Gardening – the inside variety
I don’t have a lot of space inside for pot plants. Unlike my daughter who has big kitchen windowsills and at last count about sixty pot plants (I was in charge of watering while she was away last year!) including a pineapple.
I do have this amazing basket, a Christmas gift from her five years ago. It originally had a miniature red rose and a red Kalanchoe for the season, but they didn’t survive for more than a few months. The peace lily has been spectacular though, continually flowering. I filled the gap with a spider plant and I’m now in danger of being taken over, but it is a real showpiece.
Orchids
I have a miniature Phalaenopsis which refuses to flower. Apparently they need a distinct variation in temperatures from day to night. I suspect my apartment is too warm and have learned that they like being outside in the summer so that’s where it’s going. Fingers crossed.
I did have a Cymbidium that flowered spectacularly but then dripped goo as the flowers aged. Not pleasant. It did throw up a second flower spike but the buds rotted and I have since moved it on.
Pot plant passion
I do seem to have caught the pot plant passion from my daughter, though and, since I wanted flowers, I bought a Saintpaulia – an African Violet. All was well until, while watering my window box one morning, I caught it with the sleeve of my dressing gown. It landed upside down resulting in quite a few broken leaves. I rescued the plant and stuck one of the broken leaves in the pot of an avocado stone I’d planted.
The avocado didn’t seem to be doing anything so I put it outside among pots in my courtyard and in the autumn discovered I had a plant! It’s back out there again now – it does prefer being outside and I may risk leaving it out there this winter since I know there are trees growing in London and my courtyard is very sheltered.
Anyway, back to the Saintpaulia leaf which over the winter, much to my delight produced a very tiny new leaf. It’s now ready to join it’s mama – fully recovered and flowering beautifully.
I’ve since bought a couple more Saintpaulias in different colours and have to confess that – this morning – I had a reprise with the dressing gown sleeve, catching one of the new plants with exactly the same result (and a broken cache pot!) It’s now in recovery in the bathroom and another broken leaf is tucked up in the hope that it will, in its own good time, give me another plant.
And there are more.
Visiting a garden centre with my daughter is a dangerous venture. I now have a beautiful Begonia Rex, a very pretty pink miniature peace lily, a Calathea Roseo-picta and a Cryptanthus Bivittatus.
Oh, and I do have a lot of spider plants looking for a home!
Liz Fieding
Liz Fielding met her husband when they were both working in Zambia and were keen members of the Lusaka Theatre Club. He was playing John de Stogumber in St Joan, and she was the pageboy to the Earl of Warwick. He swore it was the purple tights that got him.
Years spent in Africa and the Middle East provided the background to many of Liz's romances. Her first, An Image of You, was set in Kenya, in a place where they had spent many happy weekends on safari. It was plucked from the slush pile because the feisty feminist heroine made her editor laugh. Emotion touched with humour has been the hallmark of her work ever since.
After writing 70 books for Harlequin Mills and Boon, Liz has now turned to crime, signing with Joffe Books for three "Maybridge Mysteries", the first of which, Murder Among the Roses, is published on 18th April.
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Liz Fielding has a new book out:
MEET ABBY FINCH. SHE’S A BUSY MUM OF THREE, AN EXPERT GARDENER AND THE STAR OF YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COZY MURDER MYSTERY.
One part jealousy. Two parts rage. Somewhere in Abby’s sleepy little village, the perfect murder is brewing . . .
Abby enters the Maybridge Flower Show, never dreaming for one moment that she’ll win the gold. Or an invitation to appear on telly, alongside gardening legend Daisy Dashwood!
Some people say Daisy’s a tiresome diva. But starry-eyed Abby can’t wait for the cameras to start rolling. Until . . .
Daisy staggers out on stage. Only to collapse at Abby’s feet.
Her demise might seem like a tragic accident — resulting from a cocktail of booze and hay-fever medicine.
But Abby’s not so sure. She starts digging, to uncover shifty suspects at every turn. From snarky co-stars to a toy-boy lover, they all had reason to want Daisy dead and gone.
And that’s not the only puzzle playing on Abby’s mind . . .
In life, Daisy went nowhere without her trusty caddy of healing teas. Now it’s vanished.
What if someone’s been tampering with Daisy’s favourite cuppa?
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Multiple Giveaway Alert!
Kindle copy of Murder Among the Roses
Kindle copy of Murder Under the Mistletoe
Kindle copy of Murder in Bloom
Audio codes for Murder Among the Roses & Murder Under the Mistletoe
Let us know in the comments which giveaway would you like to go in for!
