creative jewish mom

Oribe Gorge Succulent In Bloom Once Again!

One of my favorite plants, and one of the many succulents that you'll find growing in my container garden is now in bloom! And it is quite exciting for me as the two pots containing this succulent native to South Africa's Oribe Gorge did not bloom at all last year. I was thinking that possibly I babied them too much by bringing them indoors for part of the winter, or that they preferred the hotter location that they once occupied. In any case, I now know that they have acclimated to their newish spot on the little Romeo and Juliet style balcony in my kitchen, and for some reason decided to bloom much earlier than usual, so go figure!

Hydrangea Cuttings Will Bloom When Grown In Water!

While I do realize that this photograph is a bit vague, I took it quickly to share with you the amazing discovery that hydrangea cuttings grown in water produce flowers. Amazing, right? This cutting is actually a pillar geranium so it has a not only a very long stem, but its flowers form on long stems as well, which is truly lovely. So, if you travel a lot or tind that watering plants just doesn't suit you, consider growing some plants in water, and add geraniums to that list.

What other plants can one grow in water?

Kitchen Scraps Gardening: Grow Your Own Beet Greens

Aren't these beet greens just gorgeous? I grew them myself, on my kitchen table, from scraps that would ordinarily be tossed....gotta love it! You can grow your own beet greens to make a lovely Spring centerpiece, or to actually eat, when they get a bit bigger that is. Either way, kitchen scrap gardening is so much fun and certainly a great activity to do with the kids.

Enjoy some beets, I recommend oven roasted for the best taste, and save the tops for this project that will have you smiling from ear to ear.......and this sure beats moving to someplace with an actual garden to satisfy that desire to grow your own food, right?

Accidental Daisies Add A Stunning Touch To A Sleeping Container Garden

Isn't this pot full of pink daisies just lovely? I can't take credit for it as it truly happened all by itself, and I'm still in shock that a container this gorgeous is actaully part of my container garden.It is true, I had dreamed of daisies filling the empty space beneath my lemon tree, and one year I did buy some tiny daisy plants, but they succumbed to the summer heat and not enough care. Fast forward, I guess a few seeds got lots of energy and decided to make their mark on the world, and in the middle of winter started to grow, like really grow! And now here we are at the beginning of march with beautiful daisies that have actually been blooming like this for a few weeks.

Lesson to be learned? Sometimes when you let nature take over the results are better than anything you could ever have dreamed of!

Hardenbergia Vine In Bloom

One of the things I love to celebrate here on creative jewish mom is the change of seasons and all the wonderful that happen in nature and in my container garden, each and every year! This week I have already shared with you the yearly blooming of the almond trees, and I just ran outside wity my 50mm lens in order to share with you the yearly blooming of my hardenbergia vines, so very very lovely indeed!

i'll admit this plant has been looking very scraggly, and is in dire need of some food and attention as well, which is possibly why it has bloomed very nicely this year, meaning many more flowers than last year, interesingly enough!

When well tended to this is a gorgeous green vine all year that bloom with delicate purple flowers in the heart of winter when all the other bloomers are fast asleep. So if you live in a zone that can tolerate this vine, go for it!

Brighten Up Winter With Kalanchoe In Bloom!

Ahhhhh, gorgeous kalanchoe in pink, red and coral are just the thing to brighten up winter right about now! Thanks to Ikea, where these little pots were just 9 shekels each (plants are expensive here in Israel, very annoying since they are grown here and Israel is a world expert is such things) so I couldn't resist. Outside on our blue tile Moroccan table (more about that another day) they look just as cheerful as can be, and at some point I will have to actually plant them in a larger pot, but for now I have them sitting in a bonsai pot, and the plants are full enough to hide the white plastic nursery pots.

The wonderful thing about kalanchoe is that for those of you with freezing tempertures, it can be grown indoors as a houseplant. For me, I just watch the temps and will bring them indoors if the temperatures dip to freezing.The other wonderful thing about Kalanchoe is that it is one of those plants, like geraniums, whose cuttings can be easily rooted. So once your plant gets leggy, which it will, trim it and use the cuttings to make more plants!

A Fabulous Succulent Globe In Montreal At The BioSphere

Despite great hopes for continuing my crafting spree this week, that just isn't possible on account of a bunch of graphic design and brand development work that floated by and got stuck in my radar, so this week I'm going to continue sharing with you more photos from our adventures this past August in Canada and New York State. And since my mother especially appreciates these posts, hi mom, enjoy!

Hands down, one of my favorite spots in Montreal is the Biosphere designed by Buckminster Fuller for the 1967 World's Fair, and while I did share a few photos with you, I saved these photos of this fantastic succulent globe sculpture for a post dedicated just to that, as it really is inspiring and especially for all my fellow succulent hoarders out there! So feast your eyes and dream of making your own succulent sculptures or wall art!

Lantana In Bloom Is Stunning And Drought Tolerant

I have a soft spot for Lantana, the plant which is characterized by balls of colorful flowers that are made up of clusters of the sweetest little flowers you've ever seen. And so earlier this week when I was out and about with my camera one morning, I just had to capture a few shots of these beauties........ to share with you and to remind myself to plant a bunch in a garden that I've designed and landscaped, as well as in my own container garden. The wonderful thing about lantana is that it comes in intense reds and oranges, as well as in a color combo of light pinks and peaches altogether on one bush, which is quite sweet, and that it can be a small trailing plant, a low bush, or even something that grows more like a vine, supporting itself on other plants and reaching as high as 7 feet or so! Take a look at my photos, and get inspired to make lantana a part of your life!

Geranium Odorata Is Proof That Not All Geraniums Are Created Equal!

One of my all new favorite flowering plants this year is the geranium odorata, a truly lovely little perennial (in my zone) that also apparently has a slight fragrance! This particular plant, which here in Israel is called a "french geranium" has a slight orange fragrance. And I just realized that there is another geranium seen frequently around my neck of the woods whose leaves have a lemon fragrance, but the blooms while similar to these are quite small.These blooms, as you can see are quite lovely and unique, with a slight nod to the pansy!

I'll admit, once up a time I was a bit of a flower snob, and didn't quite favor geraniums, but now I say the more the merrier, and if one has access to many different kinds of geraniums, well then certainly there is no reason not to give them a try. For those of you who live in snowy regions of the world, geraniums can be easily over-wintered, and at the very least cuttings are taken from plants at the end of the season, rooted and re-planted after the last frost. For the rest of us, well, once you buy one geranium you just continue to make more plants from cuttings, assuming you take care of that first purchase and it thrives.

Marigolds Are Annuals That Re-Seed Themselves, Perfect For The Busy Gardener!

Marigold seedlings, Angela Altomare,  and tiny blooming marigolds, from plants planted in summer 2016!

I love the color orange, and so of course that means that I also love orange marigolds.......not the big puffy balls so much, but rather those that tend to be smaller, as you can see in my photo here. As I recall, last year I planted a few tiny marigold plants here and there in my container garden, and now, a year or so later after a cold winter, there are tiny marigold seedlings coming up everywhere, many of whom have already flowered, or are even producing miniature marigolds. So exciting!

Now granted, these little seedlings are turning up in containers that hold other plants as well, and thus the soil was not turned over or even refreshed as far as I can recall......and that means that this is the perfect trick for the busy gardener.......just don't confuse your little seedlings with weeds, then again if you are truly busy by the time you pull out those weeds your little marigolds may already have flowers!