Sunday Edition: I Want My Own Botanical Gardens

Goodbye, standard issue sun room. Hello, Victorian Orangerie!

I am planting the seeds for a great project. Inspired by a recent visit to Buffalo’s beloved Botanical Gardens, I’ve decided to transform my front sun room into a Victorian Orangerie.

Who else has a standard-issue Buffalo sun room and would enjoy making it into an Orangerie?

Who’s with me?

What inspired this was a group of citrus trees I saw at the Botanical Gardens. My eyes lit, like a butterfly, on one of them. I want one!

Not only that, but I want the Botanical Gardens! I just love that place.

I love that it was modeled after London’s Crystal Palace. London tragically lost its Crystal Palace in a long-ago fire, however we still have ours.

What about Crystal Palace gin?

I mistakenly bought a bottle of it last time I was liquor shopping. I meant to buy some other brand and I just grabbed this Crystal Palace gin by mistake. However… now that I am looking, I see it gets good reviews online, for its botanicals and citrust notes.

It sounds like a nice match for my Orangerie!

Long story short, what I want to do is get a Victorian Orangerie … on a shoestrong. My plan is to add a giant selection of fanciful plants to my sun room, and add Victorian touches, until I get the look I want. At the top of this post is my actual sun room. It is perfectly respectable however it could use some Victorian vim and vigor.

With which, I started today. I went out and dug up some lemon balm, put it in a pot, and brought it in. It was not as easy digging up a plant as I thought it would be. However, this is an achievement! I now have one more plant than I did yesterday.

While I was outside I did a lot of weed pulling because I realized my mint and lemon balm plants, while aggressive, are not as aggressive as the bishop’s weed. Another achievement: Look at me, I am gardening! Can you believe it?

Here is my new lemon balm plant.

In the lower right-hand corner is the bald head of dear St. Anthony. I have a growing collection of statues in my front sun room. Right now they are on top of Howard’s old upright piano ….

…. however I see a new future for them distributed among the plants of my Orangerie.

I marveled at Japanese trees yesterday. Perhaps I will get a Japanese Satsuma Tree.

That photo comes from this page that gives you tips on how to grow citrus in your house and makes it sound very doable.

Perhaps I can make our bedroom upstairs into another conservatory. It has windows facing south. Perhaps another citrus tree could go there! It could be like “Under the Tuscan Sun” except for we never actually leave Buffalo.

The transformation starts now.

A couple more Before pictures:

People, look east! A view of my sun room showing my Little Library, with works of Charlotte Bronte and Edward Lear. The Little Library will have a place in the Victorian Orangerie. Photo by the Author.

I will post pictures of my room as it evolves.

Suggestions are welcome.

Plants are, too!

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