Knitting, gardening, quilting, cooking and dogs
One of the begonias in the wall has masses of blossoms. The light, the warm water temps and the consistent nutrition are really pumping out the flowers. Now the Ricinifolia Immense is joining the gang. It’s put out a blossom stalk for the first time in over a decade.
I haven’t done anything about a gutter yet, and I need to . . . desperately. I’m making that a priority for tomorrow. I’ve got two sewing machines to run up to be repaired and will handle it on the way.
All the baby fish are doing great. I lay on the floor and watch them scoot around the tank. Some are big enough to come out and feed with the adult fish. I wish I could get a picture but they’re just too small to get into focus through the glass. I end up with tiny little blobs of lighter colored stuff in a fuzzy greeny background. Ugh.
One of the gutter begonias has blossom stalks topped with buds ready to bloom.
The big begonia is doing really well though the leaves aren’t quite to the size achieved last summer. They’re close, just not quite there. The wood fern is doing well. I have some stuff that is just limping along. My cape primrose isn’t happy. I’m hoping it will come around . . . it’s really slow to show happy or sad so I just have to be patient and see if the changes I’ve made help. By late spring I should know. I think the gloxinia is toast . . . I think it’s been totally overgrown by the surrounding foliage.
About 1/3 of the rex begonias I planted are still growing. I think they would have done much better if I’d gotten them in the wall when all the other plants were about the same size. Now I’ve got stuff that’s gotten huge and the rex begonias are pretty much lost in the undergrowth. Time will tell whether they make it out of the understory.
All the philodendron, ivy and dumb cane varieties are doing tremendously well. They really like the wall. The hoja is doing good. The rain forest cactus are doing fine. The Christmas cactus bloomed a couple weeks ago, just one pretty salmon colored blossom. It’s another plant that’s going to be lost in the undergrowth. It just grows too slowly to stand much of a chance. <wince> Ditto for the epiphytes I planted last summer. I have to stay philosophical about all this. That’s what planting a vertical garden is all about, learning what works and enjoying the result.