clivia

The tagline of my blog is "Hardy plants for hardy souls," because you have to be a hardy soul to endure the fits and starts of winter ending and spring arriving. Cold climate gardeners are resilient in the face of adversity and prepared for setbacks before winter is gone for good. Here's how I'm coping. How about you?

A January thaw I expect. A thaw in February--however pleasant--makes me nervous. Last year we had a mild February--and three feet of snow in March. But whether or not I approve, it appears we are having a thaw. In February.

My efforts to develop a cabin fever bed are starting to bear fruit. The winter aconites have come and gone, but I have plenty else starting to bloom. I purchased Bulbocodium vernum from Odyssey Bulbs last year. It is colored like a colchicum and used to be called a colchicum, but is now a separate [...]

Repotting a houseplant reputed to be slow-growing and expensive is almost as daunting as dividing a perennial for the first time. You are just sure you are going to kill it, so it helps to have someone more experienced to coach you through the process. Many thanks to L. T. Tran of Idlewild Farm, Andrew [...]

My mom asked me to repot her clivia for her. Clivia miniata is a slow-growing and slow-to-bloom houseplant in cold climates, blooming in late winter and highly tolerant of neglect. I don't own one myself (though I hope, in time, to inherit an offset of hers), so I made some attempt to familiarize myself with [...]