besides peruse rose catalogs: We get into houseplants.

Suddenly our living room is The Jungle.

I do fine with outdoor plants that can pretty much fend for themselves, but houseplants are a whole different ball game, as my dad would say.

I’m the Johnny Appleseed of roses, but I’m more like the Adolf Eichmann of orchids. Sad but true.

Yet hope springs eternal. Although I’ve pledged never to bring another phaleonopsis into my house, which it will never leave alive, I could not resist this cymbidium on clearance in the local Kroger last week. (Kroger is a more hostile environment for plants than my house, even, so it was the lesser evil.  Also I’ve never murdered a cymbidium.  Yet).

So far, so good. Its buds are bigger than they appear in these pix taken about five days ago.