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GA: I love Saarinen ... I have a Pinterest board with a collection of mid-century modern pieces, but I particularly like the Saarinen tulip table and the Eames chair with the footstool. Funnily enough, my first husband and I rented an apartment in Manhattan, Kansas, and it was furnished with an Eames chair. I didn't recognize it then bc I only became interest in moderne in the '70s (this was the '60s, and I think it was the real deal). The rest of the furniture was ghastly, so I thought it rather odd that there would be this really nice leather chair in amongst the ugly.

My ex recently came to see me and I asked him abt it, and he said he thought not, but I think it was original. If only ... I can barely afford the Pinterest board now! (I need a new laptop.)
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I wouldn't worry GA, it seems that after every thaw we hear people talking about their poor plants breaking dormancy, but I figure the plants a few degrees south must get freeze/thaw cycles all the time. As long as we remember to plant for our zone we always see them blooming come Spring without any worries :)
(And if winter continues with this pattern I wouldn't mind one bit!)
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My poor confused plants....After frigid, Arctic weather, we've had a welcome break of mild weather with temps soaring into the 40's. I noticed after my walk today that my roses have new leaf buds. The lunaria (money plants) are sprouting.

Another Arctic front will be approaching tomorrow. My poor little rose leaves and lunaria leaves will probably be frozen by tomorrow night.

Years ago I used to wrap burlap around the roses, or use rose cones, but gradually got lazier and lazier and didn't protect them after I lost all the David Austin roses. Now I need to design something to save the climbers from a similar fate.
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CW, the milk is so diluted there is no odor. Before I use it, I fill the jug to dilute the initial application, and keep filling the jug until it's clear of any milk residue. With all this water, the milk water tends to soak down into the ground quickly.

I was concerned about that when I started using the milk water, so that's why I use so much clear water to dilute it. So far, I've never smelled anything beyond the first application. So by the time it could begin to smell, it's absorbed into the ground and highly diluted.
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Cwillie, I have 2 Christmas cactus plant and I cant get them to bloom either. They get morning light. Maybe I will try moving them out of the window. My orchid has big plump buds and will bloom soon plus it is growing out another bloom stem.
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Thanks Sharyn, most of my houseplants do vacation outside for the summer. My more modern (15 yr old?) cactus bloomed like crazy soon after I brought it in, but my big old fashioned one is more fickle. It has always been more of an easter bloomer, so I am hopeful I will see buds forming in a few more weeks.

GA, I've read about milk for plants, doesn't that get stinky??
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I read the best wat to get a Christmas cactus to bloom regularly is to put it outside during summer and by bringing it indoors when weather cools in autumn it will bloom. Worth a try.
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Mina, I saw that program on Saarinen in the PBS lineup and it didn't even register with me, or raise the connection with Cranbrook. I just skimmed right on by, looking for other PBS programs. Thanks for the reminder!
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GA.....A bit off topic but thought you, as a lover of Cranbrook, might be interested in knowing that Detroit PBS is running an hour long program on Eero Saarinen.....just discovered it tonight (after it had started). Apparently, it will run several more times between now and New Year's.....quite interesting.
Happy New Year!
mina
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Send, thanks for addressing that earlier post. I completely missed it, so, CW, I apologist for not even responding to your query.

Two suggestion: break it up into smaller plants and repot them, and, milk water. If you drink milk, save perhaps the last 1/4" or so of the jug, fill with water that's comfortable to the touch, and water the plant with it.

I've used milk water on morning glories and roses - they both love it and bloom prolifically.

Although I've never grown a Christmas cactus, I guess the trick in getting it to bloom would be to simulate the standard blooming conditions, which I assume would be additional light and perhaps heat. Sometimes moving plants into different areas with different levels of light can do the trick.

Years ago I found that I could easily start seedlings by setting them on bookcases near the lamps. At work, they thrived under fluorescent lights.
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Cwillie,
Sometimes messing with a plant can help it. Move around some dirt, trim a branch ot two, stick a thin piece of metal/wood down into the rootball then remove it. Feed it some vitamins, replant it in a larger pot-it could have become rootbound. Then, talk to it, Lol.

But then I don't own a Christmas cactus. I am so bad at winter gardening that when I took my tiny 8" Christmas tree outside for some sun, I forgot it overnight- the temperatures dropping to 37° F. Bringing it back in, it is still growing, looks happy.

