Nippy

When we last checked in with Latoya the Hoya, she had seven leaves and was moving in a Greco-Roman direction.  Now, she has more leaves than I am willing to count.

You're so vine.

Plus, she seems to be sprouting a second vine, which should make life, and particularly showers, interesting.

This is an old picture; the new vine now has three leaves, which you can kind of see in the first picture, taken today.

Every once in a while, Latoya will reach a tipping point while I'm in the shower, and the vine will fall and brush against me STARTLINGLY.

I decided to branch out (sorry) and bought a catnip plant.  Obviously its name is Nippy.  It does not live in the shower so obviously it will die soon, but until then it looks happy in its bright orange pot. It was looking a little sad when I watered it on Friday but since then its leaves have perked up.

There is also a tiny piece of Mabel in this picture.

Now you're up to date on the plants.

Winged Victory

There's an exciting new development in my Hoya plant in the form of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.  Nature imitates art:

Latoya's sixth and seventh leaves can be seen sprouting toward the right side of the picture in something of a V.

My Hoya's parent plant has the decidedly more exciting development of blossoms, but replicas of ancient sculpture will do for now.

Five Alive

Let us now turn our attention to this plant:

When last we visited my green friend, I was excited to report it had sprouted a third leaf, its first new one since I rooted and planted it.  The plant now boasts five leaves, plus a promising looking shoot.  The three big guys were clearly demonstrating their love for the sun, so I turned the plant hoping to balance things out.  I appear to have confused one of the new leaves, visible slightly right of the center of this photo and looking like an apostrophe.  The other new guy can be seen hiding in the shadow of the bottom-most big leaf, also facing away from the window.  Peer pressure abounds even in the flora community.

Plant dad and clever sculptor Willy informed me this weekend that the plant is a Hoya.  This news inspires such possible plant names as Latoya, Gioia, and Inigo Montoya.  But let's not pretend; obviously the plant's name is now Latoya.

I was glad to discover upon reading this page that Latoya's success could be at least partially attributed to my placement of her in my north(east)-facing bathroom window.  I've also been unwittingly treating her as she likes to be treated, as the page says Hoyas "resent pampering," and I pretty much leave her to her own devices.

Go Latoya, go!

This plant has nothing to do with Star Trek

While it's true that watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the impetus for starting this blog, and it's the only thing I've written about so far, I never intended it to be the subject of this blog.  I made sure that the title, "about me" section, and theme were all general.  The idea was to just create a space outside my Livejournal where I could do some more focused, less ranty, less stream-of-consciousness writing.  Previous blogging attempts (exhibits A and B) have failed because their subject matter was too specific, so I decided to try something more broad.

In the interest of diversifying this blog, I present to you this plant:

Last June, I visited my sister's father-in-law's art studio in Saugerties, NY.  He had this wonderful plant with the most peculiar blossoms that secreted a nectar that tasted like maple syrup.  He gave me a clipping which consisted of two leaves and a stem.  I put it in water and let it root.

Six months later, after enduring an apartment renovation and move against all odds, it had formed a spool of roots in the bottom of the small dish I'd put it in.  I transferred it into a pot and put it in my shower so it would get watered effortlessly.  I wasn't sure if this would work, and I was starting to get frustrated by the progress it appeared not to be making.

This morning, I noticed that there was a third leaf about half the size of the other two!  It's not at all surprising that I failed to notice this leaf until now, which has clearly been growing for at least a few weeks (I actually have no idea how quickly leaves grow, but I'll admit to being a little creeped out if this leaf wasn't there a few days ago, and I guess we'll never know).  I was thrilled.  I've had plants before, but in the past they've only shrunk, not grown.

My thumb is a little greener today and I just wanted to share this small amount of joy with all of you.  (Incidentally, this blog has no followers, so I have no idea of know how many "all of you" is.  Also, I have no idea how one "follows" a blog on Blogger, as I see no link, but if you can figure it out, please go ahead!)