I was bored yesterday and put the following together for my mother and sister, who are in Boston and Denver. We send each other pictures of our plants the way other families send pictures of children. Yes. We're that nuts.

Anyway, I'm posting it here just for the heck of it. Enjoy.

African Violets

Finally in bloom

African Violets

Another view

African Violets

Here are the babies

African Violet babies - LLG Outer Limits

This African Violet is ridiculous. None of the other leaves I put down last October have babies on them that are big enough to separate off, but I already have 13 Outer Limits babies grown from 3 leaves that are separated, rooted, and growing like mad.

A tulip coming up

You'll notice in the next picture that the other tulips are much further along than the ones in this container. That's because I found a whole bunch of bulbs in my storage room that I bought last fall and completely forgot about. I planted them about 3 weeks ago just to see what would happen, but all my other bulbs had already started coming up at that point.

The balcony

The crocuses are already done blooming. Most of the greenery you see in the flower boxes are the tulips, which haven't budded out yet.
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Clematis Palette #1

I have 3 Clematis Palette, but this is the only one with reddish leaves, so I'm wondering if it was labeled wrong at the nursery. This is their second year, so I should get some flowers on them this year. At that point I'll be able to tell for sure whether it's a Palette or not.

(Side note: Clematis are known to sleep, creep, then leap. They barely do anything during year #1, they start creeping up a little bit in year #2, then they take off like mad in year #3. This is year #2 for my Clematis, so I'm hoping to see a better display this year than I did last year.)
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Clematis Palette #2

Sorry so blurry
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Clematis Palette #3
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Clematis Asao #1

I have 2 Asao, and both are growing so quickly that you can practically see it with your bare eye. They even have buds at the tips of the new growth, so I should have flowers much earlier than I would have otherwise expected. I bought them from a nursery mid-summer last year, and they were each about 8' tall and had flowers on them when I brought them home. Practically unheard of for a baby Clematis!
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Clematis Asao #2

Just look at those buds!

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Clematis Venosa Violacea

I bought this one - and the others below - on sale late in the fall, in 2" containers. All of my others were purchased in big 1 quart containers much earlier in the season. While these ones had some time to put out some root growth over the winter, I'm not expecting much from them this year by way of display. Next year they're more likely to take off. {{gwi:577490}}

Clematis Inspiration

This one was thrown in as a freebie with the other 2" ones I bought. I don't know that I would have chosen it on my own, since it doesn't cling or climb. I've put it in the corner and am hoping it will trail down and provide some pretty flowers next to my parking spot. I'm definitely pleased that it's putting out a bud so early, no matter what else it might do over the course of the season.

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Clematis Dr. Ruppel

Again, sorry for the blurry pic. This and the 2 Asao are my only large-flowered clematis. The flowers on this one will be about 8" wide once the plant is mature. I can't wait. I have a feeling this will end up being my favorite of all of them.
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Avocado with Coleus in background

I think I put that avocado seed down last July, and it only started to show growth within the last couple of weeks.

Coleus

Both of these are getting too big for their pots. Once the weather gets warmer, I'll transfer the small one into the bigger pot, and will move the larger one into a big container on the balcony - probably the one the forgotten tulip bulbs were thrown into a few weeks ago.

Jade

I put these jade leaves in dirt early last summer, and they're barely showing growth at all. It's so cloudy here all winter that one really needs to start babies in early spring. They don't get enough sun in the winter to put out any growth.

Succulent corner

Succulents

The two on the right are elephant bush. I don't have much hope that the one in the middle is going to make it. The one on the left grows like crazy, and propagates really easily.

More succulents

I call the pot on the left my "why not?" pot. I throw random stuff in there once in a while whenever I feel like it, mostly just to see if it will grow. As you can see, some of it has done better than others.

Jelly Bean Plant - also known as Burro's Tail

Grown from cuttings and leaves Mom brought me in November.

Goldfish Plant

It's not doing much - and shows no sign of blooming anytime soon - but I'm just glad it survived the winter. It was looking pretty sad for a while there.

I forget the name of this...

Once upon a time, this was a gorgeous, healthy plant with four tall stalks. I almost killed it by trying to propagate it. This one stalk is all that's left.

I forget what this is called, too...

This was grown from cuttings from a plant on a coworker's desk. Note the paint swatch on the wall. I'm still thinking that's the color I want, but I'm going to look at two other colors - one more olive, one more jade - before I make my final decision.

The "random plant" shelf

Lithops

Lithops are a pretty finicky succulent. They need a lot of sun and very little moisture... so they didn't do too well over the winter in the Pacific Northwest. There were once 4 plants in this pot, and as you can see, only 2 have survived. However, you can see new growth emerging between the leaves of the one on the left, so I'm hoping the remaining 2 will be okay.

Cherry Trees

I put them outside for a few hours yesterday to start the hardening off process, but it started to hail soon afterwards so I had to bring them back in. I should probably wait another month or so to set them out for good anyway.

Cherry tree

This is the strongest of the 4, and probably the one I'll wind up keeping for myself.

Cherry trees

Here's all four of the ones I kept for myself. I initially had 15, but I gave the others away to coworkers.

(Side note: I've since remembered that one of the forgotten houseplants - the tall one that I almost killed - is Dracaena Janet Craig. I've been told what the other one is, but I have some kind of mental block on remembering the name of that one. I NEVER can remember what it's called when I want to!)