Horticulture de-light

I grow these bad-boys (geraniums) all winter. I fertilize them within an inch of their lives because I always like a little bloom going on. This winter I got white-flies and it was a bugger to get rid of them (I'm not sure I did all the way the little pests)

So. . . . . this in an orchid. I've had several over the years. The best I've been able to do is one more bloom after the original bloom, it takes about 6 months for the 2nd bloom then the entire thing dries up and dies. Well, this baby is on it 4th or 5th bloom, and there are more buds. Ive had a bloom on this since about August!!! It's been fantastic.

This is just another view. I love her.

This is my pièces de ré·sis·tance (I had to look this up for the proper spelling) This is a gardenia. I've had several over the years. I name all my gardenias "Betty" because Boyd's mom name was Betty and it was her favorite flower. They all die, (I prefer to think of it as suicide since I do all in my power to keep them alive.) Well, enough of that!!! So, I ordered this baby last spring from QVC (I know, I know, shopping over the TV is crazy, but when you can't sleep at night it makes the dark more tolerable) Any-hoo, this is a topiary gardenia, I planted it in a large pot. It bloomed for about 5 minutes last summer (I missed the blooms when I was in OKC with a new baby, but Boyd told me all about it) So. . . . . I brought her in for the winter, she had a real bad case of the white-fly-sticky-stuff and I thought I might have killed her with the alcohol I sprayed on her along with some other "stuff" I got at the store to kill white flies. Well, I noticed a couple of weeks ago there were some buds. . . . . . be still my heart, where there's a bud, there should eventually be a BLOOM!!! I came in today, Thursday (technically the most "tired" day of the week) and there in the corner, all sweet and smelly and GORGEOUS was my little Betty showing off her new bloom. I'm so proud I could almost burst.
I'm not sure you can tell, but there are additional buds that should BLOOM-YIPEE ZIPEE for me!!

side note: A couple of years ago I had a gardenia plant on the table, I had purchased this one at a garden center already covered with blooms. Well, the Taylor tots were in town, I won't mention names, but one of the tots was sitting at the table and pinched off about 5-6 of the flowers, it was so sad (for me)