[CH] Darkest Days
Alex Silbajoris (72163.1353@compuserve.com)
Fri, 8 Jan 1999 09:03:09 -0500
Kids,
Since a few of us are discussing our indoor plants, I thought I'd give you
a bottom-of-winter report on mine.
I trimmed the plants yesterday, taking off some dead and trimming down some
green. I pulled two good orange habs and three jamaican hots, and to my
surprise there are a few blossoms on the jamaicans.
Habs seldom grow well for me, but these look like they may be in good
condition when the plants go back out in the spring. From what I've read
on the list, they should bear much more fruit in their second year.
I wish I could apologize to the plants for this dark season. I cringe at
the cold air blowing past the pots - these are by my glass patio door, and
in the recent cold weather (-2F) the aluminum door frame has a layer of ice
on it. Yesterday I piled patio snow against the bottom of the door in an
attempt to at least improve the insulation on part of the frame. It does
seem to make a slight difference.
No whiteflies this year, and no sign yet of spider mites. I cleaned out
the fallen leaves and dead weeds - speaking of clover with the plants, it
makes a low ground cover in a lot of these pots. I may fertilize gently in
a week or two, and as the daylight slowly increases I'll watch for some new
growth. Once that starts, I'll trim the old tops back farther.
Since some of these plants are geting to be a few years old, their stems
are getting gnarly like bonsai plantings.
Alex Silbajoris 72163.1353@compuserve.com
winter storm warnings ... time to bake something