Just when I needed it

Sulcorebutia arenacea

This cacti is a descendant of a plant that was half-eaten by a squirrel while it summered on our back patio in Minneapolis.  It lived and, as you can see, prospered.  I adore the flaming vibrant orange of this cacti.  It seers my eye-sockets and leaves me begging for more.  Particularly on these still wholly white spring days.

There is something so charming and perhaps a little mysterious about a spiky plant blooming, isn't there?  I actually had to pull a sliver-spike out of Diego's hand this morning from this little beauty.  He's the one who found it in full bloom late yesterday afternoon (I had seen there were buds on it, but had forgotten).  The flowers close at night and re-open in the daylight hours, so some of them were half-closed when he showed me.

Diego brought it to me again this morning and I placed it in the middle of the kitchen table so we couldn't forget about it again.  I am keen on cultivating an interest in plants with my children.  There is so much intrigue and beauty to explore -- I want them to be awed by it.

So much prettier

A friend and neighbor is lending me her old camera until we can buy a new one, so I finally have pictures again. What a relief! It has been a sad month-long drought.

The very first thing I did was go around and take pictures of the house and gardens. We like being able to "go back" and see what things looked like and how they've changed. And my, how they've changed.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the garden along our front walk (a ramp because the lady who lived here in the 80's was paralyzed in a car accident). Essentially a dirt patch with a couple of overgrown clumps of iris when we moved in, when it rained, the dirt would splash up on the outside of the house, creating an entirely dingy and disgusting look.

Squeeze, who loves landscaping, has really worked it over in these past three years. It even has a little "pond", with a blue flag iris, water lily and a goldfish. He enjoys creating a more natural look, complete with moss-covered logs and well-placed rocks.

July 2007

Yuck!

July 2010

And it will only get better with each passing year
The mini-fence it to keep the chickens OUT --
They love to dig (and thus, destroy)

One of the things I really appreciate about Squeeze is his pleasure in landscaping and gardening. He even fills the planter boxes with gorgeousness. My main job is to admire his work and talk over ideas.

The other week, a lady who is part of our first-year experimental CSA came out to see the garden with a friend. As they left, I chuckled as I wondered if they thought that I was the one responsible for all the beautifully arranged potted plants and the front flower garden.

Because, honestly, I trim the plants now and then and pull a few weeds. But my main is to enjoy the beauty. I love that.

Quite a find

On our way to friends' house for dinner last weekend, we were driving by Wildlife Management Land and happened upon this beauty: a wild Cypripedium. It is the brown and yellow "Lady Slipper" orchid, closely related to Minnesota's state flower, Cypripedium reginae. It was our first sighting of a Cypripedium occurring in its natural habitat, which was quite a thrill.

I was watching the landscape very closely as we drove (and we were going very slowly because of the gravel road), as I am interested in, and becoming more familiar with, prairie flowers. We were running late and had already just stopped to look at some tent caterpillars; but when I saw those beautiful, round, yellow flowers, I squealed "Cypripedium!"; Squeeze slammed on the brakes and we all piled out to admire it.

Cypripedium (species unknown)

So very lovely...
(Diego examining it in the background)

Ba-looming

Brassavola nodosa 'Little Stars';

nestled with our sprouting seed potatoes.

This little sucker becomes fragrant at night, and

fills an entire room with an intense, spicy-sweet scent.

The boys enjoy inspecting and sniffing it every evening.

(We have divisions for interested parties.)

Epiphyllum (hybrid unknown)

Squeeze calls it Epiphyllum 'Don', named for

the former co-worker that gave it to him.

[When I met the old duffer, he was wearing

his t-shirt backwards. What a dude.]

The color of this "orchid cactus" bloom is so vibrant,

that looking straight into it tickles my brain.

Bright spots in gray days

Walking Iris aka Apostle Plant

aka Neomarica

I love having tropical houseplants. They usually bloom when the soul and mind need it most - the dreary winter and spring months when everything outside is varying shades of brown.

The Walking Iris blooms over a number of weeks and is lightly fragrant (putting your nose right into the flower is heavenly). New flowers come from the same flower stalk, and eventually produces a new little plantlet. Each bloom lasts only a day, popping open in the morning and shriveled by the evening hours. I love the purple/yellow color combination.

(Email me if you want a division!)

Tiny flamingos, all lined up

Gasteria [unknown]

So beautiful it hurts

My niece gathered wood violets outside yesterday; we made a little bouquet as the centerpiece for our outdoor noon meal. Just looking at this picture warms the cockles of my heart, which is good, because it is a chill 42 degrees outside today. Dah!

Fragrance explosion!

The year that we became pregnant with Starbeans, Squeeze and I went through a minor Gesneriad Craze (Sinningias and African Violets are a part of this family) and joined the MN Chapter of The [American] Gesneriad Society. We were the youngest members by 20-30 years; we even got the comment of, "It's good to get some fresh blood in here!" at one of the meetings from a grizzled veteran.

While our participation was short-lived, it enabled us to take some amazing tours of established greenhouses, familiarized us with the Gesneriad family, and helped us widen our then-large, now mid-sized, plant collection via trades and purchases.

This little baby, Sinningia 'Peach Bouquet', is one of our resulting additions from the Gesneriad Craze. It may have bloomed before, but I must have been completely oblivious to its charm at the time [baby-brain]. We now have no doubt as to why it was named, 'Peach Bouquet' - and it isn't just its color. The flower's fragrance is staggering: putting your nose into the bloom and inhaling is like a trip to another land, its scent is that wonderful. Peachy-keen, I should say, and cute to boot.

Sinningia 'Peach Bouquet'

Pink and green [and white]: the perfect color combination

I love how the petals curl back so delicately on these flowers. The plant, a succulent -Haworthia 'Zebra Giant', puts out a long shoot, with 2-3 flowers in prime bloom: the older flowers fade and wilt, with a long line of buds waiting to open. They are small, but sweet.

As noted, I am quite fond of the colors pink and green together. There is something so pleasing about it, especially with the brightness of the white. [I usually think white is b-o-r-i-n-g.]

Haworthia 'Zebra Giant'

Like fairy teacups

One of our favorite (and newest) Hoyas is currently in bloom: Hoya archboldiana. We spotted it at our friends' greenhouse a couple of years ago and he just gave us a cutting last fall.

It had several spurs on it [where the plant blooms from, year after year] and lo and behold! It's blooming. Not only is it lovely, but it is fairly unusual for a Hoya because of its enormous blooms: they are about the size of a quarter, maybe a little bigger. Additionally, they are fragrant at night only - the entire room fills with a wafting flowery-sweet smell. Beautiful! It is so fun to be in the room and catch a whiff now and then. It seems that night-fragrant flowers are usually white; but the pink of the bloom is, as they say, a real eye-catcher!

Hoya archboldiana

Butt plant blooms!

My sister calls Lithops "butt plants" because they have a little crack down the center. They are succulents and exist amongst my favorite indoor flora; native to South Africa, if I remember correctly. We don't have the tag for this one any more, so I don't know the exact name, and this is the first time it has bloomed (others have gone before it). Intensely interesting plants with beautiful flowers: what more could a girl want?

Lithop [unknown species]

They smell like butt

Our stapelias are in bloom right now, filling the entire sunroom with an accursed stench (especially on the beautiful sunny days). Then why do we grow them, you ask? Because they are so fascinatingly beautiful. They are hairy, stinky, star-shaped, and stunning. I like asteria the best - the ribbed lines positively shimmer in the sunlight!

Please, feast your eyes and mind:

Stapelia asteria

Stapelia gigantea