I usually display the tender plants that I overwinter inside the greenhouse on my front porch step, which is concrete and under an overhang with a western exposure. Most years I start bringing plants out of the greenhouse as soon as I'm reasonably sure that we've passed the point of last frost. They are usually well out long before the true start of summer, by the fourth of July.
But not this year. I was a very neglectful plant steward, I didn't even start bringing them out till the beginning of July, and only just finished a few days ago, in early August. Things were complicated by the fact that I had to sift through the dead bodies to find the living, and in most cases, then trim up the living to make them look presentable.
Of course, most of the survivors are the cacti and succulents. They don't mind neglect.
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| My Aloe 'Christmas Carol' is even flowering |
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| That cylindrical Sanseveria had actually started to shrivel a bit, but it seems to have bounced back |
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| The Agave next to it, which I'm pretty sure is Agave bovi-cornuta, is thriving |
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| I noticed for the first time this year that it's variegated -- it has a lighter green stripe down the center |
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| I'm pleased this tiny Aloe polyphylla was one of the survivors |
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| No sign of spiraling yet, but it's just a baby |
It seems appropriate that I have a zombie gnome captured in a birdcage on the table. I brought a lot of zombie plants out of the greenhouse this year. And I often felt a bit like a zombie while I was doing it.
I don't mind that some of them didn't survive. Now I have room for seed-starting, which was one of the reasons for getting a greenhouse in the first place. Acquisitional plant hoarding had started to get in the way.
Who knows? Maybe I'll even find room for a little table and chair this winter. Coffee and seed starting is a nice combination.
