Are you sure that's alive?

I've always had an interest in plants and gardening, however the high cost of housing here in Seattle has thus far prevented me from owning the land to do so in the traditional manner. When I spoke of trying to grow vegetable and exotics in my townhouse or on my deck I was patted on the head and told such things were impossible, stick to Spider plants.

I really hate being told I can't do something.

My first venture was of course to the bookstore. My advice here? prepare for disillusionment. The vast majority of gardening text assume you have this lovely plot of 3 or 4 acres that you just now decide to till up for gardening. Being as most of us living in the city are lucky if we have 3 feet of ground space, this is not particularly useful. There are books on container gardening, but a word to the wise, before buying take a good flip through it. Most of them say little or nothing on the practical side of gardening in small places, (i.e. what plants stay small, can survive low light levels, etc), but focus instead on how lovely that watering can will look transformed into a daisy planter on your brick portico.

My deck is a bit small for a brick portico.

However, with the help of several local plant societies I have manage to amass a small but sincere collection of the unusual. I provide two links below, one to my Orchids section, which includes photographs of most of the flowers and second to my other exotics section which simply lists the plants with some descriptive text. I also have a link to my indoor lighting page. I spent enough time torturing my poor plants getting it right, read what I've found out and spare yours.

I'm always interested in talking with other growers, just to exchange info and possibly seedlings. So browse the pages, enjoy the photos and write me and tell me what you think.

ORCHIDS	LIGHT	EXOTICS
THE FRAGRANT ORCHID SPECIES LIST