Around Home; South King County --
Grumpy was surveying his castle today when he couldn't help but notice the lush foliage being cultivated by the Grand Mother right under his eyes (in the Kitchen). Now this would not have been so amazing if said Grand Mother hadn't become known far and wide as a sentence of death to anything belonging to the genus "flora". She has been more favorable to the likes of "fauna" -- mainly belonging to the feline family.
Pictured above is the object of my admiration: a miniature African Violet given to his Mother several years ago by BoPop. At the time, BoPop was working for a small software company in Bellevue and was propagating these little beauties in prolific numbers, using cuttings from a parent violet that had been given him earlier. He cultivated these little beauties in a miniature earthen pot which in turn was closely-fitted inside a plastic vessel. The external plastic vessel provided a reservoir for nutrient-rich water which kept the violet happy -- as long as the reservoir was maintained at a suitable level of water (and soluble fertilizer).
Grumpy is jealous!!
Look, now at the standard African Violet that Grumpy has been caring for since the Grand Mother received it for her birthday in October last year.
When received, the leaves were a healthy deep green and the flowers were each as big as a Silver half-dollar! Under Grumpy's questionable care, all of the original big green leaves have been replaced by the much smaller leaves now seen; it bloomed again early this year (flowers about the same size as those currently proudly-showing on the miniature violet!), but shows no signs of new buds setting on.
As you may perceive from the photograph, Grumpy has the violet in the original plastic pot in which it came, sitting in a shallow sauce dish in which he maintains a reservoir of water varying in depth from one to zero inches. This violet is kept in a somewhat cooler location: the Master Bathroom window, where it enjoys a mildly-moist environment and filtered sunshine during morning hours on days when such exists in Seattle.
Somebody: Please give Grumpy a hint as to what he is doing wrong!?
Pictured above is the object of my admiration: a miniature African Violet given to his Mother several years ago by BoPop. At the time, BoPop was working for a small software company in Bellevue and was propagating these little beauties in prolific numbers, using cuttings from a parent violet that had been given him earlier. He cultivated these little beauties in a miniature earthen pot which in turn was closely-fitted inside a plastic vessel. The external plastic vessel provided a reservoir for nutrient-rich water which kept the violet happy -- as long as the reservoir was maintained at a suitable level of water (and soluble fertilizer).
Grumpy thinks the Grand Mother has done an outstanding job of taking care of this African Violet in all ways which it obviously likes. Just look at those big, deep pink flowers and multiple buds showing on this top view!
Grumpy is jealous!!
Look, now at the standard African Violet that Grumpy has been caring for since the Grand Mother received it for her birthday in October last year.
When received, the leaves were a healthy deep green and the flowers were each as big as a Silver half-dollar! Under Grumpy's questionable care, all of the original big green leaves have been replaced by the much smaller leaves now seen; it bloomed again early this year (flowers about the same size as those currently proudly-showing on the miniature violet!), but shows no signs of new buds setting on.As you may perceive from the photograph, Grumpy has the violet in the original plastic pot in which it came, sitting in a shallow sauce dish in which he maintains a reservoir of water varying in depth from one to zero inches. This violet is kept in a somewhat cooler location: the Master Bathroom window, where it enjoys a mildly-moist environment and filtered sunshine during morning hours on days when such exists in Seattle.
Somebody: Please give Grumpy a hint as to what he is doing wrong!?
Poor Grumpy. You need to stop trying to compete with the Grand Mother. The violet in the kitchen gets much more company than the one in the bathroom. Your musically minded Grand Daughter has discovered that plants normally reaching a certain size or never known for blooming, suddenly acheive amazing sizes and multiple and miraculous blooms due to the music played to them.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
ReplyDeleteIt must be assumed that you are in cahoots with the Grand Mother!! Also, that you must be a female -- [what did I do wrong!?] -- my own dauther!!
I couldn't figure out how to really modify your comment, so I had no choice but to publish it in its entirety!!
I think violets are natural inhabitants of the forest (jungle) floor, so they cannot tolerate direct sunshine. Your violet, placed in a south window gets sunburned nearly every day, while the one in the kitchen is happily on the north side where it never sees direct sunlight.
ReplyDeleteI'm certain that you staged that dirty bowl, to make the poor violet look worse than it really is. If not, then that might be an additional cause for the poor attitude of the plant. What proud plant would be happy growing in a dirty bowl? Anonymous is right about the plant needing daily attention. Singing to it daily might help. No, not your singing. Well, maybe your singing is OK, but not Tears in My Ears.
I didn't ask for a critique of my singing!!
ReplyDelete[Sheesh!!]
Seriously (LOL!!), my violet is exposed to no more sunshine than the Grand Mother's -- maybe even less! You should know that the kitchen window faces the NorthWast and hence gets the late afternoon sun (until it goes below the houses to the West; my bathroom window faces the Southeast, where the Northwest's typical gloomy day keeps the sun from peeking through until mid to late afternoon --- on days when it peeks through at all.
Hm-mm-m; Maybe I'll try KING-FM (do violets like classical music?).
Our guppies and platys love classical music, as does our water frog, Ferguson. We can't stop them from reproducing--except that Ferguson only sings since he has no mate. Our chickens also laid more consistently when we played classical music for them. Now Buddy, our mini schnauzer, will only sing with harmonica music. Maybe you should try some Africani music? I wish you success....
ReplyDelete