Rhode Island Feeds

It was over a year ago when I bought my first African violet, on sale for $1.99 with just one lonely bloom. That plant has continued to do well in the past year as the other five I have added....

Every so often I go grocery shopping and come back with one or two new plants. This happened a few weeks ago when I spotted some new plants with very unusual foliage. 2.15.10 The plants have small, oval, dark-green leaves...

I have kept the Salix caprea or Weeping Pussy Willow in my back office, next to my work space so that I could look at it all the time. I love the appearance of the silvery white catkins that slowly...

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon -- although a bit breezy, around mid-40s. I decided to clean up some flower beds in the front garden. Hellebores have appeared, seemingly just overnight! 2.21.10 I actually found hellebores a few days earlier...

I usually make the point of walking through the annual R.I. flower/garden show every year that I'm in town. I remember one year the theme of the show had something to do with children and another year Martha Smith, the...

Kendal Bazerman, 3, of Warwick examines a slice of wood and its tree rings with a magnifying glass in the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society's habitat at The Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show Friday at the Rhode...

Small weeping pussy willow plants are usually sold in the flower departments of supermarkets around this time of the year and every year I have resisted a temptation to buy one, for fear that I would not know how to...

Amaryllis rosado in a green eco pot was a gift I received before Christmas. I started watering it within a few days of its arrival. The first growth appeared about a week later. The two flower stems grew to about...

The first African violet ( Saintpaulia ) I purchased about a year ago for $1.99 is alive and well and has produced beautiful blooms several times in the past 12 months. 2.11.10 I Initially used the powdered fertilizer from Selective...

Recently I stopped at a nursery in nearby North Attleboro after a quick visit to Attleboro's Capron Zoo, not expecting to find anything special. I was delighted to walk out with 5 plants, all in 4-inch pots, for a total...

Stromanthe sanginea was one of the 4 plants I picked up at the R.I. Spring Flower & Garden Show. It came in a 4-inch pot, from a nursery (Heimlich Nurseries) in Woburn, Mass. 2.19.10 I was captivated by the variegated...

It was, sort of a chance meeting last Saturday when I found Primula malacoides, also called fairy primrose. At a nearby nursery, I walked past a table with several flowering plants in small pots (5 in.) that sent out lovely...

Parlor palm (Chamaedora elegans) is a popular, slow-growing house plant that is known to have been passed from generation to generation. Mine is a first-generation parlor palm, practically hidden away among dracaenas and the arrow head plant in the mixed...

I have had common kalanchoes, the ones with 4-petal flowers... 3.21.03 ...and calandiva, with double flowers, at various times in the past, but have not been able to get either one to bloom again until this winter. 2.2.10 Kalanchoe is...

"What the shamrock is to Ireland the rubber plant is to the dweller in flats and furnished rooms..." - The Rubber Plant's Story by O. Henry ( William Sidney Porter, 1862 - 1910) Rubber plant (Ficus elastica), a cultivated, ornamental...

My renewed interest in prayer plants began a few weeks ago when I embarked on the series of "Getting to know my house plants". I had prayer plants years ago, before my gardening venture, when I hardly knew any plant's...

Arrowhead plant ( Syngonium podophyllum) is known to be very popular among the non-flowering house plants for their easy care and attractive, light green leaves with white or cream-colored markings. 1.1.10 Arrowhead plant, a native of South America, is in...

Silver lace fern is my first indoor fern. I picked it up a few days ago for $6.99 in 4-inch pot. The fronds are very attractive and quite unusual, with multiple variegated leaflets in silvery white and slightly ruffled,...

Spring is a little over 8 weeks away and the temperature has climbed up into the 40s, melting most of the snow on the ground. Yesterday, I went grocery shopping in Providence on the East Side and walked by the...

Polka dot plant, Hypoestes phyllostachya, an ornamental plant has adorned my house off and on for many years. I usually got them in small (3-inch) pots and they looked full and healthy for a while, even producing tiny purple flowers;...