Poinsetta update

Well it's time for an update on my poinsettia plant. I am happy to say, no make that very happy to say that the poinsettia that my mother gave me last year is still alive and doing extremely well. It has been somewhat difficult, but that $7 I spent on a timer was well worth it. The timer has also given me the freedom to leave the house and return without worring about if I turned the light on.

I have discovered that in order for a poinsettia to bloom the plant needs 13-15 hours of complete darkness, and I do mean complete darkness. I set my timer to turn the light on at 8 am and go off at 5pm that gives my plant 9 hours of light which leaves 15 hours of darkness. I have kept my Amaryllis bulbs under the same light I thought they might have suffered with the lack of light but they seem to be doing well I even had to repot several because they were doing so well. As soon as the leaves turn completely red the plant will no longer need to be in a place that needs limited light.

This is the first time that I have ever done anything with a poinsettia. My sister always gives a poinsettia plant to our mother for Christmas and every year it dies because my mother has no idea how to take care of it. I know this may sound bad but I hope that my sister gives her another one this year because if she does I know that my mother will end up giving it to me and than I will have another poinsettia that I can enjoy.

My Winter garden plans

Well it's bulb planting time. Earlier this week I started planting and then digging up bulbs. Some people may think that the winter is not a time for gardening and that is true to a point. I Personally am faced with the problem of putting my plants somewhere to keep them save for the winter. I have a wandering Jew that I am putting inside but have yet to find a place, and I am going to have to bring in my amaryllis's in this year. Some of them I started this year and some I started last year, either way they are to young to leave outside. I really do think I am going to have to invest in another growing shelve. I'll keep it next to the one I already have. It will take some getting rearranging but I think I will be able to do it. I'll keep you posted.

composting = gardening gold

When I got married I had never heard of composting. It was something that was completely foreign to me. My husbands family had been doing it for years and what they were doing was very very simple. As I learned it does not take a lot to compost.

Some people compost in the yard with an open air composting it looks similar to a pen that you would place an animal in, you only place leaves and kitchen scraps in it. It is relatively easy to make but it does take up a bit of room and if you are limited on room I would suggest getting a barrel to compost in. My husband and I opted for the easier barrel type. It's small and easier to maintain.

All you need is a barrel, most people paint it black because it speeds up the composting process. The first compost barrel we had was a cheap trash can I got at a discount store and it worked fairly well for a year or to the only problem with a trash can is the plastic is not thick enough. We went to a flea market and purchased two 32 gallon barrels and they have been what we have been using for the last four years with no problem, and they will last several years (my in-laws have been using a 55 gallon barrel for the past 15 years and it's still in good shape).

We got two barrels, the reason we got two is because there is a time when you have to stop adding to one and let it do it's thing, but you are constantly getting compost scraps so you add another barrel so that you will always have a place to put your scraps.

Poinsettia Care

January of this year my mother gave me a poinsettia that my sister gave to her. My mother has never been able to get a poinsettia to stay alive through the year she usually ends up tossing it in the trash when the plant dies. This year she decided to give it to me. There are specific things you have to do with the plant to get it to re bloom from what I have read. The hardest part will be ion the next few months. You have to give the plant a limited amount of sunlight and keep it in the complete dark the rest of the time. I think I will be able to do it without much of a problem as soon as I get a timer. I have a growing station in my home with grow lights, all I will have to do is set the timer and hopefully there will not be a problem, and the other plants will grow as well. This is the first time that I have ever had a poinsettia so I have no idea what will happen. I have always heard that getting one to live through the year was very difficult, well so far so good. I think keeping it alive is probably the easy part getting it to re bloom will be the hard part. I'll keep you posted,m and if it does bloom I will post everything I did so that the next person will possibly get a bloom out of their plant.

My plant had babies

Normally when you grow an Amaryllis bulb from a seed it takes several years usually 5 for it to reach bloom size. So back in 2009 I estimated that I would not get to see a bloom until 2014 possibly 2013 at the earliest. Imagine my surprise when I was watering my plants and saw that the bulb had what appeared to be offshoots, from my research the bulb can not have off-shoots until it is large enough to flower or bloom. Also from my research it can not bloom unless it has four or more leaves (this bulb has six). This is an Amaryllis that I grew from a seed and I am so hopeful that it will bloom. I have no idea what color it will be, the parent plant was a Minerva, which is a Dutch Hybrid so there is no telling what color the bloom will be or what size. Nevertheless I will be happy, happy, happy, and feel that I have really accomplished something.

An easy way to Water

The heat this summer has been just plain awful on my poor plants this year. I have lost several in the 100+ degree heat. It is difficult to keep up with watering. I get my water from a well, and I don't want it to go dry. Well My husband and I went to a tool store that also sells a limited supply of gardening items. Well they had one item that I felt the need to try. It was a set of watering cones. There were 6 in the set. It used a 1 or 2 liter bottle. I used a 2 liter, I mean lets face it. The heat is just literally killing my plants and since it was in the ground, I figured I use the 2 liter bottle. It took some remembering to save the bottles, but I did. I am happy to say the things work. I placed them at the base of several of my butterfly bushes and the butterfly bushes did not go limp from the heat and the temperature was over 100. True I had to refill it during the day, but I was not in the heat and my plants were being watered.

I am without a doubt going to get some more, I don't know how many more I just know that the six I have is not enough. Next year I plan to water my plants at the start of the season with these.

butterfly bush colors

Well It has taken a while but my butterfly bushes have started blooming all over the place, and yes the butterfly's are all over them when they are in bloom. It is such a pretty sight to see all the butterfly's all over that bush, but that is why it is called a butterfly bush. Anyway the seed mix I got said that there were four colors in the mix. The colors were suppose to be white, lilac, blue and purple. Well of the ten plants butterfly bushes that I have now planted in my yard eight have blooms and of those eight five have blooms to the point that I can see what color that they are. Four of the blooms are lilac ans one is purple. The one I gave my mother-in-law also turned out to be lilac. Lilac must be the dominate color when it comes to butterfly bushes. I was so hoping for a white one. I might have to find someone that has one and take a cutting from it, or simply purchase one from a nursery. I have often wondered if butterfly bushes come in pink? I will have to do some research and find out, because if they do I'm going to want to get one of them also.