Orchids make beautiful and cost-effective floral arrangements

Orchids in a bowl for a tabletop arrangement.

There is nothing like an arrangement of fresh flowers to add instant magic to your home. Store-bought bouquets are a great way to go, but the shelf-life of the plastic-sleeved posies can be a little brief. Why not invest in an inexpensive orchid or two to live on your dining table? Chances are you will get a couple of months of bloom out of them.

Orchids love daily watering but do not like to sit in water. Bright diffused light makes them happiest. Phalaenopsis orchids are available nearly everywhere these days and are easy to grow. I rarely attempt a re-blooming from the orchid plants. Often I will move them outdoors, if it’s summer, and then retire them to the compost bin for winter’s rest.

In this photo: I picked up some clearance orchids at the local Ikea ($1.50 each!) and casually planted them in a ceramic bowl (by the pottery wheel virtuoso Harriet Campe). The two orchids came in an bark planting medium. I gently de-potted them and set them in the bowl and surrounded them with a large nugget mulch that I had in a garden bed. I water nearly every day with a light drink (warm water please), never adding enough to collect in the bottom.

I’ve had these babies for nearly two months. Not a bed return on a floral investment.

I picked up a Passion flower vine (Passiflora) at the Mill City Market

The detailed and delicate passion flower.

A wonderful farmer was selling Passion flower vines last Saturday at the Mill City Market near the Guthrie Theatre, close to downtown Minneapolis. If you haven’t been to the market yet, try to get down there. It’s got great energy, great produce, great vendors and great food. A shout-out to the Chef Shack. I had a divine vegan brat, that was really just a blank canvas for the broad spectrum of luscious condiments including sweet peppers, hot peppers, kimchi, sauerkraut, a apricot mustard, and the list goes on. A real treat.

The genus Passiflora has a reported 500+ species. They are native to parts of the U.S., as far north as Ohio. My farmer friend classified them as a zone 6 plant. He also reported that in the 1930s and 40s they were a very popular plant in Minneapolis gardens. I guess everyone was growing them and reportedly, even over-wintering them in well-protected sites. We will see. It would be a lovely surprise to see it sprout next spring.

It is a great specimen plant that loves sun and water. I stumbled upon one of the flower buds slowly opening yesterday afternoon. It was a dramatic reveal. Apparently it’s  rather rare to get a Passion fruit on the vine, but the farmer has reported eating the fruit and it is delicious. You get about a tablespoon of the reported ambrosia with each fruit. So you definitely grow it for the flower.

Historically, Passion flower has also been used medicinally as a “calming” herb to help treat anxiety. Just looking at it slows my pulse.

The origin of the plant’s name actually refers to the passion of Christ.  Spanish missionaries saw the many parts of the flower as depicitng the last days of Jesus’ life on earth, most particularly the crucifixion.

• The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
• The tendrils represent the whips used in the flagging of Christ.
• The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (less St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).
• The flower’s radial filaments represent the Crown of Thorns.
• The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail
• The three  stigmata represent the three nails and the five anthers below them the five wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
• The blue and white colors of many species’ flowers represent Heaven and Purity.

Passion flowers pop up often in the seed catalogs that start piling up in January. Maybe next year is your year for this passionate vine.

A succulent dish for the patio table is fun and easy to do

A succulent wreath for the table top container. It even has a center hole for the umbrella.

I did an article for the current Northern Gardener magazine on succulents and the many choices available these days. If you go to the homepage of the site, you can click on the read a sample article link and check it out. As always happily happens, when I research a topic, I get bit by its bug. I love the limitless varieties of succulents available and the many textures, colors, and forms. I admire their hardy dispositions and self-sufficiency. I have started to sprinkle my garden with them, whevere I can find a sunny little nook or cranny.

Succulents are perfect for garden crafts, as they take root readily and tough it out through a transition period when most plants would faint. This is why you see the beautiful succulent wreaths around here and there. Martha Stewart, maven of all wreath-making, has taken her turn at them. I took mine with a table-top wreath, so to speak. Consider this patio table living centerpiece for your outdoor space. This design also works with an umbrella. Sedums love sun, so make sure the dish will get plenty during the day.

The plastic pot saucer is perfect for the container base with its high sides and inner ridge.

Planting the dish was easy. Figuring out how to design it so that the patio table umbrella could live in its center was the design challenge. I took a 16″ plastic saucer for a pot, purchased at my local Bachman’s. The high sides and inner raised ridge (a happy accident) were perfect. I cut a hole in the center with a box-cutter utility knife and drilled numerous drainage holes. The center wall is created by taking the plastic container that holds bulk blank CDs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and cutting out the bottom with the box-cutter and trimming it to the height of the walls. The center is held in place by the planting mix.

To add extra drainage (succulents love moisture but demand good drainage) I layered the bottom with broken terra cotta (save your cracked pots). For a planting mix I took a store-bought mixture designed for cacti and added some of my own sand and a little gravel from the driveway to make a really well-draining mix. Time for the fun to begin.

