Flowers!

Keeping plants alive is not my strong suit. Over the years, I’ve killed more houseplants than I’d like to admit. However, I do seem to be moving past my plant murderer tendencies.

Shortly after we bought this house, I purchased an orchid. Six years later, that orchid is still alive, and it flowers twice a year. All I do is water it a couple times a month, and somehow it’s thrived despite my neglect. I have noticed that the stems aren’t as tall and the leaves aren’t as big lately, so I’m going to try giving it some orchid food on a regular basis to see if that bolsters it a bit. Fingers crossed that I don’t mess it up entirely.

Another plant I’ve managed to keep alive is this amaryllis that I received for Christmas three years ago. I followed the directions and planted it, but it never flowered. It grew spectacularly long leaves, but no flowers. It went dormant and I thought about throwing it away, but left it on the windowsill instead. Months later it woke up and grew another set of spectacularly long leaves, but again no flowers. After another dormant period, it put forth greenery, but this time there was a stalk. In fact, there were two stalks! The flowers have all died now, but the leaves are still growing.  I’m not sure why it took so long to flower, but it was nice to finally see them. Guess I won’t give up on this one just yet :)

the tall stalk is the older flower, and the new stalk is just starting out

The last flowers are a work in progress. Back in February I bought a vase full of tulips from Costco. These tulips came with their bulbs attached, with the premise that they would last longer than cut flowers. They did last quite a while before finally dying. They included instructions for storing in the freezer and planting in the fall. I planted some anemone bulbs this past fall and they’ve flowered quite nicely, so I have hopes that the tulips will similarly thrive.