Feed Me

NEED I SAY MORE?

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Miss Fussy moved again after slumming it on the porch for a while. New location is outside unused kitchen door with lots of sun and great neighbors: Peruvian Daffodills are on the left (and watchout, Gardenia, because they DO bloom, and smell REALLY beautiful) and a large and scraggly Rosemary on the right.

Still lots of buds, and the leaves seem to be responding to the fresh air, sun and rain-not much speckly stuff, green and glossy.

I think there may be a slight change in some of the buds-a swelling of sorts. Is it my imagination?

Water Issues

Who knew that the what, when, why, and how of water in the life of a gardenia mattered so much? Well, it does.

Please note the saucer of beach stones and water to provide the requisite humidity. She normally sits atop the stones, but I wanted to show you the shades of pink and gray I thoughtfully selected. (Like she even noticed.)

And if you need a Mister in your life, which gardenias do, he should certainly be green, and definitely gorgeous. My sister Sarah hooked them up-she knows a good catch when she sees one.

However, I'm wondering about the white stuff on the leaves. I thought at first it was dust from its location near a wood stove. Then I decided it was mineral deposits from our minerally well. It was recommended that I try using distilled water in the mister, so I went to buy some at the supermarket, in the beverage aisle, which you already know was all wrong. Then I asked the sister with the street smarts, who directed me to the drug store. I went to the drug store, bought a newspaper, a Mounds bar, and some ibuprofen. Has that ever happened to you?

Change of Address

It's become warm enough to move The Gardenia out of the kitchen and into the great outdoors!

First stop, the porch, on a beautiful table (trash night in a greater Boston suburb, circa 1987) with an easterly exposure in order to acclimate to the stronger spring sunlight. I know, the neighborhood's a bit sketchy, but it's only temporary.

A Vermont Gardenia

Once, long ago in Southern California, I was introduced to the heavenly gardenia, and I've been hooked ever since. But it has not been a shining story of success. My first pot grown one, which my mother bought me at the age of twelve, naturally dropped all of its buds in my drafty New England bedroom. Over the years I have tried my luck a handful of times, but it's always the same scenario. Fast forward to a snowy Vermont day at the supermarket in 2009, and there she is, like a siren, bidding me to try again. So for $12.00, and very little need to convince myself, I became the proud and optomistic owner of a healthy, glossy-green, bud covered gardenia. And guess what! Six months later, every bud and every leaf is still there, but not a single bud has openend! And this, my research says, is because it has not had enough light. But I'm not giving up! Stay tuned!