Orchids are beautiful flowers. They look exotic, and tropical, but are relatively easy to keep. All they require is a weekly watering and the right amount of light. Getting phalaenopsis orchids to bloom, however? That has been difficult. I have tried different amounts of light and water for the past two years, to no avail. […]

One of my dreams is to have a large potted fruit bearing fig tree. Fresh delicious figs in the summer - yum! The key to this plan is keeping a fig tree alive, of course, and fig trees can be finicky. The last thing they need is a pest like mealybugs attacking them. I overwintered […]

At the beginning of the year, I was determined to find a fig tree. Ideally, a Chicago Hardy fig tree - not because I was at all convinced that the Chicago Hardy figs could actually survive a bad Illinois winter (and let's face it, those are every few years) - but because I figured it […]