White Orchid

 Yipeee!!!!   My White Orchid I purchased a year ago is reblooming for me!  

White African Violet Time

 My white violet is blooming again!  I purchased it two years ago at our local Rochester Technical College Horticulture Department before it closed down.  It was grown there as a Tissue Culture.  

Blue African Violet Time Again

A few evenings ago our garden club featured a newer member sharing her hobby of photographing nature, which includes flowers.  She focused on the use of the popular cell phones and some apps and tools designed to take cell phone photography up a notch!  Yes, I was inspired to get  busy again taking pictures of my indoor plants!  What fun I had this morning!

Just what I needed to shake me out of some boredom with this time of the year!

One of my favorite African Violets is an adorable blue one with fairly tiny size flowers.  I first purchased it in a miniature stage, or more correctly, it turned out to be a baby.  I finally moved it up to a larger pot when it filled that tiny pot it came in and two years later it is delighting me almost continually!  It is loaded with flowers and rests only about 4-5 weeks in between blooms.  Its leaves are on the small size but they are indeed abundant!

Spring Plant Sale fund raising project

 Recently I attended the first Planning Committee for our Annual Plant Sale scheduled in mid May 2022.

Due to the Covid situation we have not held our plant sales during the last two years so our members are anxious to get back into this annual event for our community.  Also, we are anxious to get back into some serious fund raising activity!

This year we are facing a new challenge with this sale.  How do we prepare the plants that we donate from our gardens to lower the risk of our customers taking home the newest damaging invasive critters that have moved into our area since the Covid oubreak!  I am referring to the "Jumping Worms" which is the common name for a worm that is damaging our soil by removing most of the nutrients in it.  

The agriculture departments of our State Universities in the Midwest have been active in research on how to continue gardening while managing to lower the risk of these invasive worms damaging the soil in our precious gardens and yards!   It will take a bit more effort to prepare this year's donated plants for sale.  We will be using the guidelines developed by the University of Minnesota which seem to be in line with other guidelines we have found in other areas of our country.

If you are not familiar with the damaging and invasive worms that have been moving into the areas in our country, you may be interested in the below link for information.  Not only will you learn about this worm and it's life cycles but how to identify it and what you can do to minimize the risk to your own garden beds!

After seeing what has happened to gardener friends in our area, I have moved to taking some precautions to lower the risk for my own garden beds and lawn in the last few years.  

I urge you to become informed and consider making some changes in your gardening tasks and processes to protect your soil as there is not a product available that can kill this pest at this time.

Learn about the Jumping Worms Click here:

Update on my orchids

 A few more orchid plants have come into bloom and are being enjoyed!  Moving them into the living room area has added a brightness to our atmosphere indeed!

They definately are brightening up our winter views out the windows!  

The care is very easy indeed throughout the year with such a nice reward that seems to last for such a long period!  I have them on the same watering and fertilizing schedule as my african violets.

Hyacinth Time in the Floral Departments

 A recent visit to Trader Joe's resulted in bringing home my annual Hyacinth to brighten up my living room reminding me Spring was coming!

Daffodil time in the Florist Shops and Departments!

 While I was strolling around in a Garden Center recently, I discovered I was in time to find the adorable touches of Spring with the 'Tete-a-Tete' Daffodil plants potted up! 

Of course, it saw me coming and jumped right into my cart I was pushing!  Love the contrast of the winter scene as it smiles at me from the end table next to my favorite chair!    In just a few days the foliage jumped up and pushed up the first bloom!  Gee, I'll bet next week or so I will be finding hyacinths jumping into my cart!

So inexpensive and such a special treat!

Primrose Time in the Florist Shops and Departments!

 Love the addition of blooming plants in the house this time of the year!  It is a reminder that Spring will return!

I so love the inexpensive price on these lovely flashes of color to brighten up my life midst the snow and cold outside!  They get a special spot on the end table by my chair near the window in the living room!  This is one of the first I've seen so maybe I'll even be able to treat myself to another before they disappear from the stores!

We drove to Inver Grove Heights a few days ago to visit a dear friend and it just so happens a huge fabulous garden center, Gerten's,  is located there!  Always have to stop in briefly, at least!  Lots of house plants and seasonal flowering plants on display!

My orchids are greeting me again!

 What a treat for January...  three of my 10 orchids have decided to brighten up my life!

It looks like 5 more plants are forming buds, so I am looking forward to expanding the display in the living room more in the next month or so!  So, am carefully watching the remaining two, which were purchased a bit later in the year originally.

New ideas for gardening.....

 Gardening for the Health of It  Digital Seminar  coming up soon....

A few interesting concepts regarding how to garden!  Check it out!

                                 Robin Fruth-Dugstad

Robin has a BS in Horticulture from UW-River Falls and an MS in Horticulture from Iowa State. She has 30+ years of experience in the industry. She has been at RCTC for 25 years and has been a Post Bulletin columnist for 8 years   This is a 60 minute class plus 30 minutes of Question and Answer Time!    

Wicking beds are a unique and increasingly popular way to grow vegetables. Discover how wicking beds work and why Robin Fruth-Dugstad loves them. She will show you some great examples and leave you with ideas and instructions for creating your own. A Deep Winter Greenhouse (DWG) is a greenhouse designed to limit the amount of fossil fuel it takes to grow crops during cold winters. DWGs are passive-solar greenhouses that rely on energy from the sun to heat the building instead of more traditional heating sources.

Register for Alternative Gardening Ideas - Online Course at the Rochester Community Education web site!

https://rochester.ce.eleyo.com/.../alternative-gardening...

God rest you merry gardeners.....

 Thanks for sharing, Jan!

Gardening for the Health of it 2022!

 I have been involved in a joint project with area gardening organizations in the recent years, which has been such fun and so rewarding.   Due to Covid we've not been able to have our in person one day event each year.

However, for 2022 we are taking advantage of the popular digital seminars that have been appearing on the internet!  I've sure enjoyed participating in some of them this last year!

Realizing because they are digital and on the internet they are available to everyone regardless of their location so I am being sure you are aware of this awesome opportunity for you!

We use our local Community Education Program to help us make this happen, so registration is easy thru them, and how to do this is included in the below information.   To get the details of each seminar you can check the registration site and view the details on the presenter and contents of the seminar!  But I will also be reminding you of those details as we travel thru Feb. and March in plenty of time to remind you of this opportunity!

For more details or to register click here:

Gardening season on my mind each day now!

 My new view on the kitchen table for each day this winter.  To remind me of my faith in tomorrow, which is spring will come once again....   There should be enough daylight from the window to help keep it growing and healthy.  Dining with an adorable fairy and racoon, will bring smiles to our faces!

I rescued a few plants from an open terrarium I've had for 2021 and purchased a few new tiny plants to create this new scenery for my kitchen table.  Did not take long but got my fingers dirty and it felt good!

Good Morning 2022!

What a wonderful way to wake up on the first morning of 2022!

The fragrance of warm cinnamon rolls just out of the oven helps us deal with the thought of those outdoor temps of below zero wind chill!

Happy New Year to you all!  May you be able to appreciate and enjoy your loved ones each day!