Our beautiful gardens (a break from food farming)

LOL, one year I have planted a lot of tulips and armenicacums bulbs in autumn. I was dreaming of a fantastic garden the following May. Problem: they never flourished at the same time, even between the tulips.

Yes, sadly I think that is photoshopped - it is gorgeous, though! I planted lots of tulips (different varieties with various bloom times) and muscari this fall so I’m hoping I will get at least SOME overlap. If not, at least I’ll have an extended bloom season!

Yes it is obviously photoshopped.
I think you can do it and moved the potted plants together to create this effect… like some fashion shows or special events with landscape designer / gardeners…well, sure this will cost a fortune!

The landscaping in some of the pricier areas of Manhattan (e.g., the median strip down Park Avenue) is done in this way, with potted plants that are replaced as they die. Not that they ever achieve results that look as good as this.

love the spectacular sea of blue
Here is my cobblestone driveway converted to a strawberry field as the cherry blossoms are spent. 10606240_10153296387610737_5573254256486180947_n

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Very beautiful.

Do you have many edible cherries?

We had a dwarf edible cherry tree in my husband’s family garden but the birds eat up all the cherries unless we cover it with a net.
So, we decided to just have these Kwanzan cherry. trees, similar to the new in the there garden .

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Here is a sea of pink in the whirlwind plaza

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Ahhh! I’m having flashbacks of that pink flower! What is it? Starts with Oenth?

ETA

Oenothera Berlandieri?

Mexican evening primrose?

Yes, botanical, it is Oenethera specious also called evening primrose, Mexican primrose etc. However they are quite invasive as you can see, so I have been trying to eradicate them bec often, I cannot see my other bulbs blooming.

Here is another area that is too steep for me to garden, not allowed by law to do anything else bec it is at the critical area , so here I have all these wild orange lilies ( hemerocallis fulva ) that has overtaken these area to the extent that all the other beautiful tetraploid lilies planted in these hill are no longer visible. I had wandered if I could fry the buds like squash blossoms? FullSizeRender

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That is the subject of my flashbacks! I ended up moving and will never plant them again. You live in an amazing setting!

Believe me, my first 2 orchids ended up in paradise pretty quickly, one was a really fabulous one… I stopped thinking about that for several years, until I was offered a white phalaenopsis, I started to read a lot online and it kept flourishing every year gave me some confidence to try other species. The tips, water once a week and the keep the roots out of water the rest of the time to keep them from rotting. Find a bright place next to window. And some fertilisers from time to time. That’s it, now I have 20+ orchids. In late spring, I just toss them in the shady patio for several months, they are happy and keep flowering.

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once upon a long long time ago, I had orchids in m. DR-/greenhouse. I must have at least 20 pots but long story. In short, I have well water and it clogs the pores , so I was advised that when I water them once a week, I had try and flush out the minerals , let the orchid stand on the sink , water it for a few minutes ( 20 orchids takes a while), to flush the minerals out. So, I decided that I could not do it anymore . Rain water is best but my well water is very hard. If you have to be away for more than a week, you can use an ice cube for each plant which will provide hydration slowly.

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In winter, it’s a lot of work to water them, as I like soaking them for an hour and need to empty the pot individually. I collect rain water outdoors to avoid the mineral building up problem as water is very hard here too. But sometimes, when I have none, I just use tap water, they adapt!

I asked neighbours or set up auto hydration system to water in patio, so far works fine, as we can be away for weeks. I strongly advise against ice cubes, it’s a shock to the plants that can lead to death.

My automatic dripping system for my outdoor bonsai stopped working while my husband was having his knee replacement killing all my bonsai. They are in pots but from thanksgiving on, they had to be moved and buried in a sheltered location to be repotted during spring. So, between that and the orchids, weekend outdoor garden, it became too much so I raised bougainvillea . That also came to a halt after I took a position

leaving for work at 5:00AM

( almost 2. hour commute one way in lieu of night and weekend calls), I graduated to silk flowers. Not as pretty or satisfying but will do for now.

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Ah haha, silk flowers…

This is one of the orchid now, last year I forgot this cymbidium under the sun in spring, usually I had it in shades, I left it there under the sun all the summer, when I saw the leaves weren’t burnt, I wasn’t expecting much, until in winter it grew 4 flower stalks. Problem is there is an ant nest into the pot, very annoying with the ants running around in the house.

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lovely
I never grew cymbidiums

Here are our orchids. We currently have 3 blooming now and a couple more that have spiked and will hopefully start blooming in the next month or so. We have about 9 others that haven’t spiked yet. Mrs. P has the green thumb in the family and uses Orchid Myst every so often on them. One side of our home gets a lot of sun (by the deck). That helps a lot.



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Beautiful! Yeah, sun light is very important for reblooming! I don’t have a lot of Phalaenopsis, but they are great, flowers last 3 months!

Some of my recent blooming…

I got this Colmanara at Ikea! It wasn’t in very good shape when I bought it, but since I like the colour, it took me some 2 years to understand its need to rebloom (actually, it took me a while to identify the species, you know how accurate the labels are at Ikea!)

Brassia or spider orchids

Paphiopedilum

Bulbophyllum Jersey - the blooming only lasts a week… hmmm

Cattleya, you see some yellow Epicattleya around.

Phragmipedium Besseae is weird, you need to immerse it in water, all the time.

Vanda back last autumn.

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