Orchids Rebloom

Orchids Rebloom

PORTS OF FORTUNE ~DRAGON KING~ CATTLEYA Orchid Plant $15.95

SEA BREEZE FELLRATHS PRIDE ~BLUE~ CATTLEYA Orchid Plant $17.95

Growing A Beautiful Indoor Garden by Keith Markensen

The blues of winter time can be difficult to handle if you are truly a nature lover. Why not attempt to bring a little bit of the nature you are missing indoors with a window garden? There are many beautiful plants that will thrive inside and all you need to do to grow them is provide a sunny window sill. As a matter of fact, many plants do not even need full sunlight to thrive and grow.

You will want to begin by installing a plant hook or two so that you can hang some plants up. Some of the more popular easy to grow hanging plants are the spider plant, boston fern and chenille plant. When buying a plant, it needs to be in a plastic pot. You will want to transfer the plant into a little bit larger of a pot that is more decorative and will give the plant a healthy beginning.

There are a lot of different house plants types that you can have some trouble picking out or narrowing down your choices. Some plants that are easy to take care include African violets, lilies, and ivy. African violets can develop beautiful double flowers, exotic colors and even variegated leaves. Some people fill in every window with African violets and still do not have every enough variety. Peace lilies thrive in indirect sunlight and can have pretty pink or white flowers. Ivy is a favorite on a topiary frame and can easily add interest to your window sill.

While you are choosing plants to fill up your window sill with, do not forget you can even use bulbs. When you are using bulbs, you can experience and early springtime, at least on your window ledge. Great bulbs to chose are daffodils, tulips and fragrant hyacinths. To force bulbs, you need to keep them chilled for a few months in a refrigerator or an unheated room. The next step is planting them and placing them in a window box and watering them. The bulbs should begin to sprout within 4-6 weeks.

For a nontraditional window box garden, try some flowers in the orchid family. Despite their reputation, the plants are not that difficult to take care of. The most common types to use are the phalaenopsis and paphiopedilum for beginners, but the cattleya orchids are also easily grown. Phalaeonopsis and paphiopedilum orchids have beautiful bold flowers and people can usually get them to rebloom easily. Cattleya orchids have small, delicate flowers and are harder to rebloom however.

To take care of the orchids properly, you need a clay pot and a potting soil made especially for orchids, a tray and some pebbles or small stones. You will need to repot your orchids in the clay pot with fresh potting soil and run room temperature water over in the pot for about two minutes and let it drain. The easiest and most common way to kill orchids is leaving them in standing water, so be certain to remove excess water before you place the plant on your window ledge. Put the tray on the window ledge and cover the bottom of it with pebbles. Place the orchid in the tray and once a week, you need to check and make sure the potting mix has dried out. If this happens, water the orchid the same way you did as when you transplanted it.

If however, you are not blessed with a proverbial green thumb when it comes to growing plants, you may still be successful in growing plants inside your home especially growing plants by the window. You need to begin growing the plants in dish gardens or in a terrarium. To take care of a terrarium, basically you need to only neglect it.

To design a terrarium for your window, you need a container with a lid like a fish tank or a an old fashioned gallon sized pickle jar, sand, some potting soil and a few tropical plants or ferns that are smaller in sized. First put about three inches of sand in the bottom of the container and on top of the sand, place a few inches of the potting soil. Next make a small hollowed out area in the soil for each number of plants you are sticking in the terrarium. Put each plant into the container and fill in the area with more of the soil mixture. If the soil and sand are dry, then you will need to add a small bit of water. If the terrarium is in balance and properly maintained you should never have to water it anymore. If you see that there is too much moisture in the terrarium, you need to crack the lid for a bit to allow some of the moisture to escape.

Once there are a few plants growing, it will be a bit easier to wait anxiously for spring time to arrive.

For your information there is lots more on the topic of window gardens. Visit us at http://www.plant-care.com/window-garden-small-scale.html.

Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Growing-A-Beautiful-Indoor-Garden/501680

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