Terra cotta chips and a blend of purchased succulent mix, sand and a little gravel.

Depending on the succulents you have in your garden, you wouldn’t need to purchase a thing. That said a couple of specimen succulents, various echeverias in this dish, do add some nice focal pops. Another option is to purchase a few creeping sedums for your yard and steal some cuttings for your container. Sedums love sun, so keep this in mind.

I popped off a few rosettes from existing mother hen and chicks (sempervivums) and included them, nestling them into the soil. Most will have some devloping roots already in place. I snipped off 3-4″ inch cuttings of several varieties of sedum including: ‘Blue Spruce,’ ‘Angelina,’ ‘Red Dragon,’ ‘Bertram Anderson,’ ‘Baily Gold,’ and ‘Variegatum.’ I dipped each cutting in a little rooting hormone (available at most garden centers). I took a dried ornamental grass stem, and using it as my poking tool, “pre-drilled” a planting hole for the succulent, and maneuvered the cutting into the hole. I continued until the dish was full. This is the fun and creative part of the project. Strive for a nice blend of colors and textures, looking for the contrast in the different varieties. ‘Angelina’ adds a nice pop of color next to all the varieties.

Water you dish everyday, especially the first few weeks as it is establishing, making sure it drains well. Adding some colorful rocks, marbles, trinkets and baubles is fun and adds a nice, personal touch. Overwintering remains to be seen. Any non-hardy succulents could be lifted and brought indoors for the winter and my sense is you could sink the container into the ground, cover it with some leaves, and the plants would make it fine through the winter. You could also disassemble it and incorporate the newly formed plants into the garden by mid September or so.

Step into the sedum world with this container. It ’s prefect for any garden, big or small.

Lobelia ‘Palace Royal’ holds court in my containers

Lobelia 'Palace Royal'

I wrote an article for the upcoming March issue of Northern Gardener magazine on taking one pot through all four seasons, swapping out plantings accordingly. It was a hoot to have this test pot in my garden though the spring, summer, fall and into the the holidays. It was my baby, my test kitchen. I cared for it fastidiously and it showed. May I tend all my pots and plantings so intimately this coming season.

I mixed it up in this particular container, going for the classic mix of thriller, filler and spiller, as well as  textural and color contrasts. It makes for a pretty splashy affair. Such mixed plantings work especially well as a focal point, near a doorway or a sitting area. It’s a great way to get some fun variety in a limited amount of space.

Out and about in the perennial borders, I love a pot full of one variety. It’s a clean, classy pop of color; very useful  to perk up a garden area. Lobelia ‘Palace Royal’ is a plant good enough to eat. The purplish/blue gentle flowers are so soft to the eye and touch.

I have the most luck with them in planters… they do well with plenty of watering, but must be well-drained. They love the sun, as long as they don’t bake. So sun and water and no wet feet will keep them happy. They really are striking… use them a lot.

In the above photo, because they are such a tidy, contained plant, they help the rusty old milk can work as a planter. The blue #27 was our farm’s # when we brought the cans of fresh milk into the Arlington Creamery every morning, as a sidenote. The Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’ gets along nicely, with the color of the lobelia.

When in doubt, a pot of one variety of flowers will have impact.

Moose sighting in Minneapolis front yard

Moose sighting in Minneapolis.

The elusive Minneapolis miniature front yard moose was spotted this week fleeing the crazy-driving mini-vans near a school at 4th and 47th in south Minneapolis.

It is a  long-held belief that his sighting indicates the we have seen the worst of winter and spring is on its way. His sighting is a more reliable forecast than Puxitony Phil.

Take heart frozen ones. We have turned the corner. Step outside and take a breath. If you get real still, you will notice a difference in the air. The sense of the earth beginning to warm.

Look around and visualize yourself in your garden. Begin to see the pots overflowing with petunias and the perennial borders filling up. Imagine the warm breeze on your skin and begin planning for the greatest gardening season yet.

Dare I say cabin fever…

I’ve always shyed away from using the terms cabin fever or stir-crazy to describe my January state, fearing that the naming of it would even more fully claim it.  Well, I’ve got it big time. I think it’s a worse state of affairs for those who rely heavily on digging in the dirt.

I come home from work and I can not settle down. I pace, usually back and forth from the kitchen, stopping for another bite of supper du jour. I pick up the knitting, which zens me for a moment, but then I am, out of nowhere, clicking through the American Idols and House Hunters. It would all be different if I could be working outside.

I don’t recall it ever being this strong.

Before I kill the dog, I simply must develop and practice some tactics for relief:

1.  The indoor plants are not really doing it for me anymore. I mean, they’re fine, but it really isn’t the pinching back of a leaf or the watering of a pot that I need. I need activity, so I am harnessing my energy to re-invigorate the giant ficus in the living room. Tonight I am off to Ikea, Home Depot and any big box in my way in search of a pot that is more cute than spendy. I will also purchase river rock (buying rocks is such inane folly) and top the soil with them.

