Amaryllis seedlings -- also Chopin and peonies

I've observed my first visible shoot today -- not sure whether it's an embryonic leaf or an incipient rootlet. Several other seeds are pushing up from where I planted them, so I'm expecting to see more shoots very soon.

This is twelve days after sowing. I've sown 64 seeds -- eight rows of eight seeds each. I won't mind if I have a lower germination rate than last time.

One of my metaphors for living the life of privilege is "I want to play Chopin and arrange peonies in a glass bowl." This year's peony crop wasn't big enough for that kind of arranging, but it *was* big enough for me to cut one and put it in a glass vase, which I set next to the music stand while I worked on Chopin Prelude #15 in Db -- known popularly as "Raindrop." It's still kind of extremely stumbling and ragged, but there are a couple of fortissimo passages involving massive octaves and/or chords in both hands that are awfully satisfying. (The dainty bits are nice, too.) [Here it is done properly. One of the fortissimo bits I find so satisfying is around 2:15.]

I have achieved wisteria

090522_04wisteriamerge
Originally uploaded by lb_philly.

Pardon me while I pat myself on the back. I collected a seedpod of our native Wisteria frutescens at Bartrams Garden the winter of 1995-96 and scarified a seed the day we made a deposit on this house. Finally, after thirteen years, it has bloomed in a serious way.

It might have done so years earlier if it hadn't spent its first six years in a pot. Or it might not have. The horticulturist at Bartrams Garden told me it takes anywhere from 6-12 years for them to bloom from seed. It bloomed lightly in fall of 2007 and again last spring. In the scheme of things, it's not a big deal to have grown a plant that self-sows all over the south and is an invasive thug there, but I'm still pretty happy about it. If we ever move, I will take some seedpods and start over, although there's no guarantee I'll live to see a second vine bloom.

This is an imperfect photomerge.


And a note to myself: I put Miracle Gro on all the plants in the third floor rear, especially the basil seedlings. (Does not include the hippeastrum seeds, which aren't ready.)

The Daily Snarklist for May 29, 2009

Starting off with one that I don't feel like putting behind the cut tag. A heartfelt reader snark about all those folks who had to struggle as much as, or more than, our current Supreme Court nominee but who get no props because they're not the flavor of the month (via Instapundit):
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDMwMmU0OTZiNzlhMjU3ZjhiMWYwMjFkZjJmODk4YmI=
And related: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_froma_harrop/sotomayor_and_condescending_identity_politics

(Comment: when researching the history of my church, I learned that the housing project that engulfed it didn't become a festering sinkhole until after the 1970s. Before that, it was populated by strivers -- med students and their families, e.g. -- and was quite an ethnic melting pot. It was only after the Great Society's policies changed the nature of public housing that it became so conspicuously awful. Sotomayor's public housing experience may have been less benign than Derbyshire's. That doesn't invalidate his reader's point.)

( Read more... )