Longer Days, Hooray! New Growth...

Exotic Angel Plant leaf

Exotic Angel Plant

Now that the holidays will be completed as of tomorrow, my thoughts have strayed to cultivating plants. Completely bored by the wind, the cold and the winter....not to mention construction at somebody else's house,  I had the realization yesterday that my indoor plants have been working on health without me. That made my heart sing with thoughts of what I have to look forward to.....flowers!

Christmas Cactus on pedestal

Christmas Cactus flower

Having been ignored for the last month I took it upon myself to spruce up the potted plant pots.
Realizing that the equinox had passed, and that therefore the plants were beginning to grow in response to the longer days, I thought it was time to nurse along the indoor plants. There were lots of dead plant matter debris, and dead flower heads on the Christmas cactus to clean up. Unfortunately I found quite a few buds that never came to fruition and had fallen off the plant to the waysidse.  The silly little Christmas cactus has been blooming for well over a month. A lovely firey red color adorns the blooms with some brilliant purple pistols and stamens poking out of the center. I stuck it up on a shiny red ceramic Christmas decoration pot for a pedestal.  It looked like a little fountain of red displayed on my kitchen table as the centerpiece for the last four weeks. It is pretty amazing to me that the flowers lasted four weeks, and there are still flowers on it. A small joy in the middle of winter!

Pair of Phalenopsis I cultivated here in two different locations

Phalenopsis with a stem beginning
on the left side, under the leaf
...note the buds forming on the tip

My biggest green surprise this week happened                                          with my Phalaenopsis orchids. I love Phalenopsis orchids. They are so beautiful they look intimidating, but in actuality they are not a demanding plant. It is so exciting to get them to bloom again, after the original flowers that were on the plant when it was purchased, expire. In my previous home I had just the right spot, under a skylight, that allowed me to cultivate the plants to rebloom. In that home I even did it for other folks! In all honesty. I did not bellieve that I would accomplish that success here at Shore Side Farm House. This is a dark cold house with lots of drafts and not a lot of the ambient light the orchids require. The surprise was that I have made some good choices and cultivations, so the Phalenopsis in my kitchen has a new stem sprouted with flower buds on the end of it. So thrilling! Visions of orchids are popping into my head, and I can't remember whether this bloomer is a white, purple or yellow orchid. I will happily take any of those! As I was cleaning the dead plant debris from the pot I discovered the treasured frond of blooms. Just the Christmas present I would have picked for myself. My kitchen drops in temperature during the night, and that could have prompted the blooming stem. On the other hand getting too cold at night will kill flowers, so one has to be careful. So the challenge begins. Can I accomplish this feat to completion of the display? I hope so! Check back for progress reports.