What plants do you grow besides orchids?

[Kevinator]

Brad, I sprouted this one from a clutch of three seeds that I kept after eating. The other two didn't sprout and died . Also, check out my thread called 'My Herbs' if you want any details. I will be adding more plant information on that thread.

[gardengirl13]

Too many to count! ha ha! Inside I have a bunch of houseplants ranging from ficus to cactus, and everything in between. Right now I have 4-5 vases full of cuttings from my coleus for next summer, and a vase of cuttings of houseplants.

Outside I have so many I don't think i could name them all. Ranging from bulbs, to shrubs, to herbs and veggies, to trees and MANY flowers and foliage plants. If you want to see some you can check out my page (gardengirl13's Photo Galleries at pbase.com) under spring summer and fall you'll see the gardens. Winter has some cool stuff too. I LOVE gardening! It's getting a bit harder with health issues, but if I go VERY slow and take tons of breaks it's ok.

[cbuchman]

My favorite non-orchidaceous plant is my gardenia. I got it in 1974 as a bare rooted 3 inch slip from Coca Cola for drinking so much soda. For the math challenged, that means I’ve been growing it for 38 years. It’s about 5 feet tall right now. It has suffered many indignities, including falling off the wall and have breaking off its top. It now blooms prolifically in the spring and sparingly in the fall. Of course, it smells divine. Unfortunately, I really have to keep after the mealy bugs; so this year I applied a systemic mealy bug treatment before bringing it inside for the winter. Pictures are attached.

I also have a dwarf Meyer lemon tree which produces lemons, which is always fun.

[Leafmite]

Gardengirl, you sound like me. Looking at our neighborhood from an overhead view, you see all these empty yards and...then there is ours! Our yard is very full of stuff! Flowering and berry bushes, fruit and nut trees, roses, herbs, butterfly garden, flowers, spring bulbs (and the ones I need to dig up), and the vegetable garden. I had a pond with lilies and lotus for about ten years but replaced it with a flowerbed and an almond tree. Then there are the indoor plants...I am still trying to make a complete list of those.
I love my Meyers lemon tree. I am currently self pollinating as the bees had to stay outside. It really makes the room smell nice. I have two lemons starting to yellow....
I always loved gardenias. Your gardenia is beautiful! Good growing!

[gardengirl13]

leafmite you do sound like me! I've always wanted to try a lemon tree but I just have the one south window. I have the huge west window but our living room is VERY narrow and long so it would take over most of it. We always wish we could put our christmas tree in the window but never can. The room is 8x16, yeah, try arranging furniture around that size! ha ha!

I did my first water garden this year! I planted some plant that I don't know, accidentally threw the tag away, and a water lily. My MIL gave me a galvanized container from her mother to do it in. It looked lovely! It's going in the basement very soon as we're getting down into the 30's on friday.

[cbuchman]

My dwarf Meyer lemon is not that big and it's not too dense. At first I though mine was sickly, but I saw several in Europe that look just like mine. You can control the size, by keeping the pot small.

I tried water gardening in my sun room. I grew a great crop of algae. So my hat is off to you Gardengirl13!

[gardengirl13]

How big is the dwarf size? I thought they got to about 4-5'? Are they ok in west windows or do they need more sun then that? I was thinking of getting a norfolk pine for the window next to the bookcase that holds the cactus and rosemary. But maybe I'll look into the lemon?

As for the water garden. I'm totally surprised that I only had to change out the water once due to algae! I have no clue why it didn't grow more?

[cbuchman]

My dwarf Meyer lemon tree is about 4' but the leaves aren't too dense. I have mine in a West exposure in the winter but I summer it outside where it gets more sun which it seems to appreciate. According to what I read it wants 6 hours of sun per day. Mine is thriving on less than that.

[gardengirl13]

I'm not too far from you so I assume it would do well in my zone in summer and ok in my window. I may have to look into this more! Thanks!

[Leafmite]

I have a half barrel pond, my downsize of the pond. The lily and underwater plants usually take care of the nutrients from the fish and the lily spreads leaves over the water to block light...thus no algae. They must have done something different with the mosquito spraying this year as it killed my goldfish and left a film on the water. I am not certain what I will do next year.
I have kept citrus even by a north window during the winter. They don't look too great but they bounced back over the summer. They definitely do better with more light. I would recommend the lemon over the pine. The pine is nice but it doesn't have fragrant blooms.