Philadelphia Flower Show II

Little shop of Horrors

Lets do a little shopping.

I never knew there were so many butterflies. They were beautiful and expensive. I'm sure it take a lot of work to collect and preserve them.

Nice idea but do you see the price?

The Color Purple. Look at those shoes made out of flowers.

One of my favorite exhibits. If I had property in the country I would have chickens.

It doesn't even look real but they were there.

He came to see me. He knew I wanted a closer look.

The butterfly exhibit. that's my sister. I would have freaked out. Love to see butterflies in the garden but flying around in a room with me. I acted a fool. Didn't want them on me. The cotton swab has sugar that attracts them.

She was nice to let me take her picture. Isn't the butterfly beautiful!

Beautiful

He dark shades on the outside and blue inside when he opens his wings.

I don't think I've seen the movie All About Eve.

This was beautiful to see in person.

Ratatouille the Movie. This was one of my favorite. I think it's all the color.

Relief

It's late and I had to post that I was able to restore my blog pictures. I'm so excited! I'll talk tomorrow and finish showing more of the flower show. I had trouble with the blog before I was able to finish sharing. I bought 2 rose bushes today from Walmart. Who buys rose bushes from Walmart? I did. Under 5 dollars. I know nothing about rose bushes. If they die I only lost $10.00's. Lets hope they don't die. Have a good night.

Bare Root Plants

Bare root plants I purchased about a month ago and stored in my basement seem to think spring is here and have grown, especially the lilies. I was shocked when I took them out to inspect today to make sure  they were okay. I don't know what to do because of course the ground is snow covered and too cold to plant anything outside. My porch is unheated but I have to do something. I'm thinking of planting them in containers and putting them on my porch in my little greenhouse so this creates sort of a micro climate. 

At night I can keep them even warmer by covering the greenhouse with a blanket. This way they don't die waiting for spring. I don't know when I can do this. Maybe put the green house together tonight and plant the lilies tomorrow. I need to clean my porch and make space for it. Why did I buy them so early. They were in the store and I thought there would be none there in a couple of months which usually happens every year.

What do you do when bare root plants start to grow? The peony are also up. I would hate to loose them. The gladiolas are the only ones dormant still. Black eye Susan roots are growing and healthy. My basement is unheated and should have kept them dormant as are the other bulbs in the basement but they didn't seem to mind the cold. Now I have to worry about the bare root native woodland plants I purchased from the flower show. I have cannas, begonias, elephant ears, and another bare root plant coming from Longfield garden in the spring. They arrive according to your planting zone.

I also bought my favorite since I didn't buy any this fall, hyacints. They were expensive to me though. Five bulbs for $10.50. I think when I'm out on the porch I'll plant them up for this spring instead of forcing them inside the house. I can't wait to smell them. I wanted more in other colors but I can wait till next fall.

I bought these at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Oxalis Triangulous. I've bought one for the last 3 winters. One summer I put it in the planter on my steps. It did beautiful in partial shade and really multiplied. At that time I didn't know that this was a bulb and I could save them to replant as they are not hardy in zone 7. I love the delicate flowers that open and close. I spent $4.00's on it but should have waited. They are usually cheaper at the produce or supermarket where I usually get them but I haven't seen them yet this winter. They do normally come out around Saint Patrick's Day. Maybe I'll be able to get on of the green ones that have white blooms.

I bought 2 packs of seed from D. Landreth Seed Company. These and a pack of foxgloves. The woodland bare root plants also come from Landreth. Most of the money I spent at the flower show was spent at this vendor.

I fell in love with agapanthus when I went to Mount Cuba Center last Summer. Here's a picture of them there. It's recommended to plant them in containers and I will since they aren't winter hardy in Philly.

These came from Home Depot probably over a month ago. That's a peony on the right hand side.

From Landreth. Trillium (wake robins), Virginia bluebells, shooting stars, ballon flowers, agapanthus blue and white, Christmas fern, and double begonia.

These are the lily bulbs. All growing. They have to be planted now.

These were grown by Medowbrook Farm the store of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in Abington a county a short ride from Philly.

