Agriculture

I have a handful of phalaenopsis about the house, and three of them have just begun to shoot up a bloom spike that, once in bloom (probably still about a month away), will bloom for months if I keep them out of direct sunlight.

One plant is like 10 fresh-cut bouquets, and they are so delicately lovely you just can’t beat them as a nice Valentine gesture.

Most people would say that there is not much going on in the garden during the winter months. I beg to differ.
There are dozens of plants out there doing something interesting. Some are just showing their pretty bark or their sculptural quality bare of leaves. Others are just beginning to emerge and will be blooming soon.
And others just have some crazy quality that allows their foliage to look as fresh and clean as a spring garden despite the fact it is covered by 4 inches of snow and has endured days of freezing temperatures.

Have you noticed a sticky substance on the floor beneath your ficus or philodendron? Are there little scabs on the under side of the leaves of your orchid? Maybe you have noticed that your plants just look a little lack luster.
Well, we can blame some plant puniness on being a tropical houseplant indoors in Kentuckiana during the winter.
Low levels of humidity and low levels of light trigger a response in plants that slows them down for the winter. They shed foliage and basically standby until the environment turns more favorable.

Wendy Johnson of Copper Coin Farm in Simpsonville says the economy is “starting to make a pretty good turn in the Saddlebred community.”
That is good news for the organizers of the annual All American Cup Stallion Review and Auction, a daylong event that begins at 7 a.m., Saturday at Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville.
There will be three tour buses to transport potential bidders to Sunrise Stables in Versailles and Alliance Stud and Copper Coin farms in Simpsonville.
“Attendance is up from last year,” Johnson says.