Just Around The Corner

I don't know about you, but I find March a dreary month. The snow's half gone, but no green replaces it. Depressing dirty heaps line roadways and sad patches dot the lawn, and it's still too early to start most of my garden plants. With cabin fever screaming through my veins, I hop in the car and head for the nearest garden center with a greenhouse. Just wandering up and down the warm misty aisles is a spring tonic.

March is actually a good time to buy flowering houseplants, because many are in bloom this time of year. Garden centers gear up for Easter and offer forced bulbs, azaleas, and cyclamen along with the traditional lilies. Whatever you choose, flowering houseplants bring color and brightness into the home, promising that spring is just around the corner. Houseplants also provide the added benefit of cleaning indoor air of carbon dioxide and other pollutants and giving off oxygen, creating a healthier environment.

Calceolarias, also known as the pocketbook plant, are so named because of the unusual pouch-like blooms. Available in a wide range of colors from pink and red to yellow and bronze, these delightful plants do best in a bright but very cool spot. They prefer temperatures in the 50's, far cooler than most modern homes. Keep the soil barely moist and bottom water. Enjoy them for the month or so that they boom and then throw them out, unless you have a cool greenhouse or sun porch to keep them in.

Scented pelargoniums, though called geraniums really aren't, bear charming stalks of tiny white or purple flowers. However, it's the scented leaves that most people buy these plants for. Offered in a dizzying array of scents from spicy to fruity, there's a scented pelargonium for every taste. They require lots of sunshine, like cool temperatures at night and should be allowed to dry out between waterings.

I think florist's azaleas give the biggest and longest show for the price. In bloom they easily dominate any room. Though simple to maintain they do require some vigilance. Keep them constantly moist, very cool, and don't throw them out when they've finished flowering. If they dry out, they will drop leaves all over the place. Like their outdoor cousins, florist's azaleas need an acid soil. If you have very alkaline tap water, feed them with a quarter strength acidic liquid fertilizer a couple of times a month.

Once the plant has finished flowering, and this may take several months, I prune my florist's azalea back a bit, more a shaping than anything. Then it will begin to put out new foliage. When the weather is warm enough, I set it outside on a shaded north-facing porch for the summer. I put it where runoff from the roof will keep it moist. If you don't want to do this, make sure you water it a time or two a day. At the first hint of frost I try to remember to bring it back indoors.

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