Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

1/30/04 - With all of the snowy days and frigid temperatures that we have had this winter, I often think how lucky I am to have the glass room and my basement garden. Between the two and my work here at my desk, on these days when I don't even get outside for much more than to pick up the morning paper, I can keep busy--and in shape running up and down two sets of stairs. The glass room I certainly owe to Gertrude who insisted on having it built after we saw one at a friend's home in France--I felt that it was too expensive so she used her Social Security savings to fund it. The basement garden--well, I owe that to the luck of still being able to live in the same home that we built over sixty years ago when all houses had big, solid basements under them.
The basement garden is progressing nicely. I now have under lights and waiting to be transplanted into individual containers: Begonias, White and Yellow Star Zinnias, White and Colored Impatiens, Browallia, and Dahlberg Daisies. I don't start to transplant until the seedlings have made a second set of leaves, so that all of these seedlings have more growing to do. The Impatiens will probably be the first to be transplanted followed by the Star Zinnias. The Begonias, even though they were planted first in December, will probably be the last to put in individual containers. Last year I discarded many of my flats and bought new ones. I got rid of most of the flats with larger openings--thirty-six or forty-eight--and replaced them with flats containing seventy-two individual openings--nine to a box; eight boxes to a flat. This gives me more room under my lights, requires less planting soil, and less lugging of flats. The following seeds are still on the warming pads: Ivy Geraniums (two have germinated), Periwinkle Vinca, germinated; Lobelia, not germinated yet; Love-in-the-Mist, germinated; Heliotrope, not germinated. Lobelia and Heliotrope are difficult to germinate--I may have to replant. I have also planted two new seeds this week: Blue and Red Salvia. The Blue Salvia seeds were gathered from Gertrude's Garden where we have grown them for many years. The Red Vista seeds are new this year--I have not grown Red Salvia for a number of years, but decided to try them again since they add color to the autumn garden.
On the front page of the daily paper this week was a confirmation of what all of us had already decided was the case: the last several weeks of this January have been, or average, some ten degrees below normal. How nice it has been, therefore, to be able to look into the glass room and see blooming flowers against the background of snow and ice that now cover Gertrude's Garden. The most colorful of the glass room flowers are the Geraniums that bloom continuously. The Christmas Cactus also provide bright colors, but are not in bloom all of the time. The Begonias' more modest pink or white flowers, once they have started, will bloom until I set them outside in the spring. Recently, I moved the potted flowers one at a time onto the metal table to weed, trim, cultivate, and water them--I usually do this about twice during the winter. This week's picture is of the glass room flowers against a winter background. I snapped quite a number of pictures during the week and selected this one. One of the advantages of a digital camera is the ability that it gives you to "create" a picture as close as possible to the ideal you envision.

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