The News from South Philly

$850 later we nave a spiffy new water heater that heats more water, faster, hotter than the old one. The old one was 15 years old so we were due. I'm just glad it didn't blow up and send 30 gallons of sludgy water over the basement floor.

Nothing to do with most of my plants except pray over them right now, but I have done a couple of little things lately.



A few days ago (Friday, 4/26, I think) I consolidated all my bits of Schlumbergera 'xmas flame' into one pot. Darned if I didn't break off a great huge honking branch in the process, so I now have four more little bits than I'd expected. I let them cure for a couple days and yesterday I stuffed them into the pot as well. If they root, and there's no reason they shouldn't, I expect to have a splendid full pot of orange-y flowery goodness next November/December. Next up for consolidation is clindau's 'madisto.'

I also potted up the pineapple today. The roots aren't as long as they were in the pictures for that website karenkay found for me, but something inside of me said that it's time.

Yesterday Roy and biked down the Lakes and then tied up our bikes and walked around the smaller of the lakes. It was good exercise and we saw spring springing -- elm trees leafing out and such-like. But no sign of the swans -- I guess a fox got them or something. I came home and heeled in the big canna that my neighbor Sybil gave to my next door neighbor, who has forgotten all about it. (That's okay -- she announced her second pregnancy yesterday and she's due on her son's second birthday, so she probably has a lot on her mind.)

Slowly, slowly, I am starting to entertain the notion of chucking all the Hippeastrum that may be infected with the dreaded mosaic virus. Which means the old Trader Joe plant, the Apple Blossoms, and the entire classes of 2006, 2009, and 2011. Ummmm. Maybe not...but I don't want my new and exotic crosses to become infected. Sigh.

This morning I woke up at about 4:00, dozed until 5:15 or so, and then came upstairs. I got some significant office-cleaning done and large quantities of old files tossed into the recycling bin. (I also packed up all Civil War History Consortium files in a box since that account is dormant.) With the decks cleared, sort of, I was pretty productive despite being punchy from insufficient sleep. I expect to sleep well tonight and work hard tomorrow.

*Yawn.* Need toothpicks to hold up my eyelids. Must.Have.Coffee.

I'm happy to have gotten some work done the past two mornings, and expect to put in a solid five or six hours today as well before I knock off for a bike ride. The Macy's Flower Show runs till tomorrow, but for me it's over: I photographed Bill Schaffer's arrangement yesterday. I begged off the shoot of the work-in-progress Wednesday night. After doing Michael Bruce's, I was wiped out the next day (and in fact I think being so tired contributed to the lapse in judgment that caused the comic bike crash) and didn't want to repeat the mistake. Bill and Christian took some point and shoot photos and also a video, which made me a little sorry I missed it.

So here's the Macy's flowery goodness for your enjoyment:

On the windowsills, etc.:

• I have a pineapple top rooting in a jar of water (plunged into the water yesterday)
  
• I have more tarragon seedlings than I know what to do with
  
• My Schlumbergera seedlings, planted last spring, have put out a number of full-sized leaves so I think that potting on will be called for very soon
  
• H. 'papilio' x 'emerald' is still showing a fine seedpod and a robust stalk leading up to it so I don't think it will abort. It's starting to show signs that it's going to ripen and split any day now
  
• H. 'appleblossom' x 'gervase' is likewise maturing nicely
  
• H. 'supermarket' x 'papilio' looks a little puny but the stalk is still robust so I don't think it's aborting. Ditto for 'trader joe' x 'papilio'
  
• H. 'trader joe' x 'gervase,' class of 2011, has survived its potting on although some bulbs are sulking and leaves are yellowing -- but only one per bulb and I see some new leaves coming up
  
• the scrap of Dodo's Nopalxochia that I picked up doesn't look terribly promising, but then it also doesn't look any worse than it did two weeks ago, so I'm not giving up on it
  
• I pulled up four seedling maples (cotyledons plus one set of true leaves) from the ground around a little grove of dwarf cut-leaf maples by the Horticulture Center. Two of them show absolutely no signs of shock
  

I am wondering whether any of my hardy hibiscus have germinated yet, but that means a trip to the basement. Perhaps later.