snowy, lonely and tired of having to go into the dragon-cave to access my e-mail and newsgroup

[madgardener]

It's still snowy up here on the ridge, I'm dying of loneliness, (Squire's gone, son took off to town with his girl type friend yesterday) and I'm tired of having to go into the dragon-cave to access my e-mail and wreck gardens. Don't get me wrong. I'm GRATEFUL that I CAN access my newsgroup and read my e-mail thru web browser, and there are some who are e-mailing me at John's address. but I can't send pictures or access some of the sites I take forgranted. I need to rearrange my priorities..........

GARDEN NOTE: The Jewel orchid is starting to slowly show fuzzy pod like flowers all folded at the tip of the stalk. The Korean Crinum is finishing up in the dragon cave under the florescent light Squire rigged up, and I haven't killed his Angel fish yet . They've moved me inside to the cash registers until the season starts back in Outside Lawn and Garden despite that I am still needed in the greenhouse..........oh well, at least I HAVE a job I am going to bundle up tomorrow and gather up the empty pots lying around the grounds. Tally will come afterwards.

I hope everyone is well. madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking a snowy English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

[Janet Baraclough ..]

The message from "madgardener" contains these words:

I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine

Mine's put up three flower bud spikes since the two of us dragged its huge pot indoors the week before Christmas. Before then it had been outside (since May) in an open-fronted south facing porch, so it had a baking in summer, then a long cool period with little watering. A couple of light frosts didn't affect it at all. I know of someone in the SW of England who grows it in the garden all year round, so I'm wondering if clivias are much tougher than we give them credit for. I'm going to try an offset in a sheltered bit of the garden next year and see if it survives (we don't get an awful lot of frost here).

It's mild here atm but we've had such heavy rain in recent weeks and the soil is so saturated,there isn't much I can do in the garden.

Janet (Isle of Arran, Scotland)

[Sue]

"madgardener" wrote i > >

I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine to bloom for me and am about to sequester it into a cooler room for six weeks..........

-- Hey Mad!

Good luck with your Clivia! Are they triggered to bloom by a chill period or is it day length?

I have a huge one now, started from seed ( by moi) 13 years ago. Its in a dark, cold corner of my house, which keeps it from leaping out of its 5 gallon pot. . It is raring to bloom just about the time the first rays of late afternoon sun creep around the NW corner of the house. Last February I had 8 bloom stalks, I have left 2 stalks with seed pods. One of those pods is now turning deep red, which I've heard is a sign of ripening seed.....how cool it would be to start another baby clivia from this mature plant????

Mine did not start to bloom until it was about 5 years from the seedling stage. Now I get at least one, sometimes 2 stalks from each center.

I don't water it much at all ( this summer we were away for about 6 months, returning home once a month for lawn mowing. It got drenched at that time but no other watering. It doesn't get much more than that when I am here, either, until I see the bloom stalks appearing. I have discovered that I have to water more when in bloom to force the stalks above the leaf centers or the flowers will attempt to open before the stalk elongates.

Sue in Maine

[Sue]

LOL Janet, I can only imagine. It is 0° C right now here and tonight the forecast calls for -40° C ( and colder with wind chill) tonight. Sue n Maine

[madgardener]

seed.....how