Woo Hooo!! outside there was 7 inches of beautiful, georgous picture making
wet snow. A good SPRING snow. The kind you HAVE to take pictures of even if
you ARE sick. I bundled up. Back inside after I made all my little birds
delirious by opening the buffet by stocking the serving line of 9 tube
feeders with black sunflower seeds (only) and then filling the thistle socks
(6) to the max with fresh thistle seed, I went back to the nook to download
the pictures and stopped as I was passing the strange den we have (you'd
hafta see the house and my eastern nook to understand) when a flash of RED
caught my eye. I almost hit the bookcase stopping. I turned and picked my
way back thru the clutter of a box of my stuff I haven't put back on the
shelves yet and stood near the den door looking at the cacti and Zhan's
Electric Flamingo and right next to it in eye popping RED was TWO BLOOD LILY
BLOSSOMS!!!! WOO HOO!!!! Looking like huge, Christophii allium flowers, all
spikey and neat and as large as cantaloup (well almost, bigger than
grapefruit!) were TWO blossoms. One was totally open and the other one right
next to it was 2/3rds opening. They don't last long but always have bloomed
when I was distracted.

I also have a neat little sedum I have no idea who it is that has rosy bells
dangling from a 12 inch succulent stem in the southern den window sitting on
the drafty marble window sill. And next to it, a piece of purple leaf
shamrock has soft pink tubular flowers. Three stems with about 12 flowers .
In the nook window the Rubra oxalis has some fairy tiny yellow flowers too.
Against the deep burgandy heart shaped leaves on the upright stems making
the plant look like a small tree, it's perfect. Underneath that, is the
Green and Gold oxalis that resembles a minature shrub. It's loaded with
about 30 buds getting ready to burst. they flower on the new growth, then
leaves come out under the bud stems and those are varigated silver and green
but have golden yellow flowers. I guess that's why they named it Green and
Gold. I don't care, it's awesome. It will always be a small but prolific
bloomer and with that foliage, it's a perfect houseplant. I'm sitting it
outside this summer in a protected spot, as it doesn't like too much
moisture. I figure maybe on the back balcony that gets indirect east,
indirect southern and bounced off western. but the deck is north. Just at a
good spot.

There are also three hawortia's that have sent thin, ephemeral shoots above
the stubby, warty plants with little teeny finger like pods about 8 inches
above the main plant. These will be screaming orange with green throats.
Fairy flowers again. You hafta be able to get up into the face to see them
on the ledge or sill. Not one for being hidden. The desert rose is feeling
imminent spring too as it's making new leaves. And I ain't killed the baby
sago palm yet. Yellow needle leaves on two of four sections, and someone
needs to tell me what I'm doing wrong before I kill it. It's in the eastern
window and doesn't get a lot of water. Need to water more??

One more attempt at trying to get those #$%^#$%^ African violet plants to
flower. A little old stick lady (she was as thin as a stick and gnarled up
like a walnut, but dressed to the nines and I ran into her at Home Despot
with two Unusual flowered violets in her hand and remarked that my ruffled
leaf one refuses to rebloom and my varigated leaf one hasn't died in the
year I've had it but it refuses to bloom too. She advised me to put them
both in the South window, water them with Schultz fertilizer for violets
once a week and they should produce buds. We'll see................

madgardener stopping before I keep on writing about
gardening.............................up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler,
overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36