That's abutilion savitzii. I've seen it at the flower show grown as trees. I hope this lives so I can attempt to train it to just grow straight up with one central stem. That's a geranium (pelargonium) next to it. I bought 2. I wanted the white varigated ones. I saw some at the show last Saturday but they were sold out this past Saturday. There were plenty of scented geraniums. I'll have to leave them alone because I had an allergic reaction at the flower show from them. They were the only plants I picked up and sniffed. I sniffed the lemon, citranella, and another type. Bad decision. I thought my face and neck would fall off from itching. I asked where the first-aid station was but couldn't find it. Thank God my throat didn't close or I didn't get hives.

 I was okay after a while after but I wanted to wash my hands and face. The bathrooms were so crowded. This was the first time I've ever had a reaction to a plant. If hyacinths and paper whites don't bother me I don't know why I had this reaction to the geraniums. I've also had a citranella scented geranium before, handled it but got no reaction. Maybe it was from one of the other scents. I'm going to keep the geraniums as a house plant. I tried this variety before with no success. It's a new year and I've learned more so maybe this time is the charm.

March Came In Like A lion

There are some benefits working for a school. When the district is closed due to inclement weather I'm off. Twelve days till spring as Philly is a winter wonderland from this past weeks snow storm. I also went back for a second day of the flower show. Today is the last day till next year. I'll show you what I bought in the next post. Still trying to restore the past history on my blog. It would be time consuming to restore thousands of pictures one by one but it may be that or starting another blog. In the couple of years I've been blogging I've come to enjoy my own blog and looking back at the garden. So if no one else views it , it's for me and family and one day I may not be here and it will be memories for my daughter.  She also enjoys looking at it. I'll have to learn to store my blog on other hard drive so it won't ever be lost do to my error or something else happening. I'm excited about the new gardening season. 

My seedlings as  I told you before did not do well at all. It's still time to start some things like petunias. Almost time for zinnia, black eye Susan vine, sunflower, and other seeds. My broccoli seedlings didn't survive. I could plant more but I think I'll wait till they are out in garden centers which should be soon as they are cool season vegetables. I haven't started tomatoes, cucumber, or peppers since I've been having such a hard time with the seeds I sowed. The broccoli seeds I had were several years old and I wonder if this had something to do with it. I still have a good number of geraniums but I just lost one. I was sad to loose such a large one. The licorice plant seedlings died, as well as the 4 good sized vinca, and dahlias. I still have 3 euphorbia but they are just hanging on. I have new dragon wing begonia seedlings, and some coleus from a second sowing. Only 3 coleus seedlings survived for a first sowing. It wasn't a good year but I didn't give the attention needed and I think some unseen virus wiped out the seedlings as I had cutting from Georgia also growing on the seed station some which I think had spider mites. I had to throw out one nice plant because it was going to infect everything in the house. Some salvia are surviving. It would be nice if they survive as this is my first time planting them.

It's almost time to start my canna, and caladium that are in my basement. My ornamental sweet potato vine tubers survived and are nice and firm. One died that I kept outside on my porch but I may get a good number from the potatoes I have. I've never started them before. Wish me success. I hope your seedlings have done well.

I shoveled out the car and the snow plow came and pushed the snow back so I couldn't get out. So I shoveled it out again so it's ready for work.

Shoveled, salted, and snow is still piling back on the sidewalk. It's time to trim off the old grass when the snow melts. It'll soon start to bud back out. My daughter had to shovel the sidewalk later in the evening as the snow continued to fall into the evening.

My plan was to read some magazines and a book on my kindle. What gardening magazines are you reading. Probably seed magazines. I like to look at them to although I don't need to order more seeds.

On the streeet

In the Yard

The snow on the bench got higher and higher. I'm concerned about my arborvitaes. The snow weighed them down and one was bent over and looks damaged. That would be ashamed as this was their first winter. I thought of going into the yard to shake off the snow but didn't want to risk falling down the snow covered steps in the yard.

From the kitchen window.

New Blog?

I made the mistake of deleting my photos from Google. Not knowing that this would also delete them from blogger. I wondered why I had 148,000 views. I guess I didn't read the policy that pictures are shared between the 2. I feel they're my pictures and why do they have to go onto Google. Well from what I've searched on line this has happened to many people who lost their blog pictures after years of blogging. Oh well, I'll work on it and if there is no solution, move over to Word Press. Have a good gardening season. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. I miss blogging and would never go back to try to figure out what was posted where. Thank you to all that visited.