Oh, The Weather Outside Is Still Frightful

Well, as it says in the title, the weather outside is still frightful and Christmas is well over and done with! It's presently 1C outside, with a windchill of -5C, and I think I've just seen the greenhouse take off! We had winds like this during the Summer and it wan't very nice at all - expecially as quite a lot of exotic plants are leafy, so they just shred when it gets too much. I hate having to go around after a windy night and stand every single pot up - this year I'm hoping to try and use more bigger pots for Brugmansia seedlings and the like, and cut down on the smaller pots, as not only will this stop them blowing around but they shouldn't dry out as fast (even though it's not like we're ever going to suffer a drought in England! Or will I need a slice of humble pie after this Summer?).

Anywho, as there's not really much to talk about outside at present, I thought I'd just show you a couple of photos of houseplants in bloom at the moment. Here we have a Clivia, started blooming a couple of weeks ago;

I bought this about 18 months ago at half price, from the bargain section of a local Garden Centre. It sent up a flowering stem about 6 months after buying it, and since then, it hasn't exactly been given royal treatment - watered as and when I think about it, and the leaves were dusted once a couple of months ago, so I'm very pleased it's decided to flower again for me! If only all plants were that easy! The other plant that has just opened today is an Amaryllis, I'll try and find the name tommorow as the label's in the greenhouse;

We bought this as a bulb a couple of months ago, and it was potted just before Christmas. It currently has two flowering stems which are fighting in the race to flower, but I absolutely love this flower - beautiful colours and so bright for this time of year, an excellent counterdose to the weather outside! I'm hoping to pot up the other three bulbs I mentioned in a previous post that I've saved from last year, and I'm looking forward to seeing if I've been successful in getting them to flower again. In previous years/months, I've also tried orchids (never at full price, mind!) but once the initial flower has gone over, they just seem to die a slow and ungraceful death. I keep meaning to look into the perfect conditions and what I may be doing wrong, and I'm sure I'll get round to it one day!

Still not much to report on the seeds I planted a fortnight ago - 3 Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids' are now up, and 1 of the Karchesky Canna Hybrids emerged today, but I'm hoping for some of the Brugmansias to begin emerging at the beginning of next week. Fingers crossed!