2. I will aerobically exercise like a Pitt or Clooney. Work off that steam. Exorcise the winter demons by sweating them out. Hey, I may be in my best shape of the year by the time the soil needs to be turned. Much like gardening, it’s hard to think too much when exercising.

3. Re-visit the seed catalogs. Dreams turning into creative visualization. I’ll stick to my one order a year limit, but I will plot and plan as much as I want. Choosing and re-choosing my $40 worth. When you open a seed catalog, you can almost smell the fresh air.

4. Stand outside and take in the air. Especially in the morning. If you do so, just as the sun is rising, emotions rise up. Faith, hope and plain old looking forward can get you through a lot.

Could it be: the nastier the winter the bigger the spring payoff?

Seed catalog temptation

Oh, to order or not to order. That is the question sparked by the buy $25 worth, get $25 free stickers on each. In years past, I would pile up the catalogs, making lists, even spreadsheets noting what I was ordering from each of the tomes of impulse purchasing.

Then the boxes would come. Don’t get me wrong; there are deals to be had. But the tiny little pots and (heavy sigh) bareroots aren’t exactly like shopping at the nursery. The items are extremely infant and a little sad and lonely when treated like a nursery-sized perennial in the border.

I now let myself have one order, because the half off deal on the cover is as titillating as the weight loss headlines on the checkout magazine covers. Its a shot of encouragement on a 5 below January night.

So I treat myself to the one indulgent order. But I follow a few maxims:

1. No bareroots (read the fine print) unless the plant is a real must-have.

2. Ignore #1 if it’s a delicious plant that is typically started from bareroot in the spring, like a dahlia or canna.

3. Splurge on a perennial that is tough to find, like Blue Sea Holly.

4. Get an unusual houseplant. Like a Myer Lemon Tree.

5. Go for the attractively priced trees and shrubs if size doesn’t matter to you.

6. Buy something that you never would without seeing it in a seed catalog, like a grow your own mushroom box.

Most of all, commit to changing your plans the evening that the box comes from the catalog warehouse, ususally somewhere in Ohio or Michigan. Though they are a bit of a pain, the seed catalog is a piece of gardening history that I hope never goes away.

Red in the morning, gardeners take warning…

November sunrise through the oak trees

Not really. A sunrise like this does stop you in your tracks though. My instinct was to scramble for the camera, but first I just took pause and soaked in the colors: the fire-pink, magenta, indigo blue and glowing lavender set against the stark black outlines of the the gnarled oaks.

Then I grabbed the camera.

The borrowed landscape is a useful and wonderful part of the garden, particularly in the small space spot. The neighbor’s majestic oaks serve as backdrop and somehow fool the eye into thinking they are part of my property.

Plus, I do not have to continually pick up all the little stick droppings.

Consider, the vista beyond when designing your own scape. Artfully incorporating distant trees, buildings, and landmarks gives the impression that your garden goes well beyond what it really does. You have an instant back 180 acres!

Boston Ivy puts on a show

Boston Ivy on a brick apartment building in south Minneapolis. Stunning!

The classic look of ivy covered walls really comes to life in the fall, when adorned with Boston Ivy.

Boston Ivy is a long-lived, rather fast growing perennial vine, and a great choice if you want the ivy-walled look. It’s perfect on this brick apartment building a happened upon in south Minneapolis. I wouldn’t recommend it if you have a wooden structure, as the tendrils will eventually damage the wood and make paint jobs even more of a pain in the neck.

I do have a patch growing on my six-foot privacy fence in my backyard. It softens the appearance of the fence and is fairly easy to control with a rip and a tear here and there.

Alas, all these green tomatoes in the garden

Green tomatoes in a box

Weather rumor has it (isn’t that about all a weather forecast really is?) that tomorrow night will host a killing frost. The scramble began today to save what is worth saving in the garden.

I moved in the rubber tree that had been summering on the patio corner (and about doubled in size) and moved in the Meyer Lemon Tree that was the thriller in a summer container. I also potted up the Swedish Ivy that I plan on bringing back out next summer.

And all the green tomatoes. Experts have told us that a tomato must have at least a hint of a rosy blush if it is to ripen indoors, or at least a slightly-soft bottom. From my experience all but the rock hard little ones will eventually come around.

My favorite method is to line a cardboard box with a grocery bag (nice use for the odd-sized ones) and add a layer of the tomatoes. You can add a gingerly-placed second layer of the smaller ones.

Place the box in a dark, slightly moist area (my basement is perfect) and let them be, checking daily for rotting or moldy fruits. The ethylene gas released by the little red devils will help the mass ripening, but you can also add ripening bananas to the mix to promote the process.

A taste of summer for at least another few weeks.