Some Pretty Pictures from the Glass House

It's that time of year when the tropicals are putting on their respective shows in the glass house.  Since some of them prefer these shorter days and cooler temperatures than those of July and August, it's a pretty awesome place to start my workday!

Clerodendron thomsoniae ("Bleeding Heart Vine") is just covered with flowers right now, and will stay that way until around Thanksgiving.  This particular plant just adores the heat, and will continue to climb toward the sky until it finally fizzles out in late November, at which time we cut it back to about 24 inches, and the process starts again.

The Penta below was taken from the pastel border at the end of the season last year and brought into the glass house.  In one of Christopher Lloyd's books he had mentioned that Pentas make great flowering plants through the winter.  Go figure....he was right!  (It's obviously doing better than the latest Gloriosa lily, which died the same sad death as its predecessors....)

The Cane Begonia "Sophie Cecile" is just exquisite right now, when the blooms are backed up by the beautiful green and pink mottled foliage.  The original cutting for this plant came from Callaway Gardens (I won it in a raffle....really!)

The phalaenopsis orchids are in their glory at this time of year!  The white one below is just one of many that grace the glass house and the Big House for winter beauty. 

Signs of Spring in the Glass House

Clerondedrum thomsoniae took a break for a couple of months, dropped most of her leaves, and looked quite sad. Now that the springtime sunshine has arrived, she's right back to growing a couple of feet every day and showing off those incredible blooms!  Sometimes this is like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors, since it grows up and over the ceiling, swallowing anything (and anyone) in its path.

Garden stakes have gotten their new coat of paint, so all looks fresh and spring-like!  This is a very practical means of marking the vegetable garden that I took from Hidcote a couple of years ago.  The stakes are readily available at the home center, and last a couple of years before starting to rot away.  We write directly on them with paint pens. 

Spring lettuces and spinach have been seeded in the hayracks, and move in and out of the glasshouse as weather allows. 

Tulips are showing their tips in pots that will make their way to the front entrance of the house.  The wire cages have worked beautifully against the evil squirrels.  We realistically use tulips as an expensive annual flower in Atlanta, since the winters just don't get cold enough for them to perennialize. 

It's definitely orchid season in the glasshouse!  They hang out looking like the dour sisters all year, and then put on all their party bling in January and February.  Now that they are in bloom, they'll go for a couple of months in this glorious state. 

I'm usually bad about getting photos of things in their "finished" states.  Here's a shot of that same orchid (with another, as well) in its home for the next several weeks.  Despite their reputation for being persnickety, they are really very low maintenance.  And what other flower has a bloom like that?

Sunny and 72 degrees in Atlanta today!  Now THAT is a beautiful thing!

(Please enjoy the photos, and double click on them to enlarge if you'd like. Please don't claim them as your own in a post out there in the internet world, though......Thank  you!)

Cold Weather Gardening

This week's cold snap has put a bit of a damper on the gardening chores that normally get done at this time of year. Since the garden at the Big House is so flower-intensive, it's a blessing that we're able to do some things in January and February.

This week we got a bunch of pruning done (clip for a couple of hours, defrost for 15 minutes, clip for another couple of hours, etc.), and then spent one full day thinking about the warmer weather to come.

When the wind is howling, these are the days when I fully appreciate my job. What a treat to spend some time in the glass house potting up brugmansia cuts, repotting orchids, and such. We typically will buy some things for summer containers at this time of year, pot them up and let them grow out for a few months, so they're lush when they go into the containers in April.