Leap day surprises

This is what I have outside in our corner of New York. We had couple of inches of snow since noon and it's still going strong.

And this is what I have inside. Today I noticed new growth on my Oncidium "Gower Ramsey" orchid. Is it a spike? Is it a new pseudobulb? Time will tell.
This plant is yet another rescue from Lowe's. It's been only 2 and a half month since repotting, the plant is supposed to be growing a strong root system in order to recover but at the bottom of my heart I really want this to be a spike.

Pothos is a chthonic monster

Every year I cut and discard about 30 feet of pothos vines from a single plant. It inevitably grows back with such a vigor that I'm afraid to sleep in a room where the plant is. I imagine it pulling the vines towards my neck at night or even leaving the pot and walking around triffid-style.
Yesterday I found out that my concerns weren't that unfounded. The plant damaged a wall. No, seriously.  The pothos' aerial roots penetrated 2 layers of paint and were going for a drywall...




At least it's a source of pride for my husband. He mocks my orchids for slow growth and is proud of the amount of vegetation "his" plant produces. He takes ownership of the plant because he convinced me to accept this hand-me-down 3 years ago and usually stands alongside me during annual trimmings and screams: "No! Leave that vine! Take a half of the other one, not a whole!" Watering, fertilizing, repotting, removing dead leaves and other plant management is on me. Am I getting a sneak peek into our future parenthood? :)

I have minus one orchid credit my husband says

Yesterday I acquired a new orchid at Lowe's bringing the total count to 8. When repotting I inadvertently made that 9.
Not sure if it's me who broke off a pseudobulb clump from Oncidium or it's the nursery that put two plants in one pot.
The nursery (sunbulb.com aka better-gro) has rather poor reputation though. Once I bought their orchid in 4'' pot which, upon discovery, had a 2'' pot inside stuffed with moldy peat moss and a miserable Cattleya with barely any roots left.


Yep, that tiny pot with overflowing Cattleya was masqueraded by sphagnum moss in a bigger pot. I removed and cleaned the plant immediately 'cause I couldn't stand that horror a second longer. What a sham!


Update from March 7

 I feel the need to apologize for bashing Sunbulb guys. Orchid they sell seem to be in good shape.
Apparently it's normal to see large number of dead roots while repotting cattleya; these plants don't like root disturbance as noted by a commenter. Also some oncidiums can break off easily; today I managed to break a new orchid in three while washing and repotting (shhh, don't tell my husband I bought more of them!).
It's interesting how the same facts get interpreted differently depending on context. When I see a dead root on my old orchid I trim it and think "ok, normal part of life". When I see a dead root on a new acquisition I tend to fret "I paid money for THAT?".

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - February 2012

Despite a mild and snow-less winter (November is 4 months long this season!) my garden is a barren land now; even the garlic shoots have disappeared. Good thing I put some bulbs for forcing last fall for the first time in my life. The choice of bulbs was pretty random ($2 leftover bags of mixed Darwin hybrids from ChristmasTreeShops) but the blooms are very nice.
Even a Christmas cactus (which I call "El Monstro" around the house) that was full of flowers on Thanksgiving has one more gift for me to enjoy!
 

A secret to happiness: not to read garden blogs more than 2 zones up.
I've seen someone comment that their hardiness zone didn't change from 8 to 9! Cruel, cruel people

New map of cold hardiness

The USDA has released new plant hardiness map for the US. I am still in good old zone 5, so no lemon trees for me.I've heard that the fun does not begin until zone 8. Apparently, there are 2 mechanisms of cold resistance in plants and the first one only provides damage protection down to that zone.
Also, most of the United Kingdom territory is zone 8. Now I know why British gardening books look so ridiculous sometimes (Wisteria pruning in January? Hello??)

Amazing Amaryllis

The year 2011 had been difficult for me. I've been looking for a job since January. In summer I started a 6-month long course of treatment which made me very sick. By September things were not going well and the winter was coming. I resolved to have plants blooming at home all winter to have something to look forward to.

My favorite spring flower is tulip so I started forcing a whole bunch of tulip, crocus and muscari bulbs back in October. 12 weeks of chilling seemed to be a lot of time so I also got some "no-chilling" bulbs: paperwhites, iris reticulata and amaryllis to get the flowers faster.

The paperwhites are not coming back: they are bland, floppy and have a strange smell. Iris retuculata bulbs are sitting in the pots with 1-inch shoots for the last 10 weeks or so.
But amaryllis... Boy, are they gorgeous! I'm really not into lilies and lily-like flowers but these plants are impressive. I guess this is the essence of my gardening life: success and failure go hand in hand.

My first bulb, a presumably "Red Lion" amaryllis. It bloomed only 5 weeks after planting!






When a local garden center advertised 75% off amaryllis sale I grabbed some more bulbs including this amazing "Faro" variety. While the flowers seem to be on the shorter stems due to the bulb sprouting extensively in the store, there are 2 flower spikes with 7 flowers each!






So far I am firmly on track with my goal: have flowers in the house from Thanksgiving until spring.

Introduction

Hello!
I am Lucy and I love growing plants.


In the summer I work on a 700 square feet plot in a community garden in Upstate New York (USDA Zone 5). I also have some plants living in my home.


I am married and have a degree in science field. Besides gardening, I enjoy hiking, plant breeding, science projects and long drives.

I wanted to write a blog for quite a while. This journal is an attempt to mix gardening notes with random musings about the world. Thanks for stopping by!