Ginkgo Gardens Trip

Every once in a while we need to freshen up the patio garden with some seasonal flowers. Unfortunately, the garden was ripped up this month for a building foundation update and half of the area along the wall of the building needs to be redone. This is probably the third time our little garden has been upended from building “fixes.” When we first moved here twelve years ago we had a professional garden designer draw up some plans and then install new dirt and stones with all the plants, shrubs, little myrtle trees, and flowers. Now the vines that were growing on the fence, the sage that was growing on the trellis, two bushes, and all the grass are gone.  So we took a trip to Ginkgo Gardens in the neighborhood to see what might look nice in the interim. The bare spot next to the birdbath that faces the kitchen needed some attention, so we got a few winter pansies to fill in the space. We are hoping to add some fresh dirt to the perimeter because the area has clay and stone now from the destruction and looks awful. Aside from that, an air plant caught my husband’s eye to put in the tiny vase that sits on our dining room table. So now half of our garden looks reasonable with some of my original mums about ready to flower. I caught a cardinal pair last week checking out the place again - they love the little birdbath and hiding spaces along the fence. Hopefully the work that was done will actually do some good. I really don’t want to go through this again. 

American Plant Cactus, Succulents, Air Plants for the Wall Vase?

I never cared for cactus plants. But the wall vase was standing empty since the tulips bloomed, opened, and disintegrated so quickly that we thought we might try something different. So we took a ride to American Plant to see what our options were. At this time of year we have tried orchids, but they never seem to last very long. The heat from the duct seems to blow right on anything near that wall. For the cut flowers it doesn’t seem to matter that much, but I’m sure it doesn’t help them either. I also wanted something that cascades and has some color. So we looked around and came upon a nice looking air plant that was a great size, but certainly not cheap. That would meet the cascading requirement. Then we checked out the cactus and succulent plants and found one with pink tones, and then matched it with a tiny flowering cactus with a pink flower. I really didn’t want to put dirt in the clear vases - I was hoping rocks would do. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Both of the plants require dirt. So I mixed in the rocks and “planted” the cactus in each vase, then placed the air plant on top. Today I filled both “pots” with water, and sprayed the air plant as instructed and moistened the succulent. I don’t have a lot of hope for this arrangement, but maybe it will do better than we think. After all it does get a lot of sunlight, but not for the next several days. 

Helen Olivia Artichoke Replaced With American Plant Orchid and Gingko Garden Moss

The experiment with the artichoke "plant" didn't go over very well. We got it last week at Helen Olivia in Alexandria. The flower shop is scrumptious, the wrapping was wonderful, but the artichoke just didn't like where we put it. So we went to American Plant in search of an orchid...something we knew could last for a while - or at least hope we could get a few blooming flowers and change it for something else whenever that time comes. There were so many to pick from there, but we wanted something a little different than the "usual kind." We have had some success with orchids in Milwaukee. We selected one called Miltonia. It has much thinner leaves and requires more water. That might be tough to manage in our extremely dry winter environment with the heat blowing right on it. Aside from that, the location should be good. We wanted to remove it from the container and needed to find some moss to tuck in around it. So we went to Gingko Gardens in our neighborhood to find some. Our little air plant also needed replacement as it was no longer a plant and all air. We found a similar type with pink rather than red edges, and some strange moss from Norway. The folks at Gingko's are always so great. I wanted to make sure our new orchid would have whatever it needed to succeed and they were more than willing to share their expertise. I hope I am not writing about this subject again next week. I'll leave it to my husband to manage the plants. Then I can blame it on him if something happens.