Plant Stuff

I got a head start on plant tinkering. I know it's the middle of winter and most my plants are in hibernation, blah blah...but the days are getting longer and I'm a glass-half-full kind of gal.  To start, I divided up my spiny aloe (above). The thing grows in crazy clumps and thought it would look really beautiful by its lonesome. Mission accomplished. 

 

 I found this Arabia metallic black pottery planter recently. I wish I could say the cactus (Cholla??) was not new, but it is.

I've been working at my Jade bonsai. This is probably my neatest, best-kept plant. For a long time, it was bushy with clumpy masses of leaves everywhere. After a serious pruning last summer and periodic plucking, it is looking quite beautiful.

 Instead of using my adorable metal snail votive holder for it's intended purpose, I stuck an air plant in him! In love.

My Etsy shop will be back up and running in the next week or so. Here's a teaser:

Plant Bonanza

(above is a very lovely planter I picked up last weekend while on a mini-vacation in Door County, Wisconsin. I planted some tiny Burrow's Tail sedum in it. I love it!)

I hope every one's Spring is well under way. I have been quite busy, although can't quite pinpoint what it is I've been doing! I'm happy to have some spare time to post about all the exciting plant things going on now that the weather is finally turning nice.

A few weeks ago, we got an invitation to visit a friend-of-a-friend's semi-public greenhouse in Monroe. Terri and his wife Nancy are moving to Hawaii very soon, and are trying to sell as many of their plants as possible. I personally think they are CRAZY--as beautiful as I'm sure Hawaii is, they have an absolutely wonderful home (I regret not taking more photos) and many spectacular plants they will not be taking with them.

Inside their greenhouses, we had our pick of nearly endless herbs and, not so plentiful, but equally great succulents. I love how these sedum look against the stark, back-lit walls of the greenhouse.

This rather large potted Opuntia was so lovely with its shades of green, red and grey.

Terri had many large Epiphytic cacti--several of which were in bloom.
I now have three succulent bonsai from Terri and Nancy. Where else can you get a beautiful bonsai for under $20? And they have loads of them!



This big aloe was really stunning.

My favorite part of the visit was seeing Terri and Nancy's home. As a modern architecture freak, I really loved their house. The photo below is of an unbelievably huge Staghorn Fern hanging above their living room. The above photo is looking down into the living room from the kitchen/dining area upstairs.

My sister and her boyfriend have a much, much smaller Staghorn hanging on their living room wall. It looks so beautiful--a piece of art!

Among their other great plants is this really neat Chestnut Tree. I'm envious!

This photo was taken a few weeks ago in my Mom's garden, one of the very first flowers we saw this Spring! So beautiful!

New Plants

Over the weekend, I went to the Garden Expo here in Madison. Seminars and goodies to buy galore. I went to a seminar on succulents, which mainly focused on the more run-of-the-mill plants for beginners and ones that can be planted in the garden in our region (I'm more into the more unusal varities primarily as houseplants). So I didn't learn much, but it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour.

The real highlight for me was coming across a man, Terri selling wonderful plants in the vendor area of the expo. The first time around, I chose a small Elephant Bush bonsai (the two photos above) that is just beautiful, although every plant he had was just stunning, making it a tough decision. But for a mere $12, I just couldn't resist. The man running it was so lively and funny that I could have stayed there all day talking and laughing with him. Later I actually found out he is very good friends with my sister's boyfriend. Small world!

So later, when we met up with my sister and her bf, we went back the the cool plant guy and I bought the other plant I had my eye on, this exquisite Jade tree. I couldn't believe he only wanted $15 for it. Judging by the girth of the trunk, this plant is quite old, and the grower took lots of time making into this woody bonsai form. I'm really excited to have these plants, and looking forward to visiting Terri's greenhouse this summer!