Violet
Violet
The spring is nearly here! Two more months and you can actually do things in the garden!
To manage the excruciating wait I have been visiting shops to ease my pain. On one of those trips I bought a narcissus which turned out to be a beautiful choice.
My challenge was that it is too worm inside and still too cold outside for narcissus. I needed to figure out a place in between. I ended up squeezing the flower between the window glasses and to my big surprise it worked!
The narcissus has been blooming two weeks and it even seems to enjoy the place. Must go and shop for some more…
Days are still short and nights long up here in the north. Few more months to go before you can actually plant something outside. Too dark to grow anything inside yet.
In my desperate need to have flowers in the flat I always end up buying orchids. Just to have something beautiful blooming.
Now back to planning what to grow next summer with a glass of nice vine.
I gapped an amaryllis to go with me while shopping for groceries. When I arrived at home I started to wonder what was the variety of my purchase.
The label just said Merry Christmas. It took me a while and some googling to understand that Merry Christmas was the name of the variety for this one.
Beautiful large and red blooms. A good bargain for the price.
A single bloom and I am thrilled! Usually my Christmas cactus is full of flowers at this time of the year.
Unfortunately last spring my ten-year-old friend started to die and eventually perished. Luckily I managed to take some cuttings just on time.
Now I have two new cacti growing and doing well.
Now my plan is to find an Easter cactus to accompany them. Just learned a trick to tell them apart. It is the shape of the leaf that tells you when you can expect to see the flowers. Never have realized that before.
It is cold and dark outside. A perfect time to grow Christmas flowers inside while waiting for the spring.
Popov started to bloom and brightens my day. Like the colors it has.
Do not know why but I am becoming fonder of amaryllis each passing year. I guess it simply is that they are big and bold flowers blooming when it is dark and hard to grow anything else.
Must go and buy some more. Cannot have enough amaryllises in the flat.
Time to wait and dream! Nothing much you can do in the garden during the next six months. The long wait for the spring has started.
What a perfect excuse to start buying flowers to home!
Picked up a cyclamen from the local grocery store while shopping for the weekend. Just to have something on the table to brighten the day.
Sadly never been good with the cyclamen. Usually only manage to keep them alive a short time inside and live too far up in the north to grow them outside. Pity, because it is such a beautiful flower.
Autumn has been beautiful. Sunny days and only few rainy ones. The nights are already cold but some of the flowers are still standing.
Spent the whole day outside enjoying the colors of October and planting bulbs for the spring. Hope they make it through the winter. Was not that successful last year and have selected hardier varieties this time.
The dwarf sungold sunflowers are blooming. Finally I would say. They made it but only barely.
Usually I have selected the teddy bear as the dwarf variety but could not find the seeds anywhere in the spring. The two varieties are very similar but teddy bear blooms a bit earlier and that makes all the difference up here in the north.
The nights are getting long and dark up here in which means that I have plenty of time to start planning for the next summer.
Twilight Zone sunflowers made it and finally started to bloom. This was the first summer I planted them.
A successful experiment even though part of them were lost to moles who seem to be numerous this year.
As a variety it is small and short. A tiny spectacle among larger sunflowers with a bit peculiar look.
Still have some seeds left for the next spring. Need to look for more different varieties to experiment with.
My mom got interested in sea buckthorn berries because of the vitamins they have.
Three years ago I bought her four saplings – one male and three ladies. Two of the plants made it but I was not able to tell if the boy was still alive.
Sea buckthorn is so called dioecious plant which means that it has male and female plants. You need both to be able to get the berries. The lady bears the berries and the lad – well just hangs around.
This year we were able to harvest which means that we have a happy couple.
Because of the thorns picking the berries was not a joyride. My hands are still tender and achy but got the berries from the spiky lady.
Gardening in the North 