My First Orchid |
|
 |
| Tuesday August 8, 2000. |
|
| |
I don't usually write journals two days in a row but this was an exception. I left the building at 1:30 pm today to get lunch and was surprised to find two plastic windmill garden ornaments had mysteriously appeared in the garden. I have a few theories about this recent strange occurrence. The first one is that someone who knows me or reads this journal put them there as a surprise since I've mentioned some of the strange things that appear in the garden on occasion. Maybe they wanted to be nice or freak me out. My second theory is that my landlord put them there. The third is that some crazy person, maybe the same one that put the urn-style planter behind the current bush, stole the windmills from someone elses yard, felt a sudden sense of guilt, remorse or fear about the hot property in their possession and ditched them in my garden.
Anyhow I figure it will be a few days maximum before someone comes along, sees that no one is watching, and takes them. That's why I have never put any ornamental objects in the garden. So if the person who left them is reading this, thanks for the thought but they'll probably be gone by the next time you walk by. Good thing I took this photo to capture the moment. I wasn't going to wait until I returned from my journey out before taking a photo as I did last time, only to find the mystery object had disappeared. The strange thing is that when I got back they were still there. They were even there later on when I went out to the store. Someone's messing with my mind, man.
| | |
|
| Monday August 7, 2000. |
|
| |
I bought a new cactus this weekend. It's huge and has lots of large offshoots. I could put them in their own pots, but I prefer cacti when there are lots in one pot. It came in a painted pot, but I'm going to get a new pot because I have a problem with painted pots. Especially purple painted pots. I bought it at "The Friendly Grocery" around the corner from my place. The woman there was super nice and the plant was only $6.99 which is really cheap for a cactus this big. I've purchased all of my best cactus plants from corner stores.
Well I've succeeded in killing my stone plant (lithops). It's not dead yet but it is nearly past the point of no return. I'm pretty sure over watering was the culprit. It's mushy at the base which is a sure sign of root rot due to over watering in cacti and succulents.
If this happens to your plant cut the top off of your plant an inch or so above the mushy rotten part. Use a really sharp knife. Put the good, cut part aside for 2 weeks until the cut end has become dry and "scabbed" over. Repot in fresh soil and a sterilized pot. Throw the bad part of the cactus and the soil away. Sterilize the pot thoroughly.
I'm doing this now with my stone plant but I'm not sure if it will work. This plant is a mystery to me. I waited so long to get one of these. I had it for quite a long time, but it all went wrong with I watered it once. It started to split and become two plants and I read I would need to water it occassionally as a result. Well clearly I must have watered it too much. I won't get another one of these plants until I know what I'm doing. Losing it was too traumatizing.
And in case you cared at all, my Mexican Jumping Beans are still jumping around on my desk. Did you have these when you were a kid?.
| | |
|
| Tuesday August 1, 2000. |
|
| |
July 31 was and is my birthday. In celebration of the event we had White Trash Birthday 2000 in Niagara Falls, Canada. I'm certain you don't want to hear about the heart shaped jacuzzi motel, the wax museums, the Old Time Photo, the crappy souvenirs, or the limitless games of Skee Ball. You want to hear about the plants.
I think I actually over-dosed on horticulture. After you've seen 5 million impatiens planted according to colour to form waves of flowers, you've seen them all. In fact right now, impatiens are the only plant I can remember seeing. I know I saw lots, but my brain is temporarily fried. Thankfully I took hundreds of photos with my digital camera to remind me.
The first plantings I saw were the ones around the actual falls. The whole place is littered with gardens, most of which I don't know the names. Queen Victoria Park had tons of hybrid tea roses. In fact the tourist literature boasts that the garden contains over a thousand of them. I'm really not a big fan of roses so I mostly ignored that part except for one rose that I liked that was orange. This garden was jam packed with people taking photos of one another standing in front of various flowering plants. It was difficult to maneuver the garden because at every turn we had to avoid a group photo in progress. What is it about gardens that people feel compelled to use them as a back drop for their photos? It seems that people rarely take photos of the actual plants themselves. One really interesting plant I saw there was the pink flowered strawberry (Fragaria 'Pink Panda' rosaceae). It was still blooming at this time of year.
Eventually we made our way past the hordes of vacationing families to The Niagara Parks Greenhouse. They had a beautiful water garden in front full of water lilies in full bloom. Inside the greenhouse they had tropical birds flying around and living in the trees and plants. At the back of one of the rooms was a display case filled with cacti and succulents. I saw some really crazy succulents I had never seen before. Elsewhere I saw a giant tillandsia called 'Blue Flowered Torch' in full bloom. I wish my tillandsia looked like that.
The next day we were going to go to the Butterfly Conservatory but since I'd had enough garden viewing we decided to go over to the American side to fulfill my other geek interest, aquariums and fish by going to the Aquarium of Niagara. Right over the highway we discovered The Schoellkopf Geological Museum. It was one of the coolest shaped buildings I have ever seen. It is worth going there just to see that architectural marvel. Unfortunately the museum itself was dull even to a museum geek like me. But they did have a few excellent flowering succulents in the window and a giant diorama of the gorge with tiny diorama plants.
The absolute best member of the Plant Kingdom that I encountered this weekend was the Mexican Jumping Beans I purchased at a souvenir shop at The Rainbow Outlet Mall. You may remember them from your youth as the 'beans' that 'leap' on their own but actually have a tiny moth larvae living inside. Mine have been sitting on my desk jumping around inside their plastic jewel case all day long. I'm currently in the process of writing an article about them. So look out for that in the next few weeks if you're interested.
previous entry
| | |
|
|
