Thursday, March 11, 2010

Dish-eveled Dish


So, this is a four year old dish garden from the national AV convention in 2006. It's almost all original materials except for the tallest element in the back of the garden. It's so tall that it makes the dish out of balance.

It seems like a good time to see what's going on with the plantings and refresh it for spring!


Ahhhh, when I pull the back edge out of the pot it has a massive amount of roots and everything is quite tightly packed together. I want to take the Aralia out of the pot because it's grown too tall and doesn't have enough lower branches to fit into the "landscape" without looking lanky and out of place.



See the larger white roots by my thumb? I have to extract the tall Aralia's roots from the rest of the soil ball. Note the whole thing came out of the pot like it was a sponge not loose soil. Maybe a tad overgrown? I have to insert a "Lemon Cyprus" in a very small space. It's hard to get a fresh plant's roots tucked into this mess.




As you can see, the final dish is still quite full but it's cleaned up and good looking again. The "spider" plant came out because it was too large, and the fern got cut back more than it might appear. The new tall element in the back (a Lemon Cyprus) is nice and fluffy (and considering how the roots were disturbed, let's hope it continues to stay nice and fluffy) and a couple of bird-embellishments for some fun and we're set! It could also have a bit of Easter decoration inserted and it could easily be seasonal decoration in any room.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

It's A-LIVE!!!! (sinister laugh in background)

The voodoo is growing many inches a day! This thing is so much fun I should have more of them potted up.

The bloom portion is starting to reveal itself.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Voodoo is BACK!

Ahhhh, think spring again! What could be more charming and full of the seasonal spirit than a voodoo lily? The bloom is bigger than any you can get at the florist and the fragrance is.... well, quite indescribable! (And that is putting it "mildly".)

We're just a wee stem here....
















Now we are growing up towards the top of the table.

















And here we are starting to see the first signs of the flower opening up a little.



















These two corms broke dormancy in the dark in the basement, but most of the rest are still dormant when they go out into the vegetable garden in May. These two just decided to be fancy and start early!

This is the same corm that grew a bloom stem over six feet in height last year. I do not know why the bloom is going to be smaller in size this year. Comment on how much you would like one of your very own voodoo lilies!