#Next time the BoP (hopefully) flowers I need to make sure I'm more consistent in my photo placements

[dru-reblogs-stuff]

Updates from the Balcony

I've been a bit bad at updating this over the winter period, partly because there was not much to see and partly I was away in Denmark over Xmas, then had some health issues which drained me of life 😅️ I'm half-plant myself I think; definitely takes some prolonged sunshine to get me alive again. Anyway. Plants.

So the big thing that happen in late Nov, early Dec is that my Bird of Paradise flowered! She's somewhere around 17 years old -- I thought she'd matured around 10, so I had practically given up on her ever flowering, but she did and I was so happy 😊️

And and and! I think there might be another one coming? I noticed this today:

Or it may just be another leaf, we'll see. My main issue is when I bought this beastie, I did not know they were supposed to grow outside and turn into a monster bush. So she really needs a bigger pot, but I have neither the space nor muscles to transfer her. It was hard enough last time, and she was much smaller then. But I figure if she's flowering, she's happy enough?

The other indoors critters:

The dendrobium is slowly growing, it has little roots reaching out of the bark now. The spiky thing has some new leaves and the cactus is a cactus. The amaryllis has once again not flowered and just put out those big-ass leaves, but I think I know what's wrong now - I'm not feeding it enough during it's growing spurt and it's pot is too small. I looked at my Mum's which are flowering beautifully and they're all in ones twice the size. But like, I only have so much desk space 😮‍💨️

I tidied up the Aloe because there was lots of dead underbrush and a couple of leaves that weren't very healthy. I lifted it up and, shit that thing has grown a lot while I wasn't paying attention to it. But it's super leggy so IDK quite what it needs now 😅️

And now the Balcony:

Left is what the spring box was doing back at the start of Feb, and right is what it's doing now. I'm told that eventually the leaves will die back and then I can just plant some summer plugs on top of the bulbs. So that's just a waiting game IG? Also it's funny - I bought a mixed bag of crocuses, they were supposed to be all different colours, but nearly all of them were yellow 😅️ I'm a bit disappointed that only one snowdrop flowered, but Mum said they sometimes need some time to get established, so next year should be better.

The flowers are looking at bit scraggy because the cyclamen has ended and the dianthus and sea thrift haven't flowered yet. But they're getting there! There's two buds on the thrift and I spotted one on the dianthus.

Strawberries! Back in October(?) I was bitching to my Uncle about the £1 strawb plant I bought from Wiko and the fact that it really hadn't done very well or given nice fruit, so he said he'd give me some of his. They went to my Mum over winter, and I had every intention of potting them out myself but the day I meant to do it, I was distracted by my nephew so I left it with Mum and she did garden magic. The two £1 Wilko strawbs are in there, but she said they might not do anything. I'm not too upset - I got joy from them with their flowers and they were only £1. But I am looking forward to having nice strawbs to eat.

And finally the blueberry bush. It is also a bit leggy... I was supposed to prune it this year before it started budding and I. Did not. But I'm sure it'll be fine. Mum gave me some ericaceous food pellets (that look exactly like raspberry Millions so, that was interesting) for Xmas and today I mixed them into the soil (of which I need some more TBH), so hopefully that will help it keep fruiting well this year. And then I must prune the damned thing after the season is over because, again, there is only so much space 😅️

Oh, one final final bit of news -- I might be adopting some Jasmine from my Mum's neighbour (neighbour does not know this - Mum's going to propagate it from where it keeps sneaking over her fence). So we'll see what happens about that 😊️ And I'm sure by the time summer's over I'll have ended up with another tomato plant and other things. Gardeners do like to share the bounty 😅️ 🧡️