Green inside and out

Well, the outside part will not last for long, I’m sure. As it happens, though, we are "basking" in 40-50ish temps today and what little snow we had has liquefied (you can see it in these images, some taken before it melted). The white stuff will return within a few days, I hear. December is a strange month in Buffalo; we don’t get the serious cold weather until after the New Year—generally speaking.

However, I can’t say I have any outside flowers. That would be lying, and the worse kind of lie—one with no chance of being believed, ever, by any of you. I’m fine with no flowers though; I’ve never had them before in December, so why should this year be different?


For Bloom Day, I offer a selection of what I’ve got growing inside. The plant room that I converted last year is doing much better than it did then. There is hardly any leaf drop and one gardenia still seems to be considering throwing out a few blooms. The alocasias, colocasias, and musas (close-up at top) are slowly growing more leaves, while (great excitement!), my dendrobium orchid has new buds.


I attended a winter plant sale at our Botanical Gardens (above) and picked up three new houseplants: a plectranthus, an abutilon, and some kind of coppery-leaved chenille plant. I don’t always know the Latin names for my houseplants, I must admit. Some of them are very long, involve too many consonants, or are otherwise hard to remember. I hope to keep these alive at least until summer, when they can go outside, but we’ll see. I’ve heard ominous things about the abutilon from GBBD founder Carol. The plectranthus is the one with all the blue flowers in the foreground. Very pretty.


The flowering houseplants are performing on cue and as expected. Ever since I bought the special African violet pots, they seem to pretty much bloom nonstop. I highly recommend these containers, which control moisture perfectly (I have shown these before). I have three Christmas cacti, all blooming. And of course the cyclamen, always in bloom at this time.


At the office, I have decorated my plants for the season.


Oh, and apropos of nothing, here are some painted poinsettias at one of our local nurseries. How about that for winter color! Frightening, but fascinating.