power plant

Slowly but surely the ground is thawing. Slowly but surely the days are lengthening. Slowly but surely the Hyacinths I have in indoor pots are toppling over and need to be cut! Thankfully it is Monday, and I am able to join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden with a vase for her wonderful meme. This pretty pink Hyacinth smells lovely, but is a little overpowering and has been moved to another room for now. I added some dried Limonium and an Allium seedhead. Slowly but surely my collection of dried materials not yet used in vases is running low… And slowly but surely I have had enough of winter. Some gentle snowfall might be nice, but some spring sunshine would be even nicer. We are currently at that muddy in-between stage. It feels good to have flowers indoors in January, but seeing some green shoots outside might be nice too. I have a prop to go with my ‘shell’ vase this week! This tiny pewter snail is from my Mum’s collection of bits and pieces that she passed on to me for safe...

It has been fun joining in with Frank at Sorta Like Suburbia for his cheery winter holiday ‘Ten Days of Plantness’. Just what I needed to brighten up January, although I must say we have had a lot of sunshine over the past few days. The clear skies have also brought icy cold nights, so indoor plants have been my focus. Today is the last day, and I am sharing this sweet little succulent I found at the garden centre last week. It really is little too. The tiny pot was one I already had, possibly a gift from someone, but a perfect 7cm in diameter. It is an Echeveria, which is a non-hardy succulent unlike the houseleek I shared a few days ago. So this will remain indoors, on a sunny windowsill for now. And one day it might send up a flower stalk if I am lucky! Have you ever grown Echeverias? So, many thanks to Frank for thinking up the plantness days. Spring certainly does seem a lot nearer now! And Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome has joined in too, so if you are as mad about pla...

Once again Monday has come round. A little brighter this week, and a little nearer to Spring too. Have you noticed the extra minutes of daylight yet? And Mondays mean a vase, as I join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly floral meme. It is, however, also the ninth day of Frank’s ‘Ten Days of Plantness’ (See Sorta Like Suburbia here ), where we are celebrating (house)plants at the coldest time of year. So I am combining both memes again today with a pot instead of a vase, and this pretty little Hyacinth. It was a supermarket find and, like the Narcissi I shared last week, this bulb has grown since bought a few days ago and has opened in record time. I am so glad it is a white one, as they weren’t labelled. I actually chose it for its delightful pot. It is tiny, only 8×8 cm, but perfect for one bulb. The added bonus with Hyacinths is of course their scent. This one is delicate and faint – perfect as I don’t like overpowering scents indoors. Those planted in my garden w...

Ten Days of Plantness, by Frank at Sorta Like Suburbia Primula

Temperatures rose to above freezing at the end of the week, but until we get long-term milder weather I shall continue to just focus my attention on my pots indoors instead. And I have another new one to celebrate Frank’s ‘Ten Days of Plantness’. Frank explains this plant-lover’s ‘holiday’ here on Sorta Like Suburbia , so do go and visit him. Basically it aims to bring some cheer to the month of January when, here in the northern hemisphere, it is needed most. This small Sempervivum – or house-leek – is a fascinating specimen that does just that. I have quite a collection outdoors, but none in the house. This one will be planted out in spring. They are excellent value for money, as they produce lots of offsets during the summer. Those spidery web-like threads give this one its name: S. arachnoideum (Cobweb house-leek). It might flower for me in summer too. The long stems with tiny rosettes of pink flowers are quite remarkable. Here is a picture of some of my other house-leeks outsi...

Celebrating this new holiday, devised by Frank at Sorta Like Suburbia , entails simply posting a photo of something new and garden-related you have bought in January. This meant a special trip to the local garden centre for me, which can be uplifting even in January when the store is looking rather sparse. I was especially pleased to find a replacement for a houseplant I had killed  that simply died on me: a variegated ivy. This is something I would NEVER plant out in the garden. But in my little pot it is sweet, and trails nicely. Do you grow ivy, indoors or out?

This new holiday was devised by Frank (see his post here at Sorta Like Suburbia ), and I am celebrating with a new plant or plant-related item for each of the ten days. Well, when I bought this small pot of Tête à Tête Narcissi last Saturday it looked rather boring…. But by Wednesday morning the first flower was greeting me! It is standing on a north-facing windowsill in an unheated room, as I am hoping the flower stems won’t grow too tall and then flop. Fingers crossed for another flower tomorrow!  

On the fourth day of Frank ‘s ingenious way of keeping the winter doldrums at bay (see his post at Sorta Like Suburbia here ), I am sharing another Cyclamen. This time a pure white one. These are, strangely enough, one of the few plants I manage to keep for longer than a year. (I currently have a pale pink one – another supermarket bargain – on the windowsill.) Of all the shades a available, I do love the white ones, especially in winter after all the Christmas decorations have been taken down. It adds a crisp, clean, fresh look to my sideboard.   And when it finishes flowering the leaves are beautiful too. Do you grow Cyclamens? What colour do you prefer, pink or white?  

If you didn’t see my post yesterday introducing this new holiday ‘ Ten Days of Plantness ‘, do go back and take a look. Or visit Frank at Sorta Like Suburbia , who is the brainchild of this idea. And what a great idea it was too – ten days of indulging in new plants or garden-related treasures in an attempt to ignore the cold outside and hurry along some spring sunshine! Here is the star from my collection of modest purchases last weekend…  this beautiful big Cyclamen was one of two left (the other one was red, and while paying I saw that a customer had snapped that one up too). A bargain at only 3.79 euros! The pot was also purchased… not quite such a bargain, but I fell in love with those shades of green. This was definitely a good idea. Thanks Frank, for the excuse to indulge in a new indoor plant on this freezing cold January day! (P.S. Why not check out Frank’s post here to find out more, and maybe join in? )

I am joining two of my favourite bloggers for gardening-related memes today: first of all Cathy at Rambling in the Garden , who hosts the weekly vase party. Well, please forgive me for cheating, but dried up seedheads and grasses are starting to lose their charm and the frozen garden has nothing else to offer at the moment. So I am sharing a vaseful of cheerful tulips bought from my local supermarket. (Note the double cheer with the tulips on the front of the vase! ) The second meme I am participating in is Frank’s ( Sorta Like Suburbia ) ‘Ten Days of Plantness’, originally construed by Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome I believe. You may be wondering what the ‘Ten Days of Plantness’ is. Well, Frank explains it as: ‘a very official holiday which celebrates ten of the gloomiest and coldest days of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter with plants’. From January 12th (yes, I’m a day late!) to January 21st we are invited to celebrate each sunrise (and each a few minutes earlier!) with a ...

I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for the first vase of 2025, and am looking forward to another year of this lovely meme, which brightens up Mondays no end. Today is the last bank holiday of the Christmas and New Year season in Bavaria – Heilige Drei Könige, otherwise known as Dreikönigstag, or Epiphany in English, and literally translated as ‘Holy Three Kings Day’.  So my vase still has a slightly festive feel to it. However, by the end of the week the last of the decorations will have been cleared away, although some lights may stay up a while. In some parts of the country the tree is even left standing until Maria Lichtmess (Candlemas) on February 2nd. As you can see, the calendar here reflects the Catholic traditions which are still recognized and celebrated in this corner (and many other parts) of Germany. So I collected my materials for a vase rather leisurely this morning. The sun has reappeared, albeit a watery one, and the temperatures are surprisingly m...