Amaryllis care after blooming

 

My amaryllis has stopped blooming. Now What?

After the flowers fade,

cut of the flower stalk just above the bulb. 

Sometimes new leaves will appear before the flowers fade.

Most of the time, leaves appear after the bulb has finished blooming.

You want to encourage these leaves to grow, so place your plant in a sunny window, water and feed them. These new leaves will gather energy to help replenish the bulb, grow new roots and help the bulb rebloom again.

Water your plant enough to keep the soil moist. Try to avoid extremes by not over watering to the point the soil is soggy or allowing the soil to dry out completely between watering. Make sure the pot does not sit in water. If excess water runs through, be sure to empty the sauce under the pot.

Feed your plant every two weeks with a balanced fertilizer such as Fertilome’s 20-20-20. Don’t worry about repotting, Amaryllis like to be snug, so they should do fine in this year’s pot.  Amaryllis can be placed outside in the shade after the last frost date, usually Mother’s Day. You can leave them in their pots or plant them directly in the garden, up to their shoulders. There they will stay until late in the fall when you bring them in before the first frost.

Winter

  This year, winter has given us plenty of variety.

   Just as in summer, the scene can look totally different from one day to the next.  This is part of the view from my front deck.

And of course this as well.

Sometimes the snow is piled high, and then a few days later, it might just looks like a dusting of icing sugar.

This year it seems that the trees didn't want to give up their leaves, and that has added to the strangeness of this winter

But some day, before too long, spring will be back again!

Quick Pizza Recipe

Are you ready for something besides Christmas leftovers? This is a dressed up frozen pizza. Wait before you turn me off! My two grown sons would never eat frozen pizza until I sneaked this one in on them. It's really good - I promise.

I'm writing this in the middle of winter when fresh herbs are hard to find here in the mid-south. You may have to buy fresh ones at the grocery but dried ones work well too.

Here's all I do to make a quick, cheap pizza that tastes like gourmet:

Fresh Herbs

*One frozen pizza - flavor is up to you. I used a store brand 3 cheese because Bill's heart diet does not allow the sausages
*Fresh, frozen or dried Oregano, fennel, basil, chives,parsley and thyme - all chopped. A little extra garlic powder or better still - fresh garlic chopped.
*Extra graded Romano cheese and extra Mozzarella shredded.

Add the extra cheeses -we like ours REAL cheesy! Sprinkle the herbs on top and bake. I find it takes at least 15 minutes longer than the instructions on the box. Take it out when it is brown and bubbly like the one at the top of the page. Below is what it looks like when it is ready to go into oven.

Pizza ready to bake

A FEW GOOD GARDEN BLOGS I'VE FOUND

It as too cold for the greenhouse this morning so I spent a while on Twitter, Google and elsewhere to find garden blogs that I thought I might want to share. I struck gold! Below are some of the best ones I found:

This first one is a great gift idea but I want to make one so I can have Basil in the windowsill all winter!  Mason Jar Herb Garden

This nice bit of advice came from Twitter. You might want to follow @DailyHealthTips to read more.

Dotty Plants Greenhouse Journal and Secrets of a Seedscattererare both the property of Jean Campbell from Kansas. Both blogs are worth checking out.

Gardening know How is a very informative site with lots of tips and helpful articles. 

You might want to follow Herb Garden News @mituho_967 for good gardening advice.
Comment here to post a link to your blog or one of your favorite sites.

MY CHRISTMAS CACTUS - Schlumbergeras - How to have blooms from Thanksgiving til Christmas!

I have pink and red flowering Schlumbergeras. I grown them in pots and put them outside as soon as the spring weather is stable here in Tennessee. I bring them into the house (or greenhouse)  before the first frost. Up until this year they have bloomed at Thanksgiving rather than Christmas. This year  brought my big pink one into the house and put the smaller ones in the greenhouse. The pink one bloomed at Thanksgiving as usual but the ones in the greenhouse are blooming for Christmas this year! 

Christmas Cactus Red Flowers

So now I know how to have flowers from Thanksgiving through Christmas. If you don't have a greenhouse a cool basement or garage will work too. Check them and when they have big fat buds like the one here bring them into the house. These are really not cactus so do give them a drink more often than you would a cactus. As the blooms fade, carefully pinch them off so your plant stays pretty and fresh. When its done blooming put it somewhere near a window or other light source and take it back outside in spring (semi-shaded location) until fall. 

I had several in small pots that I started in spring from leaves, I brought them in and tucked the pots in container gardens that I was wintering over in the house. I loved they way they set off my Angel Wing Begonia!

Potted Cactus in container garden

Christmas Cactus Pink Blooms

How to Arrange Flowers

I love to keep flowers in my home. I buy them in winter when none are growing in my yard or the flowering plants in the greenhouse are resting. I never feel like my arrangements are just the way I want them. I found a wonderful blog about how to arrange flowers today and rather than try to tell you all I found, I'm posting the link with the terrific pictures for you here.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

http://www.ballardstylestudio.com/2012/11/flower-arrangement-ideas/

Gifts for the bird lovers on your list.

 

We carry a full line of feeders and seed including suet and suet feeders.

Suet offers nutrition and attracts birds that might not come to other types of feeders.

Tube feeders and platform feeders are a great way to provide seed mixtures to your birds. We also carry feeders designed to deter squirrels.

We have hand-painted bird baths, as well as glazed bird baths with matching pottery.

 

We have heaters, designed to keep water open when temperatures fall.

We have hanging humming bird feeders and ones that stick in the ground.

And for something different, we have bat houses in stock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful and joyous Christmas! 

I hope you are as cheerful as the snowmen on my Christmas tree this year!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Kathy Green and family: Bill, Josh, Zack, Tad and of course Pookie, JoJo and Annie, 

Gifts for the discriminating Gardener

Christmas shopping at the ‘Bin means great gifts for everyone, with choices from premier designers such as San Pacific International, Woodstock Chimes, Campania International, Good Directions and many more. In this blog, we highlight some of the items that special gardener in your life will enjoy receiving. We choose our outdoor décor items ranging from metal garden art,

 

to hand painted bird baths

to concrete statues

to unique and functional bird feeders.

You will transform your garden into a vibrant experience for all to enjoy with the gift of Flower Bin high quality garden décor.

Our dream a reality

Remember that dream of a piece of land in the country that I wrote about a few months back: We signed a deal today.

I love this pine walk, and am now dreaming of what I can do with it.

And the pond is exciting, too.

I love ponds.  The last pond I had was a tiny one I built with liners and a pump.

This one is going to be a brand new challenge .

But the real value of this land lies beneath our feet:

Good sandy loam that has been left fallow for a couple of years, and before that, organically farmed.

I didn't know much about the land when we were first drawn to it.  I didn't know it had a creek running through, or that it had good soil or that it had been farmed organically, or even that it had some fruit trees on it, but we believed God was directing us to this parcel of ground.


Now we are believing we will be given the strength we need to make it fruitful.

Christmas at The Flower Bin

This time of year, The Flower Bin is full of everything Christmas.  Along with our spectacular poinsettias, our fresh Christmas trees, wreaths and garland, our gift house offers an excellent variety of candles,  lotions,

ornaments,

nativity scenes,

wind chimes. 

Sun Dials

St. Nicholas

Handcrafted Bolga baskets,

birdbaths, bird feeders.  

Jim Shore collectables.
We strive to carry unique gifts and holiday decorations. Shopping at the ‘Bin means great gifts for everyone.  We invite you to make us a part of your Christmas tradition.