Bwaaah!! The Frostman Kinda Cometh!

It's been unseasonably warm here recently--approaching the 80's, and for the last couple of days humid to boot. But our run of frost-free luck is going to run out....abruptly. I've been busy repotting plants to go inside, and putting plants that I purchased recently for the yard in the ground. I've got just one more hanging basket to re-pot, and several garden plants to put in the ground, but I only have until Wednesday basically. Thursday is, of course, Thanksgiving, and that night it's supposed to get down into the mid-30's, then it hovers between the mid and upper 30's into next week. The weather sites have been see-sawing up and down between warmer and colder forecasts, so while as of now it doesn't look like it will technically "freeze," one never knows, and the "Real Feel" forecasts, taking into account wind, cloud-cover, and humidity has it in the low 30's to upper 20's from Wednesday onward into next week. So I'm scrambling. I'd rather not take chances with my tropical hibiscuses, citrus, and the cacti/succulents that are in shallow dishes.

So, repotting and putting things in the ground is not all---I have to make space for the plants in the house, which has meant, among other things, priming and painting the ceiling beams in the new room. That took me alllllll day on Saturday, and I put in two hooks for ferns, but I need to put in more hooks in the other beams, and use my "stud-finder" to find the extra support stud my contractor placed between the roof joists, so I could hang plants from the ceiling in front of the picture windows. (The way the decorative beams were place due to the two ceiling fans means that they actually fall on either side of the picture window and to one side of the sliding door, so don't take in the most direct sunlight.) The accounting of hanging baskets and placement of hooks must continue apace today, but since it's so nice and humid out, I probably won't bring a lot of the plants in until tomorrow. Which is just as well, since I'll probably also have to make room in the completely junked-out guest bedroom to provide temporary shelter (I still haven't finished working on refinishing the floor and the furniture is all shoved to one side of the room and stacks of stuff everywhere).

I say temporary for two reasons. One is that we are making plans to go to San Antonio this weekend to take in the holiday barge/float parade that goes on in the river that goes through town (don't get me started--I still don't have reservations, and I'm not sure whether we need tickets for seating for the event or whether we'll take the chance that we can just show up as pedestrians and see anything). And since Thursday, I may or may not be having the BIL's family over for dinner, but will be cooking either way, everything basically has to be put away inside or covered in plastic outside by the end of the day Wednesday--not to mention packing for San Antonio. Gulp! But once the Thanksgiving weekend is over, it looks like it might moderate enough to put some things back outside with or without the arrival of.................................

THE GREENHOUSE I ordered online from Wal-mart!
I ordered this baby, which I have dubbed The Big-Ass Greenhouse because it is 10' x10' and 8' high in the middle, last week, and it should arrive at my local store between the 28th and the 4th. ARGH. I wish I had ordered it earlier, but time has been really creeping up on me all unawares this year, with the unseasonably warm weather. My massage therapist freaked me out last Monday by reminding me that Thanksgiving was THIS week, and as of last week I was still expanding garden beds. Early last week I was mulling over rigging up the front porch with plastic like I did last year for the hardy to semi-hardy potted plants, but that was a huge pain in the ass, basically behaving like a giant sail every time we had high winds. To be truly effective and less of a chore to maintain for three months, I'd have to build a substantial frame-work-- PLUS figure out how to attach it to the house without damaging the new siding, or make it stand independently. I thought about that for about 48 hours and then said "SCREW IT!!!" and went online to look for greenhouses. This was was at a significantly marked-down price compared to it's online competition, and for the size I could not beat the under-$200 price. Then I read the stellar reviews, and I was sold. The way I see it--my time and peace of mind, not to mention the survival of my plants and the de-cluttering of my house, is totally worth the price.

But in the meantime, we've just got to get through the next week or so.....

UPDATE: Well, the San Antonio trip was scuttled--just had too much to do and too little time--as well as too little guarantee we'd get good seating. We really need to get the house in some sort of order before the holidays, so we'll work on that this weekend, and perhaps go to SA some other weekend in Dec. (there will be caroling and lights on the river every weekend). We'll see.... Meanwhile, my sanity is somewhat restored now that Turkey day is over.

But the good thing is, I picked up the greenhouse this afternoon and we put it together!!! Got about half my plants in there now, and the rest can wait until tomorrow as they are currently under plastic sheeting. Will post pics----that sucker is freakin' BIGGER than the backyard shed!!!!!


Warm sunny Monday--vent and door open:
Here's my trees, shrubs etc, back row from left: (white pot) pepper, mandarin orange, olive, Mexican lime, bay laurel, strawberry pot of herbs. Front row from left (blue pot) gardenia, strawberries, Queen of the Nile (lily-like), avocadoes, lettuces.

Left: green and red leaf lettuces and spinach, bonsais on the rack, and some larger potted plants.

Stars Align to Produce More Succulents!

Well, Annabelle raved about this cacti and succulent site, Aridlands--now on sidebar, and I went to look at it immediately, but was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of their offerings and a dizzying array of Latin names. I'm new to the whole cactus thing, and although I already had a bit of succulent (wah-wah) mania, until I moved to Tejas it was easy to keep it under control, 'cause I just didn't have enough space to keep them in the house half the year. I've got lots of cacti now--some known, and some unknown (the problem when you purchase from Big Box stores is that they are often not labelled or incorrectly labelled), which I need to get on here for A's perusal at some point, but I just did a whole re-potting thing of the cacti and succulent planters getting ready for the winter move in-house and also took a whole new round of pictures, which will have to be processed. Oy.

Anyhoo, I just got the Dec/Jan issue of Horticulture, and damn if they didn't have a series of fascinating articles and pictorials on Agaves, Aloes, Hoyas, AND rock gardens. It was a perfect storm, I tell you! I fell in love with a picture of the compact Agave Victoriae-Reginae, and decided I HAD TO HAVE IT!!!!! And really, who wouldn't want it? It's supposed to eventually get to 2 ft x 2ft, which is good for my, ahem, slightly congested flower beds, and it should be hardy here (the article said zones 8-10), although if you go here to look at Gardenweb member photos of this plant, there is a totally awesome picture of one in a pot... Feverishly, I skipped to the back of the maggie to see where I could buy this specimen, and lo and behold it said Aridlands!!!
Wooohoooooooo!

So then I looked for something else to round out my purchase (and justify the shipping cost), and on the page with the Queen Vic Agave there was a list of other plants people purchased, and it included a Hoya kerii----hmmm, didn't the magazine have an article on hoyas?? It did, so I perused that and decided I'd have to give this neato plant a try (although I'm sad that Aridlands only had the one variety, perhaps they'll get more eventually). This has succulent, heart-shaped leaves (hence the nickname Sweetheart Hoya), it forms vines, and has really cool blooms that look like this:
They don't need a lot of water or a lot of light = perfect houseplant.