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On the 15th of each month, garden bloggers are invited by Carol at May Dreams Gardens to post pictures of anything that is blooming in their gardens, indoors or out. There’s nothing but cold, drifting snow in my outdoor gardens today, but I do have a fair amount blooming inside this month

I am particularly excited about this, my clivia blooming for the first time!

Clivia miniata

In September of 2021, a friend gave me a division of her own clivia. She instructed me to pot it up in a well-draining mix of orchid bark, perlite, and potting soil and give it a sunny spot until November. Then from November through January, I was to set it in a cool basement window and give it no water at all. On February 1, I could bring it upstairs to a bright window and start watering it. As I expected, it did not flower in 2022. I gave it the same treatment last fall. This year, a couple of weeks after I brought it upstairs, I spotted buds, and less than a month later, the first flowers have opened. Isn’t it lovely?

So many of my winter flowers are shades of pink or purple; it’s fun to have such a vibrant color in the mix now!

A few of my violets are blooming now:

I bought this Saintpaulia shumensis African violet last summer. It blooms only occasionally, and has had only one blossom at a time. I hope as it matures it will be more prolific with these delicately shaded flowers!
This came from a grocery store in early February. Its flowers have been long-lasting, but its foliage is sparse. Once it loses these last flowers, I plan to give it some foliage fertilizer and put it in a less bright window so it can grow some lush leaves!
This magenta beauty is a reliable bloomer for me. It’s also a grocery store purchase.
A sentimental favorite–a descendant of a violet my grandmother once had. It is my most frequent and prolific bloomer!

It’s late winter, so of course I have some amaryllises in bloom:

I’ve dubbed this ‘Not Apple Blossom’. I ordered ‘Apple Blossom’; the bag said ‘Apple Blossom’; the flower is decidedly NOT Apple Blossom! Whatever it is, it’s pretty, and these are the final two of its four flowers.
The flowers on this stunted stalk of ‘Sweet Lillian’ are withering. A second stalk, presumably strong and healthy, is coming along behind this one.

Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia milii, is a prickly plant, and those thorny stalks can become tall and bare, but they produce the most cheerful little flowers all winter long! The yellow one is about four years old; the much taller red/pink one has been in our house for at least fourteen years.

Yellow Euphorbia milii
Its sweet little flowers are not even an inch wide.
Sometimes the flowers on this one look pink; other times they are more red.

With Saint Patrick’s Day so near, it’s fitting that both of my shamrock plants are thriving and blooming. Our sassy calico cat thinks they are quite delicious, so they spend most of the winter in the basement under the grow lights, hidden among the cat-repelling scent of the geraniums. I do like to bring them up to our living space in March, though, and try to place them somewhere hard for her to reach.

Green-leafed shamrock plant with white flowers
Red-leafed shamrock plant with pale lilac flowers

It didn’t have a flower today, but my walking iris has been pumping out a flower every five or six days. I have three plants in one pot, and two of those are mature enough to bloom. Each has one bloom stalk that blooms roughly once a week. I think they’ve each had three flowers so far. Soon they’ll put out their final blossoms, and a baby plant will form on the end of each stalk, much like a spider plant. That baby can then be planted and will eventually send up its own flower stalks.

Walking iris

I bought this cyclamen in a grocery store (who needs fancy nurseries when you can go to the grocery store, lol?) in January, and it has bloomed for over two months now.

I love the magenta flaming along the white border.

Most of my grocery store primroses are in a dark period now, but this one has sent up a lovely new flush of cheerful yellow flowers!

Yellow primroses are a virtual ray of sunshine!

Finally, here is a peace lily in bloom. I put this plant under a halo shaped grow light in January, and it has responded very well! This is the second flower it’s produced since then.

Peace lily (Spathiphyllum), looking pink under the grow light

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour around my indoor garden! Thank you Carol for continuing to host this blog party each month! I leave you today with my tabletop garden:

Clivia, Crown of Thorns, African violet, and Shamrock plant all blooming in harmony!

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