Today is the 12th day of January and as such marks the first day of the Ten Days of Plantness.  Some observant readers may have noticed that in a recent post it may have said the holiday begins on the 10th day, but they were mistaken since upon re-reading the post it clearly says that the Ten Days of Plantness begin on the 12th and runs until the 21st, and I’m 100% sure I didn’t just go back and edit my mistake out.

So what are the Ten Days of Plantness you might ask?  Well let me explain.  It’s a very official holiday which celebrates ten of the gloomiest and coldest days of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter with plants!  Just like happiness is the act of embracing happy, plantness is the act of embracing plants, and for the next ten days the world is invited to celebrate each sunrise (regardless of clouds or gloom or snow) with a new plant.  Indoor plants count, outdoor plants count, seeds count, gifts count, cuttings count, pots and tools count, cut flowers, dried flowers… I think  you get it, just keep in mind fake flowers and leaves don’t count.  And to what end is this holiday geared towards?  Encouraging and welcoming back a new gardening season.  Fully celebrating means signs of spring and blooming witch hazels by the 22nd, not celebrating means eight more weeks of winter, so be careful.

The garage growlights still have plenty of room for a few more plants, so an excuse to add more is both timely and welcome.  

It was only just last year that my friends and I found out about the >10 Days of Plantness<, but this year we were prepared.  My Plant Posse was activated a week in advance.  Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening plotted a trip down through the snows of upstate NY,  Lisa worked some meal making magic, ‘Cosmos and Cleome’ Kimberley was in charge of the Plantness cake… yellow cake with a chocolate frosting and raspberry filling in case you’re curious 🙂 …  Kevin arrived at the crack of dawn for last minute prep and logistics, and our Louise opted out.  Sadly oral surgery, pain meds, and soft foods are in no way lessened by celebrating the ten days.

Hmmm… another bromeliad, actually it’s an offset from one of last year’s plantness purchases and proof that not all houseplants come here to die.

Once mobilized we headed out on a nursery by nursery tour through the local indoor plant scene and did the holiday proud.  Creekside Gardens is always a treat and we make that trip on a regular basis, but two other stops were first time visits for me.  Keller’s Garden Center surprised us with a nice range of offerings (and a funny run in with another desperate January shopper who we all agreed we just wanted to take with us for the day), and then there was Hidden Garden in Plymouth Pa.  The name is appropriate.  My Plant Posse is relatively trusting but when I pulled into the parking lot of some run-down beer distributor a few questions were raised.  “Why are you getting out here” was one of them, but “trust the process” is what I said.  I admit to being a little proud of the Posse as they grabbed purses and whatnot to accompany me in to buy a case of Michelob light, but instead passed through the double doors towards the back of the building, and entered the zen zone of Hidden Gardens.

My geraniums have forgiven me for ripping them out of their planters in October and stuffing them into undersized pots to sit out the winter under lights.  It’s just the kind of color one needs in mid January.

If you’ve ever visited Plymouth Pa it’s probably not a second visit.  Of course there are nice areas, but this former coal town/flood zone city, hasn’t seen much change in the last 40 years, other than changes for the worse.  I remember my first drive through and it left me with the impression that just the local strip club and local diner, the Tilbury Inn and Flamingo Diner (both now closed after flood and fire and subsequent demolition) were handling a steady flow of customers, so it’s nice to see a business which has headed off into a new direction.  I’ll be back I’m sure since the store is full of vision and optimism and I think we were all impressed.

The blue of Streptocarpella is always welcomed and seems to do well in my relatively cold indoor garden.

As usual I’ve gone off track.  Let me get away from talk of strip clubs and get back to  Plantness and the indoor garden.

I’m trying another orchid mostly because $4 on a clearance bench with buds showing was just irresistible.  Two months later and it’s blooming and all I know is it gets watered and I think it’s a dendrobium and it must be pretty easy to grow since it still looks healthy.

The Winter Garden here sounds like more than it is.  It started as fluorescent shop lights but recently I’ve begun upgrading to cheap LED shop lights as I find them on sale here and there.  One light, three lights, ten… over the years it’s expanded from a table in the back of the barely heated garage, to a converted workshop in the garage, and last year oops, it grew to include the unheated basement of our new addition.

The garage is cooler, and has dipped below freezing in spots near a window or door, but generally stays frost free.  It’s a great place to grow on a few hardy cyclamen coum while the outdoor ones are locked under an icy blanket.

I’ve gone on about the garage grow lights, and if winter keeps making an effort towards cold weather I’ll probably go on more and more about it, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned much about the new basement grow space.  It’s expanded.  It hasn’t replaced the garage growing area as I think some people in this house were hoping for, but I’m pleased.  I had hoped to do more this winter as far as making it a lush, plant filled space, but I think it’s doing good enough.

The new basement growing area.  Mostly stuff overwintering and a little on the unkempt, sparse,  and messy side, but I like the potential!

The basement plants are doing better than expected, and if anything is holding them back it’s probably me.  As you may know I struggle to motivate myself to water, and the garage garden has a hose which I use that makes it into a 15 minute job, but the basement garden involves filling buckets, carrying them from the basement, dipping a tub in to ladle out water to each plant… some people find serenity in watering, but I do not.  I hate it.  Once dying plants motivate me enough I’m drilling through to access the house water supply and I’m running pipes to a spigot inside the new area.  Me + a hose inside the house will be messy of course, but I at least have plastic down already to keep spilled water and soil from staining the new concrete floor.

More bromeliads.  The aggressive spines along the leaf edges are something you should consider, but in general I’m amazed at how easy they are to grow.

Once I get running water back there of course I’ll need a little goldfish pond as well, obviously with a fountain.   I just mention that in case you think not being able to get things done would be putting a damper on what I’d like to get done 🙂

The succulents seem happy overwintering in the basement.  Most of what I have gets no water or maybe a splash once a month, and they just sit there in the low light without rotting or stretching their stems too much.

Hopefully having all this space to put more and more plants doesn’t come off as gloating.  In reality it’s kinda cramped with a low ceiling in the garage, mice and spiders, chilly… and in the basement the statement ‘why are we wasting so much space on plants’ has come up even while the walls are unfinished and the space lacks real outlets or heat… but whatever.  Gloating is when I show a picture of the bougainvillea which didn’t do much all summer but is now putting out flower after flower as if it really doesn’t mind the ‘in progress’ surroundings and the hit or miss watering.

I guess you can grow bougainvillea under cheap LED shoplights in case somebody was wondering.  The colors are less intense, but again this is a Pennsylvania basement not the French Riviera.  

So that’s Plantness and the Winter garden, and although I definitely need to get out and add bunches of new plants because of how much empty space I have, you might not have that luxury.  Here’s my advice from last year which I shall repeat: Get plants which you know you’ll probably kill or give away.  The mini moth orchids I bought last Plantness are happily putting out new flower stalks on my mother’s windowsills this year rather than decaying on my compost pile like the florist cyclamen I also added last year.  Both were worth it and I’ve moved on… just like the African violet I also bought 😉  Keep in mind that you’re forcing yourself to think of plants for ten days rather than focus on winter, so pick up a bouquet at the grocery and just do it.  I know some people are a little timid about killing growing things, and it can be fun to hold on to a poinsettia for years, but you’re not picking up a kitten or adopting a baby here, you’re getting excited about lengthening days and the fact winter won’t last forever, so enjoy!

And in case you’re wondering, I did enjoy the start of Plantness.  I’m all set for the first five days and will hopefully fill you in on them before the week is out 🙂