I am scared to digg the subject of new plants for my garden

so, I will 'torture' you with some other subjects this or another way related with plants, flowers or just nature :) I hope it will be still interesting and I assure you it is still garden blog :)

Today - I cooked for you little art, history and history burlesque .... voila!
Is this a snapshot made in the city with the warm climate?

Nope.

This is center of Warsaw, capitol of Poland, USDA zone 6.

To make it even more interesting, the building behind is the former 'eye of an evil' - headquarter of Polish Communist Party, built 1948-52.
In the communist times commonly called by people 'House under the blockheads (rams)'.
On the picture below there is special 'contribution banknote' issued in 40-ties to co-finance the construction of the building by the citizens. It says 'We build the house together'.


Since 1991 there was financial center and Warsaw Stock Exchange - isn't it just a 'history laughing loud'??

Palm tree that size, in that place - looks odd. More. It is not real. It is Art-ificial.

Yes, I wrote ARTIFICIAL. 15m high, produced in USA in 2002. It already lost its leafs completely, but as you can see they grew again ;)

It is a very controversial artistic project of Joanna Rajkowska. This is public project in the city space.
There is a story behind. One of the main streets in Warsaw is Jerusalem Avenue (Aleje Jerozolimskie).
Name is rooted in XVII century, when there was an estate for Jews founded beyond city toll-gates - it was named New Jerusalem. From that the avenue was named first Jerusalem Road, then Jerusalem Avenue and it lasted until today.

Palm tree by Rajkowska is polarising a lot. Many people hate it, because it dares to be different.
I see it as a symbol of changes of a country that was for 45 years dying under communists regime and now, after 18 years of changes and progress, still is searching...

The picture above is the banknote from 1988, in so called 'secondary circulation', where somebody stamped: big letters 'Communism farewell', small square stamp on the left, there is picture of Lenin praying 'Proletarians of all countries forgive me'.

Coming back to palm tree, there is an advantage too: easy to locate yourself if you are a tourist or you come from outside of Warsaw, right. You say: 'that square with palm tree' and its clear!

More story you may find here - on special website dedicated to palm tree in Warsaw.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day January

It came time for me to join Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day initiated by Carol at My Dreams Garden.
This will be my first time :)) aaa!
I think it is very fun and practical habit to keep the track of blooms in the garden and indoor in winter seasons. It helps other gardeners to look for certain plants to enrich blooms in the months that miss some blooming in own garden.

As first I introduce Abutilon - known by many, grown by not so many. It came to me from 500 km away, from North Poland. My mom brought it while coming over to Warsaw, together with my brother, his wife and little daughter.

Its flowers are sweet, delicate and it blooms in the dull winter months.

It started to open flowers 2 weeks ago and will keep on flowering few more weeks, cos still new flowers are opening from many new buds waiting for its turn. Currently it has 5 open flowers and 7 tiny buds and waiting.
It can alco grow pretty big - my friend has almost 2 meters one - can you imagine, how great it looks while blooming? BTW I realise I need to take picture coming year.

Not only flowers are beautiful at this plant, but also leafs are lush green while young and deep greeen while older. It is great pick for winter blooms at home!

My Phalenopsis are happy enjoying full sun - even in the summer :)

My Anthurium was supposed to bloom, but it doesn't! I searched for info and red that it needs cool temperatures in the winter to bloom better. Probably last winter it was kept hot - I bought is as rescuing the plant from late winter hypermarket sale.

So after taking pictures, I placed it yesterday in the cellar - presumably coldest place... but maybe I take the thermometer today, go down and check the realities.

Saintpaulia ionantha - so easy to grow and flowering most of the year. And its hairy lefs are also cute.

And wait....

I have something in the garden that blooms right now. It is Jasminum nudiflorum - very interesting plant to grow in the garden. It blooms in winter whenever it gets warmer, sometimes blooming also November, December - looks surprising in fully gray garden.