A Spice of Life

I read somewhere, (The Glutenfree Goddess) that you should have a signature/secret ingredient.  I have chosen Ginger Zingiber officinal for mine.  So, I decided maybe I should grow some.  I bought some fresh ginger root from my local grocer about 2 weeks before Christmas.  I used one tuber, (actually ginger is neither a root, nor a tuber, but actually a rhizome or underground stem) and set the other one aside, hoping that the bump was an eye, and that I would get a sprout and Voila!

If you look closely at the bulbous form at the base of the sprout, you can see little pre-roots forming.  That is my signal to plant this soon.  I am going to keep it inside because it is a vigorous plant, which is a nice way of saying invasive, and also because I want to keep an eye on it.

Kew gardens says this plant is possibly native to India, and it also does best if the ground is wetter than dry.  YMMV.

In Full Bloom

Here is the same bloom as yesterday, but fully opened.

The scientific name for this plant is Schlumbergera truncata.  The first part of the name is for a collector of cactus Frederic  Schlumberg who lived in on the outskirts of Rouen in southern France.  The namer  of the species was Charles Lemare, and the collector was Allan Cunningham who under the employment of Kew Gardens spent the years between 1814 and 1816 collecting plants from the Rainforest of what is now Brazil.   The second part of the name refers to the fact that the "leaves" are really a segmented trunk, which is botanically called cladodes.

Their specific origin is the Rio de Janeiro.  And they also are pollinated by humming birds.  Like many plants they must be cross pollinated with another plant that isn't closely related.

The best article I could find on the internet discussing this plant is on the blog Plants are the Strangest People.

Project 365 Day One: Christmas Cactus

I am going to try project 365.

That is to take a picture every day for a year.

Here is my first picture:

It is a Christmas Cactus that I bought at Publix two weeks ago.  This is one of the few blooms that did not fall off.  Unfortunately, when you move a plant, it goes into shock, and this one was extremely dry when I bought it.  

How dry? Well it is losing at least one or two leaves from being so dry.

Christmas Cacti are native to South America, where they are epiphytes in the rain forest, even though they are cacti, they do not tolerate extremely dry conditions, nor do they like soaking wet feet.

Happy New Year

On our way to Wichita!

After a few false starts, me and DH left Sanford, FL yesterday to drive to Wichita, KS for the annual conference of the Association of Zoological Horticulture.

We arrived in Fulton, MS at about 1:30 am. Our room at the Day's Inn was pleasant, and we were amazed at the number of plants growing on the south side of the building. A lot of peppers and Eggplants, with many of the eggplants in pots.

Two cats

A picture I found of Mysticat and Spooky.

Test from iPhone

This is a test to see if I can blog from the phone.

Dish Rag Tag

Joined the dish rag tag and I am on the Round Tuit team.