Several days ago I saw a Vee of geese overhead..........flying east. There are still several feet of snow on the ground. I am not the only confused creature around here. This has been a winter when Kay and I laughed often at local weather reports; when towns just north of us had five feet of snow in two days and we received but inches. Fortunately for us this happened several times. It made us feel as if we were having a most mild winter despite accumulating more than 13 feet of snow ourselves.
Some things turned out alright. I used to grow dwarf banana plants, indoors of course. The last one faded away some years ago. Two years ago I obtained seeds to start anew. Nothing happened. Late last year I tried again with seeds from a different source. They were supposed to germinate within one to six months with 80ºF bottom heat. Before the first month was out, I had two seedlings. That should be sufficient considering the size of these "dwarf" plants. Their growth rate is remarkable. This recent success has vindicated my green thumb. The prior disappointment can be attributed to the poor quality of the earlier seeds. (I can't take the blame for every mishap, can I?) We will never have fruit from these plants but I like them just the same. Once started, banana plants are very easy to grow. All they need is a bit of room and a large pot.
Kay has been forced to purchase flowers for the house for months now. Winter puts a hold on outdoor gardening around here. Some of the only plants flowering indoors just now are oxalis. They can't compete with the bunches Kay gets from some competitor. The flowers shown here are larger than life size. The banana plant image is smaller than life size.
The leaves of this oxalis are a deep mahogany red. Another variety, with green leaves, has white flowers.
Well, that is it for two wins. Next comes the loser.
Years ago I had an infestation of soft scale insects on some indoor plants. After at least a year of almost daily scraping and spraying with Safer Soap, I finally destroyed the infected plants. To be on the safe side I also destroyed plants adjacent to the infected ones. It was the
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