So how was winter for everyone? Because lets just say that 20 extra pounds of fat just became my bestfriend over what looked like a single night (whoa! hey! where did YOU come from? And why can't I fit my jeans now.....) and if anyone again tells me that I'm not chunky and a littel overweight, we're going to have some serious words (if there is anything about this greenhouse worker you should know, its false pleasantries is a big no no. Honesty is much better, all the way home. Less confusion in the end).
Insaying that, I have not been without my workouts either, going to the gym, mercilessly trying to take off that 20 lbs that I've put on and squeezing my size 12 butt into a size 9 pair of jeans (okay honey.. it just isn't happening. time to go shopping!). My Chiropractor has recently been having a field day with me due to an old back injury that just refuses to just
get over it. With that being said, there's a lot of working out that I've been doing, not to lose weight (though it would be nice) but maintain and fix the broken parts of me. Like all old people of older generations (okay... lets be honest here, 30+ is when you start '
feeling it' ) , the aches and pains have become far more frequent to the point where they just can't be ignored anymore. Through warm ups, stretches, weights and the swimming at six o'clock in the morning, I have to say, I'm jumping and in some wicked sort of mood improvement by the time I have to go to work. Suggestions? Work out in the morning. No word of a lie, i've never been happier (more in pain but happier). It's done some significant amount of work on my back though I'm sad to report, nothing for the waistline. They're at the back of the line.
Onto plants..... (because I'm slowly starting to nod off here).
The Calla Lily of some sort. I'm not a big fan (of above picture). They're pretty, not exciting. And the picture turned out kind of lousy on a cloudy day and Andrea was still recovering from polishing off a bottle of Merlot the day before. Note of awesomeness; it is fabulous whenyou come home and your husband has cooked a beautiful itallian dinner, cracking open a bottle of wine. The craptastic part; finishing that bottle off and THEN realizing that you're A) Drunk B)Not quite able to hold your liquor like you thought you could and C) take poor pictures when Hungover.
Dicentra 'Burning Hearts'. I think this is the plant of 2009. I'm not a hundred percent on that but I didn't see it last year. It's cousin is 'King of hearts'. Basically, its a dwarf variety of Bleeding hearts - the never dying plant. Shade plant, spring bloomer. A really nice colour compared to the other ones.
Helleborus 'Double queen mix'. This is about as exciting as this variety gets. Nice, but I almost missed the flower when shooting the picture. Oh, I beat on this plant. Its so unfair. I love the other varieties, though I hope 'London Fog Strain' (black variety) doesn't come up green. It would be most disappointing to pay a whopping $25 smack-a-roos for a new variety that reverts to green.
(above). That would make me too awesome if I remembered the name of this variety. I know its a new one. The name escapes me. Again, it could be the tired thing. It does happen.
Helleborus 'Honey HillJoy'. I want to say Honey Killjoy for the lack of light I got from shot. But as an aside, I found the colour of this plant rewarding. Helleborus is a shade variety and its evergreen (so you don't have to cut it back). Another thing to recall is that while it'll bloom in the spring, it also blooms in the fall/winter, hence the name, Christmas Rose.
More to come when I am focused and varieties are popping in!
clematis!
Helleborus "London Fog Strain" (above) yes! It lives!!!!! I thought it was dead but alas, he came back to me!
Panicum dallas blues. This one may be dead. Im not sure. One of them died before they could even get remotely established.
Panicum 'dewey blues'
More pansy plantings!
Look! Bulbs are coming up around the lamp post!
Sempervivum 'Grammens'.(above)
Sempervivum 'Red Delta'.(above)
Sempervivum 'Georgette'. (above)
Sempervivum 'Pyrenacium' (above).
Sempervivum 'More Honey' (above).
Papaver 'Champagne Bubbles Group' (above)
Heuchera 'Midnight rose' (above)
Dicentra 'bleeding hearts' (above)
Dwarf Iris 'smart' (above).
Aquilegia (above).
Aquilegia 'Clementine Blue' (above).
The annual side
If you don't know these by now, you should. They're geraniums. Martha Washingtons. They come in a few varieties and they're really something. Just like regular geraniums, they bloom all summer, enjoy full sun, a bit of cold tolerance, drought tolerant and the really nice thing about them, they don't look like a geranium at all. One of our best sellers still, though we only carry them in spring. The rest of the year, it's the normal geraniums your grandmother buys!
Cordyline 'Red Star' (Red Star Dracaena - above picture). Fantastic plant, drought tolerant. We covered this last year and now, I've had this plant for roughly two years and I can see that everyone in the greenhouse industry is finally coming out with it. I assume that next year, the market will be flooded with it (but by then, we'll have moved onto something else). Though I have to say, it doesn't seem to be a plant that lacks demand. People want this plant and for us, we only get about 800 pots in shipment and we're trying out the gallon pots this year (bigger plant - not bad in size). These are quarts and they're much cheaper to the gallon and the nice thing about it is it's incredibly drought tolerant.(like I said above, repeating myself because Im listening to the birds rather than paying attention to what im writing). I've dried these babies out to the point of death and they STILL look good. I've never thrown one out to date and desease just doesnt' seem to be a problem. Slow grower but nice with rigid leaves, much like the regular dracaena itself (green spike).
This is what we've done to our office with our spare grapevine from Angelo's garden last year. We're going to grown things on it, possibly morning glory or something similar.
This was what we started with, plus the raspberry pots for planting.
The Calla Lily of some sort. I'm not a big fan (of above picture). They're pretty, not exciting. And the picture turned out kind of lousy on a cloudy day and Andrea was still recovering from polishing off a bottle of Merlot the day before. Note of awesomeness; it is fabulous whenyou come home and your husband has cooked a beautiful itallian dinner, cracking open a bottle of wine. The craptastic part; finishing that bottle off and THEN realizing that you're A) Drunk B)Not quite able to hold your liquor like you thought you could and C) take poor pictures when Hungover.
Dicentra 'Burning Hearts'. I think this is the plant of 2009. I'm not a hundred percent on that but I didn't see it last year. It's cousin is 'King of hearts'. Basically, its a dwarf variety of Bleeding hearts - the never dying plant. Shade plant, spring bloomer. A really nice colour compared to the other ones.
Helleborus 'Double queen mix'. This is about as exciting as this variety gets. Nice, but I almost missed the flower when shooting the picture. Oh, I beat on this plant. Its so unfair. I love the other varieties, though I hope 'London Fog Strain' (black variety) doesn't come up green. It would be most disappointing to pay a whopping $25 smack-a-roos for a new variety that reverts to green.
