"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Leave those orchids ALONE!!..........but feed the Zinnias breakfast!

I'm not kidding! My husband brought orchids home
to me for this past Valentines Day.......I love them.......however, they always seem to die within a month..........



until I learned that Orchids want to be left alone. They don't like constant attention........something I am always doing with my flowers. So I just sat these orchids in a lightly  lit area in our living room ( the photo is with them on the dusty porch)   where I could admire them "from a distance:".............and look!.............


not only are they still living, they have bloomed!  
If you want to raise orchids, don't water them until they feel dry........and don't let them sit in water.  Keep them in indirect light and where it is not too hot and not too cold...........but most important.........
don't baby them.
As for my Zinnia gardens this year..........I have been storing up all of the egg shells from cooking and all of the tea and coffee grounds from the kitchen. I sprinkle these along in the gardens about every two weeks

and now my gardens are in full bloom

and very healthy.

Even the Snap Dragons that had started to die, have now sprung back to life with a little sprinkle of coffee grounds and egg shells.  

As for the prairie.....it is full of wildflowers..............which don't get fed, but have been helped out with the abundance of rain that we have unusually gotten this year. 
They grow in big patches along the grounds and I could stay and walk in them all day!

Even the wild daisies which are usually in small clumps, have grown tall and wide.
We also have an abundance of rabbits this year. They are content to lie in the tall grass in the late afternoon.
How about you?  
Do you have a finicky flower?...........what is it?
Do you feed your plants now and then?
I would love to hear!







10 comments:

Sherri Farley said...

Since I don't have a green thumb, maybe I should give orchids a try! My motto for gardening is put it in the ground & from then on, it's on it's own!! Having said that, I have 2 houseplants that thrive despite my neglect. This spring I cut back all the ivy that was overtaking the house. In all the bare spaces I planted tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. All of them growing like crazy........I'm beginning to think I might have a green thumb after all! Your zinnias are gorgeous. I still love to walk the woods and look at the lovely wildflowers.

Tammy@Simple Southern Happiness said...

I know, they are tricky to grow. you got it right, the like to be left alone. I have a new one I got a few weeks ago, its tiny and not doing so well. lost 3 leaves now. I read somewhere they can do this when they are trying to adjust to a new environment, lets hope so.

Prims and Annies said...

Never tried coffee grounds and egg shells on zinnias. Did you know that you can get the coffee grounds from Starbucks. Here, they put in a white bag and then put outside in a special bin for coffee grounds. You can just go and pick them up..they tell us that is what they are for. We have even gone through the drive thru and they have handed what they have to us thru the window. Your flowers are beautiful - we live in south GA and we haven't had rain in three weeks so I water the garden and flowers every other day.
Hope you have a wonderful day.

CYNTHIA CRANE said...

Your zinnias are lovely! I have a large patch this year (post on my blog today) and did not think of using egg shells and coffee grounds as fertilizer but I will certainly try that. I've recently moved from hot humid central VA a little further north to WV and we seem to get much more rain here. My gardens are are doing great (but so are the weeds!) Although yesterday the rain came with 70 MPH winds! Lovely blog, so glad I visited today! Cindy from TheCranesNest.com

Sally said...

How pretty it is there! I don't have a particular finicky flower, but the grasshoppers are terrible this year. I can't remember having them this bad!

I absolutely love the wildflowers!

Debra said...

I have an orchid too. It was flowering when I bought it 2 years ago, and hasn't done a thing since then. I just repotted it, so maybe it will start to like me and throw out some flowers. I just love looking at your flowers and wild flowers-so beautiful!

Vickie said...

Hi Kathleen - once again I see that your zinnias are absolutely thriving. They're beautiful. We've had extra rain here, too, and am just now beginning to have to water more. My peaches came on gangbusters. I throw my coffee grounds and eggshells in the compost so they eventually fertilize for me. Guess I could try putting them directly in my flower beds... It's time for me to go around and fertilize again. My local nursery folks tell me April, July and October are the best months to fertilize! Loved your orchids too!

Jen's Farmily said...

Your zinnias look wonderful! I think flowers are funny how some thrive on attention and others just want to be left alone.

Connie said...

Everything looks so lovely, Kathleen. I would love to walk among your zinnias and through all the wonderful wildflowers there too.

A Colorful World said...

Lovely views of your zinnias, and the bunny, and daisies, and the orchid which is thriving! I have been away...we were gone thirteen days on vacation, and I am just beginning to post the photos. Been home about five days now and I have a lot of catching up to do with everyone!