Apr 25, 2009

Mistakes

Has it ever happened to you that you sow one seed and an entire different plant grows out of it? I’m sure that’s happened to us all at least one. Well, to me it seems to be happening continuously. A blue-flower maniac that I am, I planned to sow cornflower when I saw its brilliant blue blooms on the cover. I had sowed them before, only to lose at least 30 seedlings to the harsh rains last year. I kept records of how soon each seedling germinated and I saw from my database that the cornflower germinated within two days!

With the guarantee that Haemanta (Dewy Season) would bring in no rains, I sowed them wasting no time. Two days rolled by and the third too. There was no sign of life in the pot other than the Zinnia that seemed to be giving it up. I waited nevertheless.

It was the fourth day that I got two seedlings.

I was excited and the seedlings did look like Cornflower, but days later, they looked like this. 

Now, that doesn’t look like a cornflower! I wondered and waited and as it grew on, I realized that it definitely doesn’t look like cornflower.

Meanwhile the gaillardias that I sowed in another pot a week after I did the cornflower grew pretty fast.

Since I didn’t get 100% germination last time, I sowed extra seeds in the pot and this time all the five seeds germinated! Due to my laziness and procrastination, I kept postponing the transplantation.

That pot was big yes, but not big enough to accommodate 5 members! One of the seedlings was picked out by mistake and the four remained in the pot and in no time, they grew too big for me to pull them out. I decided to let them be – the inseparable quadruplets!

By now I realized that the Gaillardia seedlings looked similar to the Cornflower seedlings! Could this be Gaillardia, but how can a cat give birth to a pup? Are such mistakes possible? Soon, one of the Cornflower twins decided to treat me with her first bloom

 and four days later I realized that it was after all Gaillardia!

Isn’t that strange! I wasn’t disappointed but not getting a cornflower did upset me a bit. I’d have loved to see a blue bloom. It turned out to be red blues.

The twins are Gaillardia Fanfare! 


As I was enjoying their show, the quadruplets put out quite a show of their foliage. Look at how cool they look! Don’t they look like a fern?

With the arrival of Vasanta (Spring), twins went crazy and they started giving out twin

 and triplet flowers!

(The triplets might not be obvious in the above photo, but can you make out the seed head to the right, below?)

Not inches away, the quadruplets were inspired and began giving out buds, inspired by their cousins. I was still wondering about the Twins. Where did they come from?

Meanwhile one of the fanfare quadruplets turned out to be a Burgunder-cousin (or is he a Burgunder?

 I thought Burgunder didn’t have such tubular petals or did they? Besides, the variety that I bought was supposed to contain only fanfare, not the burgunder-kind.

Now, as I was wondering about the burgunder, I one day realized that after the loss of my initial set of gaillardia seedlings, I tried them in the same pot that cornflower is in now and the hurricane showers didn’t let it germinate. Later, I sowed cornflower, thinking the rains must have wasted the gaillardia seedlings. So, the cat didn’t beget a pup after all! But where did my cornflower seeds go? Is it possible that the seeds survived that harsh attack of showers? Didn’t the showers of watery arrows pierce their hearts and slay them?

The Burgunder still remains a mystery. I love its deep wine-red color! I sure am gonna save the seeds as I’d want them in my garden again next year.

Meanwhile the Fanfare twins became pregnant 

and in a matter of days gave out seeds that were ready to be incubated in the ground back again,

but I intend to collect one from those seed heads and 

I hope the rest would delight these unknown warblers or wrens, who’re still shy to visit Plantville.

Apr 17, 2009

Weekly Macro

You see something? Now?You should able to spot it now...
Dwarf Ixora - Ixora coccinea
Have you?
Yes! That's a five petalled Ixora! That's not uncommon, but not very common either. This is the first time I see a five petalled bloom in Ixora!

Apr 16, 2009

Goodbye Blooming Suns

It’s finally over – the season of Chrysanthemums. Though some flowers have been blooming even after the departure of Haemanta (Dewy Season), their blooms weren’t so beautiful and their efforts went in vain.

Gone were the days when they bloomed open like a sun, who moves across the sky blooming open completely as he rides on.

They basked in glory and showed themselves off to whoever passed by.

Japanese considered this as the symbol of sun and the orderly unfolding of petals represents perfection.

Confucius suggested that it can be used as an object of meditation. Of course, look at its serene beauty! It sure would infuse calmness into your mind.

Chinese drink the Chrysanthemum wine on the 9th day of the 9th moon to ensure long life (That was news to me too).

Though they have departed for now, they’ll be back soon with the arrival of Sarad (Autumn). Until then, Goodbye ‘mums! You were great!

Sleep in Mother Nature's lap until you come back with a bLoom!

Apr 9, 2009

Cheeky Caw and the lone girlfriend

Ever since that first visit, the Kite (or that’s what I think it is due to its soaring behavior like Kites) couple have been inspecting our area though at a height these days and go away, not to return back for few more days (I guess that’d mean they’d found their prey to last for few days?).

Parrots were back and are their usual playing self. Koels started calling out for their mate. Especially this lone hunk was looking out for his love so seriously that he hardly noticed me nearing him! Good for me.

And then this funny thing happened weeks before. There was this stupid crow, wanting to share space with this parrot. Did he not know that this coconut tree is the Parrots’ territory? May be he was a new comer. He perched on a corner and slowly neared lady. Well, he was in serious trouble.

The moment she saw him few feet away from her, she charged straight at him, warding him off and began preening herself busily. The crow wasn’t going to stop his stupidity. He flew back to the leaf below her. Miss P’Ratty did tolerate it, knowing he was new, but Mr. Caw was being greedy. He wanted P’Ratty for his girlfriend. How cheeky!

He began calling her for sometime from his lower apartment but she hardly looked at him. He tried another attempt to get near her and this time she charged at him with renewed strength and with one caw at her from the lower apartment, where he again escaped to, dodging her beak, he flew away, knowing his dream wouldn’t come true.

The new spread everywhere about the Cheeky Caw. The Parrots laughed at this stupidity and even the doves joined them, spreading the new around.

The crows were ashamed of their guest's behavior and didn't show there faces out in shame.

Meanwhile, in a part of their endless world, someone was calling to her boyfriend. The nosy human followed the call for too long and realized that it was from the Sacred fig tree near his house. Nothing was to be seen. Moments later he thought he saw something and click… Nothing and the movement stopped and perched on a branch to take a quick rest and click!He did finally behold the owner of that mysterious call that he heard every morning; only the ignorant human didn’t know who this is (Can you help him identify her?)!

Before he could take another snap, she flew away in the search of her lost boyfriend.