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Truly spectacular color! I love the little avocado tree. My friend in Hollywood has two towering avocado trees in her front yard. I'm jealous. ;)

E

You certainly have a knack for creating beauty, Lars. They are lovely. I have one similar to the first picture. I had it indoors all winter then put it out in our freakishly warm and early spring. Now we are having a cool snap and I hope it will be all right. It bloomed twice last summer.

Really beautiful flowers. I can't grow those types here.
I fell in love with proteas while in Hawaii.

Eileen, I am hoping I will get avocados from a lone tree - I've done it before in Venice, and so it should not be a problem, although I was told that you need two trees or at least another tree nearby in the neighborhood, which I think I have a couple of doors down. I know there were other avocado trees in Venice.

Pam, bromeliads are great for growing indoors because many of them do not like too much sun. A lot of them will bloom twice in one season, once they start to bloom. I have all of mine outside for space reasons, and many of them I have to protect from too much sunlight, or else the leaves will get burned. I have a similar problem with many of the orchids as well, especially the Phalaenopsis, which cannot handle much direct sun, if at all, but the flower spikes bloom for about six months! Since I don't have room to grow them indoors, I built some shelves in a fairly protected area outside the kitchen. I've had a bit of trouble with dendrobiums and oncidiums getting burned also, and so I have them in a semi-protected area, and they only get limited direct sun. All of my orchids that are blooming right now (except the epidendrums) are in the house, and so they will go into a separate photo folder that I will create later.

Nancy, I might get some more proteas because they do well here, once protected from snails/slugs. I might try growing some from seeds. I saw a lot of proteas in Hawaii also, but none that I had not already seen here. Have you tried drying the flowers?

Lars

Beautiful flowers. I am envious that you can grow them outside. Here they are house plants or ones you can put out part of the year and have to take in during the winter. I got one for Val's Day and I haven't killed it yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. What kind of potting mix do you grow them in? I think I have to transplant mine because it has out grown the pot it came in. It keeps falling over so I have to prop it up. LOL
Clare

Clare, are you talking about the bromeliads? If so, I repot them in cactus/palm potting soil, and I mix small bark with it, about half and half. I think you can also use orchid potting mix, but that is more expensive. For the epiphyllum (orchid cactus), I just use the cactus/palm potting soil.

Bromeliads are pretty easy to grow, but they need good drainage and also need to be watered regularly. I also feed them twice a month with a diluted fertilizer. It can be difficult to get some of them to rebloom, and in general, they need to be root-bound, but not growing out of the pot! Bernard told me that putting dead leaves or other organic debris inside the new shoots can sometimes help force a bloom.

If your plant keeps falling over, perhaps you should put it in a hanging pot or put it on a plant stand. I have a bunch hanging on the apple tree, but you could put them in a porch or other protected area.

Lars

Lars - Thanks for the information. Yes, I was talking about bromeliads. It is top heavy. That is why it is falling over and why I need a bigger pot.
Clare

Nice Lars! I love it when my plants re-bloom, especially finicky ones. In your first photo there is an epidendrum orchid in the background with orange flowers - I have that one blooming right now too. It's in a window box in my kitchen.

At my condo, only Phals liked the ocean air there, dendrobioums, epidendrums, cattleyas, all the other orchids did not like the cool breezes, so I couldn't get them to re-bloom. I am trying the different varieties again here at this house where it's warmer. The window box gives a slight greenhouse effect.

I also bought a mini greenhouse to store orchids after they've stopped blooming, because I didn't have space inside and it's a pain to gather them all up to the sink for watering. The greenhouse works really well - I found it at Lowes in a box in the house plants department. It's small enough to stash at the side of the house in indirect sunlight. I can just use a hose to water everything in there.

I buy bromeliads with colorful, variegated leaves so when they are not blooming they still look pretty. We just planted some outside in the shade and I hope they will do well out there.

Forgot to link to the mini-greenhouse:

4-tier mini greenhouse