Maybe someone else will have some suggestions.
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We are starting to settle in the 60's during the day and and high 30's at night. It is a little chilly but makes sleeping more cozy.
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Our first freeze due tomorrow night so Inness to bring in a few pots of tender perennials. There are a few vegetables to pick and some seeds to gather.
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Glad your irises are doing well Sharyn. Anything with bulbs will increase every year especially if you divide them up and give them more room. i have really good luck with daffodils because they are the only thing the deer leave alone.
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I have more irises growing from the bulbs I planted last year, who would have thought!!
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I've been reading up on how to get my Christmas cactus to bloom, it is a very old plant and as big around as a bushel basket. Since moving to this house I haven't had more than a few blooms on it, although a much smaller "modern" variety is blooming like crazy right now. How to force dormancy on a plant when there are no really cool rooms? I've carried it downstairs to the laundry room and placed it on top of the deep freeze to benefit from the cooler lid temps, but that will be a real p*i*t*a*. Any thoughts?
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Ah, the fickle finger of fate strikes again.
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GA, in Idaho the soil is so rocky one much use a pick to dig out rocks to plant things. It is crazy.
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My grandmother used to say that illicit cuttings always grow better, I've got some lovely cactus and succulents from the people I use to clean for :)
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Cuttings. I am just back from a sobering survey of how this autumn's batch are doing, and here is a small mystery.

My sole surviving rosemary out of about fifteen - painstakingly selected, trimmed and inserted as described in the book in good quality free-draining compost enriched with sharp sand - is hanging on by the skin of its little green teeth. The others will be joining the compost later this morning. I fail again.

In the next pot are three of an unidentified climber. Back in August or September, a friend came to visit and she and I went for an amble round the town. I paused to admire a plant rampaging through a privet hedge, very pretty flowers on small arrow-shaped leaves. J glanced right and left to check there were no witnesses, yanked off three sprigs, said "there you go, pot them up" and handed them to me. Well for one thing I couldn't approve - theft of cuttings! - and for another I was deeply sceptical; but in spite of misgivings I put them in a poop-scoop bag, brought them home and shoved them in a pot.

They're doing great. What is the secret? What is the magic twist of the fingers that she's got and I haven't? This is so unfair!
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GA I'd forgotten about the slug pub! You used to be able to get them specially designed with a supposedly unclimbable lip on them. I just wonder if the reason they fell out of fashion was that slug colonies got wise to them and gardeners realised they were subsiding alcoholic slugs with new improved appetites.

A @&!** wasp flew into my glass of red wine a few weeks ago and ruined it for me - I was livid, thought "let the little sod drown then" and sat back to wait for that to happen before going to fetch myself a replacement. Ten minutes later it was still buzzing, I was bored and thirsty, so I sloshed out wasp and wine together: the angle it flew off at, and the thought of "Wasp With Hangover" scenes back at the nest, made it almost worth the wait if not the waste of a perfectly good glass of Rioja.
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CW, the $2 packet has - what, 250? 400? upwards of that? - lettuce seeds in it, and you only need a pinch per half tray: so your two dollars will keep you in arty sprinkly leafy garnishes all winter long.

As long as you're organised about it, of course. Cough cough. Fortunately we have a good greengrocer at the market round the corner...
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Ali, try growing alfalfa sprouts in your kitchen. Very easy and very tasty...no dirt or planting required. Google regrowing...you'll find directions for regrowing green onions. Kind of fun to have a little growing in the winter.
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Send, those moves might be even sooner given the protests now taking place in several cities.
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Can't believe that I was out in shirtsleeves spraying weeds on the 9th of November! I have irises blooming, a clematis that I cut back in August because it was finished has now climbed all the way up the trellis and is blooming more than it did this summer. Picked 21green peppers from my 8 plants today and have im patients blooming right next to the mums. My azalea has rebloomed and my morning glories are going crazy. I have never had a year like this!
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Havent heard of it ...microgreens.
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Microgreens is a trend I hadn't heard of until today, so I've been doing some reading. With seeds starting at $2 a packet and yields infinitely small, I have to say I don't get the point?
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Send, I suspect a lot of people are talking about moving to Canada after the events of yesterday.
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CM, I had forgotten but just remembered that drowning snails in beer is another way to dispatch them, and perhaps they even leave this earth in a happier state of mind.


Stacey, I LOVE dahlias, especially the massive dinner plate ones. And they're available in such stunning colors, beautiful intense solid colors or more softly blended pastel ones.

That must have been such a nice discovery, to find a dahlia lover in your area.


Ali, I like your Thanksgiving avatar - so reminiscent of the fall season with its dynamic colors.

What we compulsive and addicted gardeners do is begin planning our next year's garden as soon as we've harvested, mulched and brought everything inside for the winter.

When the snow covers the ground, it's especially heartwarming and enjoyable to get garden catalogues and start the daydreaming and bed layout process.

I grew miniature roses and eventually lost every single one, but I later lost some of my beloved David Austin roses. Eventually I realized that it was because the rose bed garden is on the south side of the house with open exposure from prevailing west winds. And, shame on me, I had forgotten to corral them in burlap to protect them from the winds.

You can also set up a schedule to document first frost, first killing frost, and last frost dates, especially now that climate change is affecting them. We now have one whole extra month at the end of the season; I plan to grow melons which sometimes don't completely ripen otherwise in a shorter growing season.


Sharyn, I plan to take cuttings of all my plant when I move. So definitely take those irises!


CM, I was just reading an article on growing microgreens and how nutritious they are. It was either in Country Garden or Fine Gardening. I haven't grown sprouts in years so that's something I should begin doing this winter as well.
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I am watering my camellia, it should bloom soon.
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