My solarium has a dozen big ceramic flowerpots that come indoors for the winter. Right now, pink thunbergia, a vine in one of the flower pots, is climbing the walls and flowering. Outdoors, snow covers the ground. Indoors, my solarium is super-heated with March sun; it’s a greenhouse in there. When i feel like climbingRead more about Climbing the Walls[…]
This day had a difficult birth. Rain pelting. Wind blowing. Now that the sun has risen behind gray clouds, the rain has calmed, although tree branches still dance in the wind. Blue sky peeps through fast-moving clouds. All is in flux. This breath. This movement of the eyes. These hands. Nothing is fixed.
I’m taking cuttings of my houseplants–begonias, geraniums, purple-leaved wandering jew–to root in jars of water. Leggy begonias and leggy geraniums don’t root that easily. But roots sprout very easily from a place on the stem where a new offshoot of growth is just beginning. The Buddha gave us several lists of skillful qualities, and it’sRead more about Rooting Cuttings[…]
Today is Groundhog Day, Candlemas Day in the Catholic calendar, and Imbolc or Saint Brigid’s Day in the Celtic calendar. Today is the day that my first hyacinth began to bloom. A sure sign of the coming season. Change happens all the time. We mark the passages of time with celebrations such as Saint Brigid’sRead more about First Hyacinth Bloom[…]
Cyclamens like it cool. A warm room, a sunny windowsill leads to a leggy cyclamen with no flowers. Keep it at 50 degrees and the compact cyclamen will bloom fabulously. It’s counter-intuitive that warmth would lead to legginess and no blooms at all, and that chilly leads to continued blooming. It’s almost as though tooRead more about Cool Cyclamens Bloom[…]
The begonias i brought indoors last fall are leggy. It’s time to take cuttings. Giving the begonias–or any plant–a haircut makes them bushier, with more flowers. Plus i have the added benefit of rooted cuttings that multiply the number of begonias i can set out as bedding plants in May. At the same time thatRead more about Leggy Begonias[…]
At 10 degrees F. our fish pond is frozen. The circulating pump is on, but is there a hole in the ice to aerate the water for the goldfish? I trudge through the snow to the pond, ax in hand. It’s a delicate operation to chop through the ice and not chop the pump orRead more about Chop Water, Carry Wood[…]
The rhododendron leaves are shivering. Each dark green leaf huddled into itself for protection against winter’s cold. Rhododendron leaves droop to vertical and curl into into cylinders, a sort of leaf icicle, as the temperature drops below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The shrub is stressed, but it has developed this tolerance in order to survive theRead more about Shivering Rhododendrons[…]
I open up a box of tea and read the lid: Kiss the Ground. How would it feel to kiss the ground? Why would you do that? Why would you want to kiss the ground? Afghan refugee families are arriving in our town today. If you had no place to turn, if your life wasRead more about Kiss the Ground[…]