The Krewe

So as a perpetual apartment/rental dweller, and a wannabe green thumb, I've come to love my little cadre of potted plants, and my annual trip to the garden store to supplement them. I love gardening, but not so much that I bite off more than I can chew (hence the small gathering here). I'm realistic about what I can handle on my own, and then get the rest of my fix hanging out at the Arboretum.

Here is the 2010 Krewe of Potted Plants:



From left to right, starting with the back row..

-Oh my gosh, YES, that's my hydrangea! It's a beast! I'm so beyond pleased. Especially considering a few months ago I wasn't sure if it was dead or not.

It's now two years old - like many of these pictured, I brought it up from Austin. Someday I have dreams to plant it in the ground, but for now, its home is its pot. I plan to give it a good trim this next winter to keep it from getting too big. It has grown more this spring than it has in all the time I've had it. And the most blooms ever! Oh my gosh, so exciting.

-Next door to the hydrangea, my rosemary. Along with the hydrangea, the only plant that stayed out all winter (except for those 2 or 3 days when the temperature range was 13 to 18 degrees). I brought it up from Austin and am just letting it do its thing. It smells good but I don't use the herb often enough I think. I need to work on that.

-Another Austin hanger-oner, my old kalanchoe. Like rosemary, I feel like kalanchoes are sorta impossible to kill. I've seen some seriously neglected ones around school that people have gotten as gifts, and myself or Rose, the 80-year-old receptionist, will tend to them for a week or so and they're thriving once again. I need to trim mine down and get it into a new pot. When it blooms, it's orangey-yellow.

-Front row left, another one from my Austin patio. I moved into that apartment and found this heart-leaf philodendron (aka 'the ivy') in the world's tiniest pot, root-bound something awful. I'm never one to toss a plant that is still showing signs of life so I put it in a new pot and let it be. And like any ivy, it sprung to life. When it got cold enough this past December, I brought it upstairs and found I had to pull its tendrils out of the earth when I picked it up. They'd traveled to the edge of the patio and started digging down. This one's a fighter.

-I didn't get a petunia last year and I sorta regretted it. They're so easy to care for and bright and cheery. A nice little burst of color. I love the stripes on this one!

-I picked up the two basil plants on the right from Redenta's recently. I usually only have one basil and it's never enough to make a good-sized batch of pesto at any point during the summer. Also I eat basil on/with/mixed into just about everything during the summer months. So I'm sure I'll put them to good use.

So that's the Krewe! And here's the Krewe from two years ago in Austin (minus the hydrangea). The rosemary and kalanchoe are there. I miss that balcony. I'm looking for a new place and have high hopes for a better outdoor space setup than I have now. Currently, when I'm in my apartment, I can't even see my plants. Which is sad.



CJ loves warm weather. Just waits on it so patiently. And then the windows are open and.. hooray! Soak it up, honey. Soon we'll be in A/C hibernation. (Who am I kidding, we're already there.)