Category: Gardening (Page 2 of 183)

We have milkweed plants at school in a garden patch that is designated as a monarch butterfly sanctuary. The plants are Asclepias curassavica, or tropical milkweed. People grow them a lot around here. I saw them in Maui, too. But I have never seen any monarchs on them.

Until yesterday:

It was a monarch! Yay! I guess they DO like tropical milkweed!

I had choir rehearsal on Thursday night. I stayed through after school, but did go out to eat. One of my regular places is a nearby IHOP. When I come back to school from that IHOP, I pass by a plant that I really like the look of. I tried to get a picture of it, but it came out blurry:

It’s a euphorbia. I have learned since moving here that two big categories of succulents are euphorbia and cactus. Euphorbias are all from the Old World – mostly Africa. Cactus plants are from the New World – the Americas.

I tend to like euphorbias better, because they have shapes I think are more interesting. My Dragon Bones plant is a euphorbia. But cactus plants tend to have prettier flowers, so they have that in their favor.

I love learning about new plants! So fun!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I have some plants in my bedroom window that I like, but I also neglect. They all have kind of bronzy leaves, but with different textures. The philodendron micans is kind of shimmery. The begonia is fuzzy. The jewel orchid is pin-striped. The syngonium and pilea aren’t bronzy, but I like them too.

I need to water them more often, but they are farther away from the sink than any other plants in the house, and I’m lazy. Even so, they’re blooming. How exciting!

Sorry for two plant posts in a row, but I didn’t take any pictures yesterday and had to get something posted for today.

I did a little gardening this weekend. I potted up the Ansellia africana orchid I got last October. I did a pretty good job of not watering it all winter. The internet said it was important for spring blooming that it has a dry winter. It was hard.

But I put it into a bigger pot with fresh bark chips, and I will begin regularly watering it. I hope it blooms. The leaves burned a little in the sun, so I moved it more into the shade.

In other news, Beth is on her way back to Nebraska, but was stuck in Denver last night. She’s hoping for a ride on the Concordia choir tour bus today. They were in Denver for a concert last night. We’ve all been praying her along. God willing, this last leg of the journey will be trouble-free.

Beth has stayed for a few days after the Concordia concert so she can hang out with me. Yay!

Yesterday, I had a Brad’s Day of Fun with her. We went to the diner for breakfast, and then the farmers market for some fruit, and then the mall, and then the garden center.

There were many delicious-smelling flowers at the garden center. The roses were beautiful and in full bloom:

But the best smell for me is citrus flowers. When I was a kid, I had a book that talked about superstitions of the middle ages. One of them was a race of people who had only one leg, and fed themselves by smelling flowers. The smell of citrus almost convinces me that that could be true. I feel so good after smelling those flowers, I think I could go without eating.

Beth heads back today, amid winds and snows at her destination airports. Please pray for safe and non-terrifying journeys.