Oh Festive Tillandsia, Oh Festive Tillandsia
Allow me to introduce to you yet another alternative to the Christmas Tree.
A few weeks back I bought this tiny $3.00 string of miniature LED lights meant for creating miniature Winter Wonderlands. I have a thing for miniatures that stems from repeated childhood trips to the Hobby Shop to visit the rotating display of doll house props for a doll house that would never be. I have to admit that I didn’t really care about the doll house as a play object but rather imagined it as a vessel to hold all those neat miniature Victorian-era do-dads. I just love tiny things and dioramas: tiny food packaging, tiny figurines, tiny ghetto blasters, HO scale anything… everything is more fun in miniature form.
Since I do not have space to store, let alone display the props of a Winter Wonderland (although I do collect HO scale models for a possible future giant diorama that will never be) I thought the lights would be best put to use draped over a small plant. This Tillandsia streptophylla* is larger than my outstretched hand and doesn’t particularly match the scale of the lights, however I enjoy turning them on at night, pausing while reading a book to gaze up at the brightly illuminated bulbs.
*Note that my Tillandsia is starting to put out a flower stalk from the centre!
December 19th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Hi there! I just read your composting bin post and had one question for you - during winter do your composting habits, bin location, or anything else change to compensate for the cold?
Thanks!
Erikka
December 19th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
i love your idea, gayla. i have a dwarf tree that i’d like to make into a christmas tree…these LED lights (i have a thing for LED lights) would be perfect - and $3 is a steal!
December 19th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
What a beautiful idea, and a beautiful photo.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Very very very cute!
December 20th, 2007 at 1:53 am
nice pic, and of course the LEDs are low-energy light, making them perfect for atmospheric lighting!
January 4th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Where did you find those cute little mini lights?
We decorate a potted norfolk pine every year but it’s delicate for regular lights. These would be perfect!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am
This may just be my mother hen tendency coming out…Gayla, I think you need to have kids. That whole miniature HO scale obsession you have will nurture and grow to monstrous proportions..like a house filled with spider plants ;o)