I neglected to share photos of the two flowers the giant Christmas cactus in the greenhouse. It was looking pretty sickly when I moved it to the greenhouse in November. It greened up quite a bit and got some buds and opened these gorgeous flowers. They add a brilliant pop of color while we wait for other things to bloom. The timing is three months off, but worth the wait.

My Pleione orchids are struggling because rats have eaten many of the pseudobulbs. However, there will be flowers this year, just many fewer than last year.

Here is the first flower.

I made big progress in the garden this weekend, mostly because of a tool I ordered off of Instagram (after promising myself I would never do that again!). It is a small, cordless chain saw. And it works miracles in the garden. I butchered the monstrous camellia shrub that was taking over the orchard bed in less than ten minutes! Then, today, I tackled the humongous rose at the end of the driveway bed, and that took longer, but I was able to cut it almost to the ground for the first time ever!

I moved a plant shelf and the plants that were on it to the patio to make space for some seed starting in the greenhouse. I cleaned up a bunch of empty pots and made space for planting and for seedling trays. Today, I planted peas, spinach, verberna, cosmos, nasturtium, blanket flower, petunias, peppers, and poppies. The peppers will be germinated in the house on heat/under lights, but the rest will be left in the greenhouse to fend for themselves. I am excited about this new (to me) verbena variety.

There are many more seeds to start. I’m excited to have the process beginning and in time for there to be some seedlings to give away to friends that can benefit from. We are working on our raised veggie bed upgrade this year so I am hoping to have some transplants to add to those beds when they are ready.

Here is an updated clivia photo of the beautiful intergeneric hybrid.