The sunroom is online!

Yes, folks, the new and improved sunroom is up and running. I am working my way through winterizing and putting in the houseplants from their summer vacation. Gardening with a giant shop vac is an interesting phenomenon. DH brought in my portable gardening bench and I am working to get things into the windows and all of their other winter locations. I have a hibiscus in bloom and the leaves have stopped yellowing and falling from my ancient ficus. getting things stowed away is necessary for the next board meeting of my garden club to be held in this room next Wed. Here are some pix taken this morning.
Martha

gardenmart, that is a lot of plants to care for during the winter. I bet they love being in that room with those beautiful yellow walls. I just love that paint color. So bright and cheerful. What is the name of that color if you don't mind me asking.

Jan

No problem. The color is Behr Premium Plus { the kind that has primer in it} 310B-4 "Cornmeal". Not all of these plants will stay in here, as I have a large plant window in my bedroom. The ficus goes in the dining room. along with some other lower light types like a big begonia that I have. But while I don't have the furniture back in yet, it's a good open space to work on the plants. I have my son's giant shop vac that I use to sweep up leaves, loose potting soil etc. That will go when everybody gets their winter pots and gets placed and a reading chair will take its place. This room also now has an overhead light, which it didn't have before so I can use it at night without having to turn on all the table and floor lamps I had in there.
Martha

It's a wonderful room, Martha....I agree about the color, just wonderful for a plant room!

Martha (great name by the way that was my dear aunt's name as well). Thank you for the color, I'm going to go see if I can find it down here. Cornmeal, so funny, I told my DH that I was painting the walls cornmeal cause we eat so much of it...LOL

Jan

Looking good, Martha. I keep trays under my houseplants too. This year I switched to those plack plastic ones that are made to hold wet boots at the door. Will the area be heated in the winter or kept cooler on purpose (as in ready to grow camellias)?

this room is connected to the house heating system. It is also now properly insulated and all the windows are double paned with the garden window facing due south. I think it may end up too warm for camellias. Cams are my sister's specialty down in NC where they are landscape plants.
Good to know about other Marthas. There are so few of us. I am named for my Granny who was Martha Edith, though she always went by Edith.
Got many more plants cleaned and potted up today as well as the plant corner of the dining room swabbed out and the window washed. Ficus is back home in this corner.
This has been fun!
Martha

Wonderful to see it full of life and not just a work in progress. Great job. Love the sunny disposition of your cornmeal color. Patti

It reminds me of the color of the Codman House in Lincoln, MA. It's a traditional New England color.

This message was edited Nov 18, 2013 10:52 PM

You're right, rosemary. I didn't consciously think that when I picked the color, but you're right. I went for the sunniness of it. Held a board meeting for my garden club in there last week. Plant arrangements are on hold, as I have been spending time bagging leaves for tomorrow's town leaf pick up. I will have some free time after tomorrow morning. next pick up date is in dec.
Hibiscus is blooming, orchid cacti are fattening up and two friends gave me christmas cacti that are in bud and about to bloom. These are little ones they grew from cuttings, but they will be out soon. I also have two really nice pelargoniums that I saved that are blooming away. I am rooting some giant aloe babies and some offshoots of a Walking Iris or Neomarica that came from the plants I tend at the public library. It's coming together. Hope to get my reading chair and my piano back in there by next weekend.
Martha

Music and plants, sometimes guests, in a sunny room. Sounds great.

Here's a panorama photo of the sunroom that my daughter took when she was here the other day. gotta love that Iphone.
Martha

Great view of the whole room....looks very nice!

Have two of the three pairs of curtains up. Need a new curtain rod for the third pair. And gotta get the tiebacks.
Pelargoniums are blooming, phalaenopsis is sprouting some new growth, and neomarica is rooting. Go, sunroom, go!
Martha

Nice time of year to enjoy a sunroom!

You know it. Can't wait till it's all back in place.
Martha

Perchance Thanksgiving dessert will be in the sunroom?

No, Thanksgiving dinner will be in the dining room. What a concept! The dining room was full of sunroom stuff all summer. The piano came back to its sunroom place today and my reading chair and lamp are also installed. But I cleaned off the dining table, yes, I do have one, and cleaned and dusted the china shelf and put up some of the thanksgiving decorations, rinsed off the good china, polished the silver, got out the cranberry wine, cooked the dinner (it's still in the oven for a bit) and now going to spike the turkey with the thermometer.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Martha

Martha, sounds like you had a wonderful day......I was planting an amaryllis the other day, & thought how nice it would be to put it in a sunroom like yours!

The cranberry wine must have added to the festivities, too. That's a great idea.

Rosemary,
The wine came from The Alfalfa Farm winery in Topsfield. It's at the farm with the two big silos you can see from Route 1 on your way into Topsfield. It was delicious with dinner. Not too sweet.
I am going to find some more.
Oh, and my dining table still works great!
Martha

Coming to you all from the chair in my sunny sunroom! spent yesterday looking for a graduated set of bonsai pots in which to plant an exhibit for the coming year's flower show, practicing the piano, and finishing up mucking out after thanksgiving. You make as many pots and pans for two people as you do for twenty. Hubby helped me straighten the rug pad and rug this morning before his coffee! oh and my phaleonopsis and my sansevieria cylindrica have all put out flower stalks! They like it! Hey, Mikey!
Martha

Good news on the flower stalks! When my stepson lived in Maine, his orchids bloomed almost constantly.....I could never get one to thrive!

The alfalfa farms silos are hard to miss. thanks for the tip, Martha.