moving plants in for the winter
Everything is coming along quite nicely. 97% of my tropicals have found warm homes either in my house, cold frame or the greenhouse at work. There is large volume of marginal zone 7-8 plants that I’m tempted to test outdoors, but have opted to take the safe route and bring them inside. In a panic to make more room for cacti I splurged and bought a new lighting system for my basement cacti setup. Originally priced in the 500+ area I picked this system up for $150.00 used. It features three shelves with moving growing lights to accommodate different sized plants. Having set it up last week so far I’m impressed with the results. Everything seems quite happy.
While the basement is a great setup I still try to keep my prized specimens on the top floor where things will be a bit warmer. The top floor of my house has a whopping 90 potted plants scattered throughout the living room, kitchen and bathroom. Who knew it would get this bad, it’s like an episode of hoarders. Really though I did my very best to reduce the cluttered look and I’ve jigsawed the collection into a tasteful display. When one finds himself with a crippling plant collecting addiction one should be wary of making his roommates uncomfortable due an excess of plant “clutter”. I digress.
The upstairs “plant lab” is looking pretty nice this year.
The frogs hairdo seems to be cooperating so far. “Cut those sideburns you hippie!”
I’ve been training a hedera ssp across the ceiling of my living room for the last 3 years, It’s almost made it to the fireplace.
Hanging off little hooks my air plants bask under the grow light. Pictured above: Tillandsia stricta
Another airplant : Tillandsia ionantha
My phalaenopsis ssp. orchid has been creating non-stop blooms for the last 8-10 months, incredible!
Upon a closer inspection, it’s markings are exotic and spectacular. The detail in nature never ceases to amaze.
My 7 foot Euphorbia trigona has put out a healthy flush of leaves this year and couldn’t be happier.
When I first brought in my impatiens niamniamensis it sulked for about a week, now it’s climatized and is flowering like crazy.
What a relief to have succeeded with the move. No frost yet but Winter strikes in 5-20 days tops. I need a new jacket and some waterproof shoes. Ho Hum.
Whew! What a week!
The weather in Victoria seems to be declining steadily, shorts have been replaced with pants and a sweater seems almost essential to leave the house in the morning. The temperature has dropped down to 10 C and I fear a frost is right around the corner. Everyday after work is a mad dash to catch some sunlight and sort my plants into various groups of tenders, tropicals and succulents. With the sun now almost completely set at 7:00pm, the few hours I have after work are precious. It’s like cleaning up after a big party, the garden is slowly but surely dismantled and cleaned up. For the moment it’s a complete mess, no time to worry about day to day tidying, I have to find warm homes for my plants before it’s too late. My house is absolutely stuffed, and everyday I bring another load to the greenhouse.
“Oh hey (insert boss’s name here) mind if I overwinter some plants at the greenhouse?”
“Sure thing Nat, just put them in the corner”
(Evil laughter as a cube van pulls up with 1 million plants)
Passiflora caerulea loves the cool autumn weather.
Luckily I have excellent boss’s that encourage such plant madness or life would be much more depressing right now. While the first bay of the main house slowly fills with strange tropical specimens, a couple friend’s and I embark on building a greenhouse of our own at the back of the property. We got the A-OK from our fearless leaders and hope to get started pretty quick here. If everything works out it should be roughly 40ft long and 16ft wide, not bad for a couple of plant geeks.
I must admit at this time of plant dismantling I’m a bit overwelmed by it all. It’s only now that I get to see the sheer volume of my collection, and quite frankly it’s a bit out of control. A quick walk around the house counts a staggering 90+ potted plants, not including any cuttings or would be seed projects. Outside is a fully stocked garden 360 around the house, and now the greenhouse at work slowly fills up. I suppose my mission this year was to learn about plants, and what better way of doing it then to grow them. You’ve got to grow them to learn about them. I would say books barely scratch the surface with the idiosyncrasies of plants, watching them you seem to learn something new everyday.
With the cold chill in the air today I decided to take the matter of saving my tree echium into my own hands. I can”t wait for a truck any longer, I folded down my seats in my VW Golf and managed to get it in. The guy who car pools with me often makes a jokes when there isn’t any plants in my car, as if something’s amiss. You know when you’ve gone down the deep end when.
Quickie Fall Tour October 2011:
Autumn spiders are out in full force.
A valentines day Gerbera that I bought for my girlfriend, allowed to rest, is now in the midst of another impressive display of flowers. Excellent.
Some fall asters I bought from a gardener near Shawnigan Lake really brighten up the place.
A sumac bonsai has great autumn colors.
Autumn colchicum spring out of nowhere.
Flowering from May until frost works just fine for me, Abutilon megapotamicum is a must have. While some treat this as an annual, this one is definitely getting stored in the greenhouse this year.
Last but not least, the cyclamen. If there is any reason to love fall, it’s these amazing little showstoppers.
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Thanks for stopping by!
