May Snow Showers? The inside/outside contrast

 We’re having a good old fashioned spring snowstorm.
It’s oddly comforting because our weather has been anything but “normal” for so many years.

Covid 19 has also turned the world upside down so a snowstorm that turns my mind back to memories from years past is a good thing. It also helps that we can choose to wait for it to melt if we don’t feel like shoveling. I told DH he was tempting Mother Nature when he threw away a partially broken snow shovel a few weeks ago. :)

Scroll down for the contrast inside. My crazy Thanksgiving Cacti are blooming yet again! This is about 4 times since October. They would have been more impressive had the blooms come all at once but I’m actually enjoying their companionship more this way.

 

Who Needs Curtains?

We live in an area where there’s not a ton of sunshine. We are surrounded by an old growth hardwood forest.

This means that there are a limited number of types of plants that will do well in our home. It also means that they need to be in or very close to a window in order to thrive.

My answer to this was to create a curtain of plants in each window.

It makes watering a snap and I really enjoy all my little window jungles.

Last Hurrah

My Thanksgiving cacti are blooming to beat the band! I finally got around to rearranging my plants to create a Thanksgiving cactus window.

Right now there’s one Easter cactus in the window but I'm pretty sure I’ll move it back to the bathroom window and put a pot with multiple colored Thanksgiving cacti in it in this window.

It should be gorgeous when they’re all blooming come Thanksgiving.

Early Blooms

My Easter Cactus is blooming. Last year I got a small cluster of blooms followed by a much bigger bloom. Hopefully this year will be the same.

This little bugger has been hard to convince to bloom so I moved it to my kitchen window. This window is going to end up being a Thanksgiving/Easter cactus window because they seem to bloom endlessly here.

The one true cactus in the window may get the boot to the downstairs bathroom.

First Flower! Peace on Earth!

This Peace Lily was given to me by one of my favorite patients. Over the years she taught me a lot about plants, though she never reformed my “Throw and Grow” tendencies.

She gave it to me for Christmas so it’s appropriate that it would bloom for the first time in December. It started out as two small healthy shoots and will need to be repotted in spring. It actually should have already been repotted but then there’s that throw and grow thing going on. 😝

What a Pleasant Surprise!

We washed our windows today - better late than never. I always do seasonal plant care at the same time as windows. My plants take the place of curtains and if I have to move them all to clean the windows I may as well get them ready for winter.

When I turned my red Thanksgiving cactus around it was filled with buds! You can see some of them below. Did you know that actual Christmas Cactuses are pretty rare? What’s pictured below is a Thanksgiving Cactus and yes, it will be in full bloom by Thanksgiving. All four of my Thanksgiving cactuses are budding so there will be red, orange, purple and cream colored blooms for the holiday.

The Little Hibiscus That Could

This hibiscus plant was given to me by a former patient and I love it. It’s really old, 30 Plus years old. It summers outdoors and winters indoors but because our home is small I have to keep it pruned.

I honestly don’t know a ton about hibiscus plants or their blooming cycle but it seems to bloom more often in the winter months and early spring.
Yesterday it gifted me with a beautiful bloom so hopefully there will be more. This year it will winter by the French doors so it will have more space to spread out. I’m also planning on learning a bit more about what I can do to encourage it to bloom.