The Miniature Garden umbrella can cover a lot.

Miniature Garden with houseplants

Story # 85,


The Miniature Garden umbrella can cover a lot.


      We have a lot of terms floating around ------ Dish Garden, Table Top Garden, European Garden, Fairy Garden, Gnome Garden, and Miniature Garden— indoor and outdoor.


      My conclusion is that Miniature Garden can include them all.


      Table Top Garden is a better name for Dish Garden and European Garden.  Miniature Garden is more inclusive than Fairy Garden and Gnome Garden.


      Miniature Garden could cover them all.  The only division left is indoor or outdoor.  A small garden display that can tolerate freezing temperatures and wind is very special and difficult.


      The winner of words is Miniature Garden with houseplants.  Of course, house plants can be put outside in summer, but acclimating plants to abrupt change in environment going out (Spring) or in (Fall) has its own set of problems.


      My Miniature Gardens will be indoor with houseplants.

10% unemployment means....

Table Top Garden

Story # 58,


 10% unemployment means…..


      That 90% are working.


      I worry about the unemployment and under-employed.  Times are tough for many people.


      But some days, I’m worrying about the wrong group.  Try to drive when it’s rush hour, try to find a causal restaurant where you don’t have to wait, try to get into an Apple store without tripping over people, try to find a parking space at our biggest mall, Park City.


      There are parts of our economy that are booming.  So why isn’t the boom absorbing the 10% who don’t have a job or the one that they want.


      Smart people can’t figure out what to do about this.


      Since an individual can’t affect any market, just be very good at what interests you and buy a plant occasionally.  It keeps the economy turning.

Sinningia 'Colorado Sunset' ---- Orange flowers on dark green foliage.

Sinningia 'Colorado Sunset' grown by Jon Lindstrom

Story # 26,


      Sinningia ‘Colorado Sunset’ ----- Orange flowers on dark green foliage. 


      Sinningia ‘Colorado Sunset’ was selected for production to be a showstopper.  Orange is a bright color.  Bright is good!  It is capable of getting many flowers open at once and putting on a show to attract the eye from a distance.


      In a Table Top Garden this bright orange can be contrasted against green ferns and bronze Begonias.  If we had white it would even be brighter.


      Sinningia ‘Paper Moon’ has been overlooked because it is a neutral off-white and it is seldom seen.  Maybe it should be revived and used in combination plantings with ‘Colorado Sunset’ or the red ‘Prudence Risley’

Table Top Gardens

Table Top Gardens with Kalanchoe and Begonia

 Story # 26, 


      ‘Table Top Gardens’


      For years I tried to find a better name for the old ‘dish’ garden idea.


      Florists have sold dish gardens forever.  They are usually a collection of foliage plants planted together in a decorative ceramic pot.  They are sold as a gift item for those who want a present to last longer than cut flowers.


      There was a period when the term ‘European Garden’ was promoted.  It was a low container where flowering plants were added to a mix of foliage plants.  These are very colorful and are still sold, with or without, the European Garden name.


      ‘Table Top Garden’ is the perfect name for the category.


      I saw the term used in a trade magazine and decided that this is the perfect name for a low container with a combination of plants.  ‘Table Top Garden’ can work for indoor table decorations and for outdoor mixed planters that could fit on a picnic table.


      Both Sinningias and Streptocarpus can be used for the color plants in ‘Table Top Gardens’.