My brother-in-law has a green thumb. The last time I went to visit, he had one geranium in a big pot and it had at least 20 flower heads on it. No exaggeration – for real. I asked him what his secret was and he said #1 he’s got a lot of time on his hands to water and #2 he uses an organic fertilizer called Bloom.
So I went looking around for it and came across SuperBloom which is a Scott’s product and made entirely of lab-created chemicals. BUT it’s doing wonders for the plant growth and flower bud count. The lovely hibiscus that I let freeze and wither to 4 short bare sticks over our 8-day winter in NE Florida not only recovered but is thriving and loaded with buds.
The Birds of paradise are another story. I don’t want to get overly excited but I think one of the them is sending up a flower shoot. Maybe not, though. The Birds are reacting strangely to the fertilizer. That same plant has now produced a Siamese leaf stem and both of them are sending up red spines instead of the customary white they’ve been making all along. Coincidence or Nuclear Power Plant Run-off effect?
That’s not going to stop me from using the stuff. I was raised in the age of Better Living Thru Chemistry and figure that by now my body composition is 50% toxic chemicals anyway. And I’m not going to eat the things for heaven’s sake.
In other garden news, I created a very satisfying diorama featuring a resin sea gull. Truth. I memorialized it on Instagram.
This week I noticed that the carefully arranged sea shells were scattered and turned over. I blamed the guy who loaded that bed with mulch – until I caught the dog in the act of licking them and trying to make off with an oyster shell. He bashed his way through the ornamental grass to do it and I told him no so he left. The next time I saw him there, he sneaked in from the side behind the grasses. Odd, because I scrubbed the oyster shells and let them dry in the sun for 3 weeks before I put them out, and the clam and scallop shells are from last year. How could they still be tasty?
My dog is good dog but still – he’s a dog. The lure of food in the wild is stronger than his desire to please me. He’s not going to win this one, though.
Cripes Suzette 
Have you completed the Seagull garden yet? I want to see the finished product!!! I garden vicariously through you 🙂
The seagull garden has morphed into what I’m calling the Grassy Beach Walk. I have found that a few well-placed oyster shells can evoke the theme no matter how they’re deployed: as a decorative ring around the inside of a large flower pot or gracing the concrete pad under the a/c unit.
I credit the quick execution of this theme to the fact that I am willing to snatch a plate of empty oyster shells out of the hands of any busboy who is trying to clear them away. Then I ask for a take-out box to transport them home. So far I’m only doing this with oysters I’ve eaten myself but the next logical step is to ask them for somebody else’s empty shells. I have to build up more nerve to do that though.
I think my companions are embarrassed by my restaurant behavior but they admire my creativity in decorating with oyster shells.
I’ve got Bird of Paradise growing in the front, but it’s pretty fugly, unlike your beautiful plant. Maybe I should bombard it with SuperBloom and see what issues forth… 😉