Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Fair and cold"
There has been a bit of plant action recently. Firstly there has been at least two major snow events. I never did bother to trim back the plants in the downstairs garden. Now when I walk past the building I see the leaves all frozen and droopy and I worry that I've done serious damage to the plants through sheer neglect. I'd hate to lose my remaining lavender plant. Luckily the most hard hit seem to be the annuals so it's no big deal. The problem was that with our fluxuating weather some plants were still blooming and others that I had cut back had started growing new leaves instead of going straight into dormancy. So I guess I have an excuse for my laziness and some reprieve for my guilt.
As usual my holiday gifts consisted of at least a few plant-related goodies. To be honest I wasn't really expecting the amount of stuff I did get. The first gift was a 2002 Taschen desk calendar of botanical illustrations. I really prefer this kind because it means I get a different image for every day of the year. I think I might glue each image into a journal as the days go by. I'd hate the just rip them off and throw them out. Maybe I'll try keeping a real paper journal this year.... ya right.
My second plant-related gift was a set of playing cards with a photo of a Canadian wildflower on each card. I've been learning alot about indigenous plants of Canada during sessions of solitaire. Davin gave me a few books I didn't even know existed but I'm excited to read. The first is "Potted" the second book by Andy Sturgeon the writer of my most beloved plant book "planted". "Potted" is all about house plants and so far my only fault with it is that he categorizes rubber trees and African violets as "pariahs" or "vile" plants. A quote: "When you reach a certain age you get a bus pass, a pension and an African violet". That's harsh. I love my African violets and I'm not a lace, tight perm and bric-a-brac lady. I can't even repeat the rubber tree quote. The guy slams the 70's and rubber trees in one breath. Ugh. I can understand having a problem with the awful multi-coloured variegated rubber trees, but if you've ever seen a huge rubber tree growing in it's natural environment you wouldn't have such nasty words for such a magestic plant. Mine has never become tall and spindly as he suggests. Aside from these minor issues (all a matter of personal taste) the book is damn fine and I highly recommend it if you feel like you need a bit of a boost of excitment about house plants. A full review is forthcoming.
The second book is called "planted junk" by Adam Caplin the writer of my second favourite gardening book ever; "urban Eden". "Planted Junk" is an excellent book about container gardening with zillions of gorgeous photos of creative containers utilizing all kinds of garbage and junk such as beer cans, metal toys and even tetra juice boxes.
Yesterday I paid a visit to the aquarium store and bought some new plants and fish for my tank. Sadly they had a meager selection of both but I managed to come home with 4 new fish that were all on my list and two plants that weren't but that I know will thrive in my tank. I really need to get out to a bigger store to get some of the plants suggested by people in the forums. I purchased two female cherry barbs because after a few months I have come to realise that I had no females. The males have all become incredibly bright red so I knew that I definitely didn't have a female in the bunch. I also purchased a pair of gold gouramis. I was a little bit nervous about them at first but so far I haven't noticed any problems with aggression between them or their other tank mates.
 My amaryllis has come out of dormancy and has been vigourously producing new leaves and flower stems. So far there are two stems. It looks really sleek and architectural sitting on our window sill with the flower still inside. The variety is red lion. I purchased it a year ago and am extremely proud about my success in getting it to bloom again. Last year it only had one flower stem!
This morning I watched a documentary called "The Secret Life of Plants" based on the book of the same name. The film is from 1978 and features a soundtrack by Stevie Wonder in what I consider to be his prime. There are some cheesy interpretative dance sections but other than that it's not a bad film. The basic idea behind the movie is to present the argument that plants have some feeling and expression of emotion. This is demonstrated through various phenomenon and scientific evidence. About halfway through I started getting antsy looking over at my plants and thinking how they must hate me right now because it was dry in the room and some of them needed a misting. The next thing I knew I wasn't just misting the plants but giving each of them showers in the tub using my new hose sprayer, applying fresh vermicompost to the soil, photographing each plant and repotting some. While the only thing the film really proved was that plants respond to electrical impulses, I was obviously effected by it.
Later in the afternoon I set up a terrarium in a tall 20 gallon display tank that we had sitting around. I used 'cast-away' plants that I really didn't care for but had acquired some way or another. I put a few tillandsia to see how they would fare in a more humid environment. We also bought a new humidifier, and it has increased the level of humidity in our apartment exponentially, but it will still be interesting to note any changes in the air plants as a direct result of being in the tank.
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