wall paint, the picture frames which I spray-painted white, the curtains and most of the plants, which had been in my upstairs hallway in the east window (I think they will like the humidity in here better, especially the ferns, which were starting to curl up and turn brown at the tips).

Anyway, I'm really glad to be done with this project (as is my family, who were certainly getting tired of the hallway outside being filled with ladders, paint cans, tools, etc. and having to shower with the bathroom door open for the past two weeks so the day's paint would dry properly!). Time to take it easy for a while.

I hope you are making progress on your own projects, whether they are home improvement or other kinds of endeavors, and that your winter is going well (December and January down, February and March to go...). Thanks so much for reading! -Beth

January Update

Not too much going on outside these days, so I thought I'd share this little painting of a flowery front porch that I recently found at a consignment store.  It's such a cheery little canvas, so I have it propped up on my desk against several piles of books. It makes me feel oddly happy to look at it.

Hello everyone! Just checking in with a mid-January update, so you don't think I've totally disappeared. Now that the holidays are over and cold weather has finally caught up with us (after our strangely warm December), it's a good time to for me to hole up inside with a warm cat on my lap and a big pile of books.

Mostly I've been reading about sunrooms and conservatories, and about the plants that are commonly grown in them, as well as house plants in general. I'm still hoping to enclose my front porch into a sunroom this year, and I've been researching this and planning the layout and materials of the project, as well as thinking about the plants I'd like to grow in the sunroom. My collection of books on the subjects of conservatories, sunrooms, greenhouses and house plants has grown to nearly forty titles, and has provided me with many hours of research and dreaming.

This is a particularly inspiring book, filled with portraits
of drool-worthy plant-filled conservatories, garden rooms and
indoor oases, all in the US (not in England -- most books
about conservatories are published there).

Additionally, I've been adding to my house plant collection -- I honestly thought that the season for buying plants wouldn't start until April, but I discovered the world of house plants this fall. Yes, I've had a few indoor plants before, but I've been on somewhat of a binge for the past two months. It's amazing how many beautiful and interesting plants can be found at Lowe's, Walmart, Aldi and one of the local nurseries, and for incredibly reasonable prices. My husband is beginning to look askance each time I bring home a few more, and it's true that I do sometimes wonder where I will put them -- but I guess that's not so different than buying outdoor plants (except that I have five acres to plant in outside, and only a limited number of windows in my house...). 

Here are a few shots of my growing indoor gardens:

My latest acquisitions, from Wednesday's trip to town, which I haven't had a chance to repot yet. I found the beautiful Calathea on the left at Lowe's, the potted hyacinth and bulb vase at Aldi, and both the strangely textured Pilea 'Moon Valley' and alien-looking Hoya carnosa Hindu Rope at Walmart -- all at extremely reasonable prices.

I wanted to grow some plants on my kitchen windowsill, but it's less than three inches deep. So I bought a drawer organizer 15" long by 3" wide, and put mini plants in 2" pots that are intended for terrariums in it. About twice a week I put the pots in a flat-bottomed bowl and fill the bottom of it with warm water to water the plants. Eventually I will probably have to repot these and buy new mini plants, but it should tide me over for some time, giving me a little "mini garden" to look at when nothing is green or growing outside my window. 

My upstairs east window is becoming filled with several kinds of ferns (including an unusual Blue Star fern or Phlebodium aureum mandaianum at left), an Arabica coffee plant, an Artemisia and a little Ficus 'Curly Fig'.

OK, my husband may be somewhat justified in his concern. It should be obvious that I need a sunroom so
that our bedroom, with its south facing double window, can be freed from the plant takeover.

But isn't it beautiful? A closeup of the plant table, with Phalaenopsis orchids, the lovely pink and green Aglaonema and the
fascinating "ZZ plant" or Zamioculcas zamiifolia at right with its shiny architectural leaves.

I think being able to focus on indoor plants has made this winter easier for me so far. I know we've had an unusually warm and easy winter (until the bitterly cold recent temperatures), but compared to last year, when I was thoroughly ready for spring on December 26th, I feel much less desperate for spring's green growth and flowers.

Now I just need to find a few more spots for some plants.... I am getting ready to repaint our upstairs bathroom in an all-white scheme in order to maximize the north light in that room. The ferns would love the higher humidity in there. I'll post photos of the before-and-after when I've finished the project. 

And I'm thinking of making a terrarium or two, and trying to figure out how to transform a fish tank that I found at Goodwill into a Victorian-style Wardian Case like the one in the photo below:

This lovely Wardian Case was sold by
Lee Valley and Veritas (although it seems not to be
available any longer). But I want to make one for
around $20, not the $200-$400 that they sell for online.
I'll share my results if I succeed.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to recently. I hope you are enjoying some winter projects as well, and keeping warm too! (Sunday is forecast to stay below o°F all day here, and get down to -11°F [-24°C] at night.... Brrr.)

Thanks for reading! -Beth

Christmas Blooms

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable holiday season -- my parents and my husband's mother joined the four of us for Christmas as usual this year, and we all enjoyed the company, food and Christmas spirit. Part of the magic for me is the holiday decorations, particularly the horticultural ones: a Christmas tree, cut flowers and various potted plants and bulbs. Here are a few scenes:

First, the Christmas miracle of this year: the highly unusual outdoor foliage that is still green through December, plus, incredibly, even a few flowers, blooming the day after Christmas! The oddly warm temperatures we've been enjoying all during December have allowed these freak occurances:

A viola flower that is still hanging on.

This orange mum sent up a new flower this week.

A snapdragon on the protected east side of my house

I know those aren't particularly impressive or beautiful flowers in themselves, but the fact they have occurred is highly unusual and worth documenting. I don't have any spring flowers blooming yet, unlike a few people around here whose hellebores or snowdrops are already flowering (the Lenten Rose usually doesn't bloom here until March or April), but these leftover autumn flowers are good enough for me.

But the flowers that I have been enjoying inside are even nicer, since I don't need to venture out into the cold, damp, sunless weather of this month:

Some seasonal house plants in my east kitchen window, including a poinsettia, holly and ivy, a Christmas cactus and a cute little potted European cypress tree at far right. The Norfolk Island pine in the center was upstairs in my plant corner, but I brought it down here and decorated it with very light ornaments.

From the other end of the same display, where the potted paperwhites and white amaryllis can be seen
behind the holly and the Anthurium plant, which isn't a traditional Christmas plant but looks right
 at home with its red and green colors.  

A cut-flower arrangement on the bar, next to two "frosty fern" plants (Selaginella).

An all-white and green arrangement.

Sometimes my favorite arrangements are those made with
the short stems left over from the larger arrangements. I
made this little bouquet for our downstairs bathroom
with leftover blooms and a little snowman stake that
came in one of the Selaginella plants.

Anyway, I have enjoyed these many plants during the Christmas season and during our warm spell, which seems to be ending, judging from the ice storm with horizontal winds that is currently raging outside right now. Brrr! A good day to stay inside and slowly clean up after the holidays.

I hope you are recovering from all the Christmas excitement as we get ready to ring in the New Year. Here's to a happy, healthy and lushly growing 2016!

Thanks for reading! -Beth